Developing Perspective

#228: New Platforms Oct 8, 2026 0:18:12 I walk through the history of Apple developer platforms over my history as an app developer and grade them, then think a bit about what has made them worthwhile. Watch on YouTube

#227: Pivotal Oct 1, 2026 0:14:58 I’m bringing Developing Perspective back. This first episode wrestles through why being an indie app developer right now feels so “pivotal”, in both senses of the word. There’s the constant, week-by-week change in our tools and workflows, and there’s the bigger structural shift in what it even means to “make” apps. Watch on YouTube

Developing a New Perspective Nov 4, 2015 0:05:37 Under the Radar RSS Feed Overcast Link iTunes Link PocketCasts Subscribe Link I am delighted to announce that today I am launching a new development related podcast with Marco Arment. It is called Under the Radar and starts today on the fine Relay FM Network. I have been doing Developing Perspective since July 13, 2011 (roughly 4.5 years). During that time I have chronicled the rises

#225: Users per Day. Aug 12, 2015 0:14:46 I tend to think of my app business in terms of revenue per day. Breaking it down to that level helps me keep a close eye on it and know how well or poorly I’m doing. Today I walk through the reasoning for this as well as do a thought experiment of what the numbers might look like for a new business.

#224: Unplanned Absence. Jul 31, 2015 0:14:58 Some thoughts on the implications of having to take an unplanned absence from your work when you are self-employed. There are a lot of benefits of being independent that manifest themselves in a situation like this but also a few things to be careful of and plan for.

#223: What to expect this summer. Jun 26, 2015 0:14:59 An overview of what to expect this summer: the beta schedule, timing for release, the importance of RADARS, my growing interest in Swift and an encouragement for everyone to build something new this summer. Will Hains’ iOS Beta History

#222: WWDC 2015 First Impressions. Jun 8, 2015 0:12:39 First Impressions from WWDC 2015. These are my initial reactions right after the Keynote, I’ll probably do another episode later in the week which has more considered reactions.

#221: Circular Revenue. May 29, 2015 0:14:47 Some high level thoughts about WWDC and my excitement for it. Then, a few thoughts about whether mobile advertising is in a precarious position.

#220: The Essential Experience. May 22, 2015 0:14:58 Today I begin a new Start-to-Finish series discussing the creation of an application from idea to the App Store. My Essential Experience Target: An application focused on surfacing the data currently collected by the Apple Watch and iPhone and presenting it in a useful, actionable, and encouraging way. Blizzard’s Games I discuss: Hearthstone Heroes of the Storm My previous Start-to-Finis

#219: Accidental. May 14, 2015 0:13:22 2015 Developing Perspective t-shirts (4 days to order, ends May 18.) One of the most dangerous traps when learning from someone else’s experience is ascribing intentionality to what in reality was accidental. This can make it feel somehow magical or impossible to learn from. We are all just muddling along. Pedometer += 1,000,000 Joe’s Extraordinarily Kind Words

#218: Blazing Trails. May 8, 2015 0:14:50 2015 Developing Perspective t-shirts (1 Week left to order.) Once again the topic of sustainable revenue has surfaced around our lovely community. I’ve recently been changing/adapting my thinking on the subject so it seemed the time to wade in again. Tim on the App Store “The app store had its best quarter ever, with a record number of customers making purchases, driving a new rec

#217: The Brand. May 1, 2015 0:14:56 2015 Developing Perspective t-shirts My WatchKit Apps Release Notes Conference In some ways this week’s episode is a follow up to last week’s show about hustle. All that thinking about the role that asking for money plays in my business got me to thinking about some of the complications that being the face of your business carries. When you are an independent b

#216: The Hustle. Apr 23, 2015 0:13:01 Thinking through why I have such a hang up about talking about and asking for Money. Why this is probably not such a great thing for my business and what I might do to fix it. My WatchKit Apps

#215: Insidious Features. Apr 17, 2015 0:13:31 How to build little features into your applications that re-wire your user’s brains to come to expect a certain behavior. These ‘insidious’ features are a delightful way to help build loyalty with your customers.

#214: App Store Snowstorm. Apr 9, 2015 0:13:40 Simultaneous Invention or setting realistic expectations for uniqueness. Simultaneous Invention

#213: Showing Up and Shipping Apps. Apr 2, 2015 0:14:58 After a longer than typical break I’m back with another episode…on a related note I’m talking about how to get unstuck. How I manage the situation that seems to happen often enough where I get stuck in a creative rut. Then I talk a bit about how to manage the process of submitting WatchKit apps. Chart of my consistency track record for Developing Perspective:

#212: Four Phases of a Gold Rush. Feb 27, 2015 0:14:39 In the run up to Apple’s media event on March 9th I keep hearing the phrase ‘Gold Rush’ over and over again. Today I unpack that concept and whether it might apply to the Apple Watch. The Phases of Gold Rush: The Rumor The Legend The Rush The Reality Luck = Opportunity + Preparation My WatchKit Series Scott Forstall, “Whole new Gold Rush” The California Gold Rush Trism Wa

#211: Asterisk Free Marketing. Feb 11, 2015 0:12:43 Prompted by some thinking I did around building the App Preview for Pedometer++, I start to wonder about honesty in advertising. How honesty should I be? What level of candor is appropriate, helpful, reasonable? Building an App Preview

#210: Polymaths. Jan 30, 2015 0:14:48 I’m not a huge fan of the term polymath. It sounds kinda pretentious but sometimes the best word for something is that way. Today I was struck by the wild variety of tasks and skills that it takes to run a business principally on your own. So I wanted to walk through some of disparate aspects of the ‘job’. Hopefully giving someone who is considering going out on their own some good food for tho

#209: Not so Fast. Jan 23, 2015 0:14:51 Today I walk through my history thinking about Swift. From WWDC to now I’ve done a lot of thinking about Swift as whether I should be using it. The result makes me feel a bit conflicted, but the brutally pragmatic part of me is winning out. Swift on Apple.com My WatchKit series

#208: Sam Soffes. Jan 15, 2015 0:47:39 I take a break out of my normal 15 minute format for a return of my occational interview series. This week I’m delighted to talk to Sam Soffes about balancing your own product work with doing consulting, different ways of thinking about success and deciding what it is you want to do with your time. Sam has been developing for iOS since 2008 and has worked on a wide variety of successful products

#207: Irresistible Complexity Jan 10, 2015 0:14:28 Rather than wading into the hullabaloo regarding Apple’s software quality directly I instead decided to take a step backwards and consider the forces that have driven us to this situation in the first place. My goal is to consider the forces that make keeping software stable over time difficult. The result can apply to small projects as well as to a company as large as Apple. Marketing Compl

#206: Can the App Store be Full? Dec 12, 2014 0:14:10 Today I think out loud about the implications of an App Store that is functionally full. Where applications cannot realistically thrive simply because of novelty or freshness. Whatever you do now you are facing up against a hyper-competitive marketplace. I think this changes significantly how we need to pursue things from a business perspective as well as helps us be realistic about what to ex

#205: AILW - Economics of WatchKit Apps. Dec 5, 2014 0:14:40 Thinking out loud about why I recently starting my series called As I Learn WatchKit. I’ve learned a lot about the creative process by giving myself permission to put unpolished things into the world. My first attempt at Youtube Then, I dive into the economics of building WatchKit apps. In general I think that the economic realities of building apps for it are consistent with any other app

#204: Delightfully Pragmatic. Nov 20, 2014 0:14:49 My first reactions to WatchKit. I’m really glad Apple has given is some genuinely powerful capabilities with this first generation of APIs. Getting Started with WatchKit My Initial Impressions Apple’s Main WatchKit page Developer Forums

#203: Divided by One. Nov 14, 2014 0:13:38 For a while now I’ve had an episode idea discussing some of the ‘interesting math’ about working on a project by yourself. I discuss how working on something by yourself is so very different than in working on any other sized team.

#202: Four Quadrants of Ideas Nov 6, 2014 0:14:59 I’ve had a few folks ask me about my plans and ideas for Apple Watch. While I don’t try to be too coy about what I’m working on I’ve definitely kept some of my ideas close to the vest. I’m well aware that ideas, in general, are useless on their own. But that doesn’t mean that being promiscuous with your ideas is still always a good choice. Derek Sivers on ideas. Trying to formularize this

#201: On Expedition. Oct 31, 2014 0:14:59 With the impending arrival of the AppleWatch next year and the WatchKit SDK next month I’m starting to shift my focus towards ‘wearables’. They present a few challenges to me as a developer, not the least of which is that I have almost no experience with that type of device. I used to wear a watch years ago but haven’t consistently for a long time. I saw the Pebble when it first came out and it

#200: Sustained. Oct 22, 2014 0:14:12 I recently hit a few milestones that got me thinking about the attributes of sustained projects. My 7th iOS (iPhone) Developer Program My first app approved 6 years ago 200 Episodes I tried to boil them down into four keys: Purpose Diversity Flexibility / Ruthlessness Patience / Tenacity

#199: Resolution Irrelevant. Oct 17, 2014 0:15:00 Thinking through the Retina iMac in a world where pixels stop mattering. Also, what’s going on with the iPad? Marco Arments’s thoughts on Retina iMac vs Mac Pro AnandTech’s Hands-on

#198: Boring and Superstitious. Oct 8, 2014 0:14:43 While a single button might seem somewhat boring or mundane to discuss I unpack the process of thinking through a single button in Emoji++. Specifically how to handle editing of favorites. Ultimately I went with an Edit button rather than a gesture based approach. While somewhat benign superficially decisions like this can make or break your user experience. Also, why I didn’t make the icons wi

#197: Speculative Development. Oct 3, 2014 0:14:47 Talking through the process that ultimately lead to the creation of Emoji++, my recently launched custom keyboard for iOS 8. 🎉

#196: Faust had it easy. Sep 24, 2014 0:14:53 Getting an app ready for day one of an iOS/device launch is impossible to do right. As a developer you have a variety of options available for how you approach it, none of which are perfect. Trade Offs: App Review Marketing (good and bad) Bugs and Issues Helpdesk load New features and their worth Wasted effort Approaches: As ready as you’ll ever be: Work feverishly, battling

#195: Pincer Maneuvers and Stubbed Toes. Sep 17, 2014 0:14:35 With the rollout of iOS 8 upon us I consider two aspects of the current Apple ecosystem that appear to lie in tension. Pincer Maneuvers Apple is fantastic at laying groundwork. When you take a step back and how their offerings both on software and hardware have evolved over the last few years you can clearly see how much forethought has gone into their approach. Apple doesn’t just throw things

#194: In Review. Sep 4, 2014 0:14:45 Today I wanted to take a quick run through the App Review Guidelines. Love ‘em. Hate ‘em. They are one of the most core parts of creating and distributing apps for the App Store. I will give some high level thoughts about the state of App Review and then walk through some of the recent changes Apple published. I’ll also touch on the new page Apple published listing the Common App Rejection re

#193: Update Treadmill. Aug 8, 2014 0:14:50 Today I’m going to dive into the world of app updates. Why we do them, how often we do them and whether they are important. Context I did a long analysis of the update trends in the App Store. I recommend you visit that yourself but the short version is: 50% of Top Apps are have been updated in the last 3 months (26% overall) 86% of Top Apps in the last year (60% overall) 300,000 apps

#192: Nobility of Effort. Jul 30, 2014 0:14:56 This past week has seen an explosion of writing and discussion about the business of making software for sale on the iOS App Store. Personally I love it when these little bubbles of discussion appear. If you’ve listened to me for any period of time you’ll know that one of the things I really like is being a student of the App Store. These discussions provide the opportunity and motivation for a

#191: Insulated Perspectives. Jul 24, 2014 0:14:50 Back from a delightful, extended vacation I want to take a minute (or 15) to talk about the importance of stepping back from the day to day inputs that can so easily mold or distort your views on things. The world is a varied and complex place and likely very different than the people and perspectives you interact with on a daily basis.

#190: Everything but a Business Model Jul 3, 2014 0:15:00 I will be on vacation for the next two weeks, so unless something monumental happens in between now and late July there won’t be any episodes of Developing Perspective. Back at WWDC, basking in the glow of the river of great new announcements I had quipped “Wow, they gave us everything but a business model.” That comment is clearly absurd but it does drive towards a more honest and worthwhil

#189: In the Loop Jun 26, 2014 0:14:58 This past week we had a bit of drama about the role of podcast networks. I don’t intend to wade into that discussion but as a result of it I was asked about the role that linking and recommendations play in expanding my own audience for this show. Which is considerable and measurable. I wanted to return the favor this week by talking about how I stay informed about the goings-on in Apple developm

#188: Thoughtful Accessibility Jun 20, 2014 0:14:59 ASCIIwwdc Accessibility is an important aspect of software development. Apple’s platforms provide a wide array of tools for easily adding it into your apps. The return for this effort is often somewhat ephemeral but nevertheless rewarding. Basic Accessibility overview Triple-tap home shortcut Thoughtful ordering of controls Thoughtful ordering of words Design the experience

#187: Explorers Jun 13, 2014 0:15:00 We are exploring a new territory within the Apple developer landscape. Here is how I plan my expedition. Get a solid grasp of what’s new Start with Apple’s own overviews: iOS 8 for Developers What’s new in iOS API Diffs Keep in mind questions like these: What does this enable that isn’t currently possible? How would Apple promote this feature? Is this a evolutionary or ‘revolu

#186: Dropping Bombs Jun 2, 2014 0:14:35 My initial impressions on the 2014 WWDC Keynote. Wow, it was a big one.

#185: Pick up your Kite. May 27, 2014 0:14:57 This year I’m going to skip my usual soapbox speech about WWDC tips and etiquette. Given the way the ticket distribution played out it seems neither kind nor productive. If you are going to WWDC I commend these two #128: WWDC Tips and Etiquette. #53: Please, be polite at WWDC. Today I’m going to talk through a bit of my thoughts heading into WWDC. If the last episode bummed you out a bi

#184: The Middle Path? May 16, 2014 0:14:51 I wax philosophical about the future. Trying to wrestle with the uncertainty that surrounds our industry. Some products succeed, some products fail. Where will mine fall?

#183: Anxiety and Inertia May 2, 2014 0:12:42 My thanks to everyone who purchased a t-shirt in the last two weeks. They should be at the printer and then on their way to your door within the next week or so. Anxiety and Inertia I’ll be taking a quick break from the Unconventional Wisdom series today. I want to ruminate a bit on something more topical for my personally. Feed Wrangler hit its one year anniversary this past week. That acco

#182: Unconventional Wisdom, Listen to Spock. Apr 25, 2014 0:11:55 T-shirts I am doing another run of t-shirts for the show. After I did the campaign for them last fall I heard from a lot of people that they missed out. This year I’m giving the campaign a nice long run (through April 28). The shirt design this year combines three distinctly geeky things—underscores, square brackets and fixed width fonts. Shirts are $14.59 (never longer than 15 minutes). Get

#181: Unconventional wisdom, pricing. Apr 18, 2014 0:15:00 T-shirts I am doing another run of t-shirts for the show. After I did the campaign for them last fall I heard from a lot of people that they missed out. This year I’m giving the campaign a nice long run (through April 28). The shirt design this year combines three distinctly geeky things—underscores, square brackets and fixed width fonts. Shirts are $14.59 (never longer than 15 minutes). Get

#180: Enduring Features. Apr 11, 2014 0:15:00 I hope you fared better in the WWDC lottery than I did, though I’m hopeful for a possibility of a second round on Monday (maybe?). The system and process generally went really well and I think this is likely the process we’ll see going forward. It isn’t perfect but is as good as I could imagine. Improving the App Store: Part 5 Ratings The star rating of an application is the most important as

#179: Avoiding the Stampede. Apr 3, 2014 0:14:52 A few words of appreciation for the new lottery based WWDC ticket sales. Get your name in the hat by Monday morning. Then I talk through some of the tradeoffs involved in choosing the level of abstraction to use for your web-service backends, explaining my own tendency to go pretty low level. Starting from these few posts: The Parts of Your Platform Web Hosting For App Developers On Run

#178: Customer Escape Hatches Mar 27, 2014 0:14:28 After taking credit ;) for Apple’s experiments in search improvements I dive into a few changes to the App Store that could improve doing business in the store. Make the App Store Refund policy more obvious I really don’t understand why Apple makes the refund process so opaque and awkward. I know from my own experience in physical stores that a clear and easy refund policy helps drive sales. I

#177: Something in Mind. Mar 13, 2014 0:13:56 I will be at NSConference next week, if you are a listener of the show please make sure you find me and say hi. Continuing my series of Towards a Better App Store, trying to find practical suggestions for how we could improve the App Store. Today I’m going to focus on Search. Physical Design: Make the cards interface for search optional (if not eliminated). Ranking: Rewards or punish appli

#176: Make it up in Volume Mar 6, 2014 0:15:00 Towards a Better App Store: Part 2 Make it up in Volume This is Part 2 of an ongoing series trying to explore practical ways that the App Store could be better for customers. Today I’m going to talk about the Store’s size. The size of the App Store’s catalog is often thrown around as a valuable, useful metric for judging the heath and vitality of the ecosystem. That may have been true before a

#175: Towards a Better App Store: Part 1 Feb 27, 2014 0:15:00 This begins a multi-part series on how I think we could move the App Store forward. I had initially thought this could be a single show but quickly realized that it will take quite a few 15 minute conversations to really unpack what can practically be done to make the App Store a better place. A note on Show Notes. I’m planning to continue the long form notes for now, but realize that they a

#174: A Livelihood Feb 12, 2014 0:14:38 There is something tragic about the Flappy Bird saga. The events and realities of it aren’t necessarily anything new but they showcase some of the darker sides of our industry. The Hate Things like Twitter and the short attention span culture that grows up around it have developed a mentality where it seems perfectly acceptable to tear apart other people or their work. Over the weekend I was d

#173: Roses by Other Names Feb 5, 2014 0:14:46 I’m trying a new format for show notes. This is half blog post, half podcast. Let me know what you think. I’m not going to wade into the specifics of the Paper-on-Paper-on-Paper-on-Paper battle but I thought it was an interesting topic to address more generally. Naming is an important part of creating, launching and marketing a product. Along with your icon it is probably the single most sign

#172: Going Global. Feb 3, 2014 0:14:50 Lessons learned from launching Pedometer++ 2.0. Stopping worrying too much about version numbers. Leaving time buffers to accommodate iTunes Connect issues. The success of localization.

#171: Pros and Cons of Localization. Jan 22, 2014 0:14:50 I recently went through the process of localizing Pedometer++. Today I walk through my thought process and experience doing that. Whether you should localize isn’t always a simple question. Previous Episode on Localization WWDC Video about Localization Apple Developer Overview My Cheat Sheet for looking up Languages iTunes Connect Transporter Tethras, the service I use

#170(#156): Distinctiveness Jan 15, 2014 0:14:52 I’m renumbering the shows going forward. Early on the show’s history I made a few mistakes where I skipped numbers in the ordering. Now the numbers correctly reflect the number of episodes I’ve created to-date. I’ll be speaking at NSNorth in Ottawa, Canada. The conference runs from May 8-10. Today my main topic is about distinctiveness. Stemming from my experience with copy-cat apps of Pedom

#155: Headroom Jan 6, 2014 0:14:40 I took two weeks off the internet and work. Here are a few of the things I learned from the experience and the changes I’m making in my own life. Invest in fewer but more personal relationships. Avoid controversies. Slow Down, stabilize on quality before moving forward. Try to be less cynical. Read my App Store reviews. Listen to all my customers. The video I mentioned in the intro.

#154: Something You Are Proud Of. Dec 13, 2013 0:13:14 It matters that you can make a living — but it matters more how you make your living. Decisions and Tensions

#153: It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Dec 5, 2013 0:13:37 Talking through some of the implications of the Christmas bump in the App Store. How to prepare for it and some mistakes I’d like to avoid making again. Allowing yourself to be a bit creative and exploratory with features. I’ll be speaking at two conferences next spring. NSConf CocoaConf

#152: Push-Pull Marketing. Nov 19, 2013 0:14:46 Looking at app marketing as a spectrum between push and pull. Each developer needs to decide how much they want to interject themselves into a potential customer’s attention. How much do you value your own attention?

#151: A tree falls in the Woods. Nov 13, 2013 0:14:32 Some lessons and storytelling about the extended outage Feed Wrangler experienced this past weekend.

#150: Five Years in the App Store Nov 8, 2013 0:14:59 A retrospective on the lessons I’ve learned from 5 years working in the App Store. Five Years in the App Store

#149: Audits. Oct 31, 2013 0:13:35 An overview of my experience surviving my first government audit and how I try to take a very conservative approach to accounting and tax compliance.

#148: Trading in Pork Bellies. Oct 25, 2013 0:14:00 A few lessons for Tuesday’s keynote. We are living in the world of commodity software. The faster we adapt and react to that the better we will be able to continue making the software we love.

#147: Our Retina Futures. Oct 18, 2013 0:14:15 Wrap up from Cingleton. Initial reactions and thoughts about Tip Jar In-App Purchases. Some predictions and thoughts about next week’s Apple event.

#146: Get up, Get Moving. Oct 4, 2013 0:13:18 Looking for unique opportunities and taking risks. Embracing experimentation. The importance of getting up and moving. The Prompt: The Mind of the Underscore Pedometer++

#145: Real World Price Dynamics with Lauren Smith. Sep 27, 2013 0:22:31 With all the recent discussion about App Store pricing and the sustainability of making a living from the Store I thought it might be constructive to bring actual customers into the conversation. While talking with my wife, Lauren, about what was going on our resulting discussion got interesting. I recorded it and thought I’d post it here. She sits at an interesting intersection between a typic

#144: Pod Wrangler and Getting Creative. Sep 26, 2013 0:14:49 Thursday, September 26, 2013 - Introducing Pod Wrangler. Looking for places where you have unique experiences or resources that let you make things faster or better. Getting creative for business models to adapt to the ever changing app store environment. Pod Wrangler iOS Version Stats

#143: Bare Metal. Sep 17, 2013 0:14:56 As an engineer my tendency is to think that all problems are best solved by cleverness. This week I’ve learned that the reality is that I should not try to solve with cleverness that which can easily be solved with money. Changing a Car Tire while Driving

#142: iPhone 5s/5c First Impressions. Sep 10, 2013 0:12:28 Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - First Impressions on the iPhone 5s/5c event. Generally it met expectations, which makes me very happy.

#141: Sweeping Statements with Incomplete Information. Sep 6, 2013 0:14:02 Friday, September 06, 2013 - Taking pundit commentary with a grain of salt and a few thoughts about next week’s event. Developing Perspective t-shirt The Inspirational Mug Grain of Salt Origin

#140: Managing Beta Testing. Aug 30, 2013 0:14:49 Friday, August 30, 2013 - Announcing the first ever Developing Perspective t-shirt. A discussion about how I beta test my apps to get them ready for the store. Developing Perspective T-shirt HockeyApp TestFlight

#139: Transferring Apps and Affiliate Linking. Aug 21, 2013 0:14:37 Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - Understanding the App Transfer process and an overview of Apple’s new affiliate marketing system. #72: Mistakes, Designing Icons and getting Acquired. iTunes Connect Developer Guide iTunes Affiliate Linking

#138: The New World. Aug 16, 2013 0:14:21 Friday, August 16, 2013 - Walking through the tricky decision I have made about dropping support for iOS 6 in a lot of my adds. What the new ‘cheaper’ iPhone means for developers in the App Store.

#137: Catastrophic Failure Aug 8, 2013 0:14:31 Thursday, August 08, 2013 - A behind-the-scenes look at what it was like to respond to a catastrophic database migration that took down Feed Wrangler. What happened and a few things I’ve learned from the experience. With surprise special guest.

#136: The iOS 7 Conundrum. Aug 2, 2013 0:13:02 Friday, August 02, 2013 - The release of iOS 7 “This Fall” brings with it a number of challenges. In this episode I try to unpack the tensions between market timing and technical timing. Also, why I think I’ll be more expansive with my iOS adoption than I had originally thought.

#135: Choices. Jul 26, 2013 0:14:53 Friday, July 26, 2013 - Grab-bag episode. The Developer Portal outage. Deciding the kind of business you want to run. Leverging your past solutions to new problems. Staying with it when you get stuck. Recommending the Çingleton Symposium. Dev Portal Status Honest In-App Purchases Çingleton Symposium 3

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