In a candid interview with TheWebAppMarket, John Radford, CEO of Borne Digital shares how his company has managed to overcome the biggest challenges faced by an app development company.

Let’s check his journey!

Q1) Tell us about your background and your journey with the company. What are the key services offered by your company?

My first role in digital was making ringtones way back in the day before apps were even a thing. I then went on to run the digital content stores for Vodafone UK + IE as well as T-Mobile. Once the iPhone came along, I knew it would be a game changer and moved towards apps and digital products.

Q2) The tech industry keeps on changing, for instance, the current COVID-19 situation leading to mass adoption of remote working? How have you prepared your company for these changes? 

Borne is in a fortunate position where we already have flexi-working in place and employees can work from home should they wish to. Moving forward, the challenge is going to be ensuring clients (especially new ones) that we can continue to deliver our high standards without needing to meet them in the office.

Q3) Looking at the wide range of services offered by Borne Digital, which service is mostly opted by your clients? How do you ensure repetitive business?

We tend to see most clients coming to us with a ‘mobile first’ angle. Typically they will start with an app and then build out the product suite over time. We work agile with our clients which means we get them to market as quickly as possible and then iterate based on user feedback which I guess answers the question around repetitive business. 

We tend to look at the product lifecycle as a journey not a destination!

Q4) According to you, what are the most helpful technological platforms and tools to use for app development? Have you implemented them in your company? 

Well there are tons and everyone has their favourites, but the Atlassian suite that we use along with Harvest for time tracking and resource planning work very well for us

Q5) Can you share the unique challenges and advantages of both iOS and Android mobile app development and how have you overcome them?

One unique challenge we encountered on both platforms happened where we had to handle something unexpected and never handled on any platform before (judging by what was available on the web). We had a project that required 360 images to be presented in apps and within those images tappable points that were enabling users to navigate further through the presentation. 

This however was not your “usual” 360 viewer with tapping points because we had to handle conversions between images and navigation points described in 2D space and actual Spherical presentation of those – and handling required calculations on iOS and Android was completely different.

Q6) Can you elaborate the key points why Borne Digital stands out amidst thousands of other app development companies?

I believe our level of quality matched by competitive pricing simply can’t be matched anywhere. Our products are built to last and have stood the test of time. We have apps featured by Apple and Google and our UX is industry leading and is heavily dev led which means it functions as a user would expect it to. 

We aren’t just a digital product agency, but are partners for our clients. We go on the journey together with our clients and help them achieve success.

Q7) Over the years, Borne Digital has successfully delivered hundreds of projects, can you share one of your favorite case studies that you can say as your claim to fame moment? 

I would have to say, it would be a recent app we did for Asics. They launched a new line of running shoes and we designed and developed an app that plays music which changes based on your running speed, elevation and weather factors. We are currently developing Version 2 which will include more social features. 

It’s a groundbreaking piece of tech which is great fun and also encourages exercise in these uncertain times, which is a great thing.

Q8) What major opportunities do you foresee for your brand? How do you plan to handle them? 

I think we will increasingly start to move into the enterprise and digital transformation space helping larger companies become more agile with their approach to software development and launching new products. Our aim is to help companies and startups launch great products. I don’t see this changing.

Q9) What do you think will be the biggest challenges the industry will face after the COVID-19 situation gets under control? Would you like to share some tips that can benefit small-scale enterprises that are just hitting the app development scene? 

I think marketing and non-essential cost based budgets will be squeezed. Experiential apps and ‘apps for fun’ won’t be as prevalent anymore. I think we will see a shift towards organisations looking to save costs through software. 

For small-scale enterprises, I would look at this as an opportunity rather than a challenge. Look at how you are currently running your business and could a virtual approach to whatever it is save you money in the long run. Everyone is in the same boat, so those who react fast will have a competitive advantage.

Q10) Lastly, any word of advice for our users? 

We used to have a saying amongst the team that was a little ‘crude’ so I have toned it down slightly for the purposes of this interview, but the main advice would be ‘Just launch it!’ 

We see so many clients worrying about specific features for launch and thinking users won’t like one feature and that they definitely need a bunch of other features for launch. This is counter productive as it wastes time and money. Always go back to the core problem and core feature set for launch and iterate based on that. 

Developing good products is a journey, not a destination. 

Oh and one last piece of advice. Use Borne Digital to develop your product 🙂