Bro · B2C · AI companion app
Carry a tappable fake of the app and use it daily before coding
Founder says it cut a lot of wasted engineering; no numbers
Workedfeature-developmentvalidation
What they did
Before engineering, build a tappable mock-up in ProtoPie of any flow (from the lock screen, the core talking flow, the community feed) and carry it around, using it daily to feel what works ('like a brick shaped like the next phone'). Each session produces insights such as 'this flow is too long'. The bar is that the team should feel good using it, not that it looks good on TikTok. Figma screens often look fine but fail once tappable. After the mock-up, build the app, test with family and friends, then start TikTok UGC.
What happened
Reduced unnecessary engineering work by killing flows that didn't work before building them.
- Stage
- pre-launch
“Like we want to we build a mock-up, and then we first like use it amongst ourselves, like the mock-up.”
“So by having that mock-up, we uh reduce a lot of engineering, like unnecessary engineering work, because like we have that mock-up and we already know something doesn't work.”
“we do that first, and then we finish building the app, and we start testing among like family and friends, and then, and then we do like the whole TikTok UGC thing.”
Related topics
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- Bro: Post lots of TikToks: a real person in a texting mishap, then the app helpingVery top-heavy: a few videos hit 2-3M views; the best one was a surprise
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