Tribeca Mobile's Services
Whether you have an end-to-end mobile project you want to get done or need some people to round out your team, we have you covered.
Our project services are designed to handle projects of any size. If you prefer to add people to your team, we can provide you with anyone from a Fractional CTO or CPTO to designers, developers, and testers.
We provide these services by hiring people who deeply grasp their chosen field. Hiring people with this level of understanding usually means hiring people with many years of experience and the occasional up-and-coming genius. We reject the notion that familiarity with the latest buzzwords automatically translates into competence.
Let's Get Introduced
We'd love to get to know you and your business. Let's get a good sense of what it will take to complete your project before moving on to actual work.
Initial Consultation
Assessment
Project Strategy
Project Based Services
If you're interested in a project based on your needs, there are many services we can bring to bear. Do you have an idea for a startup and need it executed professionally? Do you have a subproject to implement a mobile app you've already designed? We have you covered.
Here are the project-based services we offer:
Leadership Services
Our leadership services keep your project running and, if needed, allow you to transfer your project back to your team quickly.
Whatever the size of your project, you'll have a team lead who will be your single point of contact.
Leaders are chosen based on your project's needs. We'll assign someone with product design and tech experience for projects that start with an idea. If you need product design services or technical development, we'll assign the most appropriate person to you.
Most projects use Agile methodology to keep projects running smoothly. The Agile methodology usually involves deploying ticketing and management platforms such as Jira to organize your project.
We can work with you in two modes: In end-to-end mode, we use our internal Jira platform to manage the platform, giving you access as needed, or use your existing management platform. In either case, we project-manage your system.
We are obsessed with documenting and keeping every part of your system up-to-date. Our philosophy is that you know what is being done and how to build your app at any point in the project.
Many agencies try to make you dependent on them for the life of your project. While we would love to work with you for as long as possible, we try to run our business so you transition to your internal team at any point. We do this by ensuring that documentation is always up-to-date and that all code is 'checked in' and buildable.
Should your project require any outside resources or you are being acquired or acquiring a company, we have experience in the technical aspects of due diligence and contract negotiations.
Product Focused Services
Our Product-focused services help you define the "what to build" of your mobile project. We are a product-focused app development company, which means we believe in making your customers the app they will love and use. Understanding their needs will eventually save you development money and allow your business to grow.
The results of this process will be a professionally put-together set of features and a hi-res prototype that the development team can execute.
Do you have your 'what to build' already defined? We're happy to start development immediately.
The mind-meld comes in here. We'll get the vision in your head down on paper. This document is meant to get everyone on your team as excited about building your vision as you are.
Product/Market fit, building a product, and finding the correct initial market to sell are the holy grails of any startup project. Of course, you have to start somewhere with assumptions, research these assumptions, and then hone them. Iterating in this fashion is part of the Lean (Agile) methodology. We'll help you with this by constantly iterating on answers to these questions:
- Target audience
- The problem you're solving
- Value propositions
- Strategic differentiation
- Competition
- Acquisition strategy
- Monetization strategy
- Key performance indicators (KPIs)
After some research and thinking, we'll put the 'what' of the product on paper, specifying its features and parameters. If you're a startup building an MVP, each feature will directly link to your product/market fit hypothesis assumptions.
This document will evolve once your product is out the door to include the definition of new features.
This document will evolve once your MVP is out the door to include the definition of new features
As the product requirements and prototype proceed, we use a UX designer, short for User Experience designer, to carefully design the flow of your app. We usually start with wireframes to create the app's page flow and design the menu structure.
UI is where the look and feel, color palates, visibility of the main components, and more are designed. The designer uses all the current app design paradigms to give your app flare and style. You'll see the UI design in the hi-res prototype and later in the final app.
Graphics and video artists are usually distinct from UI designers (sometimes they are the same, though). Our graphic artists might make a cartoon or stage a photo shoot to produce the images you see on a site. A video artist may create an animation or a live-action video, doing tight editing and transitions.
We'll deliver these app assets in whatever format your product requires.
A Prototype, a 'clickable,' 'High Resolution' depiction of the product, is the most important next step. The high-resolution prototype allows customers to give real reactions to your product. The customer reactions are fed back into iterations of the requirements once everyone agrees that this is what we'll build. The 'requirements' and the 'prototype' are the inputs developers need to build your product.
The words you use on your site are essential in conveying your message. Our content people usually work with the marketing department to ensure the product and marketing messages are in sync.
The Roadmap describes the future. Generally the first point on the map is the MVP followed by an aspirational set of features as the product evolves.
Once your product is out there, we'll help you continually monitor the analytics collected both from your app and from analytics provided by the app stores.
If you're a startup looking for future funding, we'll help you assemble your pitch deck from investors. If we've done an excellent job, much of the work needed on a standard pitch deck has already been collected.
Lean Startup (Book). The Bible for modern startups. Read More
- 5 Reasons To Combine Front-End Development and UX Design. An holistic approach to development Read More
The Top 10 Deliverables of Product Managers. An excellent place to start in exploring what Product people do. Read More
A Lean Alternative to a Business Plan: Documenting Your Product/Market Fit Hypotheses. How to iterate on product/market fit. Read More
What are the Key Components of a Product-Focused Startup? More on a product oriented startup. Read More
Startups need to stop dividing tech and product. Good Article on combining product and technology into the role of Chief Product and Technical Officer (CPTO). Read More
The Role of CPTO: A Mythical Beast? Another article about CPTOs. Read More
- Why UX is critical: every $1 invested in UX yields a $2 to $100 return. Spending time up-front saves in the long run. Read more
Why Product Discovery Saves You Millions in Product Development. Following a product methodology will save you thousands in wasted development costs. Read More
A Beginner’s Guide: POC vs Prototype vs MVP. Learn about Proof of Concept, prototypes and Minimal Viable Product. It contains a good chart showing potential savings in choosing the POC/Prototype/MVP route. Read More
- The Importance of Creating a Prototype for Your Startup. A 'who,' 'what,' and 'how' in creating a hi-res, no-code, clickable prototype to get early feedback from customers. Read more
- Mindmeld. If you're curious where the term 'mind meld' came from. Read More
Holistic Technical Services
We provide all the services required to build a complete app system, from identifying your technical assumptions early on and providing them with a quick and dirty proof of concept app to building it with experienced mobile, back-end, and web developers. Along the way, we'll architect your system based on the product requirement and product roadmap, pulling in pre-built parts as appropriate or specifying custom development.
In many projects, individual contributors aren't exposed to a holistic view of the totality of the project, preferring to stay focused purely on their area. Keeping developers in their lane only can lead to 'the right hand not talking to the left,' resulting in poor end-to-end system quality. At Tribeca Mobile, we take the time to educate everyone about the working of the complete project and have frequent meetings with the whole team present.
Besides a few simple apps like a flashlight app or the 'is my table level' app, most mobile apps require communicating with servers over the air. These servers need to be configured and managed. Often, apps need a customer-facing desktop component to function.
While we focus on mobile apps, nearly every project requires servers with databases, APIs, and web-based administration tools to configure them and see what your customer is doing. We are adept at designing these end-to-end systems.
Regarding your mobile app, you might have heard that you need to do separate iOS and Android versions. We're happy to report that two systems, Flutter by Google and React Native by Meta, do an excellent job of 'write once, deploy on both.' We prefer Flutter, but if you prefer React Native, we have you covered, too.
In some cases, we could also build apps using some of the popular 'app build' tools.
We'll design your system end-to-end, making detailed decisions like cloud services like AWS and buying/building decisions for various technologies.
Many startups assume they should 'build it now' to handle a million users. Our general philosophy is to design it so it CAN be expanded to handle future growth. Designing it so it can be built translates into designing it so things won't need to be replaced, only added.
The output will be an architecture document describing every aspect of your system and how it fits together.
Here, we build your mobile app. We live and breathe iOS, Android, Xcode, Dart, Flutter, React Native, and more. I hire people who 'understand mobile phones' and their.
If your app hasn't been built yet, we like to specify Google's cross-platform system, Flutter, to make an app that is 'mostly' built once and deployed twice (on iOS and Android). Indeed, Flutter also allows deploying the same code on the Web (React Native is currently a bit behind here).
If you have a legacy iOS or Android system, we work with that and other cross-platform systems such as React Native or PhoneGap.
We also have expertise in various plug-and-play build systems that require minimal coding, such as FlutterFlow.
If your app requires a back-end and a database, we will build it for you. We live and breathe databases, APIs, and server architecture and understand concepts such as micro-services and event buses.
If your app hasn't been built yet, we use Angular or Node.js for frameworks and Microsoft's Azure cloud. We would be happy to work with whatever you may have or prefer.
We are also adept at some of the one-step API build tools to generate an initial scaffold for your server.
Web development, the coding of websites, sometimes blurs with servers and databases. Indeed, the title 'full stack developer' encompasses this.
Generally, your mobile app will require some web-based interface to administer it, collect data, and manage customers. You can also develop straight-on web apps that don't have a mobile component.
If your web component hasn't been built yet, we recommend React. We also like WordPress for simple things when appropriate.
During the product phase, we'll watch for technical and process assumptions. Are you assuming the phone can send a particular message, or will your app send things when it isn't active? Are you expecting AI to do something it may or may not be capable of? Is your business model predicated on getting something to the consumer in 30 minutes? If there are technical or process assumptions that can't be done, there isn't a reason to continue.
A POC (Proof of Concept) is an ugly, dirty code/app that is never meant for anyone to see but proves your tech assumptions. We'll devise ways of testing your hypotheses. It might be code or a 'simulation.' We'll then direct the tech staff to test these.
We will produce a cost estimate from the architecture document, the prototype, and Product requirements.
Some level of testing should occur on the product before it's shipped. We've seen too many apps get a 1 star because it crashes on many phones. While the features may be fantastic, people don't look past this. We recommend and cost out an appropriate testing plan.
Get it out-the-door Services
Once your app, back-end, and admin console are produced by development, there are still many steps to go to get it out the door and keep it running.
The most crucial step following development is testing. Testing is often short-circuited to 'get it done,' but studies have shown that finding bugs before your product goes out saves you money. A buggy app with great features will still get a 1-star rating. We have an array of testers who will independently look at the product requirements and test to see that the developers followed the design and that it works after a beating.
Our out-the-door services also include DevOps. They help 'build' the product continuously (CI/CD) and deploy it to servers. They set up and monitor the servers needed on an ongoing basis. We also deploy your app to the Google and Apple stores.
Our DevOps team will manage the setup of servers, building the 'source code' that the developer creates continually (called CI/CD for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment, an integral part of the Agile process),
Once your app is live, Ops runs it, monitors it constantly, tweaks it, reboots at 3 AM, and more. We manage all this for you.
A good tester is passionate about their work.
Testing generally falls into two categories: manual and automatic. In either case, a good tester knows how to look at the product requirements (and the resulting Agile 'stories') and break them down into carefully thought-out tests that we call test cases.
A manual tester runs through these test cases, well, manually. Automatic testing is like programming; you use software harnesses and scripts to say, 'press the send button' and see that the app finishes correctly. (If you think about how software can 'press' and then 'see' it is a non-trivial task).
Many apps start with manual testing. There is a point, though, where your system becomes complex enough so that fixing one thing may break others, and it becomes cost-effective to implement automatic testing.
We'll manage putting things up in the Google Play or Apple app stores. There are many rules and regulations, and we'll ensure the app adheres to them so they don't get rejected. We'll set up the stores, taking marketing words, screenshots, videos, and more.
Once your app is live, DevOps runs it, monitors it constantly, tweaks it, reboots at 3 AM, and more. We manage all this for you.
Once your app is live, Ops runs it, monitors it constantly, tweaks it, reboots at 3 AM, and more. We manage all this for you.
Individual People
These are the types of experts needed to get any end-to-end mobile project designed, built and out-the-door. We bring them into your project as needed. All our people are also available individually to fill your specific needs.
Fraction Leadership (CPTO, CTO, CPO)
You can hire a CTO, CPO, or CPTO (Chief Product and Technical Officer in one) to lead your product and tech initiatives. For a startup, they can serve as your cofounder. Our people are experienced enough to step into any project and lead it.
Architect
We also have Architects who can design the specific architecture of your mobile app or back-end.
Project Manager
UI/UX Designer
They will design the flow, look, and feel of your app. If needed, they can provide you with a Figma-based, fully clickable hi-res prototype.
Graphics and Video Designer
Content Expert
Tech Team Lead
Mobile Developer
They are adept at cross-platform development systems, Flutter and React Native, and specific Android and iOS systems.
Service and Database Developer
Her is just a tiny list of tech: Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Angular, Node.js, SQL, AWS, Azure, and many more.
Web Developer
Some systems we have experience in are Angular, WordPress, Ruby-on-rails, CakePHP, and React.
Testers (Quality Assurance)
DevOps People
They have expertise in setting up team infrastructure like Jira and Git, setting up your CI/CD pipeline, and monitoring alerts.