Origins

by Raffi Chilingaryan

My journey into mobile app design and how Spotted in Prod came to be.

The itch

I studied economics in school ‒ and not as one of those internet kids who had their own projects going in tandem (those people rock, but I sadly wasn't one of them). My one app idea during college was for a marketplace that let people pick up food cooked by their neighbors, but I got a C+ in my only computer science course and failed to convince any of my smarter friends to help me turn it into reality.

Fast forward 3 years into my first job as a research analyst and the itch to build something tangible returned. I completed an Intro to Web Development course and took some simple brainstorms for different fitness concepts way too seriously. In July 2021, I naively quit my job to build an app with React Native contractors that I found on Fiverr. I justified this bold move by telling my friends and family that the experience could help me land a job as a Product Manager even if the app didn't work out.

Getting plugged in

I don't remember the precise moment that I discovered Tech Twitter, but soon after taking the leap I realized there was a density of exceptional people sharing their work online and it would be useful to pay attention.

I became obsessed with the work of Los Feliz Engineering, Rauno Freiberg, Laurent Del Rey, and other great crafters. Considering how bad my own work was at the time, I like to think I had one of the highest taste gaps ever recorded. I remember my timeline being taken over by Arc, Cron, Amie, and Party Round. I dug deep to figure out exactly who was building these things so I could follow along closely.

It's right under your nose

Unlike my foray into Tech Twitter, I do remember the precise moment that the concept of "spotting something in prod" occurred to me. I was sitting on my couch sending money to a friend on Cash App when I paused to appreciate how smoothly the numbers on the keypad animated.

I had obviously studied other UIs before, but for some reason it had never occurred to me that I could do so with my daily drivers. The meaning of the phrase great design disappears suddenly made sense to me. I had been letting it disappear all around me, and decided in that moment that I simply wouldn't anymore.

Studying became the default from then on. Like a proper designer, I started slowing down my scrolls and replaying any transition that caught my eye. Tech Twitter remained a fun way to sneak into exclusive TestFlights and get inspired by viral prototypes, but the apps on my home screen were the only place I could truly judge whether an interface felt good to use.

Curating

I continued iterating on my fitness apps and began occasionally reposting other people's work along with my own as a way to display my taste. After a while, I noticed a large share of the engagement on my account was coming from my reposts and commentary.

For the sake of accountability (and pride) I decided that I wanted my personal account to be primarily a reflection of my own work. But I also didn't want to stop sharing my taste or boosting apps that I felt were underrated. So last July I decided to create the Spotted in Prod account to separate the two endeavors.

Spotted in Prod resonated almost instantly with a semi-viral launch post, and I knew before I even claimed the handle that it would only be worth doing if I posted something every day. As I continued to do so it quickly became larger than my own account.

Almost 1 year later, SIPs following has grown far larger than I ever would have expected and includes many of those crafters who inspired me while I was getting started in app development. Our web app was received well and now presents an opportunity to build for the developers and designers whose work we have always piggy-backed on. It's a truly symbiotic relationship that I have really been enjoying.

The funnest part about it is that we now have to live up to our own bar with everything we ship.