How to do iOS development on a product with over 23 million users?
iOS developers have recently been an increasingly sought-after profession. This is not surprising considering that the number of mobile device users is increasing year by year, which also increases the overall range of mobile applications. It is estimated that the market of mobile applications in 2022 is worth about 200 billion dollars.
More jobs are good news for iOS developers. However, projects and employers are diverse. In this article, we present to you the perspective of iOS developers working at Sofascore, a product company from Croatia, on a product with a large number of users and a global reach.
Why choose to work in a product company?
Developers often start their professional careers in development agencies, which are always in demand of additional workforce. Working on diverse projects and with different clients can be interesting, but also stressful.
On the other hand, working in a product company implies a deeper focus on one product and its development. Developers get a greater insight into the development strategy and can monitor their influence on the development of the application over a longer period.
"Working on the product allows us to get into the depth of the technology in which we work. Our focus is on the quality of the product in order to successfully maintain it in the long term" - Kristian Stjepan Vukušić, iOS Team Lead at Sofascore, tells us.
Dejan Vasko, Head of Mobile adds: "Although we work all the time on one product, it is actually one big project with many sub-projects. In other words, it is not at all monotonous, as someone from the agency might conclude."
Dejan also gave us a concrete example:
"Let's say, on one screen tab within our application, data is retrieved from six or more API end-points. How to arrange it all architecturally, retrieve the data, process it, and display it on the screen synchronously? Such challenging tasks often activate all of us from the Mobile team in a constructive discussion where we come to a solution together, but also learn from each other."
Kristian's and Dejan's colleague Antun Novosel, Senior iOS developer, adds how in the product company
"there are no agreements and negotiations with clients who often have unrealistic expectations about the speed and quality of delivery."
Thus, developers can dedicate their time to the core product of their company and manage the pace of work themselves in order to achieve the set goals.
iOS development on a project with meaning and impact
All of us want good incomes, opportunities for growth and development, and a pleasant working atmosphere from work. However, the X factor that makes us more motivated to do our work is the meaningfulness or purposefulness of that work. Research shows that working with a purpose motivates us, which is reflected in 33% higher productivity.
As we mentioned earlier, the mobile app market is large, which means that there is a whole range of different projects to work on. For example, Sofascore is an app for tracking sports statistics and live scores. Does working on a sports product have an impact on the developers working on it?
Kristian says that he follows many sports personally.
"That's why I care that the application we make is of the highest quality - both for me and for other users".
Antun, on the other hand, has not always been a fan of sports:
"Given that I was never particularly interested in sports, I think I have always missed that aspect of general culture. As I now have three sons, working on a sports product will probably give me a better chance to answer the questions they will ask me about sports as they grow up."
In addition, the Sofascore application has over 23 million monthly active users - it has a global reach and a rating of 4.9 on the App Store. What do Antun and Kristian think about it?
"Since we are working on a global product, I know there is much more potential for development and success," says Kristian.
Antun says that he and his team meet when working with a global product "with international requirements and we learn about rules that we would not pay attention to if we were working on a local product."
In addition, Antun says that he is proud to be working on a product that is so well accepted by such a large number of users because he feels that his work is appreciated and has an impact all over the world.
How can redesign help product development?
Sofascore says that they continuously strive to improve their product. How does it look?
"Improving the Sofascore application is a constant balancing act between old and new technologies. We make sure that the project does not fall behind in "time" by using new technologies that make sense for the project, but we also do not jump on every new technology that is a big risk for maintaining such a large project", says Dejan.
Recently, Sofascore presented a new logo, with which the process of complete rebranding begins - and this also includes the redesign of the application. This will improve the user experience through modern interfaces, detailed but also easy-to-understand graphic displays, and new functionalities.
Antun and Kristian say that what motivates them in their work is the focus on quality throughout the company.
"In product development, the biggest focus is to make the tasks high-quality, so we spend most of our time on code review," says Kristian.
Although he has been with the company for a year, Antun also spends a lot of time getting to know new parts of the application, given that it has a large number of functionalities.
Working on the redesign allowed them to get to know the application better.
"From the outside, it may seem like cosmetics, but through the work on the redesign, we get to know the existing parts of the application on a deeper level compared to when we just need to add new functionality to some part," says Antun.
Friday 10% or opportunity for learning and personal development
The possibility of learning, developing skills and adopting new ones is something that is important to everyone, including developers, at work. Statistics show that as many as 68% of all employees believe that learning and professional development are the most important company policies.
Given that they promote learning and development at Sofascore, developers can work on things outside of the sprint that interests them on Fridays. The so-called Friday 10% means that employees can use four hours a week to research and develop new professional areas related to Sofascore's business, as well as improve existing professional competencies.
In order to grow and develop, we need the support of the environment and the opportunity to freely express our opinion.
Kristian says: "First of all, we have very good Product Owners who make a lot of our work easier. Second, it's great that everyone can express their ideas or opinions, which we often take into account in order to make the best possible product, especially in the early stages of development."
An opportunity to work on a product with a global reach
Kristian and Antun are looking for new colleagues! Currently, their iOS team at Sofascore consists of seven colleagues, and they are looking for additional reinforcements - in the positions of iOS developer and iOS Team Lead.
As you already know, in Sofascore you have the opportunity to work on a sports application with over 23 million monthly active users. With individual development plans and dedicating 10% of working time to learning and development, you can directly see how your work improves the product in the long term, and you also have the opportunity to express your ideas in a team full of support and continuously develop skills.
The technologies used by the team are Swift and Objective-C, and the frameworks are SnapKit, Core Data, Alamofire, Firebase, and SwiftLint. In addition, on Joberty you can see how current Sofascore employees rate their company in terms of culture and team, product and technology, salary, and more.
If this sounds good to you, review the job description for iOS Team Lead and iOS Developer and apply. Good luck!
