Codingfish

Growth hacking explained; 5 steps to ensure your product's growth and success

Clark Wickstone — September 17, 2020

It’s not enough to just "Build it" and hope that "they will come". You can create the best product in the world, but if nobody hears about it, it's guaranteed to fail. Similarly, not paying attention to how users actually interact with your product can be equally as hindering.

Creating awareness, building your initial customer base and putting your product in their hands can prove to be cripplingly costly, especially in the world of startups and new product launches.

But the last decade has given rise to a new, leaner growth method and a new type of marketing specialist, “The Growth Hacker”. These new concepts are allowing smaller companies to experience exponential growth and compete with corporates at a fraction of the cost.

So what is this magical new concept and how can you use it to boost your product and business?

What is Growth Hacking?

Originally coined by Sean Ellis in 2011, the then marketing manager of PayPal, Growth Hacker has become a trendy buzz term and job title that frequently gets used interchangeably with Growth Marketer, Data-Driven Marketer and Head of Growth.

Growth Hacking is a mindset that encourages experimentation, makes data-driven decisions and sets a North Star metric that is entirely focused on tangible growth.

Unfortunately, it is sometimes linked with the methods used by game and social media developers to make their products more addictive. It’s important to understand though that growth hacking in and of itself isn’t good or bad, but like any new technology, it can be used for both ethical and unethical purposes.

When it comes down to it though, Growth Hacking is simply the modern method behind lean and efficient product development and marketing. Let’s dive into the practical steps you can take to apply these methods to your business, product and marketing efforts.

Step 1: Pirate Metrics

During the early design phases of your product it is important to map out a product strategy and launch plan to help ensure that your product gets into people’s hands and grows to its full potential.

A great place to start when mapping out these plans is with the Pirate Metrics funnel. Created by the famous venture capitalist, Dave McLure, this funnel groups business critical activities under the headings Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue and Referral (AARRR).

Reference the chart below for further explanations of each heading, different methods that can be used and the general tell-tale metrics associated with each part of the funnel.

This chart also helps show a very clear distinction between a Growth Hacker and a traditional marketer. In the past, a marketer would be almost primarily tuned to the acquisition part of this funnel, whereas a Growth Hacker looks at this funnel more holistically and identifies the key areas to focus on and experiment with to increase product usability, customers and revenue.

Step 2: Deploy analytics tools

Upon launch, you will need to use a series of analytics tools to track your product, customer and advertising data. Google Analytics, Hotjar Amplitude, Mixpanel along with the built in analytics tools on social media platforms are some of the most popular methods for gathering data and metrics.

Using this data you will be able to identify areas to improve upon and iterate until you see quantifiable, data lead proof that your product is working and growing in the most optimal way possible.

Google Analytics, Hotjar Amplitude, Mixpanel are some of the most popular tools for gathering data and metrics.

Step 3: The One Metric That Matters

After you have gathered, analysed and filtered your data through the pirate metrics funnel, the next step is to identify the one-metric-that-matters (OMTM).

In most cases, the OMTM will be a metric that is under performing and a metric that, if improved, will have the greatest positive impact on your product and revenue.

For example, if you have an 80% conversion rate but only 100 monthly visits to your website, that would indicate strongly that your store is functioning well but not enough potential customers know about it.

In this case, the OMTM would be unique website visits. All of your weight will then need to be thrown behind improving acquisition and attracting users to the website through advertising, social media campaigns and promotions.

Or supposing the website receives a lot of traffic but performs poorly with sales and we then discover that the cart abandonment rate is 95%. That would be an alarmingly high abandonment rate and improving it would make a huge difference to your revenue.

Thus, cart abandonment rate will become your OMTM and you will need to investigate ways to improve the user experience by potentially offering alternative payment methods, recalculating your product costs or simplifying the checkout process.

Usually, the one-metric-that-matters will be a metric that is under performing and, if improved, will have the greatest positive impact on your product and revenue.

Step 4: Test & Iterate

Once you have your OMTM it’s time to begin creating and implementing solutions. Some solutions may be incredibly easy to identify (fixing broken pages or actual faults in your product) but others (such as decreasing cart abandonment rates or customer churn) may require careful thought, workshopping and experimentation before a solution is found.

GROWS (created by Growth Tribe) is a massively popular method for creating and testing these solutions.

Gather ideas, rank ideas, outline experiments, work, study outcomes (GROWS).

Gather ideas: Quantity of ideas is the primary goal here and there are no right or wrong suggestions. Bring in as many team members as you can for this phase. Include people from a variety of departments, even if they have yet to be involved in the product. Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can offer the best solution.

Rank ideas: With your product team, it is time to begin selecting which ideas are the most attractive and feasible. Ideally, the chosen idea will be one that will have the greatest impact with the least amount of effort and cost.

Outline experiments: It is important that you set success parameters and a timeframe for your experiments eg. The solution will be launched by the end of the month, within 4 weeks of its launch we aim to improve our OMTM by 10%. Setting tangible outlines will help set expectations and keep you on track.

Work: The production phase of adding the solution to your marketing or product.

Study outcomes: Did the solution perform as expected? Has your OMTM been improved? If yes, congratulations, you are now ready to move on and address other areas to improve upon. If not, you may need to start again, gathering ideas or choosing another solution from your ranked ideas pile.

While initially gathering ideas there are no right or wrong answers.

Step 5: Identify your next OMTM

The work of a Growth Hacker is never complete. Now that you have improved your product it’s time to identify the next area for improvement and begin the process anew.

By continuously monitoring the data, identifying your OMTM and running the GROWS method to improve and iterate, you will be in a strong position to maximise the growth and revenue of your product.

Build it right

At MiniCorp, we understand the importance of data led growth. We pride ourselves on building exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive and our growth platform is integral to that promise.

If you would like to partner with us to design, build and grow your next product, contact us today.

10 steps to choosing the right digital product agency

Clark Wickstone — August 11, 2020

Choice Paralysis

Type “digital product agency” into Google and you are going to get over 1,400,000 results. There are certainly no shortage of companies available, yet choosing an agency to develop and design your next product can be a complicated and nerve-racking task.

Placing the technical development of your next website or app in the hands of an external company is a scary thing to do, especially when the success of your business depends on it. How can you trust that they’ll be able to bring your brilliant ideas to fruition on time, on budget and to the standards you require?

In this article we’ll take a look at a few considerations you should make and a few tell-tale signs to look out for while making your choice.

You may be wondering if you can trust an article on how to select a digital agency when it’s written by one. Our objective in writing this article is to help you identify an agency that is a good fit for your company and product. Not all companies and agencies are compatible, and that’s okay. We hope you can use the advice below to make an informed decision about whether us or our competitors are a good fit for you.

1. Where to look

As mentioned above, Google offers an overwhelming amount of options and it can be hard to know which company to trust. The best place to start is with asking your peer and business network for recommendations. You may be surprised with how many of them already have experience in the space and people like to recommend the companies they love working with.

If failing that, look at apps, websites and products that you like and if possible, find out who built them. It shouldn’t matter if they are based locally or internationally. With the amount of ways to communicate and manage projects online, where the agency is based shouldn’t play massively into your decision. Would you rather an average team based down the road or a superstar team located across the globe?

2. Cost

Obviously, it’s important to have a clear idea of your budget and planned spend at the start of every project. Being transparent with an agency about your budget is as important as them being transparent with you about cost. You should expect a clear breakdown of pricing that lists the estimated charges of each phase and item of the project. Having both parties be clear and open during this process is critically important as it will ultimately determine the scope of the finished product.

Although it may be tempting to choose an agency based on value and price, it really shouldn’t be a primary determining factor. Assuming you are not breaking the bank, you should choose the agency you feel will build it right, not cheap.

3. Shared interest

Do they show a keen interest in your company and product goals? Do they understand the problem your product is trying to fix? The answers to both of these questions should be a resounding “yes” if you hope to work well together. On the flip side, an agency that spends too much time focusing on themselves and their previous achievements may prove to be mostly self-interested.

It’s important that your chosen agency shows enthusiasm and is diligent about getting to know your company and product idea.

4. Previous products

What are their previous products like? Do they impress you? They absolutely should! If their previous work is missing the “wow-factor” you are looking for then there isn’t much hope that yours will be made any better.

Similarly, having a list of existing products that you like and that you can set as a quality benchmark (even if they are made by another agency) is a great way to show an agency what you are aiming for.

5. Previous clients

Are you impressed by the agency's previous clients? Are they successful? Of course not every product worked on by an agency is going to be successful and not every company is going to survive its first few years in business, but having a few wins and a couple of thriving clients under their belt proves that they know how to execute on a product idea and help build it into something prosperous.

6. Client testimonials

What do their previous clients say about them? Did they offer you the opportunity to reach out to them directly for a reference? Looking to their previous clients for impartial advice is a great idea. When asking previous clients for advice you should ask about areas for improvement and what didn’t go well as much as the successes. It’s important to gain an objective understanding of how they worked together as opposed to only getting glowing praise.

If you eventually choose to go with the agency, this may also help you avoid any potential bumps down the road.

7. Range of services

How much of your product will they be able to create? Are they only capable of working on the development or can they handle the design too? Having to use separate agencies for various aspects of your final product (eg. UX design, UI design, analytics) can be costly, time consuming and inefficient.

8. Rapport & communication

How well do you actually get along? Can you see yourselves working happily together into the future? How well do you communicate? These are incredibly important questions to answer. Building a product together can take several months. Having a solid rapport and open levels of communication between your company and the agency can really help with how smoothly it all goes.

What’s more, the relationship between your company and the agency is unlikely to end at the launch of your product. Regularly, agencies will be needed to continue working with you throughout the entire lifecycle of your product.

9. Further insights

Do they make suggestions about different ways you could potentially enhance your product or are they simply following instructions? Ideally, an agency should leverage their experience, offer you feedback and potentially even challenge you on aspects of your product idea. In most cases, this will tell you that the agency is engaged in your idea and is invested in its success.

10. Listen to your gut

After going through all of the above points it is time to ask yourself the most important question; are they the right fit? Do you think they will meet all of your expectations and make your product dreams come true? Being able to answer these questions without hesitation should ultimately indicate if this agency is the right agency for you.

Build it right

Are you in the process of planning your next digital product? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you would like to partner with us to build and grow your next product contact us today.

Branding explained; 4 points you should know

Clark Wickstone — July 28, 2020

Sometimes used interchangeably (and incorrectly) with advertising as a term, branding plays a vital role in the success of any company. Despite this, many people tend to struggle defining what branding actually is. This week, we are going to take a look at the definition of branding, its importance and real world examples of branding in action.

1/ Branding is more than just a logo and colour choice

Brand is often misinterpreted as purely a company’s visual identity eg. logo and colour choice. Visual identity, although crucial, is only one element of a brand.

“Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” - Jeff Bezos

The above quote summarises branding excellently. In a nutshell, a company's brand is its reputation. It is the emotional connection customers form with the products and company through presentation, interaction and experience. How a product works, looks, feels, sounds and even tastes has to be carefully developed and considered along with a company’s values and personality.

As such, branding is considered to be the heart of any successful company which is why many spend hundreds of millions boosting their brand every year through advertising and development.

2/ Branding is about creating an emotional response

Take a quick moment and think about Coca Cola.

You’re probably picturing their logo, the red colour, the memory of the last time you had one of their drinks, a catchy song or jingle from one of their ads, their tagline “Always Coca Cola”, the sound a can or bottle makes when opened. You may even be thinking of summer while enjoying a Coke on a beach, or maybe you’re thinking about Christmas while humming “Holidays are coming” to yourself.

All of these elements are Coca Cola’s brand in action and a testament to the effectiveness of strong branding. Coca Cola spends an average of 4 billion USD every year on advertising to put those images and feelings in your head.

You may be wondering at this point what the difference is between advertising and branding. Think of it this way, advertising is the delivery platform, branding is the message and feeling the customer receives. Companies spend on advertising to boost branding and in turn, increase sales and revenue.

There's an urban legend that Santa's red suit was created by Coca Cola. It's true!

Whether you like their products or not, Coca Cola has an undeniably strong brand. They are globally recognisable and the mere mention of their company name triggers a series of emotional responses and images in our minds. Apple, Disney, Nike and many other large and successful companies share similarly strong brands.

3/ Visuals matter

We’ve talked a lot about the less tangible elements of a strong brand but the visual identity, such as a logo and colours, also play an important part in the strength of a brand and its recognition. Companies can spend anything from a few euro to hundreds of millions on their logos, which typically need to be changed or updated every ten years.

When we think of Google, Microsoft and Apple’s logos we can sometimes think of them as these fixed in place, unchanged icons but each of these companies have gone through several (sometimes subtle) logo changes in the last two decades.

Since 1997, Google have changed their logo 7 times.

Updating the design of a logo to reflect modern trends is important but it is equally important to move your brand in the direction that your customers want and somewhat expect. Sudden and confusing changes have led to costly and damaging mistakes for some of the world’s top brands in recent years.

In 2010, GAP, the clothing retailer changed their 20 year old, iconic logo to what was considered to be more contemporary. After a crowdsourcing campaign, the logo was changed to a bold helvetica font in black with a blue gradient square placed on the top right of the text.

The backlash was huge.

Customers voiced their hatred online for the new design. They couldn’t understand the change at all. Within a week, GAP retreated and swapped back to their old logo. It’s estimated that this whole debacle ended up costing the company $100 million.

It’s theorised that the reason for the backlash had little to do with the actual logo design. GAP was possibly attempting to change too much too quickly. Rebranding their image without clearly updating their service offering. Changes to a visual identity need to come after changes to a service. GAP wanted to suddenly push forward but their customers weren’t ready to go with them.

It’s difficult to know for certain that this is the primary reason for the backlash but the GAP logo change fiasco absolutely proves two things; changing your visual identity can be risky; and when it comes to their favourite brands, customers have a massive sense of ownership.

Gap's classic logo alongside its failed redesign.

4/ There are limitless benefits to having a strong brand

The Brand Finance US 500 list 2020, listed the brand value of 4 US companies at over 100 billion USD with Amazon topping the charts with their brand valued at 220 billion.

This value represents Amazon’s ability to generate money compared to a lesser known brand in the same space. The benefits of a strong brand clearly have an incredibly high value, but what are they exactly?

Recognition is a primary benefit of a strong brand. Customers are much more likely to choose a product from a company they recognise over one that is lesser known. Standing out from the competition offers a serious competitive edge.

Colour is believed to improve brand recognition by 80%.

Loyalty is another huge benefit. People are much more likely to purchase products from a company that shares their values or portrays an image/lifestyle that they associate with. The stronger the brand, the more likely it is that a customer will form an attachment to the products and company.

According to a 2012 study conducted by the Harvard Business Review 64% of consumers listed shared values as the main reason they have a relationship with a brand.

This loyalty also translates to recruitment. A strong brand will attract high quality applicants and boost the motivation of current staff.

Trust in a brand also makes it easier for companies to set a premium price point (Apple being the classic example here). It’s easier for customers to spend more on a product when they can trust that it is from a company with a reputation for making premium quality products.

The Trust Barometer Special Report released by Edelman in 2019 found that 81% of consumers need to be able to trust a company before they can purchase from them.

Trust also makes it easier for companies to roll out new products and expand into other markets.

There are many benefits but ultimately, having a strong brand will drive a company’s sales and growth.

Build it right

Are you looking to develop or create your company’s brand? If so, we’d love to talk to you. With our in-house branding service we can help you develop your ideal brand identity and make sure your customers get the right message.

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you would like to partner with us to build and grow your next product contact us today.

Build a winning digital product; The 4 things you need to be focused on

Clark Wickstone — July 14, 2020

In our previous article, “How to use data to build better digital products”, we discussed how a virtual tidal wave of new apps and websites are launched every day. The majority of which are doomed to fail in a crowded marketplace.

This week we are going to take a deeper dive into what helps separate successful digital products from the competition and the key items you need to consider while developing your next app and website. We’ll look at a few best in class examples and discuss the dos and don’ts of digital product creation.

Over 100 billion apps are downloaded every year and the number is climbing steadily.

1. Solve a problem for your user

When Airbnb first launched in 2008, their product idea was modest. Offer alternative accommodation to travelers in a market saturated by expensive hotels. It goes without saying that their product grew to be a roaring success.

Airbnb grew as quickly as they did because they were solving a number of issues for their users that no other product had ever addressed as successfully before. It allowed travelers a variety of accommodation options previously unavailable and local renters an opportunity to earn money by renting their property on a growing and trusted platform.

Who are our end-users?
What problem are we solving for them?
How is our product going to improve their lives?

These are the most important questions you can ask yourself while you are in the ideation phase of creating your app or website. Well thought out and heavily researched answers to these questions will also serve as an excellent north star for your product as it grows and develops.

Airbnb grew as quickly as they did because they were solving a number of issues for their users.

2. Validate, research and validate some more

In 2009, the film Avatar took the world by storm, raking in a record smashing $2.79 billion at the global box-office over the course of its theatre run. Part of its success was attributed to its groundbreaking 3D technology. This caused TV manufacturers to race to bring 3DTVs into people’s homes. Almost every major manufacturer offered a 3D model by Christmas 2010.

Despite many indicators that would point to this being a good move, there was a disappointing uptake on 3DTVs. There were too many competing forms of 3D, most TV sets only came with 2 pairs of glasses (and additional pairs were expensive), additional 3D capable blu-ray players were required and on top of all of this, there was very little content actually available in 3D. Within a few years, 3D technology was abandoned by TV manufacturers to focus on 4K and OLED sets.

Within a few years, 3D technology was abandoned by TV manufacturers to focus on 4K and OLED sets.

It’s difficult to know how much market research was conducted before the launch of 3DTVs but given the market reaction it's clear to see that many large companies missed the mark completely.

Validating the product idea by conducting surveys, focus groups, customer interviews and utilising analytics tools can prove to be the difference between success and failure for many products.

3. If you can’t be unique, be better

With over a billion available apps and websites it can prove difficult, if not outright impossible, to come up with a unique product idea. Sometimes you don’t need to be original, you just need to offer a clear improvement over your competitors’ product or target an untapped niche.

Even products with an absolute stranglehold on their market can be toppled.

In its heyday, Myspace was the largest social networking site on the planet. It was reaching 100 million users per month and it was the most visited website by users in the US, even beating Yahoo and Google. It was sold to NewsCorp in 2005 for $580 million proving for the first time the huge financial value of social media. By 2007, they would be valued at $12 billion.

Facebook, a comparatively new company on the social media scene, knocked Myspace from the global user top spot by 2008, and the US top spot by early 2009. All of this despite the massive head start Myspace had.

Why? Because Facebook had a better product.

Since being sold to Newscorp, Myspace had become flooded with intrusive ads which led to a declining user experience. Facebook was initially ad free (ironic, I know) and arguably had a much cleaner and user-friendly design.

By 2011, Myspace was sold for $35 million. A measly amount compared to their former value and Facebook’s value today, at just under $700 billion.

As of July 2020, Facebook IS worth almost $700 billion.

This is one of many similar stories from the last few decades in the tech industry. Google toppling Yahoo, Netflix toppling Blockbuster etc.

Innovating and improving on an existing idea or targeting a specific niche in an existing market could end up being what separates your product from the competition.

4. Make sure you are seen and heard

Remember Everpix? The beautifully designed cloud based photo app developed by a team of former Apple employees? Neither do we!

Despite receiving millions in funding and developing an app that was loved by its user base, Everpix ran into problems quickly when they spent the majority of their budget on development and never properly invested in marketing.

After failing to secure enough users, and eventually further funding, Everpix was forced to shut down in 2013, just two short years after it started. There are quite a few factors that pop up when Everpix’s failure is discussed but failing to market their product is considered the root cause of their problems.

It may sound obvious, but an effective marketing campaign is going to decide whether or not your product becomes a success.

It’s important to generate anticipation and excitement for your product before it launches. That’s why it is always good to create a marketing strategy that focuses on pre-launch, launch and post-launch.

Understanding your customers, choosing the ideal platforms to advertise on and create a space for your brand in your customers’ minds all play a large part in any effective marketing campaign and ensuring the growth of your product.

It is always good practice to create a marketing strategy that focuses on pre-launch, launch and post-launch of your product.

Build it right

Are you in the process of planning your next digital product? If so, we’d love to hear from you. We pride ourselves on being a digital product agency that knows how to apply and properly utilise the right tools and methods for early validation.

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you would like to partner with us to build and grow your next product contact us today.

How to use your data to build better products

Clark Wickstone — June 25, 2020

A virtual tidal wave

A virtual tidal wave of new apps and websites are added to the internet every day. Tens of thousands of digital products are launched by companies in the hopes of generating revenue and creating something their customers will love. Despite the large appetite to make these new products the vast majority of them are doomed to fail.

Competition, running costs, poor marketing and lack of demand are just some of the reasons so many of these products don’t succeed. According to a recent survey conducted by Gartner, “user unfriendliness” was also cited as a primary reason for failure.

Although the number is constantly shifting, Internet Live Stats estimate that there are roughly 1.7 billion websites currently online.

Product design is only the first step

Placing a skilled product designer on the ground floor of your product’s initial design and development is going to massively increase your chances of success. Making every design decision with the user in mind will lead your product towards greater chances of adoption and retention, but it’s only one part of the equation when it comes to making a user friendly experience.

User experience is something that needs to be measured and further developed post launch and on an ongoing basis. Applying product analytics tools and methods will allow you to do this.

What is product analytics?

Put simply, product analytics looks at the digital footprint of your users to determine how they use your product and how you can better meet their needs. It is an accurate view of how your product truly works in your customers’ hands.

Many small and large organisations sit on top of large untapped wells of data that can provide them with these valuable insights. Product analytics will allow you to unleash the data’s potential. It will help you form a clear and impartial story about how to optimise your product, respond to customer demand and improve your web traffic.

Product analytics looks at the digital footprint of your users to determine how they use your product and how you can better meet their needs.

It all starts with a plan

Before any tools are put in place every product analytics project needs to begin with a solid plan and an outline of your objectives and key results (OKRs).

Some common OKRs to focus on are:

User Activation: Increase users who successfully sign up for your product
User Retention: Increase users who stick with your product and visit multiple times
User Referrals: Increase users who invite friends to use your product
User Engagement: Increase the time spent or activities completed by users

Gather, measure and benchmark

Once your OKRs have been decided, you can choose from a number of tools that will simplify how you capture and measure your product’s data. Google Analytics, Hotjar, Amplitude and Mixpanel are among some of the most popular tools available.

Once the tools have gathered the data, the best place to start is with an hypothesis: An educated guess to what results you expect to see once you start analysing your data. This will give you a framework to guide your analytics under.

Every project is different, but measuring and organising your data under the following headings is a good place to start.

Segmentation: Grouping your users according to different properties like location, age or membership type.
Retention: Measuring how many users return to your app or website over time.
Funnels: Tracking user journeys to see where they drop off and stop using your product.

Sometimes the data will require augmentation from additional research such as focus groups, usability testing and surveys. For example, data may tell you that users from “x category” may not be reaching “y goal”. This could be the product’s fault but it could also be because of a number of factors beyond your control that your analytics tools won’t be able to catch.

For example, say you expand your e-commerce platform into a new country and receive good overall traffic but 99% of users are abandoning their cart at checkout. It could indicate a fault with your checkout but it could also be that most users in that country don’t use credit cards for online payments and require additional payment options.

That is why it is important to benchmark your findings against other data, market research and general industry information gathered from other sources.

Sometimes the data will require augmentation from additional research such as focus groups, usability testing and surveys

Findings turned into actions

Once your initial research is concluded you’ll need to make decisions on how to utilise the new insights. When making these decisions it is good practice to consider the following:

How is your data trending over time? Is it trending positively or negatively?
If the trends continue will your business goals be met?

Answering these questions will help you locate problem areas and product pain points to address and improve. Iterating upon the original product design, adding new features and potentially applying A/B testing are just some of the ways the insights can be actioned.

What are the benefits?

Product analytics offers a number of benefits including:

Improved customer insights
Improved customer engagement
Improved product performance
Increased traffic
Informed decision making

Build it right

Whether you are looking to build a new digital product or grow an existing one, you’ll want to partner with an agency that understands the power and importance of product analytics.

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you would like to partner with us to build and grow your next product contact us today.

Congestion and Robots; 5 things you need to know about 5G

Clark Wickstone — June 15, 2020

5G is the fifth generation of mobile connectivity technology. Much like 4G and 3G before it, 5G’s rollout over the next couple of years will change the speed at which we can access the internet and media through our smartphones.

Unlike previous generational jumps though, the transition to 5G will prove much more significant. The jump from 3G to 4G speeds meant that video and heavier media sources could be accessed much more quickly than before. This led to a rise in popularity of video functionality on social media platforms.

5G will allow for speeds 100 times greater than 4G but if most users on 4G can already browse the internet and stream video without practically any delay what advantages are these extra speeds given by 5G going to offer?

1. Speed means more than just faster downloads

Latency (usually measured in milliseconds) is the delay between a user pinging a server and the server processing and sending the request back to the user. Put simply, it is the amount of time it takes for a download to actually begin after you’ve clicked the ‘download button’. Low latency is important because ultra fast internet speeds wouldn’t be worth much if web pages, movies and music downloaded instantly but it took minutes every time to actually start the download.

With 4G, latency is typically 50ms, which is pretty fast already. With 5G though, we can expect a reduction to 20-25ms immediately with the technology theoretically capable of reducing latency to 1ms. With these speeds browsing a website will feel as responsive as browsing through the menu of your phone.

Browsing online will feel as responsive as browsing through the menu of your phone

2. Mainstream adoption of VR & AR

Aside from the more obvious advantages, reduced latency will open the door for many new applications, particularly in the mobile virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) space.

Google, Microsoft and Apple already offer some VR and AR products and we are starting to see more and more uses of it in retail, gaming and property. 5G is expected to catapult the adoption of AR into more everyday applications.

With VR, users will be offered much more immersive and media rich experiences in the form of 360 degree videos and with AR we’ll see users pointing the cameras on their phones at objects and the world around them to receive live visual information. Picture a tourist pointing their phone at a landmark to receive information about it or a shopper pointing their phone at a product to receive comparative pricing.

All of the above already exists but 5G is set to open the floodgates on these features and greatly improve the user experience.

Augmented Reality will become a technology we will use more regularly

3. Billions more IoT devices

Network density isn't typically a feature of 5G advertised to consumers but it will have a massive effect on consumer products, especially connected devices. 4G technology allows up to 2000 connected devices per kilometre squared whereas 5G allows for 1,000,000.

This presents a number of opportunities for developers working on Internet of Things (IoT) devices. By the end of 2020 it is estimated that there will be a staggering 31 billion connected IoT devices around the world and this number is expected to double by 2025.

Digital product designers and developers for these devices currently need to be conscious of the bandwidth needed by these devices and how much they will add to network congestion.

5G will tackle this potential congestion problem and open up the door to IoT devices with richer, more bandwidth heavy features than are possible today. This will lead to rapid advancements with self-driving cars, industrial robots and smart cities, just to name a few on a very large list of potential applications.

5G will lead to rapid advancements in the technology that powers self-driving cars

4. Both web & app design are about to change

As already stated, 5G is faster. Much faster! As such, apps and websites will now be designed with much higher fidelity user interfaces (UI) and heavy media content. Photography, video, 3D and motion graphics will be more readily integrated into the design of every digital product. What’s more, these apps are expected to run/operate more efficiently than anything we have today.

3D has obvious uses for the gaming industry but will now have the potential to be more widely adopted by other industries such as education, construction and healthcare in their applications.

Designing these media rich experiences will lead to some challenges though, especially during the transitional phase of 5G’s rollout. Two versions of each app might be necessary for a while to accommodate users who don’t have access to 5G yet.

Companies will need a 5G strategy and business model to ensure that their digital product will remain cutting edge or at the very least, current. Having a digital design strategist advise on this period of change will definitely help ease this transition.

5G will fundamentally change how developers and designers approach creating websites and apps

5. It’s coming sooner than you think

The rollout of 5G is well under way. Globally, there are already 125 operators with almost 9000 towers deployed. That being said, it will be a few years before we see mainstream adoption.

As of the end of 2019 there were only 12.9 million 5G subscribers globally but that number is expected to reach 1.9 billion by 2024. The global infrastructure costs for this rollout are expected to be about 3-5 trillion in USD but it’s set to be a good investment. Experts are predicting that the global 5G market will be worth 11 trillion USD by 2026.

It is estimated that over 1.9 billion active subscriptions to 5G will be reached by 2024

Build it right

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

We are excited about the possibilities 5G presents.

If you’d like to make sure that your digital product is 5G ready and embrace the opportunities available contact us today.

The Future of Retail; 3 Facts to Consider While Building and Growing Your Online Store

Clark Wickstone — June 08, 2020

In the last five years, global online retail sales have doubled in revenue, from $1.5 trillion to over $3.5 trillion in 2019 with an expected rise to $6.5 trillion by 2023. Ease of shopping on mobile devices, methods of payment and an increase of online stores have fueled this gargantuan rise.

1. COVID-19 will have a permanent impact on consumer behavior

COVID-19 has inevitably changed how people shop. People have been relying on online retail for products that they would only ever purchase from brick and mortar shops in the past. We have also seen a large increase in first time online shoppers as they flock to Amazon and other outlets.

Between May 3rd and May 10th this year we witnessed a gigantic rise in online retail activity compared to 2019. 70% in Europe, 118% in North America and an incredible 123% increase in APAC countries.

Although the steep increase may level off slightly as brick and mortar stores open their doors again as restrictions are lifted, it is expected that consumer behavior will be changed forever through a new wave of consumers who have discovered the convenience of online shopping for the first time. What’s more, many veteran e-shoppers are now using online stores to purchase services and goods they traditionally used brick and mortar retail for previously.

2. Although there are challenges, the opportunities are limitless

It is estimated that between March 9th and April 20th over £3.26 billion in retail sales was lost in the EU alone. This has left many retailers scrambling to find inventive ways of generating revenue.

Many businesses that had never focused on their online presence or started an online store have been flocking in droves to do so. The e-commerce solution behemoth, Shopify, have announced a 47% sales increase compared to the same quarter from 2019.

Aside from generating additional revenue and security, having an online store offers many other benefits such as potentially opening up products to a wider audience, new methods for interacting directly with your customers and access to analytics that will help you monitor the success and growth of your store and products.

If the global revenue projections for e-commerce are correct, seeing a global increase of $2.5 trillion over the next two years, it is important for retailers to launch their online store as soon as possible to ensure their portion of this increase.

3. There are plenty of creative ways to sell products online

Aside from the typical products-checkout model of most online stores many retailers are looking at newer and more creative ways to sell their items. The subscription box model has been around for a decade already but it has seen a massive spike in popularity recently, especially outside of the US where the concept is much newer.

The idea is simple, customers pay a recurring fee and are sent products every week/month, exactly like a magazine subscription from yesteryear but for a wide array of products from food & drink to cosmetics.

We recently asked 110 respondents from the UK and Ireland about subscription boxes. A massive 56% have used a service before with 42% of current subscribers have stayed with their service for 12 months plus.

Whats more, of those who have never used a service before 88.9% said they would be potentially interested in the future and of all respondents, 86% would choose a local retailer over a larger international company.

Build it right

Whether you are looking to set up an online store for the first time or build and grow what you already have, you’ll want to partner with a digital product agency who has a proven track record and understands the best e-commerce solutions.

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you would like to partner with us to build and grow your next product contact us today.

WFH Series: Clark Wickstone

Brian Kenny — May 01, 2020

For the final part of our Working From Home Series we speak to the newest member of the team. Clark joined MiniCorp back in January to assist with the continuing development of our Product and Marketing Analytics services. Originally a film-maker, Clark has spent the last few years applying his story telling skills to the business world. We chat today about how he applies structure to boost productivity, the unexpected benefits of the lockdown and his new "office" dog.

How have you stayed productive while at home?

Clark: Regular check-ins with the team through Slack. I’m really grateful that despite working remotely our levels of communication have remained strong. I love being able to bounce ideas off the team and staying posted on our progress. This definitely helps with the motivation side of it and our meme/GIF game has been steadily improving.

For me, structure also plays a very large part in staying productive. I like to set a list of tasks/goals at the beginning of every week and modify/update them at the start of each work day. A mixture of Asana, Slack and even Notepad I find great for this. It feels like a little victory every time I complete an item on my list.

What is your favourite thing about working from home?

Clark: The “office” dog. My wife and I got a puppy last November that she had been taking to work with her pre lockdown. It’s been really great being able to spend more time with the both of them.

Loki the "office" dog begging for his lunchtime walk. He's very hard to say no to.

What were you not expecting about the experience?

Clark: Surprisingly, my lifestyle has improved in some ways. I’m eating better thanks to a lack of restaurants and take-aways, exercising more frequently and talking more regularly with my friends, albeit through video call.

What are you looking forward to about things returning to normal?

Clark: Restaurants in general but work-wise, the team Friday lunches. Healthy living is great and all but there are very few things I like as much as a large, tasty (greasy) lunch with the team to close out the work week.

I miss restaurants but on the plus side I've got pretty good at making pizza from scratch.

Is there anything new that has come about due to the lockdown that you would like to see continue once it ends?

Clark: The social video calls were something I never thought I’d enjoy but they’re now a highlight of my week. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in person again but I’d love to continue video calls with friends who live abroad and that I don’t get to see as frequently. Also, for the first time in years I've had friends to regularly play computer games with online. Myself and a few members of the team have been playing Sea of Thieves together and it's been amazing craic. I'd really like to see the odd gaming night continue post lockdown.

Outside of working hours, how have you been spending your time?

Clark: I haven't been spending nearly as much time in front of screens as I thought I would. I love computer games and TV shows so I was certain that was how I'd be spending most if not all of my time. Instead, I find myself cooking elaborate meals, taking on DIY projects and playing guitar more than I ever have before. I think the fear of becoming a full-time couch potato has driven me to be more productive.

I may never fill a stadium but I've been having more fun with the guitar lately than I even did as a teenager.

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you would like to partner with us to build and grow your next product contact us today.

WFH Series: Alan Haverty

Clark Wickstone — April 29, 2020

For the penultimate post in our Working From Home Series we catch up with Alan Haverty. Alan joined MiniCorp over a year ago from Bamboo, a massively popular, Dublin based food ordering app where he served as co-founder and CTO. Since joining MiniCorp, Alan has become an integral member of our software engineering team, taking the lead on several high profile client projects.

How have you stayed productive while at home?

Alan: At Minicorp, we do a daily standup in the morning over Slack. We usually report on what we delivered on the previous work day and what we're planning to accomplish. I use it as a way of communicating my priorities with the team and as a high-level checklist for the day. I also use a mixture of Timely and Dewo to keep an eye on what I've been spending my time on. Dewo has been helpful to keep the notifications away during the work day. It automatically detects if I'm getting into a deep work session and disables my slack/phone notifications, which is really important as an engineer 👨‍💻

What is your favourite thing about working from home?

Alan: I'm living with my girlfriend in a small apartment in Dublin City. We have to share the same desk for work, TV, dinner/lunch. It's a challenge but I enjoy having the extra time to spend with her, whether it's having lunch together or the extra hour in the evening now that we don't have to commute anywhere. We're both developers so having someone to bounce ideas and bugs off of is also nice!

Clear signage ensures that I'm never lost in my one-bedroom apartment.

What were you not expecting about the experience?

Alan: The lovely weather! 😅 I hadn't anticipated that there would be such a ripple effect across the IT industry, as we're fairly adaptable to remote working, but this industry still relies on the companies we serve! Supporting them by adjusting priorities and building emergency features has been interesting. My Revolut is complimenting me on how much I haven't eaten out! Now it wants me to adjust my grocery budget. I was expecting to miss takeaways and sandwich deli's more than I do. I'm impressed so far by how the majority of people in our country have handled the crisis.

What are you looking forward to most about things returning to normal?

Alan: Getting back to our Baggot St end-of-week lunch ritual with Minicorp! I was really getting back into swimming and now miss my early pre-commute swims before work.

Is there anything new that has come about due to the lockdown that you would like to see continue once it ends?

Alan: "E-beers" and party games with work have become a bit of a ritual. It's great to also catch up with the other-halves of Minicorp. I'm also getting in, more than usual, a few games of Jackbox, Charades, Poker etc with my family and friends. It's nice being able to sit in shorts and a t-shirt at home without spending a lot on beers and food but still getting the chats in.

After work chats with the team and our loved ones.

What have you been doing to stay active?

Alan: I've had to hang up the swimming togs and cycling shorts but I'm getting back into running. I'm following a Strava training plan which helps me map out my runs for the week.

Very thankful I live within 2km of this beautiful park.

What have you been doing to stay entertained?

Alan: Just before the lockdown, I got my hands on a second-hand gaming PC, which is great for keeping in touch with friends and family in online games and Zoom. It's also nice to have a work-dedicated laptop and a personal PC, which doesn't get switched on until I've completed the day's checklist for work, exercise or chores! Outside of Zoom calls with family and friends, I'm making my way through a few old games I used to play as a teenager (GTA, Portal, Just Cause) and some new multiplayer games like Sea of Thieves (Who doesn't want to be a pirate sailing the open seas right now?).

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you would like to partner with us to build and grow your next product contact us today.

WFH Series: Stephen Thornton

Clark Wickstone — April 27, 2020

For part three of our Working From Home Series we talk to MiniCorp veteran and CTO Steve Thornton about avoiding distraction, creature comforts and his favourite aspects of working from home.

How have you stayed productive while at home?

Steve: Staying productive at home has not been hugely difficult for me. In the office I tend to zone out of everything else and focus on the work. The same applies at home, albeit with an occasional visit from my 2 year old son. If I do struggle to get focused or just feel unmotivated I generally do some chore around the house, take the bins out, do the dishes, etc. That usually helps clear the mind.

Having a comfortable desk space is key.

What is your favourite thing about working from home?

Steve: I guess the creature comforts like being able to dress down and wear slippers. Also my girlfriend has taken up baking during this quarantine period so getting the odd treat here and there is nice!

This is what "the odd treat here and there.." looks like.

What were you not expecting about the experience?

Steve: I always thought I would be less productive working from home due to the various distractions available (like a bed to lie on, TV, video games etc). This hasn't been the case though, I guess with the workload I have I don't really have the time to be distracted.

Having the extra time with my two year old son, Cillian, has been brilliant.

What are you looking forward to about things returning to normal?

Steve: Just the casual conversations and banter that goes on. Working from home can at times be a bit joyless. At least Slack has Giphy integration to help lighten things!

Is there anything new that has come about due to the lock-down that you would like to see continue once it ends?

Steve: Actually washing hands properly, we are all guilty of the quick rinse under the tap! I'm also having more quick video calls with family and friends which is nice. Since our little boy arrived I don't go out socialising as much anymore so these little catchup calls / hangouts are great!

Outside of work, what have you been doing to stay stimulated?

Steve: Having other non-work related projects and goals, i'm currently going through a few art courses on Udemy mainly sketching and water colour painting. Also dipping my toe into the wonderful world of machine learning!

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you would like to partner with us to build and grow your next product contact us today.

WFH Series: Andrew McDonagh

Clark Wickstone — April 23, 2020

Continuing on with our Working From Home Series we chat to Andrew McDonagh. Andrew, an accomplished musician who spent many years on the road, joined the MiniCorp team three years ago and has since grown to become our Lead Product Designer. Only returning from paternity leave in February after the birth of his first child, Matthew, Andrew is now adjusting to working from home alongside the joys of fatherhood.

How have you stayed productive while at home?

Andy: At the start of the week I write out high level goals that I want to accomplish. Also, at the end of each work day, I've been getting out for a walk/run to clear the head. This keeps my mind clear and ready for the next day.

Working from home is definitely contributing to the opportunity for an odd epic lunch or two.

What is your favourite thing about working from home?

Andy: I get to see my wife and son a lot more than usual. Our son is only 4 months old so getting to spend the extra time with him and help out at home has been pretty amazing.

Andy with his newborn son, Matthew.

What were you not expecting about the experience?

Andy: I've suddenly become used to talking into a camera. We started using Marco Polo for quick video updates. I never would have thought I'd be comfortable enough to do so but now enjoy it.

Marco Polo has been great for keeping the casual office chats going.

What are you looking forward to about things returning to normal?

Andy: Seeing the guys in person and going for a tasty coffee in Perch.

Is there anything new that has come about due to the lockdown that you would like to see continue once it ends?

Andy: We’ve started having post work e-beers on Fridays and I would love to see this tradition continue. Maybe not every week and perhaps not always beers, but once or twice a month we get the gang together and do something fun outside of work together.

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you would like to partner with us to build and grow your next product contact us today.

WFH Series: Brian Kenny

Clark Wickstone — April 21, 2020

Like many in the tech and business world we've had to quickly adapt to working from home over the last few weeks. Although there are things we miss, we've all found parts of the experience that we massively enjoy and if anything our productivity has accelerated. We caught up with our CEO and Founder Brian Kenny about how he has been managing from his home office.

How have you stayed productive while at home?

Brian: Structure has always played an important role for me. Although I spend a vast amount of time reacting to new situations, a structure allows me to stay on top of my commitments and view progress over the long term. It’s proven even more important when working from home.

My recently tidied work station.

What is your favourite thing about working from home?

Brian: I’m a huge optimist and tend to see the positive in most situations. That said, the time savings of working from home have really resonated with me. This additional time has helped me to work on bigger picture items and strategies that I’m truly excited about.

Lunch picnics on the beach with my family are an amazing perk.

What were you not expecting about the experience?

Brian: Although we have a really positive attitude and culture in MiniCorp for working outside of the office and on your own schedule, I’m blown away at how productive the team has been. I’ve always struggled to see how creativity can have a true impact without face to face interactions but I’ve been absolutely blown away. As an agency, I think we’re the most creative we’ve ever been right now.

What are you looking forward to about things returning to normal?

Brian: Hanging out and being together. We have an amazing bunch of people at MiniCorp and I really miss taking a walk with the team and talking about everything and anything. I’m a huge advocate in surrounding yourself with great people.

I may not be able to visit our local coffee shops but that won't stop me from having nice coffee every morning.

Is there anything new that has come about due to the lock-down that you would like to see continue once it ends?

Brian: Quite a few. I now journal on a daily basis in the mornings using an app called Jour. This has proven to be instrumental in discovering and understanding my mood and how longer-term planning and growth can help me to ensure it’s positive. I also think it shouldn’t take a face to face meeting to stay in touch with people. We’re global citizens who are busy. Video calling is a great way to stay in touch with those you love.

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you would like to partner with us to build and grow your next product contact us today.

We love community

Clark Wickstone — March 31, 2020

Over the course of the next month we are going to be talking a lot about the importance of community.

Like us, I’m sure most of you are either missing your friends and family, the freedom to come and go as you please and the opportunity to enjoy the springtime sun. Hell, I’d say some of you are even missing your morning commute!

Despite all of the doom and gloom, there have been some truly inspiring and heart-warming stories that have shone through, showing how we can all band together, offer help and reach out to each other while remaining apart.

More than ever, technology has assisted in keeping us together. Through a series of social media posts, blogs and case studies we are going to focus on the positives and highlight the importance of connections and community spirit.

We’ll look at a mix of local and international examples of how people, businesses and technologies have raised each other up during this challenging time.

Remain distant, stay safe and keep connected.

Much love,
The MiniCorp Crew

What you need to know about the new European regulation, PSD2

Fatima Haidar — June 11, 2019

On September 14, 2019 a new European regularity is required to process online payments. In this post, we’ll run through what this means for you and your online business and break down what needs to happen.

As a Stripe verified partner, we have worked together with Stripe to understand the implications of SCA for our customers and to help them become PSD2 ready.

So tell me, what exactly is SCA?

SCA is meant to reduce fraud and make online payments more secure. To establish that, payments will rely on 3D Secure. 3D Secure is an authentication method that uses 2 or more layers when completing an online payment. The layers added can be any of these three elements: something a user knows, has, or is. The payment processes will therefore include an extra step. So instead of the process being composed of authorising and capturing a payment, it will evolve into authenticating, authoring, and capturing the payment.

SCA will be applied to customer initiated online payments having the two ends, the merchant and user, falling within Europe.

In preparation for this new coming era in online payments, Stripe has launched new products and APIs to support SCA and ultimately provide its users a facilitated transition:

PaymentIntents API
Checkout
Billing

What does the flow look like?

1. Initiate Payment
Your customer fills in their card details and completes the checkout form to initiate the payment.

2. Trigger dynamic authentication
Stripe’s platform detects whether authentication is needed. If required, Stripe uses 3D Secure 2 to authenticate the customer using a one-time passcode or biometric ID, depending on what their bank supports.

3. Complete Payment
Once a customer’s identity has been confirmed through 3D Secure, the card can be charged.

Please, not verified by VISA again!

Before jumping into each product and explaining them in depth, it is worth mentioning that Stripe now supports 3D Secure 2. 3D Secure 2 provides a better UX than 3D Secure along with “frictionless authentication”.

Frictionless Authentication allows businesses and their payment provider to send more data elements on each transaction to the cardholder’s bank. This will enable the user to go through a frictionless flow if the data provided seems enough for the bank to authenticate the user. This will ultimately decrease the number of transactions that need further action from the users.

What if I do nothing?

As a part of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), online payments that do not support the new regulatory, which is known as Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), will be declined.

What does this mean from a technical point of view?

PaymentIntents API

PaymentIntents API will eventually replace Charges API. This API is particularly very handy because of the different features and flexibility it provides.

PaymentIntents API flips the normal modal for creating charging that we know over its head. Instead of creating a source on the client side then creating a charge in the server, PaymentIntents require to do an API call first on the server to create a PaymentIntent and then create a source on the client side that allows Stripe to complete the charging process in the UI.

PaymentIntents will determine if a payment requires SCA and ultimately collect the required 3D Secure 2 data needed. PaymentIntents also check if there is an exemption and apply it.

There are two ways in which you can integrate with the PaymentIntents API. Either using Manual Confirmation or Automatic Confirmation

Manual Confirmation

Manual Conformations are synchronous, webhook-free-flows. If you already have an application up and running and using Charges API, Manual Conformations are the easiest way for you to migrate into PaymentIntents.

In Manual Confirmation, authentication happens by checking the PaymentIntent status and calling handleCardAction if needed. In case extra authentication is needed, additional calls to the server will be needed. Finally, finalising the payment would be on the server side thus any extra logic that needs to be handled will be taken care of in the same server call immediately.

Automatic Confirmation

Automatic Conformations are asynchronous, webhook-flows. Stripe recommends using this method if you are starting fresh and are comfortable using webhooks.

In Automatic Confirmation, authentication is automatically handled by Stripe with handleCardPayment which will also take care of any extra steps required if additional authentication is needed. Finally, finalising the payment is done in Stripe and the application uses webhooks to handle the subsequent logic.

Checkout

Stripe new Checkout is built on top of PaymentIntents API and can dynamically apply 3D Secure when required.

Stripe already has Checkout product. The later will be renamed to legacy Checkout and will be eventually deprecated. The new Checkout was designed and implemented because payments became more complex and need to support dynamic authentication.

Stripe Checkout would be ideal for businesses who are looking to implement one-time payments. Checkout is customisable and very easy to use. By adding just a few lines of code, your application will host a seamless experience for the users to process payments.

With that said, there are two ways to integrate with Stripe Checkout: client-only integration and the API integration.

Client-only Integration

To use this approach, you need to add products and plans in the Dashboard and then integrate with a client-side snippet. The down side for this approach is that you can not associate payments with existing users, nor use separate authorisation and capture for card payments. This approach would be ideal for startups that want something up and running fast to prove their concept.

API Integration

To use this approach, you need to pass data about the one-time payment or the subscription to your server. This approach allows you to associate payments with existing users, and use separate authorisation and capture for card payments. Moreover, this approach works with Stripe Connect. You just need to include the connected stripe account when creating the charge.

Billing

Stripe Billing is also built on top of PaymentIntents API and can dynamically apply 3D Secure when required too. It is ideal for business with recurring payments.

Before we dig deeper into the Billing product, we need to explain two terms: off-session and on-session charges. Off-session charges refers to charges that happen when the user is not presented. These are typically N-th charges where (N is greater to equal to 2) and do not need the user to authenticate. On-session chargers, on the other hand, are charges that take place while the user is present. These are typically the first charges that need authentication.

The bulk of the Billing product is the payment flow and how it handles it with recurring payment.

To start off, there are two scenarios for the first payment: the user is either on-session or off-session. If the user is on-session, the subscription will require SCA. This will be handled by Billing. If the user is off-session, you need to reach out to the user to get them on-session to authenticate the payment. Payments that are yet to be authenticated will be marked as incomplete.

Once a payment is authenticated, authorized and captured, a recurring payment will happen after a specific time which will not need authentication. In the event that authentication needs to take place, the user needs to be notified to go on-session to complete SCA. This can be done by either using Automated emails feature provided by Stripe which will include a link to a Stripe-hosted page, or by implementing webhooks in your application that will listen to the event and trigger your desired action.

Finally, we mentioned earlier that there are some exemptions. These exemptions are low-risk payments that may not need to implement SCA. Stripe will be able to request these exemptions from the cardholder’s bank upon processing a payment. It is then up to the bank to either approve the exemption or ask for authentication. The following are cases which payment requests might be exempt:

Low-risk transactions: Stripe and other payment providers will be allowed to do real-time risk analysis on a transaction if the overall fraud rates for card payments do not exceed a certain threshold. For more details, check the following link https://stripe.com/ie/guides/strong-customer-authentication#exemptions-to-strong-customer-authentication
Payments below €30: Payments below €30 will be exempt unless 5 exemptions have already taken place since the last successful authentication or if the total of the previous exempted payments exceeds €100.
Fixed-amount subscriptions: This will apply to business who charge users a fixed amount on recurring payments.
Merchant-initiated transactions: Payments that are initiated by merchants might be exempt from SCA. However, the application needs to still authenticate the card on either the first payment or when it is being saved. An agreement from the customer should be obtained in order to charge their card on a later stage.
Trusted Beneficiaries: These are businesses that the user has whitelisted.
Phone Sales: These are payments that are collected over the phone.
Corporate Payments: These are payments done by corporates to manage employee expenses.

Even though the application you are building might fall under one of the above categories, the application should be ready to handle SCA at any given time.

Help! Can MiniCorp help to get us ready for SCA & PSD2?

Of course! We're here to help, just send us a message and we'll get right back to you.

Entrepreneur Series: Luke Mackey

Brian Kenny — March 21, 2019

Luke is an entrepreneur and a co-founder of Bamboo, a mobile app that allows you to order and pay in advance for great cafés and restaurants relieving the need to wait.

Bamboo is two years old and already accomplishing some pretty big milestones. It’s life in over 100 restaurants and cafe’s in two cities and monthly average order growth on their network of 25%.

Luke has always had the itch to build businesses and an exceptional eye for creating products. In this interview we jump into discussions around starting businesses, raising capital and burning out.

Welcome to the Entrepreneur Series

This series showcases amazing interviews with some great entrepreneurs, product builders and creatives. It's purpose is to inspire those who are building or thinking of building digital products.

We're Stripe Verified Partners

Brian Kenny — February 26, 2019

Our core mission at MiniCorp is to help early stage companies and products grow quickly. We work with our clients to understand the problem and define the best possible solution. We want to help them to validate assumptions and connect with their potential customers as quickly as possible. Once we are learning from the customers, we can iterate on the product at a high pace.

A huge benefit to any young product is speed and agility. As the product is placed into the hands of potential customers, watching how they use and interact with it is the holy grail of validation. It's something we want to have happen as early in the products life cycle as possible.

In MiniCorp, in order to become as effective as possible for our clients, we need to have an extremely solid tool belt. Tools that allow our customers to hit the ground running and know that the underlying foundation is solid. Stripe has been instrumental to us in doing this. Stripe has allowed us to build rapidly growing platforms like Home Care Direct where the Connect Platform facilitates the payment process with ease. It's scaled with every product we've built and provides our clients with the dashboards they need to run the business.

Today, we are proud to announce that we have joined Stripe's Verified Partners network. This partnership will allow us to serve our clients even better by providing them with the knowledge, experience and benefits that could from being apart of the network. Overall, this partnership will help us to accomplish our mission further by providing our clients with the best tools possible to build the companies of the future.

Art and Products

Fatima Haidar — September 05, 2018

Few months ago, I joined a pottery class and as I was advancing and creating my little piece of art, I could not help but notice how similar the process is to that of a lifecycle of digital products.

The first day I walked in, my teacher said: “Your first pottery does not know what it wants to be”. Similarly, a lot of the clients come in with amazing ideas that would change the world, yet they lack the support and clarity to from an idea to a tangible product. The idea does not know what it wants to be or how it wants to be.

At this particular moment, art starts. I know that art might be the last thing that comes to your mind when you think of a product, and the association might not be clear. However, if you have painted, done pottery, wrote a poem, or have done anything related to art you would know exactly how it starts with a sparkling idea or feeling that slowly turns into something beautiful.

So what happens once clients have an idea? They almost always come to us with this enthusiastic, chaotic, happy aura just like an artist runs to his canvas and a poet to his papers. The only difference is that we, as a team, combine together with the client to become this artist. Together, we become the brain that sparks all the creativity and the hands that form the art.

Artists usually have these feelings and thoughts that s/he would want to express and share with the world. To do so, they gives in to their creativity. This works towards bringing their feelings to life. A client, on the other hand, gives in to the expertise of our designers and engineers to nurture his idea.

Similar to how an artist moves from an urge of expression to creating a sharable piece, we move from what the impact that the client wants to make all the way to how to implement it. We take an idea and work around it, deconstruct it, doubt it, question it, counter it, and challenge it until we have striped it down to its core. And from there, we build it back up. We start defining the functionalities, just like an artist starts moulding their piece.

When creating any piece of art, the base of your piece is one of the most important elements. Without a good foundation, your piece will be fragile and would possibly break at any moment. So it is important for your to build a solid base with good material. Similarly, when building a digital product, your backend and APIs should be solid and you need to choose the best technology to build a reliable application.

“Patience. It is all about patience”. This was one piece of advice that I will never forget my teacher giving as we got close to the end. As someone who gets very excited and would like to finish as fast as possible and share my work with people around me, I often find it hard to go through the small bits and pieces at the very end. However, through refining my pottery piece, and having to fix those small pieces of code here and there, this has taught me how important it is to be patient and go through this process. The end results change dramatically and honestly it is true: it all lies in the details. So, refining your code, optimising it, and making sure your application looks great on every possible screen is the key. However, do not confuse this with over-polishing. Keep it simple, clean and smooth. And let your art come to life :)

MiniCorp joins the Super Global

Brian Kenny — August 27, 2018

Super Global coaches charities, NGOs and social ventures to develop their digital ideas, and partner with creative and technology led experts. They help them to understand, plan and assemble the industry leading experts to design and develop exceptional products. They share a vision that those tackling the world's toughest challenges can revolutionise their impact through technology.

Through the strength of their experience, Super Global has developed a community of experts that deliver much needed solutions to their clients by following a well defined community charter.

MiniCorp is proud to join the Super Global community and list of experts providing these solutions to charities, NGOs and social ventures. We have long searched for the best fit to allow us to provide high social impact without compromising on the strength of what we deliver.

For further information, please contact:
Brian Kenny, CEO, MiniCorp Ltd
Phone: +353 86 369 0495, email: brian@minicorp.ie
Super Global: View Super Global’s organisational goals

About MiniCorp
MiniCorp provides early stage products & companies with the tools and expertise to launch and validate their concept. Through strong organic growth and the success of our partner companies, MiniCorp has established a leading market position in bringing early stage concepts to high growth companies.

MiniCorp secures equity position in TravTab

Brian Kenny — July 31, 2018

TravTab is a white label service for Travel Agencies & Tour Operators to offer their customers the most convenient & time saving way to pay off their holiday booking balance. Travellers can make a once off payment or schedule payments towards the holiday cost, this eliminates the need for excessive calls, inconvenient in-store visits and emails to their travel agent.

MiniCorp and TravTab have worked together to develop this global payments solution within the travel sector from the ideas birth. Since inception, the product continues to return growth within the travel agency market with new customers signing up to the platform continually.

MiniCorp, combined with the TravTab team, strives to push the product forward through the continued development of the application. We understand the strength in this partnership will provide the product with a solid footing to push forward at a rapid pace.

We strongly believe the travel payments space has great potential for innovative solutions like TravTab to disrupt. With digital travel sales worldwide growing from $565B in 2017 to an estimated $818B in 2020, there are no signs of this growth slowing down. Combined high fraud rates, increasing false positives and manual payment reviews, provide a foundation for this innovative payment solution that can save the travel industry billions. We welcome this challenge.

For further information, please contact:
Brian Kenny, CEO, MiniCorp Ltd
Phone: +353 86 369 0495, e-mail: brian@minicorp.ie
Case study: View the TravTab case study

MiniCorp Reviews: Sonos

Fatima Haidar — March 20, 2018

Listening to music has become a way of life for a lot of people and is definitely a huge part of our day. Whether we are at home, driving, commuting, studying, walking, or working, we always tend to have our Spotify on the go or the radio on.

For this reason, this week’s review will be about a product that we love and use everyday here at MiniCorp.

Meet Sonos ❤️

Sonos is a sound system that we use to play music in our office. But what makes Sonos so special and why do we love it so much? Well, it is simple, if you are an easygoing person and love sharing with others like us, then you will love Sonos as much as we do.

First things first, how does Sonos work?

Just like a lot of modern sound systems, Sonos is a wireless speaker that you connect to via bluetooth or WiFi. But, Sonos comes with an app that you download on both your phone and your laptop.

After you download the app, you can either connect to it through your Spotify (thus can listen to all the songs that are on Spotify), SoundCloud, or tune in to the radio by TuneIn.

Now that you have everything set up, what’s next? You just look up the song/album/artist that you want and you can start listening to your favourite jam. But that is not the best part.

Sonos creates a queue of songs which you can add to. So you can mix and match your playlists however you like.

So how does it actually help you?

You can share your music

How many times have you wanted to share a song or an album with someone and you ended up either sending them a list or playing it on a computer (which doesn’t produce a great sound to be honest). With Sonos, you can connect to it and play or add a song on the spot allowing both you and your coworkers to enjoy songs with a good sound quality.

Save your ears

Let’s not forget that listening to songs from a speaker is better than having to stick in your earphones all days. I mean, you don’t want to go half deaf by the age of 40.

Use it anywhere you like

In this review, I am focusing on the benefits of using Sonos at work, but originally, Sonos is a home sound system. Do you want to play some music while you are cooking? Do you want to put on some lullaby for your child while he sleeps? Are your friends coming over and would like to listen to something while you are having your chitchats? You can use Sonos too!

Lighten up the mood

It is often that we have our heads down and are hard at work and someone just randomly plays a song that makes us all look at each other and either be like, "Oh what a tune!" OR "WTF is happening? Who put that on?" and we just end up laughing. It is moments like this that make the day even more enjoyable.

You want a little trick? Tell your boss that you don’t have a Spotify account and ask him to sign in with his account on your Sonos application and have fun changing his playlist every time he is listening to something. You. Are. Welcome.

Everyone can use it at the same time

Finally, our most favourite feature, everyone can use it at the same time. So in case your coworker has already stacked up the queue, don’t worry! You can still squeeze in your songs. If you take a look at our queue it would be a weird mix of Picture This, Justin Bieber, Jeremy Loops and some arabic songs.