While working at Helpful Human, we decided to create a Shopify app that would enable traditional retail stores to engage with their customers in a new way. This app would eventually grow into its own business and is still in operation today.
The story behind the development of this app is extremely long and involved. I’m going to keep this write-up brief as I could easily fill a book if I started to get into the weeds.
The “experience economy” refers to the idea that consumers are looking for more than just products. They want to be entertained, engaged, and sometimes even educated. This is especially true in the retail space where online shopping has made it easier than ever to buy products. Brick-and-mortar stores need to offer something more to stay competitive.
The Experiences App was designed to help retail stores create and coordinate these experiences. It allows store owners to create events, workshops, and other in-store activities that customers can sign up for. The app integrates with Shopify to handle payments and inventory, making it easy for store owners to manage everything in one place.
I was heavily involved on and off throughout the lifetime of the project. I created the first version of the app, and was extremely involved in the designing, architecting, and developing the version that followed. As the app grew, we were able to have a few members of the Helpful Human team dedicated to working on the app full time.
Because I was needed to run other projects for clients, I had limited time to invest directly in the development of the app. This meant I was tasked with continued oversight and guidance, or tackling the particularly difficult code problems that arose.
Even after I left Helpful Human, I would continue to be involved in the project in some capacity. This included helping to identify and fix bugs, and adding a few new features.
I’ve recently started working on the app again with Mark and his team. We are in the process of re-writing the app from scratch in order to relinquish it of years of unaddressed technical debt. Depending how things play out, this may warrant its own write-up on the process and decisions we’re actively making.