1 Product Manager
2 Developers
1 Designer
Strategy
UX & UI
Development
React Native
React
GraphQL
Social networking
Content / Media
6 Months
App
AllBright is a members’ club with physical spaces in London and West Hollywood where women can work, train, network and relax. It was founded by Anna Jones, the former CEO of Hearst, and Debbie Wosskow, founder of Love Home Swap which she sold for $53m.
Despite the success of their physical spaces, they also limited growth for AllBright's business. Members could only benefit from the club's services and the network if they were physically present.
By the time Anna approached Planes they had already experimented with a proof of concept (POC) for a digital membership network using an off-the-shelf product. But they had quickly hit the limits of what they could achieve. They needed a partner to further develop their digital proposition.
Planes were brought on as AllBright’s digital product team to create a digital experience that would prove more engaging to members and help AllBright to scale its business model.
The project was initially planned as a 3-month roll-out, but when the Coronavirus pandemic forced physical meeting spaces to shut shop, we found a way to deliver the new platform in just 5 weeks.
We led on everything from building out the proposition and deciding on the priority of features, to the design, testing and build of AllBright's all-in-one platform.
Using the existing POC model as a foundation, we were able to prioritise new features to prototype and implement, drastically reducing the design and development process.
We believe in small, nimble, empowered teams. But due to the pressures of the pandemic on the AllBright business, we increased our developers from 3 to 7 (in addition to the existing product, design and QA team members) to hit the 5-week deadline.
Using React Native Web, we built iOS, Android and web simultaneously (including native apps for mobile), enabling us to share 85% of the components across web and mobile platforms. This resulted in a smaller code base to manage which improved efficiencies and further reduced the timeline.
After 5 weeks we launched the first version of the app wtih XX functionality. We moved 10,000 initial users to the new platform overnight, across web, iOS and Android. Within X weeks, membership had increased 900%. The ROI followed at a similar speed with a 50% conversion rate from trial, and month-on-month revenue growth of more than 25%.
The new platform also saw a dramatic increase in its user star rating, reaching an impressive 4.8*. And it wasn’t just users that were impressed. The new platform received significant media attention from Forbes, Sky News and the Evening Standard.
After 5 weeks we launched the first version of the app wtih XX functionality. We moved 10,000 initial users to the new platform overnight, across web, iOS and Android. Within X weeks, membership had increased 900%. The ROI followed at a similar speed with a 50% conversion rate from trial, and month-on-month revenue growth of more than 25%.
The new platform also saw a dramatic increase in its user star rating, reaching an impressive 4.8*. And it wasn’t just users that were impressed. The new platform received significant media attention from Forbes, Sky News and the Evening Standard.
Following a successful launch, we continued to work with AllBright for X months, speaking with users and the AllBright team to evolve the functionality of the platform. For basic features such as their news feed, we used best practices and third-party functionality. This allowed us to focus on higher value and more unique features. For example, after speaking with members we piloted and rolled out a feature that paired people based on their personal interests, increasing engagement by 450% on the platform.
To give AllBright the skills they need to make the product continue to thrive, we recruited an in-house product team to replace us. Thanks to our smart engineering decisions and modern tech stack, making recruiting much easier, over X weeks we recruited Y and brought them up to speed with our approach.
