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Built to spec · 2024
FrontendConceptMobile · 2024

Closely App

Social-dating prototype, match flow + plan-a-night-out group invites.

Role
Frontend
Year
2024
Category
Mobile
Stack
React NativeRedux ToolkitJavaScriptiOSAndroid

02 · Outcomes

What the build actually shipped.

Numbers, not adjectives. The stats below are pulled from production. Anything still live, still measured.

Built

to spec

2024

Frontend

scope

mobile

2+

tech in stack

React Native · Redux

2024

shipped

year of build

03 · Overview

What it does.

Dating app with a twist: matching is built around real plans, not endless swipes. Pick a place, invite a date or a group of friends, settle the night out without the usual ten-message coordination. Prototype-stage build, design system, match flow, and group-invite mechanics all working end-to-end.

05 · Process

How the build actually ran.

Four phases. Each one with a deliverable the client could see, not a slide deck of intent.

  1. 01

    Conversation

    Mapped the audience, the core flows, the constraints. Stack picks came after the user story — they followed what the product had to do, not the other way around.

  2. 02

    Plan

    Schema-first. Data flow, service boundaries, what gets cached and where. The boring decisions made on purpose so the build above them stays honest.

  3. 03

    Build

    Frontend, backend, deployment, the operational pages. Honest weekly demos, no Tuesday-before-launch heroics, no hidden scope.

  4. 04

    Ship & Maintain

    Store / web release cycles, monitoring, analytics, the dull work that decides whether a launch survives 48 hours. Documented handover.

06 · Decisions

The choices that shaped the build.

Tech is downstream of decisions. These are the calls made early enough to compound the right way. The ones a code review six months later still agrees with.

End-to-end ownership

One engineer from schema to deploy. Removes the most expensive failure mode in product builds — the seam between specs and code where intent dies.

Schema before UI

Data shapes first, screens second. The frontend is a view of the data, not a parallel reality. Saves weeks of rework when scope shifts.

Boring tech where it matters

Relational stores for payments and ledgers (ACID is non-negotiable), document stores for content, Redis for cache. Pick the dull tool for the dull job.

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06 · Let’s build

Have something to ship?

I take 4–5 freelance projects a year. Cold pitches welcome. I reply within 24 hours on weekdays.

hello@suzunovic.dev