Introduction

Sessionz was conceived with a clear vision – to empower individuals to learn from one another and participate in diverse learning experiences. The initial focus was on facilitating in-person sessions to foster a sense of community and set Sessionz apart from its competitors. With the new Events feature, the founder wanted to start accommodating group meetings, both in person and virtually, in order to expand opportunities both for hosts and learners. To read more about how Crowdlinker built the original Sessionz app in 2018, take a look at this Case Study. 

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Challenge

While the founder of Sessionz has built many products and worked with other partner development teams in the past, they approached Crowdlinker to develop the new Events feature as they recognized our ability to build and deliver their product effectively. This trust stemmed from our prior collaboration when we initially developed the Sessionz app in 2018. Sessionz wanted to develop and launch the Events feature as per their requirements and designs. This initiative aimed to benefit various user groups, including host users looking to leverage a one-to-many teaching model for increased earnings and clients seeking more affordable learning options compared to one-on-one models.

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“Crowdlinker was great at understanding the dynamics of needing to introduce unforeseen new functionality” - Andres Pareja, Founder of Sessionz

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Pain Points

• The Sessionz application was several versions behind on its UI software framework, React Native. Our front-end engineers had to prioritize this upgrade, as well as resolving complex configuration issues that it caused.
• From a product perspective, Crowdlinker had to implement changes in order to allow the app to evolve from a one-to-one experience to a one-to-many experience, and introduce virtual experiences for an application originally built for in-person learning sessions. As well, this created an opportunity for global expansion, thus calling for new features around timezone adaptations and scheduling. 
• With the expansion of the product and anticipated user base growth, Sessionz also needed to consider user reporting and blocking functionality in order to limit fraud and ensure user safety. 
• Finally, this new feature implementation led Crowdlinker to rework the already complex Stripe integration in order to guarantee successful payments, refunds and payouts. 
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Process & Solution

We followed the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) rigorously throughout the entire process. Remaining agile allowed us to identify previously missed gaps in requirements and designs through comprehensive grooming processes, offering valuable UX advice and expertise to rectify issues in the app's user experience. Our transparency and collaborative approach to this project enabled effective communication, both internally and externally. Our team maintained open channels for sharing insights and feedback, and clear and transparent communication with Sessionz ensured alignment with their expectations and needs. This enabled us to successfully tackle the pain points outlined above, and many more. 

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"Regular touch points worked well, the handling of PM activities, minutes, recordings. Well done!" - Andres Pareja, Founder of Sessionz

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Tools and Technology

Front-end:

React Native v0.70.6 | FastLane (Deployment) | Storybook | Jest Snapshots | Detox (Testing) | Google Geocode API | Google Places API | Firebase Dynamic Links using SDK (External APIs) | Firebase Analytics | SendGrid

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Back-end:

Laravel v6.6 (API Framework) | PHP 7.1.18 | NodeJS | Nginx version nginx/1.14.0 | Stripe Payments | Stripe Connect | Digital Ocean | AWS S3 Buckets | AWS CloudFront | AWS Route 52 | AWS SQS | AWS SES

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Deliverables:

Front-end Development | Back-end Development | System Architecture | Product Staging | Testing | Quality Assurance | UAT | Technical Documentation | Code Handover | Future Feature Roadmapping

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Outcome & Impact

In July 2023, Sessionz and Crowdlinker successfully launched the Events feature. This opens up many exciting opportunities for Sessionz: with Events, Sessionz will now be able to attract a broader audience, facilitate user engagement, and ultimately increase their revenue. We’re excited to see how Events will reshape the way people learn and foster a vibrant community of learners and educators. Big thanks to Sessionz for trusting us as their application development partner!

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