The Viral App Idea Framework That Got Her 1M Users

First version: scan your face, get text-based makeup tutorials. It did not work on social media. Changed the core feature so users scan their face and see a before/after of how they would look with specific makeup looks, a visual result that suits TikTok content. Had tested several candidate features before landing on it.

For 3-4 months marketed the text-based first version via influencers, faceless accounts, the founder filming her own UGC, Reddit marketing and Discord. Nothing worked until the feature changed (see pivot). Her takeaway: if several variations and methods fail, the feature is not viral and you learn that quickly.

With a distribution system of ~800 active creators in place, new features are first built as mockups in Figma or in their own content creation portal. Creators post content showing the feature; if it goes viral it is built into the app, otherwise no engineering time is spent. For a new app: day 1 is researching the niche, market and competitor apps; day 2 is designing in Figma the specific screen meant to go viral on social (several variations, borrowing design components from apps in and outside the niche), not the onboarding flow.