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<updated>2019-11-07T19:12:26+00:00</updated>
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<title type="html">Lickability</title>
<subtitle>
A detail-obsessed software studio. We design and develop delightful apps for amazing companies.
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<title type="html">Swift Playgrounds is for Everyone</title>
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<published>2019-08-02T00:00:00+00:00</published>
<updated>2019-08-02T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
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http://0.0.0.0:3000/how-we-work/2019/08/02/swift-playgrounds-is-for-everyone
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<p>Ever since joining Lickability as an Account Manager three months ago, my responsibilities have included finding and pursuing leads, working with potential clients through every stage of a project, drafting estimates and contracts, and sending lots and lots of emails. It’s my job to help clients figure out how we can meet their unique needs with the services we can provide.</p> <p><img src="/images/blog/2019-08-02/1.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p class="caption">My final challenge in Learn To Code 2</p> <p>Although my background is in engineering — I studied mechanical engineering and engineering management — my education and the first four years of my career were outside of tech. Because of that, I’m somewhat of a novice when it comes to software development. For the past three months, I’ve been working on improving that so I can talk to our engineers and clients about app development. I learn best by doing, so I’ve been using Apple’s <a href="https://www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/">Swift Playgrounds</a> Learn to Code modules on an iPad here in the office to learn the fundamentals.</p> <p>The Learn to Code series has three modules, accompanied by additional lessons, developed both by Apple and third parties, in the Swift Playgrounds app. Learn to Code 1 focuses on the fundamentals of coding and Swift, covering topics like commands, functions, bug fixing, loops, conditional code, and operators. Learn to Code 2 starts to get into the meat and potatoes of Swift with topics like variables, types, initialization, parameters, and arrays. I’m just scratching the surface of Learn to Code 3 now, but I can say that this module is really starting to feel like code that could be used in real world app development.</p> <p>The lessons are presented as a series of puzzles that can be solved with code, with makes them fun to complete and great for any skill level. I sailed through most of the first module pretty easily (although I did run into some trouble with infinitely repeating while loops that I had to ask our engineers for help with 😅) and had a slightly tougher time with the second module. I started AirPlaying my code in our conference room so engineers could stop by and pair with me while I talked through my thought processes.</p> <p><img src="/images/blog/2019-08-02/2.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p class="caption">A screenshot of code in the Swift Playgrounds app</p> <h3 id="what-ivelearned">What I’ve learned</h3> <p>Learning to code with Swift Playgrounds has several benefits that make it worth the effort for someone in a sales role at a software company. First, it gives me a better understanding of and appreciation for the work that our engineers do. This context makes it easier for me to evaluate potential clients — we want our engineers to work on interesting and fulfilling projects, and learning about programming has helped me seek out the best clients for us.</p> <p>Second, I have a better understanding of clients’ needs, which can help me answer their questions and find solutions that best meet those needs without always having to consult with our engineers. Showing clients that I have a baseline knowledge about the services they need helps us establish trust early, and makes the rest of the sales process much smoother.</p> <p>Finally, learning how to code is a rewarding and enjoyable experience! Solving puzzles and learning new things are some of the reasons I got into engineering in the first place, and diving into Swift has been a great way to continue to experience that. I’ve gotten a lot of personal and professional value out of Swift Playgrounds, not just because I’m learning a new skill, but because I’m learning about the process and best practices involved in coding. Here are some of the most important things I’ve learned from Swift Playgrounds that I use every day:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Pattern recognition:</strong> I look for and automate processes that I find myself repeating a lot — this is especially useful when sending lots of emails. I use email templates for common messages I send, <a href="https://calendly.com">Calendly</a> for scheduling client meetings, and document templates for project estimates and contracts.</li> <li><strong>Pair programming:</strong> I’m more proactive about asking for help and working with my teammates on everything from writing up client documents to sending important emails.</li> <li><strong>Source control &amp; documentation:</strong> I make sure all client documents are up to date and filed correctly, document any changes I make to documents and flag them for review, and write down important workflow processes in <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/switching-to-notion-51d7bcd2b94c">Notion</a>.</li> <li><strong>Iteration:</strong> I recognize that things are always changing and there are always ways to improve my work, so I actively solicit feedback from teammates and clients to figure out what works and what doesn’t. After evaluating feedback, I develop solutions to address any problem areas in my workflow, and then continuously iterate over those solutions to improve more over time.</li> </ul> <p>Getting started with Swift Playgrounds is as easy as grabbing an iPad, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492">downloading the Swift Playgrounds app</a>, and diving into the Learn To Code 1 module. If you have any questions about it, <a href="https://twitter.com/ThomasDeVuono">I’m just a tweet away</a>!</p>
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<author>
<name>Thomas DeVuono</name>
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<category term="how-we-work"/>
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Ever since joining Lickability as an Account Manager three months ago, my responsibilities have included finding and pursuing leads, working with potential clients through every stage of a project, drafting estimates and contracts, and sending lots and lots of emails. It’s my job to help clients figure out how we can meet their unique needs with the services we can provide.
</summary>
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<entry>
<title type="html">Our Swift Best Practices</title>
<link href="http://0.0.0.0:3000/ios-development/2019/07/26/our-swift-best-practices.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Our Swift Best Practices"/>
<published>2019-07-26T00:00:00+00:00</published>
<updated>2019-07-26T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
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http://0.0.0.0:3000/ios-development/2019/07/26/our-swift-best-practices
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<p>Code is written for humans. I’m not the first to say that, and won’t be the last. What you write will eventually be compiled away into something unintelligible, so how you choose to write code isn’t for the computer’s benefit. It’s for yourself, both now and later. It’s for any people working on a team with you. And it’s for anyone that stumbles upon your code after you’re gone.</p> <p>In order to understand our code better, Lickability employs consistent practices — and to do that, we have a defined structure and style for the way we write code. Today, we’re sharing our <a href="https://github.com/Lickability/swift-best-practices"><strong>best practices guide</strong></a> with you. This guide contains our preferred way of writing code, both in terms of architecture and the way style is enforced (through <a href="https://github.com/realm/SwiftLint">SwiftLint</a>). It is intended to be a living repository that will be updated as the Swift language and our experience evolves.</p> <p>If you want to use this, great! If you want to fork it and make changes, go ahead. We won’t be accepting issues or pull requests at this time, but we hope that you’ll find our approach to writing software interesting—and if there are aspects that you’d love to chat about, <a href="https://twitter.com/lickability">let us know</a>!</p>
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<author>
<name>Andrew Harrison</name>
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Code is written for humans. I’m not the first to say that, and won’t be the last. What you write will eventually be compiled away into something unintelligible, so how you choose to write code isn’t for the computer’s benefit. It’s for yourself, both now and later. It’s for any people working on a team with you. And it’s for anyone that stumbles upon your code after you’re gone.
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<entry>
<title type="html">10 Years of Lickability</title>
<link href="http://0.0.0.0:3000/whats-new/2019/07/23/10-years-of-lickability.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="10 Years of Lickability"/>
<published>2019-07-23T00:00:00+00:00</published>
<updated>2019-07-23T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
<id>
http://0.0.0.0:3000/whats-new/2019/07/23/10-years-of-lickability
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<p>Wow! Time flies when you’re having fun and making apps. Our company turned 10 this year, so we figured it’d be good to look back over everything we’ve accomplished together over the last decade. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?</p> <h3 id="2009">2009</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Launching in stealth mode.</p>&mdash; Lickability (@lickability) <a href="https://twitter.com/lickability/status/1916562199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2009</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>In 2009, <a href="https://twitter.com/bcapps">Brian Capps</a> and I were friends about to graduate high school together in Philadelphia. That year, I had gotten obsessed with the incredible indie apps that were being released on the year-old App Store, and decided I wanted to try my hand at making one. After convincing Brian to work with me, we started Lickability from my parents’ kitchen table in Sicklerville, NJ. We named the company after a <a href="https://twitter.com/lickability/status/942565273269424130">Steve Jobs quote</a> that continues to inspire us to this day.</p> <p>Our summer consisted of late-night iChat AV calls pair programming, watching <a href="https://twitter.com/edog1203">Evan Doll</a> teach the first section of <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/drupal/">CS 193P</a> at Stanford, and finishing a 0.9 version of our first app, Broadway. The app never (officially) got released, and if you’re curious why, we wrote the <a href="https://lickability.tumblr.com/post/6310108928/lessons-from-broadway">lessons we learned here</a>.</p> <h3 id="2010">2010</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Interested in beta testing a new iPhone app I&#39;m working on? <br />http://testflightapp.com/join/2a6c0e8823f64f0f581efce254fca680-NDQ/</p>&mdash; Matthew Bischoff (@mb) <a href="https://twitter.com/mb/status/7919481535860736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 25, 2010</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>Brian and I both went off to college — him to the University of Miami and me to New Jersey Institute of Technology, where I met the mysterious third Lickability Partner: <a href="https://twitter.com/twig777">Andrew Harrison</a>, who has become our engineering lead. Andrew and I stayed up late in our sixth-floor dorm room working on an “unfinished idea” that <a href="https://twitter.com/al3x">Alex Payne</a> had posted online some years earlier called <a href="https://al3x.net/posts/2009/06/15/quotidian.html">Quotidian</a>. Once we had something that vaguely worked, we called Brian and showed him a demo. This prototype became one of our most well-known and successful apps of all time, <a href="https://quotebookapp.com">Quotebook</a>.</p> <p>Quotebook was an app you could use to store, sort, and share the quotes that matter to you. And we worked on it through most of 2010 to make sure it worked as well as it could for 1.0. Afternoons spent on importing and exporting code, building performant search, and following <a href="https://www.raywenderlich.com/3115-uiview-tutorial-for-ios-how-to-make-a-custom-uiview-in-ios-5-a-5-star-rating-view">Ray Wenderlich tutorials to create a rating view</a> are the memories that stick with me almost a decade later.</p> <h3 id="2011">2011</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“Real artists ship.” –Steve Jobs</p>&mdash; Quotebook (@quotebookapp) <a href="https://twitter.com/quotebookapp/status/40952705400844288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2011</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>We shipped! After tons of beta testing, we released Quotebook on the App Store! And people loved it. Pastors, parents, and book-lovers wrote to us in droves with their feedback and feature requests. Reviews went up on all of <a href="https://minimalmac.com/post/4233527241/quotebook-a-notebook-for-your-quotes-on-iphone">our</a> <a href="https://www.macstories.net/reviews/quotebook-save-your-favorite-quotes/">favorite</a> <a href="https://brooksreview.net/2011/04/quick-takes-on-five-apps-7/">websites</a>, and the app got featured on the front page of the App Store as a Staff Pick. We quickly got to work on point releases and plans for a sequel.</p> <p>And then: <a href="https://genius.com/Title-of-show-original-cast-september-song-lyrics"><em>The Gray Lady, baby</em></a>! I was offered a full-time job on the iOS team at The New York Times and dropped out of college to take it. My mission from the beginning was for us to use what I learned there to make Lickability even better, and that’s exactly what we did.</p> <h3 id="2012">2012</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Quotebook 2.0. <a href="http://t.co/wIybzijj">http://t.co/wIybzijj</a>.<br /><br />iPad, iCloud, and so much more.</p>&mdash; Quotebook (@quotebookapp) <a href="https://twitter.com/quotebookapp/status/208056285759934464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2012</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>The iPad had been out for a few years and folks were clamoring for Quotebook on iPad. But we knew that in order to do it right, we needed it to be a Universal app, and quotes had to sync seamlessly across devices. Quotebook 2.0 shipped after many weekends spent testing and debugging Apple’s nascent (and, in hindsight, totally broken) iCloud Core Data syncing system. Many radars were filed.</p> <p>Lickability needed a logo, so we commissioned <a href="https://twitter.com/amahnke">Aaron Mahnke</a>, now the famous podcaster of the <a href="https://www.lorepodcast.com"><em>Lore</em></a> universe, to design one. By this point, all three of us were living together in an apartment in Newark, NJ that we affectionally called Lickability HQ. Brian had moved up from Miami to join me at NYTimes by day and continue building the Lickability empire at night. This was also the year of our first WWDC, where I spent the 5-hour wait for the keynote in line with the hosts of <a href="https://atp.fm">ATP</a>, which wouldn’t launch until the following year.</p> <h3 id="2013">2013</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Velocity is the only speed reading app designed for iOS 7. Read faster, one word at a time.<br /><br />Download it now. <a href="https://t.co/eX93eIcyqA">https://t.co/eX93eIcyqA</a></p>&mdash; Accelerator (@acceleratorapp) <a href="https://twitter.com/acceleratorapp/status/380887733671309312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>On the product front, Brian and Andrew took an offhanded comment about an idea for a speed reading app I had and turned it into a functional app prototype. After working on the app for months, with the help of <a href="https://twitter.com/marcelomarfil?lang=en">Marcelo Marfil</a> for design and <a href="https://twitter.com/talosman?lang=en">Talos Tsui</a> at <a href="https://iconfactory.com">Iconfactory</a> for the icon, we launched <a href="https://acceleratorapp.com">Velocity</a> (now Acceleator), a speed reading app with support for Instapaper and Pocket. We also brought on <a href="https://twitter.com/bryarlybishop">Bryarly Bishop</a> part-time to help us with customer support and worked with <a href="https://twitter.com/grantjbutler">Grant Butler</a> on a prototype for a Reddit app we never shipped, called Antenna.</p> <p>This was also the first year we took on clients (now a majority of our business). In 2013, we were lucky to work with the folks at <a href="http://www.pocketbracket.com/march-mobile-madness-app">Pocket Bracket</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grouper_social_club">Grouper</a> to apply our Objective-C knowledge and make their apps look, feel, and function better. We also attended and spoke at more conferences, like <a href="http://cingleton.com">Çingleton</a> in Montreal, <a href="https://matthewbischoff.com/rtfm/">SecondConf</a>, and WWDC for a second time.</p> <h3 id="2014">2014</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Quotebook is featured in Reference on the <a href="https://twitter.com/AppStore?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AppStore</a>. Thanks . <a href="http://t.co/1pAKvDrNCD">pic.twitter.com/1pAKvDrNCD</a></p>&mdash; Quotebook (@quotebookapp) <a href="https://twitter.com/quotebookapp/status/508681653167095808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 7, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>We released Quotebook 3, a complete redesign and rewrite of the app, and people loved the new look. We continued to <a href="https://www.objc.io/issues/10-syncing-data/icloud-core-data/">write</a> and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2013/3/26/4148628/why-doesnt-icloud-just-work">give interviews about iCloud Core Data</a> in the hopes that Apple would get its act together.</p> <p>We also did lots of experimentation in 2014. We tried (and failed) to port Velocity to both Android and Windows phone and found out that we’re strongest when we work on platforms we use every day. We also rebranded Velocity to Accelerator after selling the domain to a startup, which allowed us to turn Lickability into more than a side-project. And Accelerator was the most<a href="https://www.producthunt.com/posts/accelerator"> upvoted product of the year on ProductHunt</a>! 😸</p> <h3 id="2015">2015</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I am &quot;Going Indie&quot; today: <a href="https://t.co/y4Z83gdpBe">https://t.co/y4Z83gdpBe</a></p>&mdash; Brian Capps (@bcapps) <a href="https://twitter.com/bcapps/status/585457467305418752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>In 2015, we set aside some money and we took the biggest risk we’ve ever taken: g<a href="https://blog.lickability.com/going-indie-87b750419242?gi=60cc36916b28">oing indie</a>. Brian quit his day job to focus on Lickability full time. And it worked! His first project was a Swift collaboration with <a href="https://twitter.com/calebd">Caleb Davenport</a> to rewrite and re-release Bugshot as <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/we-re-super-excited-to-announce-our-newest-app-pinpoint-is-available-now-for-free-on-the-app-a9bf11bff0b1">Pinpoint</a>, after we acquired the app from <a href="https://twitter.com/marcoarment">Marco Arment</a>. That landed us a spot in <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/06/03/pinpoint">Daring Fireball’s Linked List</a>.</p> <p>We also took on Meetup as a client and figured out lawyers, accountants, invoicing, bookkeeping, and all that fun business-y stuff. I attended Layers in San Francisco and then I <a href="https://matthewbischoff.com/barely-managing/">talked about management</a> at <a href="https://cocoalove.org">CocoaLove</a> in Philly before also joining Brian as a full-time Lickability employee.</p> <h3 id="2016">2016</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Presenting PinpointKit, our new framework for sending better feedback.<a href="https://t.co/qb6FVLcQ0w">https://t.co/qb6FVLcQ0w</a> <a href="https://t.co/GhD8dPxEhI">pic.twitter.com/GhD8dPxEhI</a></p>&mdash; Lickability (@lickability) <a href="https://twitter.com/lickability/status/741368513479200768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 10, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>In 2016, we moved into our first office space and added two new team members: Andrew, and our first purely engineering hire, <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/michael-liberatore-joins-lickability-dc5973afb28">Michael Liberatore</a>. We also released our first open-source project, <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/pinpointkit-676b74e8a196">PinpointKit</a>, a framework for developers to collect feedback from their beta testers that’s now used in apps around the world. We also made the hard decision to <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/the-end-of-quotebook-9e19b5653cc9">shut down Quotebook</a>. And finally, I <a href="https://matthewbischoff.com/write-your-way-out/">spoke at Release Notes</a> in Chicago about how we use writing as a system for solving big and complex problems.</p> <p>Two major client projects that we’re really proud of shipped in 2016. We helped <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/making-meetup-e8197c8df436">Meetup</a> redesign and rewrite their entire iOS app from the ground up in Swift. And we helped build a brand new news app for a prestigious publication, <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/helping-build-the-new-yorker-today-a30b2ab1fffa#.b8b7hgyrv">The New Yorker Today</a>.</p> <h3 id="2017">2017</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🔱 We were thrilled to work with our friends at <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheAtlantic</a> to build their new, redesigned iOS app, out today!<a href="https://t.co/WTg5jMpcoC">https://t.co/WTg5jMpcoC</a></p>&mdash; Lickability (@lickability) <a href="https://twitter.com/lickability/status/900392309069623296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>Our biggest launch in 2017 was a redesign and rewrite of an app for one of our favorite publications, <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/a-new-look-for-the-atlantic-app-a6bae3931a5b">The Atlantic</a>. The app was <a href="https://beautifulpixels.com/iphone/the-atlantic-app/">featured on Beautiful Pixels</a> and readers were impressed with the new look and feel and iPad support. We also added clients like <a href="https://www.mimeo.com/news/mimeo-photos-now-integrated-with-photos-app-in-macos-high-sierra/">Mimeo</a>, <a href="https://houseparty.com">Houseparty</a>, and <a href="https://jet.com">Jet</a> to our roster.</p> <p>Our team grew by two engineers, <a href="https://twitter.com/grantjbutler">Grant Butler</a> (joining us full-time) and <a href="https://twitter.com/cordavi">Michael Amundsen</a>, our first junior iOS engineer. After WWDC, we thought about what we could build with the new iOS 11 APIs and prototyped an app called Shelf. While we ultimately <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/shelf-a-retrospective-f0b3a95359ae">decided not to ship it</a>, we all learned a lot building the first version.</p> <h3 id="2018">2018</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🏠 We have a new office! Take a look inside the new Lickability HQ in our latest blog post.<a href="https://t.co/SLxuQV646O">https://t.co/SLxuQV646O</a></p>&mdash; Lickability (@lickability) <a href="https://twitter.com/lickability/status/1058452346857025537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>It was time. We had outgrown our coworking space and “minimalist” website. So we worked with our friends at <a href="http://pickaxe.nyc">Pickaxe</a> to design a snazzy <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/new-year-new-site-499c6cc5c58c">new site</a> and Megan Leet at <a href="http://doitperf.com">Perf</a> to help us decorate our <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/our-new-office-is-official-88fc37eb3ef0">brand new office</a> in Chelsea. Also, <a href="https://twitter.com/jilliangmeehan">Jillian Meehan</a> joined to help us get our operations act together and <a href="https://twitter.com/digimarktech">Marc Aupont</a> came aboard as our seventh engineer.</p> <p>It was also a year of close collaborations with clients. We spent months working with <a href="https://twitter.com/amberdiscko">Amber Discko</a> on their Kickstarted self-care app called <a href="https://aloebud.com">Aloe Bud</a>. After a <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/aloe-bud-self-care-app-5408bb9827f8">successful launch</a>, both Aloe Bud and Houseparty were <a href="https://twitter.com/lickability/status/1027629176390668293">featured on the App Store</a> as App of the Day.</p> <h3 id="2019">2019</h3> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">👋 We + <a href="https://twitter.com/bcapps?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bcapps</a> will be in San Jose all week for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWDC19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWDC19</a>. Say hi if you see us! <a href="https://t.co/I8CgeoapRk">pic.twitter.com/I8CgeoapRk</a></p>&mdash; Lickability (@lickability) <a href="https://twitter.com/lickability/status/1135399668932681728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>This year is only halfway done, but so far we’ve brought on <a href="https://twitter.com/AshliRankin18">Ashli Rankin</a> with the launch of our iOS Apprenticeship and <a href="https://twitter.com/ThomasDeVuono">Thomas DeVuono</a>, our first Account Manager. Also, we <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/we-were-on-tv-281910f4b3b6">appeared in a five-minute television spot</a> on <em>CBS’s Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca</em>!</p> <p>We continued to grow our studio, expand our <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/conference-condensed-wwdc-2019-fa8b405dd7e5">WWDC presence</a>, and got started on a new app. 🤫 I got onstage at <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/conference-condensed-nsnorth-2019-4fcdb8116ff5">NSNorth in Montreal</a> to talk about 10 of the lessons we learned over the last decade. And we’ve got plenty more in store for the next 6 months…</p> <h3 id="thank-you-for-everything-">Thank You for Everything 🙏</h3> <p>We wouldn’t be where we are today without the help of so many people. We want to offer a heartfelt thanks to everyone that helped along the way.</p> <p>Thank you to our team, families, testers, contractors, customers, and clients. And special thanks to Aaron Mahnke, Alex Cox, Alex Hardiman, Alex Payne, Allen Pike, Andrew Carroll, Annie Maguire, Ben Brooks, Ben Scheirman, Brian Murphy, Bryan Irace, Caleb Davenport, Carly Occhifinto, Casey Liss, Chris Eidof, Christina Warren, Christine Chan, Craig Hockenberry, Daniel Pasco, David Barnard, DJ Brinkerhoff, Federico Viticci, Fiona Spruill, Greg Mavronicolas, Guy English, Jason Brennan, Jeff Grossman, Jeremy Swinnen, Jessie Char, Joe Cieplinski, Joe Fiore, John August, John Gruber, John Voorhees, Jon Mitchell, Kate Sloan, Kathy Campbell, Kelly Capps, Ken Ackerson, Maja Henderson, Marco Arment, Mark Kawano, Matt Alexander, Megan Leet, Merlin Mann, Michael Jurewitz, Mohit Pandey, Myke Hurley, Patrick Gibson, Patrick Rhone, Paul Bruneau, Paul Rehkugler, Peter Vidani, Rachel Viniar, Ricky Mondello, Rob Rhyne, Rob Rix, Sam Soffes, Shawn Blanc, Sid O’Neill, Soroush Khanlou, Stephen Hackett, Steve Matthews, Tara Mann, and Zack Sultan.</p>
</content>
<author>
<name>Matthew Bischoff</name>
</author>
<category term="whats-new"/>
<summary type="html">
Wow! Time flies when you’re having fun and making apps. Our company turned 10 this year, so we figured it’d be good to look back over everything we’ve accomplished together over the last decade. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?
</summary>
<media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://0.0.0.0:3000/images/blog/2019-07-23/1.jpeg"/>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html">Conference Condensed: WWDC 2019</title>
<link href="http://0.0.0.0:3000/conferences-condensed/2019/06/14/conference-condensed-wwdc-2019.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Conference Condensed: WWDC 2019"/>
<published>2019-06-14T00:00:00+00:00</published>
<updated>2019-06-14T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
<id>
http://0.0.0.0:3000/conferences-condensed/2019/06/14/conference-condensed--wwdc-2019
</id>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://0.0.0.0:3000/conferences-condensed/2019/06/14/conference-condensed-wwdc-2019.html">
<p>Last week, we sent five Lickability team members to San Jose for WWDC, Layers, and AltConf. This week, we’re giving you a rundown of some of our favorite moments — strap in.</p> <h3 id="wwdc">WWDC</h3> <p>Although nobody from Lickability had tickets to WWDC this year, we all took time to sit down together and watch the videos online. We’re still making our way through them, but here are some of our favorites so far:</p> <h4 id="advances-in-collection-viewlayout"><a href="https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/215/">Advances in Collection View Layout</a></h4> <p><strong>(WWDC 215)</strong></p> <p>In Advances in Collection View Layout, Apple introduced <code class="highlighter-rouge">UICollectionViewCompositionalLayout</code> and <code class="highlighter-rouge">NSCollectionViewCompositionalLayout</code> to much fanfare. In 50 minutes, we learned just how easy it is to take our complicated custom collection view layout subclasses and replace them with a few declarations of the section, group, and item components that comprise the new layout types.</p> <p>Shout out to <code class="highlighter-rouge">NSCollectionLayoutSize</code> and <code class="highlighter-rouge">NSCollectionLayoutDimension</code>! No longer will we need complicated logic and math to calculate frames for layout attributes. These classes make it possible to specify item layouts relative to their container size by simply describing what you want upfront using <code class="highlighter-rouge">fractionalHeight()</code> and <code class="highlighter-rouge">fractionalWidth()</code>, and <code class="highlighter-rouge">absolute()</code> when your designs call for a specific item size. It’s also amazingly simple to use visually distinct layouts for each section of your collection view, specify paging behaviors, and nest vertically and horizontally scrolling regions in a single collection view.</p> <p>We can’t wait to delete all of our likely-inefficient <code class="highlighter-rouge">UICollectionViewLayout</code> and <code class="highlighter-rouge">UICollectionFlowLayout</code> subclasses!</p> <h4 id="adopting-swiftpackages"><a href="https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/408/">Adopting Swift Packages</a></h4> <p><strong>(WWDC 408)</strong></p> <p>We’ve waited a long time, having to rely on open source tools like Cocoapods and Carthage, but that wait is finally over. Apple is finally bringing first class third-party dependency management to Xcode, with Swift Packages. The syntax for defining how a package behaves remains the same from previous years, so any third-party libraries that have already been defined that way will work starting today. With <a href="https://github.blog/2019-06-03-github-package-registry-will-support-swift-packages/">GitHub already signed on to provide support</a>, we can’t wait until existing packages are updated to support the newly integrated Swift Package Manager.</p> <h4 id="advances-in-foundation"><a href="https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/723/">Advances in Foundation</a></h4> <p><strong>(WWDC 723)</strong></p> <p>Advances in Foundation is like many of our favorite WWDC sessions in years past: it doesn’t completely change everything we know about app development by introducing a new framework, language, or technology. Rather, we’re introduced to a number of quality-of-life improvements to the things we use on a daily basis that make our jobs less prone to error or repetitive. This session was jam-packed with more than a dozen <code class="highlighter-rouge">Foundation</code> improvements that had us clapping along with the audience. To name a few highlights:</p> <ul> <li><code class="highlighter-rouge">addBarrierBlock</code> on <code class="highlighter-rouge">OperationQueue</code> 😯</li> <li>Ordered collection diffing 🎉</li> <li><code class="highlighter-rouge">ListFormatter</code> 🤩</li> <li><code class="highlighter-rouge">RelativeDateTimeFormatter</code> 🤯 You’re gonna want to watch this short session at half speed to absorb everything!</li> </ul> <h4 id="great-developer-habits"><a href="https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/239/">Great Developer Habits</a></h4> <p><strong>(WWDC 239)</strong></p> <p>This was an excellent talk from Apple going over the habits great developers practice when making applications. It resonated with us because, even though the habits they mentioned focused on best practices in development, they are relatable and easily applicable in any daily workflow. The talk focused on 8 key points:</p> <ol> <li><strong>Organize</strong> — organize your work functionally, group related information, keep your work up to date, have a zero tolerance policy for those small errors so they don’t pile up</li> <li><strong>Track</strong> — use source control whenever you can and write detailed comments on your work</li> <li><strong>Document</strong> — your comments should not only explain what something is for but why it was created, document things that are reusable so you don’t waste time redoing work, be descriptive when naming files</li> <li><strong>Test</strong> — have your work checked as part of your regular practice, getting a second set of eyes on something is a great way to catch small mistakes</li> <li><strong>Analyze</strong> — try and think about all the different ways your work will be received, don’t just look at it from your perspective, be efficient</li> <li><strong>Evaluate</strong> — leverage the community’s knowledge if you are stuck or are less experienced, spend the time when reviewing other’s work, don’t just skim, ensure consistency</li> <li><strong>Decouple</strong> — scale your work across everything you do when possible, share what you know with the community</li> <li><strong>Manage</strong> — understand the tools you depend on, have plan for if they are no longer useable</li> </ol> <h3 id="altconf">AltConf</h3> <p><img src="/images/blog/2019-06-14/3.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p>Even if you don’t get the golden ticket to attend Apple’s conference, being in the same city as WWDC is such a fun time for anyone in the iOS community. It’s a week filled with goodies, exciting announcements, and friends.</p> <p>A couple of us used our time in San Jose to attend <a href="http://altconf.com/">AltConf</a> this year, which had really awesome talks, interesting workshops, and plenty of chances to mingle with some great folks. And, as a slightly bittersweet bonus, it was held in a hotel right next to the San Jose Convention Center that WWDC was in, which meant we were able to interact with quite a few developers who were trekking back and forth between the two conferences.</p> <p>The talks and workshops we attended at AltConf were great — especially one workshop where we had a chance to play with the latest CoreML updates that allow you to update your models on device — but we really want to shout out the amazing experience of getting to hang out with friends and meet lots of new people. That’s always, hands down, our favorite part of the week. All in all, AltConf is a great conference, and one of our favorites every year.</p> <h3 id="layers">Layers</h3> <p><img src="/images/blog/2019-06-14/2.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p>This year, three of us went to <a href="https://layers.is/">Layers</a>, a single-track design and tech conference with amazing snacks. Layers is incredibly well-run, and if you haven’t been, we highly recommend going. Here are a few highlights from this year:</p> <h4 id="kelli-anderson">Kelli Anderson</h4> <p>As we walked into the theater to see <a href="https://kellianderson.com/blog/">Kelli Anderson</a>, we were each handed a piece of paper that looked like <a href="http://www.kellianderson.com/flexagon-template.pdf">this</a>. Before she began her talk, Kelli instructed us to start folding the paper along all of the score lines. As we folded, we learned who Kelli is: a designer, a paper engineer, and just a generally very cool person. She made books like <a href="https://kellianderson.com/books/thecamera.html">This Book Is A Camera</a>, and <a href="https://kellianderson.com/books/planetarium.html">This Book Is A Planetarium</a>. She made <a href="https://kellianderson.com/blog/2011/04/12/a-paper-record-player/">a record player out of paper</a> for her friends’ wedding invitations — yes, really. And she made an <a href="http://www.kellianderson.com/books/calculator.html">“existential calculator” volvelle wheel</a>, a fun and creative way to solve the age-old question: “Should I take that job?”</p> <p>By the time Kelli finished walking us through the joys of creating art with paper, we were done folding and ready for the next step of the talk: building our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BlVqonEB5c5/">paper flexagons</a>. She showed us how to take the flat pieces of paper we had all been given and turn them into something dynamic and fun in just a few minutes — an A+ Layers experience.</p> <h4 id="linzi-berry">Linzi Berry</h4> <p><a href="https://twitter.com/taptodismiss">Linzi Berry</a>, who leads design systems at Lyft, gave an inspiring and useful talk on design systems at the company and how she and the team used them to encode inclusive design for people of all abilities. She covered why accessible design matters, and discussed some of the tools she used at Lyft to ensure contrast and sizing was as readable as possible for all users. Most importantly, Linzi imparted some organizational anecdotes and wisdom about how to talk to others at your company, even a large one like Lyft, to obtain support for unified design systems and accessible design (spoiler: it included selfie sticks!).</p> <p>The talk left us energized about making design work for everyone and armed with the knowledge to start building more inclusive interfaces!</p> <h4 id="may-li-khoe">May-Li Khoe</h4> <p>What is there to say about <a href="http://maylikhoe.com/">May-Li Khoe</a> that hasn’t already been said? As a designer, dancer, DJ, and polymath, May-Li has worked on everything from art project protests to multitouch interfaces at Apple.</p> <p>Her talk at Layers focused on her mission in life and the thread that runs through all her recent projects: <em>joyfully subverting the status quo</em>. May-Li is “from a lot of places” and part of her upbringing all over the world taught her to think of her life as a blank canvas, not a checklist or a linear graph.</p> <p>With vivid examples from activism (<a href="http://www.ktvu.com/news/community-organizes-2nd-annual-bbq-n-while-black-party-at-lake-merritt-in-oakland">BBQ ‘N While Black</a> and <a href="http://futbolistas4lifefilm.com/">Futbolistias for Life</a>), art (<a href="https://www.michelecarlson.com/new-page">We Are Against the Wall</a>), and technology (Photo Booth and her new app <a href="http://scribbletogether.com/">Scribble Together</a>, with <a href="http://bridgermaxwell.com/">Bridger Maxwell</a>), she reminded us that designers are people that visualize what could be, help bring other people along, and help them to see it with us. She taught us that designers have a responsibility to subvert broken politics, systems, and power structures. May Li invited all of us to “make some friends and start some shit.” And that’s exactly what we plan to do.</p> <p class="gallery"><img src="/images/blog/2019-06-14/4.jpeg" alt="" /><img src="/images/blog/2019-06-14/5.jpeg" alt="" /><img src="/images/blog/2019-06-14/6.jpeg" alt="" /><img src="/images/blog/2019-06-14/7.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <blockquote> <p>If we got a chance to say hi to you in San Jose, thanks for helping make our week a fun one! And if we didn’t see you this year, let’s catch up soon. We’ve still got <a href="https://twitter.com/lickability/status/1135328556538404864">plenty of pins</a> to give out.</p> </blockquote>
</content>
<author>
<name>Jillian Meehan</name>
</author>
<category term="conferences-condensed"/>
<summary type="html">
Last week, we sent five Lickability team members to San Jose for WWDC, Layers, and AltConf. This week, we’re giving you a rundown of some of our favorite moments — strap in.
</summary>
<media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://0.0.0.0:3000/images/blog/2019-06-14/1.jpeg"/>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html">Yell it into the #void</title>
<link href="http://0.0.0.0:3000/how-we-work/2019/05/24/yell-it-into-the-void.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Yell it into the #void"/>
<published>2019-05-24T00:00:00+00:00</published>
<updated>2019-05-24T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
<id>
http://0.0.0.0:3000/how-we-work/2019/05/24/yell-it-into-the--void
</id>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://0.0.0.0:3000/how-we-work/2019/05/24/yell-it-into-the-void.html">
<p>We like to try new things in the <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/slack-is-for-friends-too-57ab3f9d9da0">Lickability Slack</a> from time to time, like inviting friends of the company to join public channels, or using an app called <a href="https://www.heytaco.chat">Hey Taco!</a> to give teammates praise in the form of 🌮 emojis. Now, we’ve added a new channel to our Slack — welcome to <code class="highlighter-rouge">#void</code>.</p> <p>What do you do with that post that doesn’t fit into any other Slack channel? <code class="highlighter-rouge">#void</code>. What do you do with that thought that probably shouldn’t be a tweet? #void. What do you do with all of the stuff that doesn’t really require a response or acknowledgement from anyone else, the stuff that you just need to get out of your system? <code class="highlighter-rouge">#void</code>.</p> <p>Sometimes you just want to scream into the void — so we made a Slack channel specifically for that. We were introduced to the idea by a similar channel, <code class="highlighter-rouge">#bad-attitude</code>, in the <a href="https://2019.xoxofest.com/">XOXO</a> Slack. So while we definitely aren’t pioneers of the <code class="highlighter-rouge">#void</code> channel, we are huge advocates of it.</p> <h3 id="why-void">Why #void?</h3> <p>Slack is for work, but when you’re spending an entire day using it, you need to be able to use it to escape from work, too. That’s why we invite friends to our public Slack channels like <code class="highlighter-rouge">#tv</code> and <code class="highlighter-rouge">#music</code> and <code class="highlighter-rouge">#food</code>. That’s also why it’s helpful to have a space where people can get out their frustration, random thoughts, or memes in a way that isn’t distracting or disruptive to other team members.</p> <p>Yelling (or, in this case, typing) into the <code class="highlighter-rouge">#void</code> is therapeutic, and often funny—and once you get those thoughts out, it’s easier to return to your work with a clear head. Of course, that can come with a downside: a channel meant for purging your thoughts can easily become a very negative or judgmental place, which we want to be mindful of (yes, <a href="https://github.com/Lickability/code-of-conduct">Code of Conduct</a> rules still very much apply).</p> <h3 id="your-turn">Your turn!</h3> <p>At the end of the day, our goal is to have a safe space for our team to get it all out. As it turns out, Slack can be that space. And it can be that space for you, too. Here’s how we suggest getting started:</p> <ol> <li>Make a new Slack channel. You don’t <em>have</em> to give it a name that suggests existential dread, but we recommend it.</li> <li>Set the channel’s topic to make the purpose super clear to everyone. We went with: “Yell about it into the void. (We recommend you mute this channel)” — which brings us to the next step.</li> <li>We strongly advise that you mute your <code class="highlighter-rouge">#void</code> channel. Since the whole point is to allow people to get out their feelings in the least disruptive way possible, you probably don’t want to be notified every time a teammate needs to do some frustrated keysmashing.</li> <li>If you’re the kind of person who likes to star Slack channels to keep them at the top of your sidebar, go ahead and star this one! <code class="highlighter-rouge">#void</code> is only helpful if you remember it’s there.</li> </ol>
</content>
<author>
<name>Jillian Meehan</name>
</author>
<category term="how-we-work"/>
<summary type="html">
We like to try new things in the Lickability Slack from time to time, like inviting friends of the company to join public channels, or using an app called Hey Taco! to give teammates praise in the form of 🌮 emojis. Now, we’ve added a new channel to our Slack — welcome to #void.
</summary>
<media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://0.0.0.0:3000/images/blog/2019-05-24/1.jpeg"/>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html">Conference Condensed: NSNorth 2019</title>
<link href="http://0.0.0.0:3000/conferences-condensed/2019/05/10/conference-condensed-nsnorth-2019.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Conference Condensed: NSNorth 2019"/>
<published>2019-05-10T00:00:00+00:00</published>
<updated>2019-05-10T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
<id>
http://0.0.0.0:3000/conferences-condensed/2019/05/10/conference-condensed--nsnorth-2019
</id>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://0.0.0.0:3000/conferences-condensed/2019/05/10/conference-condensed-nsnorth-2019.html">
<p>Two weeks ago, I stepped on stage at the St. James Theatre in Montréal to deliver my talk, <em>Growing Pains</em>, to the audience of <a href="https://nsnorth.ca">NSNorth</a>. Before that, I had the opportunity to spend the weekend learning and socializing with a delightful group of independent iOS app designers and developers in this beautiful, old city.</p> <p><img src="/images/blog/2019-05-10/2.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p class="caption">Matt outside the conference. Photo by <a href="https://twitter.com/sparklesloan">Kate Sloan</a>.</p> <p>NSNorth is the spiritual successor to <a href="http://cingleton.com/">Çingleton</a>, the conference that led us to turn Lickability <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/going-indie-87b750419242">into a business</a>. And just like Çingleton, it’s run by two lovely Canadians, <a href="https://twitter.com/_danbyers">Dan Byers</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/philippec">Philippe Casgrain</a>. The conference was a blast — here are some of my favorite moments.</p> <h3 id="friday-happy-hour--kens-keynote">Friday: Happy Hour &amp; Ken’s Keynote 🍻</h3> <p><img src="/images/blog/2019-05-10/3.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p class="caption">Attendees of NSNorth waiting for the next event</p> <p>Friday night kicked off with a happy hour to get to know all the new faces and catch up with old friends. We gathered for a keynote by one of my favorite speakers from past WWDCs, <a href="https://twitter.com/kocienda">Ken Kocienda</a>. Ken, who built the keyboard on the original iPhone, talked in-depth about the “elements” and “molecules” that combined at Apple in the mid-aughts to give birth to the most successful consumer product of all time.</p> <p>He gave me and the whole crowd lots to think about:</p> <ul> <li><em>How do you build an engineering environment that allows for rapid feedback but doesn’t encourage interruption?</em></li> <li><em>How can engineers and designers collaborate to solve really thorny problems like building a multitouch keyboard with autocorrect?</em></li> <li><em>How do you decide what to build in the first place?</em></li> </ul> <p>I’m looking forward to reading Ken’s book <a href="http://creativeselection.io/"><em>Creative Selection</em></a> to go deeper into his thoughts on how the original iOS team tackled these and other questions.</p> <h3 id="saturday-talks-tears--wheels">Saturday: Talks, Tears, &amp; Wheels 🎡</h3> <p><img src="/images/blog/2019-05-10/4.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p class="caption">Queuing up to ride La Grande Roue de Montréal</p> <p>Saturday, a rainy day in Montréal, was spent learning from some of the titans of the iOS software community. <a href="https://twitter.com/jamesthomson">James Thomson</a> of PCalc fame kicked off the morning with an impeccable walkthrough of the history of software easter eggs. We heard from <a href="https://twitter.com/alainakafkes">Alaina Kafkes</a> about how the Medium iOS team has prioritized and implemented accessibility features for their reading experience. Everyone’s favorite reverse-engineer <a href="https://twitter.com/_inside">Gui Rambo</a> gave a great talk about practical advice for approaching privacy and security in iOS apps, reminding us to consider data protection, logging, API security, and user consent and control of data handling.</p> <p>In the afternoon, I also saw my favorite presentation of the entire conference, <em>Small But Mighty</em> by <a href="https://twitter.com/hidrees">Huda Idrees</a>. Her energy was infectious as she described the social mission of her company and how small teams can solve big problems. She also reminded the audience that, as engineers and creators, “We need to be looking at falling in love with problems, instead of falling in love with solutions.”</p> <p>At lunch, we took a break from learning to ride La Grande Roue de Montréal, a large Ferris wheel in the old port, and to get to know our fellow attendees better. Afterward, <a href="https://twitter.com/dimsumthinking">Daniel Steinberg</a> delivered an emotional talk that had the entire audience in tears. He talk about the deaths of his wife and daughter, and how “the best move on the board” is often figuring out how to spend more time with those you love and finding the balance between work and the life you want to live. I’m getting choked up just writing about it.</p> <p>We capped off the evening with a delicious banquet dinner. Good wine, new friends, and connections across the table led to an evening of board games that I sadly ducked out of early to rest up for my talk on Sunday.</p> <h3 id="sunday-swift-subscriptions-and-speech">Sunday: Swift, Subscriptions, and Speech 🎙</h3> <p><img src="/images/blog/2019-05-10/5.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p class="caption">Matt mentioning Lickability in their talk. Photo by <a href="https://twitter.com/sparklesloan">Kate Sloan</a>.</p> <p>Most of my Sunday was spent pacing around mentally rehearsing my points, but I did catch <a href="https://twitter.com/chriseidhof">Chris Eidhof’s</a> virtuosic talk on Type-Driven Development in which he live-coded for an audience of hundreds, flawlessly as usual. Continuing on the theme of accessibility, <a href="https://twitter.com/_leenam">Leena Mansour</a> explained how she used her phone on VoiceOver exclusively for 7 days and taught us all about how cool and useful the VoiceOver Rotor can be for accessibility power-users. <a href="https://twitter.com/reneritchie">Rene Ritchie</a> walked us through how Mobile Nations has used tools and a remote-first culture to shape their success with iMore and other media brands. And <a href="https://twitter.com/ishabazz">Ish ShaBazz</a> shared his experience with subscriptions in his app Capsicum.</p> <p>My talk, <em>Growing Pains</em>, covered the things I’ve learned in the last 10 years building Lickability: the things that get harder as you scale and what you can do to stay sane as your team or company grows. I covered topics like how we found our own office space, how we hire engineers, and the mental health challenges of running a small business. I’m glad the talk resonated with many folks, including a few that came up to me after the conference was over, as I was exploring the city’s speakeasies, to tell me how helpful the they found the specifics I shared the tools and processes we have used to scale the business.</p> <p>Finally, the conference ended with a closing keynote from <a href="https://twitter.com/kateo">Kate O’Neill</a> that called us all to think more deeply about the humanity and ethical considerations of the products and algorithms we make. Kate’s also written a book on the topic, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tech-Humanist-Technology-Better-Business-ebook/dp/B07GBHTX9K"><em>Tech Humanist</em></a>, that she generously gifted to every attendee.</p> <h3 id="au-revoir">Au Revoir 👋</h3> <p><img src="/images/blog/2019-05-10/6.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p class="caption">Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. Photo by <a href="https://twitter.com/sparklesloan">Kate Sloan</a>.</p> <p>NSNorth is on an indefinite hiatus, but it definitely went out with a bang. I’m so honored I got to attend and present at its 5th iteration. I hope Dan and Phil enjoy a well-deserved break from the hectic life of conference organizing and that someone starts up another Canadian iOS conference soon. I’ll definitely miss the maple syrup, the bagels, and the brilliant developers and designers that made my weekend in Montréal great. 🇨🇦</p>
</content>
<author>
<name>Matthew Bischoff</name>
</author>
<category term="conferences-condensed"/>
<summary type="html">
Two weeks ago, I stepped on stage at the St. James Theatre in Montréal to deliver my talk, Growing Pains, to the audience of NSNorth. Before that, I had the opportunity to spend the weekend learning and socializing with a delightful group of independent iOS app designers and developers in this beautiful, old city.
</summary>
<media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://0.0.0.0:3000/images/blog/2019-05-10/1.jpeg"/>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html">How do you collaborate on email?</title>
<link href="http://0.0.0.0:3000/how-we-work/2019/04/26/how-do-you-collaborate-on-email.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="How do you collaborate on email?"/>
<published>2019-04-26T00:00:00+00:00</published>
<updated>2019-04-26T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
<id>
http://0.0.0.0:3000/how-we-work/2019/04/26/how-do-you-collaborate-on-email
</id>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://0.0.0.0:3000/how-we-work/2019/04/26/how-do-you-collaborate-on-email.html">
<p>Let’s just get this out of the way: most of the Lickability team uses (and loves!) <a href="https://sparkmailapp.com">Spark</a> for email. For collaboration, especially, it’s great. But that collaboration only works if everyone is using the same app, which isn’t the case in our office. Some people use Apple’s default Mail app, some people use standard Gmail, and some people — you know who you are, Matt — have even given apps like <a href="https://superhuman.com">Superhuman</a> a try. (Personally, I’m using <a href="https://polymail.io">Polymail</a> right now, and I love it. Don’t @ me.)</p> <p>So what do you do when your team wants to collaborate on email, but everyone is using a different email app?</p> <p class="noshadow"><img src="/images/blog/2019-04-26/3.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p class="caption noshadow">Email collaboration with Spark</p> <h3 id="why-collaborate">Why collaborate?</h3> <p>Let’s say you have to send an important email to a client — before you slap your signature on it and hit the “send” button, you probably want to have at least one other pair of eyes on it. Maybe there are typos you missed, maybe a sentence or two could be worded better, or maybe you just need a quick “Looks good to me” before you feel okay sending it.</p> <p>Clear and quality communication is important to us, which is why almost every email we send is done so collaboratively. Sometimes that means using an app like Spark to comment on and draft emails together, sometimes it means pasting an email draft into Slack and asking if it makes sense, and sometimes it just means saying out loud to each other, “I’m going to send this, is that okay?”</p> <p>There are pros and cons to this, of course. Collaboration often results in sending cleaner, clearer, and more effective emails, and makes the email process more transparent. Team members feel more <em>in the loop</em> when they help write an email, rather than seeing it for the first time when they’re CC’d. That said, email collaboration can eat up unnecessary time — think about how many minutes are spent asking people to look over emails before you send them when it would be quicker to just type something up and send it yourself. And in our case, just figuring out the best way to collaborate can eat up even <em>more</em> unnecessary time.</p> <p>At the end of the day, collaboration is essential — as long as you’re doing it right. So what’s the right way to do it?</p> <p><img src="/images/blog/2019-04-26/2.jpeg" alt="" /></p> <p class="caption">Sharing emails with Polymail</p> <h3 id="what-wevetried">What we’ve tried</h3> <p>We’ve yet to find the perfect solution for email collaboration. <a href="https://sparkmailapp.com/teams">Spark for Teams</a> is great, but only works if everyone on your team is using Spark. <a href="https://polymail.io/">Polymail</a> has a similar feature, and also makes it easy to create web links to emails so you can collaborate outside of the app — but, again, this is only useful if your whole team uses Polymail.</p> <p>In our <a href="https://blog.lickability.com/switching-to-notion-51d7bcd2b94c">Switching to Notion</a> blog post from a few months ago, we briefly talked about our “Email Scratchpad”: a Notion page exclusively for drafting emails together. Since then, we’ve stopped using it — it’s just not fast or convenient enough to be worth it. Copying and pasting the body of an email into Slack and editing a quick reply is quick and easy enough, so that’s often what we default to these days. But it doesn’t feel like a perfect solution.</p> <p>So we’re asking you: how do you collaborate on email with your team? Let us know on Twitter — we want to hear from you!</p>
</content>
<author>
<name>Jillian Meehan</name>
</author>
<category term="how-we-work"/>
<summary type="html">
Let’s just get this out of the way: most of the Lickability team uses (and loves!) Spark for email. For collaboration, especially, it’s great. But that collaboration only works if everyone is using the same app, which isn’t the case in our office. Some people use Apple’s default Mail app, some people use standard Gmail, and some people — you know who you are, Matt — have even given apps like Superhuman a try. (Personally, I’m using Polymail right now, and I love it. Don’t @ me.)
</summary>
<media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://0.0.0.0:3000/images/blog/2019-04-26/1.jpeg"/>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html">We Were On TV!</title>
<link href="http://0.0.0.0:3000/whats-new/2019/04/12/we-were-on-tv.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="We Were On TV!"/>
<published>2019-04-12T00:00:00+00:00</published>
<updated>2019-04-12T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
<id>
http://0.0.0.0:3000/whats-new/2019/04/12/we-were-on-tv
</id>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://0.0.0.0:3000/whats-new/2019/04/12/we-were-on-tv.html">
<p>Back in December, we got an email from CBS about <a href="https://www.cbs.com/shows/innovation_nation/"><em>The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca</em></a>, a weekly Saturday morning show that covers all kinds of innovators and change-makers. They told us they had been researching our company and thought our app <a href="https://acceleratorapp.com">Accelerator</a> would be a great fit for a segment. 🥳</p> <p class="caption gallery"><img src="/images/blog/2019-04-12/2.jpeg" alt="" /><img src="/images/blog/2019-04-12/3.jpeg" alt="" /> <em>A day of filming at Lickability HQ</em></p> <p>Weeks later, the CBS crew showed up at our office for a day of filming our spot for <em>Innovation Nation</em>, which just aired last Saturday morning. Matt, Brian, and Twig talked to the cohost Alie Ward all about the technology behind Accelerator and how it went from an idea they had back in college to an app that Lickability continues developing today—alongside all of the other <a href="https://lickability.com/about">work</a> we do.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It’s Epic <a href="https://t.co/QYIkfOfsjq">pic.twitter.com/QYIkfOfsjq</a></p>&mdash; Matthew Bischoff (@mb) <a href="https://twitter.com/mb/status/1114528024089772032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 6, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p class="caption"><em>Our viewing party!</em></p> <p>We got up bright and early on Saturday morning to gather in the office with our friends and family and watch the show together — complete with waffles, coffee, and mimosas, of course. We want to say a big thanks to everyone who watched the show (thanks, Mom!) and to the lovely team at <em>Innovation Nation</em> for their support of Accelerator!</p>
</content>
<author>
<name>Team Lickability</name>
</author>
<category term="whats-new"/>
<summary type="html">
Back in December, we got an email from CBS about The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca, a weekly Saturday morning show that covers all kinds of innovators and change-makers. They told us they had been researching our company and thought our app Accelerator would be a great fit for a segment. 🥳
</summary>
<media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://0.0.0.0:3000/images/blog/2019-04-12/1.jpeg"/>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html">Podcasts We Can’t Live Without</title>
<link href="http://0.0.0.0:3000/stuff-we-like/2019/03/22/podcasts-we-can-t-live-without.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Podcasts We Can’t Live Without"/>
<published>2019-03-22T00:00:00+00:00</published>
<updated>2019-03-22T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
<id>
http://0.0.0.0:3000/stuff-we-like/2019/03/22/podcasts-we-can-t-live-without
</id>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://0.0.0.0:3000/stuff-we-like/2019/03/22/podcasts-we-can-t-live-without.html">
<p>It’s probably happened to you: you’re out at a party with a few of your friends, and all of a sudden, you’re comparing podcast subscriptions. (No? Just us? Okay.) We’ve shared and critiqued each other’s podcast-listening choices plenty of times in the office, so we figured it was about time to extend that courtesy to you. Read on to find out what some of our favorite podcasts are and why we love them so much.</p> <h3 id="cartridge">Cartridge</h3> <p>Brought to you by our very own Andrew Harrison and Michael Liberatore, <a href="https://cartridge.simplecast.fm">Cartridge</a> is the only podcast about video games you’ll ever need (okay, we’re biased).</p> <p><strong>Why we love it:</strong> It’s about video games! And we like video games!</p> <h3 id="99-invisible">99% Invisible</h3> <p>If you’re someone who loves to notice all the tiny details that go unnoticed, <a href="https://99percentinvisible.org">this podcast</a> is for you. Roman Mars’ voice + really in-depth narrative storytelling about design and architecture = magic.</p> <p><strong>Why we love it:</strong> It keeps us looking up and paying attention to the details.</p> <h3 id="cortex">Cortex</h3> <p>Hosted by CGP Grey and Myke Hurley, <a href="https://www.relay.fm/cortex">Cortex</a> is what happens when two nerds who know they should probably get back to work decide instead to spend two hours talking about time-tracking and old business books. And we *love *it.</p> <p><strong>Why we love it:</strong> Productivity porn. Enough said.</p> <h3 id="do-byfriday">Do By Friday</h3> <p><a href="http://dobyfriday.com">Do By Friday</a> is a podcast where our pals (and yours) Merlin Mann, Alex Cox, and Max Temkin challenge themselves and their friends every week. Challenges have ranged from “Solve a mystery,” to “Make bacon,” to “Wash your hands.” Hilarity and politics ensue.</p> <p><strong>Why we love it:</strong> It is almost impossible to get through an episode without laughing.</p> <h3 id="friendshipping">Friendshipping!</h3> <p><a href="https://friendshipping.simplecast.fm">Jenn and Trin</a> are here to solve all of the weird, icky friendship problems that we don’t know how to deal with. They give real (but not harsh!) advice for friendship-related questions sent in by listeners — and they do it beautifully.</p> <p><strong>Why we love it:</strong> It manages to make dealing with even the trickiest friendship troubles fun.</p> <h3 id="swift-overcoffee">Swift Over Coffee</h3> <p>What’s not to like about two guys having a friendly chat about Swift? Paul Hudson and Sean Allen cover all kinds of Swift news on <a href="https://anchor.fm/swiftovercoffee">this podcast</a>, as well as topics suggested by the iOS community via open ballot.</p> <p><strong>Why we love it:</strong> It’s about a topic very close to our hearts, and we genuinely appreciate Paul and Sean’s work in the Swift community.</p> <h3 id="how-i-built-this-with-guyraz">How I Built This with Guy Raz</h3> <p><a href="https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this">How I Built This</a> is the ultimate *inspiration *podcast. Hosted by Guy Raz, this podcast about all kinds of innovators — basically, it’s about people who are doing cool things and how they’re making it happen. If you have an interest in building things, this podcast is the motivation you need to follow through.</p> <p><strong>Why we love it:</strong> We love learning about how others have found success and the journeys that led them to it.</p> <h3 id="watch-out-for-fireballs">Watch Out for Fireballs!</h3> <p><a href="https://www.watchoutforfireballs.com">Watch Out for Fireballs!</a> is a game club (think <em>book club</em>, but for video games) podcast on which Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross discuss a single game at length in each episode.</p> <p><strong>Why we love it:</strong> After covering generalities, mechanics, and impressions, the hosts talk about each and every area or level of the game chronologically, making it a joy to play along while listening.</p> <h3 id="bonfireside-chat">Bonfireside Chat</h3> <p>In <a href="https://www.bonfireside.chat">Bonfireside Chat</a>, Gary and Kole of Watch Out for Fireballs! dive even deeper into games like Dark Souls (one of our favorites) with entire seasons devoted to specific games.</p> <p><strong>Why we love it:</strong> It’s everything we love about Watch Out for Fireballs, but way more in-depth. Both shows are evergreen.</p> <h3 id="call-your-girlfriend">Call Your Girlfriend</h3> <p>Everyone has long-distance besties, but not everyone is cool enough to make a <a href="https://www.callyourgirlfriend.com">podcast</a> with them. Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow call each other every week to talk about politics, pop culture, and how they do what they do.</p> <p><strong>Why we love it:</strong> This duo is smart, inspiring, and just a delight to listen to.</p> <h3 id="honorable-mentions">Honorable mentions</h3> <p><a href="http://5by5.tv/b2w/">Back to Work</a> ∙ <a href="https://www.blacksintechnology.net">Blacks in Technology</a> ∙ <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ios-dev-discussions-sean-allen/id1426167395?mt=2">iOS Dev Discussions</a> ∙ <a href="https://www.moneyguy.com">The Money Guy Show</a> ∙ <a href="https://www.relay.fm/radar">Under The Radar</a> ∙ <a href="https://soundcloud.com/thesuitepodcast">The Suite Podcast</a> ∙ <a href="https://stacktracepodcast.fm">StackTrace</a> ∙ <a href="https://www.relay.fm/rd">Reconcilable Differences</a> ∙ <a href="https://www.relay.fm/rocket">Rocket</a> ∙ <a href="http://www.merlinmann.com/roderick/">Roderick on the Line</a> ∙ <a href="https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all">Reply All</a> ∙ <a href="http://videogameshotdog.com">Video Games Hot Dog</a> ∙ <a href="https://glitch.com/culture/function/">Function with Anil Dash</a> ∙ <a href="https://www.theverge.com/the-vergecast">The Vergecast</a> ∙ <a href="https://www.gimletmedia.com/the-cut-on-tuesdays">The Cut on Tuesdays</a> ∙ <a href="https://www.whoweekly.us">Who? Weekly</a> ∙ <a href="https://www.swiftbysundell.com/podcast">Swift by Sundell</a> ∙ <a href="https://releasenotes.tv">Release Notes</a> ∙ <a href="https://punchupthejam.com">Punch Up The Jam</a></p>
</content>
<author>
<name>Team Lickability</name>
</author>
<category term="stuff-we-like"/>
<summary type="html">
It’s probably happened to you: you’re out at a party with a few of your friends, and all of a sudden, you’re comparing podcast subscriptions. (No? Just us? Okay.) We’ve shared and critiqued each other’s podcast-listening choices plenty of times in the office, so we figured it was about time to extend that courtesy to you. Read on to find out what some of our favorite podcasts are and why we love them so much.
</summary>
<media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://0.0.0.0:3000/images/blog/2019-03-22/1.jpeg"/>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html">Growing our Small Business</title>
<link href="http://0.0.0.0:3000/how-we-work/2019/02/15/growing-our-small-business.html" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Growing our Small Business"/>
<published>2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00</published>
<updated>2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
<id>
http://0.0.0.0:3000/how-we-work/2019/02/15/growing-our-small-business
</id>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://0.0.0.0:3000/how-we-work/2019/02/15/growing-our-small-business.html">
<p>In case you haven’t noticed, <a href="http://jobs.lickability.com/">we’re hiring</a>. Expanding a small team like ours can be a weird, tricky process, so we thought we’d share a little bit about how we do it.</p> <h3 id="when-wehire">When we hire</h3> <p>We consider ourselves risk-conscious at Lickability, which means that we tend to be fairly conservative about hiring. We hire new employees based on an existing or immediate upcoming need, rather than trying to anticipate too far into the future. Because of that, we tend not to take on a lot of projects, which means we are far less likely to be caught in a position where we’ve just hired someone and don’t have anything to work on. It’s important to us that new employees feel like they have an important role at the company from the start, and the way we approach hiring helps us accomplish that.</p> <p>So, how do we decide it’s time to hire someone new? The short answer is that it depends on how much work we have. We look at our current list of clients, our contracts, and any existing leads that we have. If we have more upcoming projects than we have engineers, it’s time to consider bringing on a new team member.</p> <h3 id="who-wehire">Who we hire</h3> <p>Most of the time, the new employees we hire are Swift engineers. But because Lickability is a small, relatively young company, it’s not uncommon for us to realize we need to hire someone to fill a totally new role.</p> <p>To decide what positions we need to hire for, we take a look at the responsibilities that we’re either lacking or currently taking on ourselves. Then we try to shape a role around some, or all, of those responsibilities. A big part of writing a job description for a brand new role is looking at companies we admire and compete with that have the same position. Once we’ve read and talked to folks about how <em>they</em>structured a role, we can come up with something that’s right for us.</p> <p>Keeping in mind that the person who fits our specific needs has to actually exist, we try to limit requirements (like education and years of experience) to only what’s truly necessary. Having job requirements that aren’t <em>actually</em> requirements tends to <a href="https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified">systematically discourage</a> women and other underrepresented groups from applying, and that’s the last thing we want. Being honest and clear about what we actually need — and being willing to compromise and change our job description if the applicants we see fit a slightly different profile better — is key when it comes to hiring for positions we’re less familiar with.</p> <h3 id="how-wehire">How we hire</h3> <p>Our hiring process has three steps: a phone screen, a take-home project, and an interview. The phone screen is a quick conversation to help us get a basic understanding of a person’s skills and personality. After a candidate passes the phone screen, we send them a small project to complete, relevant to the skills we’re looking for, that helps us get an understanding of what they consider to be their best work. Then, finally, the in-person interview is when we ask the candidate questions about the code test, their technical knowledge, and what would make them a good fit for our team.</p> <p>We adhere fairly strictly to this process, and use the same take-home project and set of interview questions for everyone, which allows us to create a baseline for comparing applicants. We don’t believe in timed coding or algorithmic questions, instead striving to create an environment in our interviews that feels much closer to what it would be like if they were actually working here. For example, applicants can use their laptops to look up documentation and Google answers to questions if they need to, and they’re encouraged to ask questions and generate discussion during the interview.</p> <p>The nice thing about hiring is that we have the chance to refine the process every time we do it, and if there’s one thing we love at Lickability, it’s figuring out how to do things better. If that sounds like you too, <a href="http://jobs.lickability.com/"><strong>come work with us</strong></a>.</p>
</content>
<author>
<name>Jillian Meehan</name>
</author>
<category term="how-we-work"/>
<summary type="html">
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re hiring. Expanding a small team like ours can be a weird, tricky process, so we thought we’d share a little bit about how we do it.
</summary>
<media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://0.0.0.0:3000/images/mastheads/masthead-products.jpg"/>
</entry>
</feed>