Ringzz is a very ambitious project whose goal is to present the best application available on the market regarding “secure messaging”, supported by a state-of-the-art message and call encryption system. We were hired in order to take over Product Management and ensure the development of fundamental functions and timely release to the market.
We were hired at a time when the project had been worked on internally for some time, but without a clear vision of when to enter the market or when the product was "good enough". Our task consisted of integrating with the in-house team of developers, understanding the entire project, defining the development phases and leading the project all the way to market release, and potentially longer.
The main challenge was to find a balance between product quality excellence, required by management, and the speed of market release. The ambitions of the owners included creating data encryption that would be the best on the market and which would thus obliterate the already quite strong competition that had been operating successfully in this field for years. On the other hand, it was necessary to take a pragmatic approach and enter the market as soon as possible, in order for users to test the product and based on their feedback, further improvements would be made.
To create a mobile application for "safe messaging" that would be the most secure on the market, whose message and call encryption would set new standards and take over the market from the already numerous and strong competitors. In addition, to also develop popular features for using the application for business purposes, and match with even giant systems such as Slack.
We started by researching the numerous competitors and testing their mobile applications, which we were to surpass in the future. The focus of the research was on two areas - encryption and data security, and the function of the application for business purposes. The result was reflected in the large product specification of the largest players on the market.
Encryption itself is not an unknown concept and we have already encountered it on various projects. However, creating an encryption that would be different and better than anything currently on the market is a completely different requirement and it involved a lot of work, starting with understanding existing solutions and their shortcomings, and then working with the technical team to design ours, that would serve as a better solution.
The project had been under development for a long time. And yet, in the aforementioned strive for perfection and originality, it is often difficult to draw the line and decide when a product is finally good enough to be released to the market. One of the most difficult tasks was to separate what needs to be developed in the early stages of the project, before launching, and what to leave for later stages. We created a roadmap and stood firm in following it, so that the product could finally see the light of day.
The mobile team we worked with consisted of Android and iOS developers who were involved in application development, but also architects and experienced backend developers who were in charge of encryption. Development took place through sprints, and frequent new ideas and improvements were simultaneously discussed with the owners, and included in the backlog whenever the dynamics allowed it.
The initial entry into the market focused on "friends & family", where the company that developed the product would start to use it in their daily communication, then gradually present it to their clients and associates. In the upcoming phases of the project, we hope to enter the "wider" market and realize the ambition of the owner, to make Ringzz the number 1 app for "secure messaging".
State-of-the-art message and call encryption, that is impossible to break, and that would guarantee the users maximum security
Business features such as slack channels and integration with external tools, that would pave the way to business use for the application
The “Vault” (safe) feature, that would put a certain number of conversations under lock and key
Settings for "self-destructible" messages after a certain amount of time
