We've shipped multiple apps to both iOS and Android. Here's exactly how we work — every step, in order, and why the order matters as much as the steps themselves.
We've shipped apps to both the App Store and Google Play. Not one of them followed the path that looked obvious at the start. But every one of them followed this process — because we've learned, often the hard way, what happens when any step gets skipped.
Here's exactly how we work, from the first call to post-launch iteration.
Before any design tool opens, we do three things: understand the product, model the data, and define the scope.
Understanding the product means more than reading a brief. We want to know the problem you're solving, who experiences it, and what success looks like in six months. The answers shape every architectural and design decision that follows.
Data modeling is the step most agencies skip, and it's the one that causes the most expensive rebuilds. We spend real time — sometimes three days, sometimes a week — mapping entities, relationships, and indexes before touching any UI. You can't design a screen that shows data the database can't support. Doing it in this order prevents that.
Scope definition produces a document specifying what's in v1 and what's on the roadmap. This is what makes a fixed price possible. It's also what protects the project from the inevitable "can we also add…" conversations that compress timelines without adding equivalent value. A clear v1 isn't a limitation — it's what gets you to market.
With the data modeled and scope agreed, we go to Figma — not FlutterFlow.
We build a component library first: buttons, inputs, cards, navigation patterns — a consistent system the FlutterFlow project will implement directly. Then we design screen by screen, specifying every state (empty, loading, error, success). Client review happens in two rounds, and we're opinionated during it. We'll push back on design decisions that will hurt usability. That's part of what you're paying for.
Designing before building in FlutterFlow seems obvious, but many agencies skip it and go straight to the tool. The result is design decisions made under implementation pressure, which is the wrong time to be making them.
Backend first, always. Then FlutterFlow. Then real-device QA. Then submission prep.
We set up the backend before writing a single FlutterFlow screen. Firebase schema or Supabase tables, security rules, initial data, edge functions — all in place before UI work begins. Binding a screen to a real database from day one prevents the class of bug that only appears when you replace test data with actual users.
In FlutterFlow, we build screen by screen against the Figma files. Custom Dart actions for the 10–15% that FlutterFlow can't handle natively — written, tested, edge-case covered. QA runs on at least two physical iOS and two Android devices. Simulator testing is not production testing.
Submission prep happens before we call the project done, not after. Screenshots at every required device size, privacy policy, content description, entitlements, account-deletion flow — the checklist that determines whether Apple bounces the build or passes it on first review.
Launch is the beginning. The best products are built on what real users do, not what founders predicted they would.
Before launch, we set up analytics — Firebase Analytics or Mixpanel. You can't improve what you don't measure, and day-one data is the most valuable data you'll ever have. We stay available through the first month post-launch: the period when real users surface real edge cases. Then we help scope v2 based on what the data shows, not what the original spec assumed.
Each step de-risks the next. Data modeling before design means you never design a screen the database can't support. Design before development means engineers build what's been reviewed, not their interpretation of a Notion doc. QA before submission means App Store review isn't your production testing environment. Every time a step gets skipped, we've seen the downstream consequences. The process exists because we've paid for not following it.
