From Small Beginnings

Before designing the app we wanted to truly understand the senseis pain points and what goals they are trying to achieve. This is where Kumaran’s speciality as a Product Leader helped define the actual problems and solve it in a way that help Sesnseis save time rather than digitise theirexisting processes.

As we collaborated with the Senseis we started to understand that the tech literacy of the Senseis varied a lot. This was an important learning that fed into our design of the app. This allows us to really showcase one of our core design principles of simple, elegant and intuitive design.Our goal was to design an app that anybody can start using with no or minimum handholding.

Another big learning was that there were 2 distinct users of the app. The Sensei and the Member. Both have different needs and goals to achieve via the app. Although we had an idea we didn’t know to what extent the differences were. If we thought the tech literacy range was big with thebetween Senseis the difference between members multiple times bigger.

For the members there is also managing family plans with multiple members with different classes and belt levels. This was a complex problem to solve and keep it simple and easy to use. This took us multiple iterations to get it right, working closely with Senseis and some of their members.This also showcased to the Senseis that we release features and continuously improve them from the feedback we receive.

Collaborating closely with the Senseis, we learnt about the values, principles and the community. This resonated with all of our individual values. Having this understanding allowed us to pour this into our design as we built the app.

Terry, worked collaboratively with the Senseis creating prototypes to show them how to improve their flows and automate payments, scheduling, etc to better manage their clubs and save them admin time.

Terry’s background in drawing illustrations for children's books and his operational background he was able to understand the complexities of members and was able to design the app that was simple, intuitive and elegant. Once the Senseis were onboard with the prototype, we were able to move on tobuilding the app.

When you build an app it's not just a one off cost of building an app. There are ongoing costs of running it, maintaining it, supporting it, growing and improving it. This also includes payment processing costs.

For this reason we decided to build the App as a Progressive Web App (PWA) rather than an iOS (iPhone) and Android App. Although it's a PWA App it feels and behaves as a normal App for the most part.

One thing most people are not aware of is that Apple and Google charge up to 30% of the transaction fees if the payment is processed by them. Each club owner needs to actively manage their Apps store reviews. This adds additional admin work which we were trying to remove.

We wanted to give the Senseis peace of mind. This was reflected in how we went about making technical decisions and building the App.

Chris, comes from a strong data background and is concious about data protection, security and privacy. As such, Mokuso doesn’t have anytracking cookies or hidden user tracking. We've been careful to only capture absolutely necessary personal data to provide a service and only to provide the service.

We also wanted to build the app in such a way that the subscription money goes directly into the Senseis account and they are in total control.

For the initial release we integrated with Stripe and made it easy for the Senseis to connect their Stripe account with the Mokuso App. Keeping it simple, so that the Senseis just need to copy two fields from Stripe into Mokuso App.

As we spent a lot of time building the App and collaborating with the Senseis and their members we were investing a lot of emotional energy into the app. It was starting to become our baby.

We wanted to give the App a name that gave it a personality that represents what we are about. We came up with the name Mokuso, it's the Japanese Martial Arts term for meditation or quiet reflection before practice.

We are the silent calm partners who give the Senseis a calm and clear mind running their Dojo. From that Mokuso was born.

We knew we had designed and built a good app, the Senseis and members who were involved in the design were very happy and full of praiseabout the app.

When we started demoing the app to other Senseis and started getting compliments about the app, especially the simplicity and ease of use, we knew we had a good product and we could really add value to Senseis.

It wasn’t a single feedback but the compound effect is what really got us excited.