Quick Is Not Sufficient: Constructing Apps That Hold Customers Coming Again

From fintech to healthcare to reside streaming, a cellular product architect and startup development mentor shares how considerate engineering turns first customers into loyal advocates.

Most startups pour their power into getting new customers by the door. Advertisements, launch campaigns, social media buzz — all centered on acquisition. However in actuality, development not often comes from the primary obtain. Merchandise take off when the individuals who attempt them as soon as maintain coming again, making the app part of their each day rhythm.

The distinction between a one‑time obtain and a loyal consumer usually lies within the small, invisible issues: how rapidly the app responds, whether or not it feels dependable, and whether or not it genuinely solves an issue within the consumer’s life. Founders who focus solely on the highest of the funnel usually miss this: the quiet work of constructing belief and behavior is what drives sustainable development, considers Artemii Shlesberg, a seasoned professional in cellular product structure and consumer‑centered app improvement.

He was the founding iOS developer and cellular workforce lead for Voices, a enterprise‑backed reside‑streaming platform constructed for actual‑time interplay between creators and audiences, supporting multi‑channel funds and excessive‑load video rooms. As an iOS developer and later workforce lead for the inner startup of a number one Russian digital financial institution, he constructed a safe B2B banking utility with modular structure and financial institution‑stage encryption.

In healthcare, he served because the impartial developer of ShiftSwap for Yale Hospital, a part of the Yale Faculty of Drugs’s emergency residency program, making a specialised scheduling app that simplified shift swaps for medical employees. Past his improvement work, Artemii has been a choose and winner at main business hackathons backed by main tech corporations, sharing his experience with the subsequent technology of builders.

On this dialog, he shares how considerate product and engineering choices flip first customers into lengthy‑time period development.

Artemii, as retention and engagement drive actual development, from what you’ve seen, what are the most typical errors that trigger customers to depart a product after the primary attempt?

One of many largest errors I see is overloading first‑time customers with complexity. Many apps attempt to showcase each function immediately, however that solely creates confusion. One other frequent subject is a weak first‑run expertise — if onboarding is gradual, unclear, or requires an excessive amount of effort, individuals go away earlier than they see the worth.

I’ve additionally seen that merchandise typically focus extra on visible polish than on core reliability. Even a superbly designed app can lose a consumer if the primary interplay feels clumsy or breaks unexpectedly. Within the very starting, your product has only some seconds to earn belief, so eradicating friction and guiding customers to their first small win is important.

How do you strategy these very first months of a brand new product — when there are nearly no customers but, however each resolution can form retention and development afterward?

The earliest stage is all about studying, not scaling. If you solely have a handful of customers, you possibly can discuss to each one among them, watch how they work together with the product, and catch friction earlier than it multiplies. My purpose is at all times to get a working prototype into their arms rapidly, even when it’s imperfect, and begin gathering each suggestions and habits information.

I additionally suppose so much about flexibility in these first months. You don’t know but which function will develop into the core of the product, so the structure and the workforce workflow have to help quick iteration with out creating lengthy‑time period debt. This mindset — hear, be taught, regulate — is what guided me later at Voices, the place each week of iteration introduced us nearer to a product customers wished to return to.

Your early work at Voices helped the app develop from zero to 10,000 month-to-month customers in simply six months. What had been the important thing product or engineering choices that enabled that speedy traction?

We handled the primary six months as a studying race, not only a coding dash. From day one, I constructed the iOS app on Swift with Mix and MVVM, and for streaming we used WebSockets and Agora SDK. That gave us a modular and reactive structure — we may ship a brand new construct each week and take a look at concepts nearly in actual time.

On the product aspect, we centered on interplay, not simply passive viewing. Dwell rooms the place creators may see and reply to their viewers immediately grew to become our core function. As soon as customers felt heard, they saved coming again, and phrase of mouth began to work for us.

Because the cellular workforce lead, you launched multi‑channel monetization with Apple Pay, Stripe, and crypto/NFT donations. How did you make sure the cost expertise felt seamless for customers whereas meaningfully boosting income?

I consider monetization as a part of the consumer expertise, not an afterthought. Folks need to help creators, however in case you add friction like too many steps, logins, or gradual loading screens, you lose them.

I labored with our CTO to construct a versatile cost module that dealt with Apple Pay, Stripe, and crypto wallets natively. It ran quietly within the background, so donating or validating an NFT felt like tapping a like button. As soon as funds felt easy, income grew month over month, and we noticed a direct correlation: the smoother the UX, the upper the engagement and the extra creators earned.

After engaged on reside‑streaming apps with speedy consumer suggestions, you additionally tackled a really completely different problem — hospital shift administration. What drew your consideration to this downside, and the way did understanding the residents’ ache factors affect the best way you constructed ShiftSwap?

When my spouse started her medical residency, I seen how inefficient shift-swapping was — executed by emails and spreadsheets, it induced delays, errors, and pointless stress. I noticed a chance to assist and, with out preliminary help from this system, started creating ShiftSwap. I spoke with residents and directors, mapped out the compliance guidelines, and designed a easy app tailor-made to their wants.

The outcome was a software that lowered swap turnaround from days to hours and reached over 90% adoption in this system. It improved not simply scheduling, but additionally morale and work-life steadiness. For me, it proved how deeply understanding customers’ ache factors, particularly in high-stakes environments, can result in significant, lasting impression.

From fixing operational challenges in healthcare, you additionally explored the emotional aspect of consumer expertise with the experimental Magic Mirror undertaking. What did this experiment train you about constructing apps that join with individuals on a deeper stage?

Magic Mirror was all about human connection. We wished to see if a cellphone may create a way of bodily presence throughout distance, not only a video name. The undertaking taught me that emotion lives within the particulars, like a slight delay, a clumsy interface, or a chilly design breaks the phantasm immediately.

Even in startups, this lesson holds. A product that resonates emotionally will create stronger engagement and retention than one which’s merely useful. Whether or not it’s fintech or streaming, if a consumer feels understood, assured, and related, they’re way more more likely to return and to advocate the app to others.

Your initiatives vary from extremely sensible to deeply experimental. On the similar time, you’ve stayed near the startup and developer neighborhood by main hackathons. How have these experiences influenced the best way you strategy constructing and evaluating new merchandise?

Hackathons are like product boot camps. You see groups beneath strain, fixing issues with restricted time and assets. As a choose, I discovered to identify readability and focus instantly — one of the best groups don’t attempt to construct every little thing; they remedy one ache level in a means that feels inevitable.

That mindset stays with me. Even in long-term initiatives, I ask: what’s the smallest factor we are able to ship that proves the worth? Hackathons additionally maintain me humble — there’s at all times a brand new concept or strategy that makes you rethink your assumptions.

Trying again at your expertise — from fintech to reside streaming to hospital apps — what would you say is the only most vital issue for turning early customers into long-term adopters?

It at all times comes right down to belief. Belief that the app will do what it guarantees, that their information is secure, and that their time isn’t being wasted. In fintech, belief comes from safety and reliability; in reside streaming, it comes from efficiency and clean interplay; in healthcare, it’s about readability and dependability. As soon as customers really feel that your product is a dependable a part of their routine, retention nearly takes care of itself.

Many founders concentrate on speedy acquisition, however your work exhibits that sustainable development comes from retention and consumer belief. Should you may give one piece of recommendation to a startup workforce planning its first product launch, what would it not be?

Begin by fixing one actual downside for a small group of customers, and remedy it so nicely that they will’t think about going again. Fancy options or advertising campaigns gained’t save a product that doesn’t ship worth from day one. If these first customers belief you and love the expertise, they’ll develop into your advocates and that’s the quickest and most sustainable development a startup can have.