Loading...
Answers
MenuWhat do you look for when selecting technical/solution architect for a cross-platform mobile app?
I am building a mobile cross-platform app for education that integrates many technologies (eg Google Drive, Microsoft, and web browser). What skills should I look for? What software programs should they be familiar with? What's the best way to find a good technical architect with preferable experience in the education development industry?
Answers
Cross-platform frameworks are just now becoming robust and stable enough to be a real concern. The most popular frameworks include React Native, Xamarin, and Ionic. The trade-offs are typically speed of development vs. flexibility and complexity. If you use a lot of platform-specific integrations like HealthKit or Google Fit, your best bet is React Native, as it spits out real native Java or Objective-C that you can further tweak or integrate. Xamarin or Ionic basically put wrappers around C# or HTML5, so your deep integrations are limited.
As far as the architect is involved, you're looking for someone who has experience in both Objective-C and Java, as well as the cross-platform language, whether it be Javascript or C#. This is because once you've built your cross-platform app, you still may have to write native libraries to integrate to the platform-specific features like HealthKit.
I can't speak for the education industry itself. You can post listings on Angelist or StackOverflow, but also scour LinkedIn to attempt to poach people. You have to assume a good architect is already well employed and isn't looking for work, so you're going to have to go out and find them.
I've ran into this problem before, in that good architects are really hard to find. It may be easier to hire a good mid-level developer, and train them in architecture. That basically means carving out 40-50% of their time to spend on architecture and research. They will then grow into that role in 6-12 months.
Hope this helps.
I founded one of the first independent app development studios just as App Store went live in 2008. In addition to building this successful indie studio, I've helped dozens of companies launch successful apps on App Store and Play Store.
Given your requirement, you will need to look for an architect who is familiar with the technologies you've listed in the question, AND a development environment that will support those technologies.
There are several frameworks, languages and stacks you can use to code and deploy and deploy mobile apps. If you intend to deploy to both App Store and Play Store, the idea of developing once and deploying to both is appealing and there are many options to do that. Frameworks like Appcelerator, React Native and Xamarin are used by major brands for their iOS and Android app development.
On the other hand, many well known brands have tried that approach only to backtrack and re-code in the native language and development environments (Android Studio and Java for Android, xCode and Swift/Objective C for iOS).
The frameworks will never be as robust and open as the native environments provided by Android and Apple but they will allow you to develop less expensively since you can code once and deploy to both.
It seems that you initially need for someone that has a broad knowledge of environments to help you make the best development decisions up front that will support your technical requirements. I see a danger in selecting someone who is committed to a specific development framework rather than considering the best one for your requirement.
I hope this give you some idea of what you're looking for. Please give me a call if you want to talk this through.
Please also consider if the solutions architect have good knowledge of best security practices (or at least some working knowledge and he's able to find what's needed). The least thing you want is to have security gaps that might kill your startup with a security breach. Cross-platform apps might be tricky and interacting with external third-parties might leave you exposed to unwanted threats. Correctly managed these potential security breaches might be greatly reduced.
When selecting technical/solution architect for a cross-platform mobile app look for the following benefits and do make sure you are getting them:
1. Reusable code — developers can write code once and then export your app to many platforms without having to create a dedicated application for every single one of them.
2. Efficiency — cross-platform development tools offer one alternative for all the different mobile technologies, making the development process more straightforward and comfortable to manage (for example, by setting up a development team faster).
3. Cost savings — developing a cross-platform mobile app means that you will be saving the cost of having multiple development teams working on different versions of your app. All you need is one team which can accelerate its work with tools that are most often free to use.
4. Maintainability — modifying your mobile application is easy because developers will need to update only one codebase. All the introduced changes will be synchronized and reflected in all the apps working on different platforms.
5. Greater market reach — by publishing your app on multiple platforms, you will boost your chances of building a more extensive user base and generating a higher ROI on your app.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
Related Questions
-
Whats are some ways to beta test an iOS app?
Apple will allow a developer to register 100 UDID devices per 12 month cycle to test via TestFlight or HockeyApp. Having started with TestFlight, I would really encourage you NOT to use it, and go directly to HockeyApp. HockeyApp is a much better product. There is also enterprise distribution which allows you far more UDID's but whether you qualify for enterprise distribution is difficult to say. As part of your testing, I'd encourage to explicitly ask your testers to only register one device. One of the things we experienced was some testers registering 3 devices but only used one, essentially wasting those UDID's where we could have given to other testers. Who you invite to be a tester should be selective as well. I think you should have no more than 10 non-user users. These people should be people who have either built successful mobile apps or who are just such huge consumers of similar mobile apps to what you're building, that they can give you great product feedback even though they aren't your user. Specifically, they can help point out non obvious UI problems and better ways to implement particular features. The rest of your users should be highly qualified as actually wanting what you're building. If they can't articulate why they should be the first to use what you're building, they are likely the wrong tester. The more you can do to make them "beg" to be a tester, the higher the sign that the feedback you're getting from them can be considered "high-signal." In a limited beta test, you're really looking to understand the biggest UX pain-points. For example, are people not registering and providing you the additional permissions you are requiring? Are they not completing an action that could trigger virality? How far are they getting in their first user session? How much time are they spending per user session? Obviously, you'll be doing your fair share of bug squashing, but the core of it is around improving the core flows to minimize friction as much as possible. Lastly, keep in mind that even with highly motivated users, their attention spans and patience for early builds is limited, so make sure that each of your builds really make significant improvements. Happy to talk through any of this and more about mobile app testing.TW
-
What is the generally agreed upon "good" DAU/MAU for mobile apps?
You are right that the range is wide. You need to figure what are good values to have for your category. Also, you can focus on the trend (is your DAU/MAU increasing vs decreasing after you make changes) even if benchmarking is tough. Unless your app is adding a huge number of users every day (which can skew DAU/MAU), you can trust the ratio as a good indication of how engaged your users are. For games, DAU/MAU of ~20-30% is considered to be pretty good. For social apps, like a messenger app, a successful one would have a DAU/MAU closer to 50%. In general most apps struggle to get to DAU/MAU of 20% or more. Make sure you have the right definition of who is an active user for your app, and get a good sense of what % of users are actually using your app every day. Happy to discuss what is a good benchmark for your specific app depending on what it does.SG
-
iOS App: Beta vs Launch Quietly?
I would suggest launching in a foreign app store only (ex: Canada). That will allow you to get more organic users to continue iterating without a big push. I got this idea from Matt Brezina (Founder of Sincerely, previously Xobni) https://clarity.fm/brezina - he's the man when it comes to testing & iterating mobile apps.DM
-
If I am planning to launch a mobile app, do I need to register as a company before the launch?
I developed and published mobile apps as an individual for several years, and only formed a corporation later as things grew and it made sense. As far as Apple's App Store and Google Play are concerned, you can register as an individual developer without having a corporation. I'd be happy to help further over a call if you have any additional questions. Best of luck with your mobile app!AM
-
Where can I find programmers willing to join a growing mobile start up for equity only?
You won't find anyone worth adding to your team willing to work for equity only, no matter how compelling your product and business is. The realities of the talent market for mobile developers anywhere is such that a developer would be foolish to work only for equity unless they are a cofounder and have double digit equity. Happy to talk about hiring and alternatives to full-time hires.TW
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.