Hey Everyone!

I have completed 5 weeks of my internship and things are moving fast. We launched our MIGHTY Home Improvement app for the android app store on Tuesday. We completed an initial beta test on the app after its release. We noticed some minor bugs and errors such as spelling and grammar that were brought to the attention of the lead developer in our weekly meeting. We also noticed that the layout of the app followed the previous wireframe designs. This was a big issue. We had changed the designs two weeks prior to the release of the app. Luckily, the lead developer acknowledged that mistake and the updated layout should be published shortly. Another issue we noticed was that the user was not being notified when they registered for the app (i.e. Welcome Email). The video function in the app was only 10 seconds long when we required at least 30 seconds. Overall, the features in the app are very simple but cool to play with. In the coming weeks we will be adding some improvements and collecting data from user focus groups. Some things that were accomplished prior to the release of the app were finalizing the app logo/icon and feature graphic. We were also able to finalize and test our pricing tool after fixing a few bugs in the code. The pricing tool will be utilized in-house for easy calculation and estimations for our customers. We input the labor hours, wage per hour, and MIGHTY’s profit %. The pricing tool then calculates those inputs and delivers a quote that we can then forward to our clients. The code also implements a small convenience fee and a 50% downpayment function. As far as marketing goes, we have 7 contractor’s registered to date. We are creating flyers and door tags for our marketing intern to distribute. We hope that once the app is fully functional, the number of contractors in our database will triple. The app will be available in the IOS app store later this week. FYI- Apple IOS takes a little longer to approve and publish your app.

In week 5, I would rate myself a 5 out of 5. I believe I was an integral part in the beta testing and bug finding aspect of the app release. I am also more involved in writing code for programs we are using to ease our daily tasks such as the pricing tool and an estimator tool. In week 6, my goal is to help build on the estimator tool. This tool is similar to the pricing tool. The goal of the estimator tool is to create home improvement categories and implement set prices for each job. This will take a lot of research and data analysis. I will also be involved in the beta testing of the IOS app. We have a focus group meeting scheduled with a prominent Real Estate Company in Pittsburgh this week which we are also preparing for. This meeting will allow us to collect valuable information from our primary target market. If you have an android, download and check out our app! Any suggestions and tips are appreciated.