X Company needed to bring their large, inspiring vision to life. They thought big, and they needed a partner that was aligned with their holistic vision. Read how Foxbox was able to help.

How Foxbox Digital Powers The X Company

 serves residents who prefer the live-work-play lifestyle, but with a twist—all done from home.

The X Company provides a state-of-the-art living space and social club with incredible amenities, including a rooftop pool, gym, neighborhood bar, private workspaces, as well as professional and social events.

It’s safe to say: The X Company is different.

The X Company is currently active in six markets and rapidly expanding with 5,000 beds in their current portfolio and over $1B in construction activity.

They wanted a digital platform that improves upon the industry norm of the disconnected, poor experiences between residents and property managers.

Foxbox was perfectly positioned to help them. And that’s what we did.

"You can tell that Foxbox cares. That they really wanted to understand what we’re building. The app has a lot of technical complexity. We tried, and failed, building it before with another app developer prior to Foxbox. 

."

- Ben Brichta, Partner, The X Company

Here’s a little behind the scenes of how we made it happen.

It’s Not an App, It’s a Business Platform.

The X Company app is much more than a beautiful, convenient, and easy-to-use app for members. The custom-built platform powers the everyday business of their growing residential buildings.

The ability to easily scale with every new residential community construction.

When The X Company builds a new residential building and community, their digital-first platform allows them to easily expand to support the new local community within a few weeks.

Support members faster, with greater impact.

With this platform and some technical magic, we were able to allow The X Company community managers to use one platform, not 10.

We built an experience where a community admin can create a new residential user in their dashboard and automatically give proper permissions throughout all of the systems in one click, instead of the five screens and systems they would have done before.

Dashboard reporting that helps community managers and leadership understand how every service is being utilized.

With an ever-increasing amount of units becoming available, reporting how the residents are using the services becomes an important part of analyzing and improving core services.

We built a dashboard analytics view into how the residents were using their digital services along with their physical space experiences. This dashboard allows community managers and leadership to understand exactly how their services are utilized, when they're utilized, and what locations utilize them.

It’s Beautiful. It’s Powerful. It’s Secure. It Gives the Comfort of Modern Living for a New Type of Workforce.

The X Company, clearly different from the rest, wanted to make sure their residents’ experiences were digitally enabled.

"Your apartment building should be more than a dull stack of boxes. That’s why we don’t build apartments. We build social living communities for awesome people to thrive together."

- The X Company

Grant and revoke resident access in an instant, securely.

The X Company platform is secured by multi-factor authentication, with additional back-end security protections that protect residents when they lose phone access.

Mobile/Keyless entry that works online and offline.

The X Company App allows every resident to access every door from their bedroom to the garage and shared spaces. For common entries, the residents simply need to wave their hand in front of the sensor, as long as their phone is near them or in their pockets.

The app can grant temporary and secure access to friends, family, dog walkers, and more, all from within the app.

Real-time communication between residents and community managers.

Most platforms have an email-based or portal-based communication system which de-prioritizes response times. Our custom-built platform allows residents to speak with community managers in real-time through a chat-based support system integrated directly into the app.

Residents can use the app to find and book available conference rooms in addition to reserving and inviting friends to carefully curated social events. Entrepreneurial events, financial planning, and Yoga—you name it, they have it.

A Digital-First Community, Powered by Top-Notch Engineering, Design, and Product Teams.

The last thing The X Company needed was an app or development partner. They needed a firm to bring their large, inspiring vision to life. They thought big, and they needed a partner that was aligned with their holistic vision.

With our product strategy, visual design, and engineering sessions all running through our human-centered design process, we acted as a true digital transformation partner.

"Foxbox didn’t build requirements as a pass-through developer. The team really dug in and fit into the ecosystem and questioned what added value. They came to the assignment with a holistic understanding outside of the original scope of work. We enjoyed that."

- Ben Brichta, Partner, The X Company

We were the first company to implement two of the major digital lock platforms in one app (Avigilon and Salto KS).

The technical complexity of this cannot be understated.

Avigilon (formerly OpenPath) and Salto KS are digital access control platforms for apartment locks and common doors that are traditionally used as white-labeled platforms.

But we needed an experience that was seamless for community managers and residents, so we went the custom route. This allowed users to not only access their personal apartment locks but also amenities and remote unlock features.

Not only were we the first team to implement both Avigilon Mobile SDK and Salto KS in a single app, we were the first team to implement the Avigilon SDK.

"Foxbox Digital did an amazing job with implementing our SDK. As our first commercial user, we were delighted to see how well of a job they engineered the solution while providing a great digital experience for The X Company’s residents. Foxbox Digital is an engineering powerhouse, and they are the real deal."

- James Segil, OpenPath CEO

We integrated 11 platforms in the name of customer experience:

Avigilon and Salto KS - Digital Access Control Systems

Mixpanel - Product Analytics and Marketing Automation

We developed the X platform using these technologies:

React Native - cross-platform mobile framework for iOS and Android

Native iOS and Android bridges to support digital access control

Elixir - backend API powering the platform

Docker & Kubernetes - reliable, scalable cloud hosting infrastructure

The X Company Digital Platform Is the Future of Work and Play Residential Communities.

The X Company is one of the most innovative, if not the most innovative, residential buildings on the market. They are constantly pushing the status quo of what living, working, and playing should look like.

When we had the opportunity to work with The X Company, we jumped at the chance. Together, we were able to build a digital solution that transforms their current and future residential buildings.

How Foxbox Digital Powers The X Company: A Rapidly Expanding Residential Community With Over 5,000 Units and $1 Billion in Construction Activity

Just as the spread of COVID-19 was gaining momentum, Anthem launched a virtual care app, Sydney Care. Find out how Foxbox Digital collaborated with the Sydney Care team as the lead mobile app development partner.

How We Helped Anthem Launch a Mobile Telehealth Product During a Pandemic

On January 1st, 2020, just as the spread of COVID-19 was gaining momentum, 

, Inc., a leading health benefits company that serves over 110 million people through their affiliated companies, launched a virtual care app, 

Foxbox Digital collaborated with the Sydney Care team as the lead mobile app development partner, because of Foxbox’s experience and deep knowledge of 

Sydney Care, available on iOS and Android, utilizes AI-driven guidance to empower users to assess their symptoms and then choose the virtual care option that’s best for them. Additionally, through its COVID-19 Resource Center, Sydney Care provides an end-to-end solution that helps employees more safely return to the workplace.

“We built a solution that some of our customers have reviewed as being ‘life-changing.’ The ability to address health issues without physically going to a doctor, and in the comfort of their own home, is a rewarding experience to be part of, and we continue to see the growing impact of our telehealth platform.”

- Plamen Petrov, Ph.D., Vice President, Exponential Technologies, Anthem, Inc.

In 2020, Sydney Care was downloaded over 260,000 times, while thousands of users continue to utilize the application daily to diagnose symptoms and seek guidance for their health conditions from a device that lives in their pockets. Additionally, over 41,000 people have assessed their COVID-19 symptoms using Sydney Care.

The pandemic has forced many professionals to work from home and prevented critical care for many non-COVID patients. Sydney Care became a desired application for many people who needed preventative care, and also consumers with chronic illnesses.

“I was able to quickly chat with a doctor this afternoon about allergies and pick up my prescription within an hour. This beat taking 3-hours out of my workday, fighting traffic, and sitting in a waiting room (especially right now during a pandemic) to see a doctor. I found a new way to do health care,”

- jscrmil1, 04/14/2020 iOS App Store

A Delightful Mobile Experience (Built in React Native)

As the React Native mobile development experts, we interacted with Anthem’s Product, UX, Business, Integration, Authentication, Backend Development, and Security teams to build both iOS and Android native applications, using a single React Native codebase.

React Native allowed us to develop one app that works natively on iOS and Android instead of building two separate apps with disconnected codebases. Using React Native as the programming language enabled Anthem to streamline development and maintenance costs while still creating a stellar mobile consumer experience.

Through our collaboration and contributions, we delivered these core features and benefits:

Integrated Video and Chat for Virtual Doctor Visits

: Chat in real-time over video and text with healthcare providers.

:This triage functionality in the app allows a seamless experience for consumers to check their symptoms and get personalized guidance.

:A login-less experience for existing customers, as well as integration with other insurance providers.

: All of the technical enterprise security protocols needed without sacrificing the experience for the consumer.

: The ability to pay via credit, debit, or via insurance provider, all within the app.

A COVID-19 Return to Workplace Solution Built in 10 days

As Covid-19 started growing, we quickly pivoted along with Anthem’s product and design teams to develop an AI-powered Covid-19 daily-check in solution that helps protect workers by keeping potentially infected employees away from the workplace.

We developed the front-end and back-end of this new functionality and published on both app stores (iOS and Android) within 10 days—in addition to a previously-created COVID-19 assessment solution. This service is currently being used by many large organizations, some with 30,000+ employees, and more partnerships to come.

Better Healthcare Experiences Start with a Seamless Digital Experience

Together, with the partnership of Anthem’s robust global design, product, and integrated teams, we assisted in the development of an easy-to-use, direct-to-consumer mobile telehealth solution. With the added complexity of working within an enterprise environment, we continued to be flexible and agile in our approach of acting like a startup within an enterprise.

We’re honored to work alongside a leader in healthcare and innovation.

“They are professionals, talented, smart. They are committed, with a very strong core team. They owned the problem."

- Elliott Torres, Staff VP, AI and Architecture

Discover why more and more companies are choosing React Native to build innovative digital products.

Why CTOs Should Choose React Native as Mobile Platform

I’ll be honest, for the first eight years after iOS was released, building an application natively within iOS made sense and was the only proper decision to make. 

 had promise but lacked many core features and UX experiences that it didn’t make sense to switch over.

Native apps are considered the gold standard and offer the best overall performance, user experience, and access to hardware-related features such as support for multi-touch gestures, access to the camera, GPS, calendar, accelerometer, and much more.

But now the mobile world has moved on and React Native is the right decision for many companies.

React Native has transformed the whole dualistic notion of iOS vs. Android by creating beautiful apps for both platforms from one codebase—without compromising on the UX and UI. On a React Native app, everything you see and touch is native.

So unless you are Uber or Airbnb and can afford to spend money and time on exclusive native mobile development, your business really should be using React Native as its development platform of choice.

The reason is fairly straightforward. With React Native, you have a best-in-class framework that is optimal for 95% of all business use cases.

React Native is especially good news for CTOs and VPs of Engineering because instead of hiring two additional development teams for Android and iOS, you can leverage your existing web development team to build your mobile app. React Native represents the best organizational choice for CTOs and VPs today.

I didn’t want to start with this because I don’t think “

” is a valid excuse, but the maturity of React Native makes it an easier business case for your organization.

React Native was introduced in 2015 and underwent the initial stable release in July 2019. Over the past four years, it has become a robust worldwide open-source community with over 

 contributors on GitHub—and, of course, with the backing of Facebook. It’s also the 

 of contributors for any repository on GitHub in 2018.

React Native developers are continually building new libraries, updates, and projects. With cross-platform compatibility, shorter development cycles, faster releases, live code pushes and updates, and overall performance improvements, many have come to see React Native as the future of mobile development.

Facebook originally developed React Native as a hackathon to support its cross-platform needs. The beauty of React Native is that, unlike “hybrid” mobile app solutions, it uses native UI elements instead of rendering the entire application inside of a WebView. Your business logic is run in a separate JavaScript thread, which then controls the native UI elements. In the “old days,” companies had to develop native apps for both Android and iOS from scratch.

React Native allows developers to write code in just one language, JavaScript, then build binaries for Android and iOS. It eliminates the need to hire both iOS and Android developers to write dual applications, and this represents a huge benefit in terms of productivity, costs, and time to market. Not to mention the reduced hiring burden!

As a CTO, you’re most comfortable managing a company you understand. If you happen to be an Android “guy and need to hire an iOS developer, you’re not speaking the same language and have to work extra cycles to get everyone on the same page. This can easily lead to operations hang-ups and production slowdowns.

Being able to write once and port across each major platform means a considerable improvement in the operation of your organization. The ability to place resources on different projects and not have to worry about skillsets and whether a developer can write Swift, Objective-C, Kotlin, or Java is a huge relief.

Nearly 67% of all developers use JavaScript already, so it’s an easy sell for using React Native to improve operational efficiency across the enterprise.

There are many ways React Native saves organizations time and money. Obviously, the “one code for all” is a huge advantage as it cuts down on the learning curve and the number of hands on deck required for developing an application. It’s also open source and has a robust and growing community of ready-made components and support.

In fact, something like 95% of the React Native codebase is shared between iOS and Android. These are just some of the many reasons why React Native leads to significant improvements in ROI over hiring native developers.

As good as React Native is for all-around performance, cost savings, and portability, a few use cases will stand out that require a pure native look and feel. These are going to be the high-end enterprises, such as Airbnb and Uber that have money to spend on super-polishing their native application.

For the “rest of us,” which means 90%-95% of the business use cases, React Native will provide your organization with a highly engaging enterprise application. In other words, the reasons for not using React Native are going to be negligible.

In terms of cost-savings, increased efficiencies, and the overall native look and feel that users experience, React Native is a no-brainer!

Yes, not every app should be built with React Native. Here are some reasons to go full native:

You’re creating something with complex animations and interactions, like an interactive game.

You’re building something that’s CPU intensive, like editing photos. In that case, you could either go full native or write the complex logic in native and bridge it to React Native.

You’re creating something out-of-the-box with unconventional UI patterns. Native might be a better choice in that case.

For CTO’s, quickly getting the right products to market is all that matters. As a “learn once, write everywhere” framework, React Native cuts down enormously on the cycles required to develop and deploy user-friendly and engaging products to market. React Native is arguably one of the biggest breakthroughs in mobile application development in recent years.

, this cross-compatible platform has transformed the way companies develop enterprise-grade applications—with less learning curves, shorter development cycles, faster releases, and overall cost savings.

We’ve been using React Native since I founded the company and aren’t looking back anytime soon. You can learn more about our React Native development services 

P.S. If you’re trying to decide between React Native and other cross-platform mobile frameworks, 

Why CTOs Should Choose React Native as Their Mobile Development Platform

Nearly all business executives today believe that Agile is critical to business success. If you’re launching a digital product (or considering one) then you won’t want to miss this recent podcast on Enterprise Radio where our CEO Rob Volk discusses why more and more companies are choosing Agile and React Native to build innovative products. 

The Agile and Mobile Revolution with Rob Volk, Founder of Foxbox Digital

In July 2017, Forbes interviewed more than 500 senior executives from around the world, and 92% said they believe organizational agility is critical to business success. If you’re considering a digital product or roadmap, or are just curious about what Agile is and how it helps companies grow, then this podcast is a must-listen.

I sit down with Eric Dye of Enterprise Radio

 to talk about Agile and why more and more companies are adopting this transformative approach to mobile development.

Please listen to the podcast in the link above, and for those that like to browse ahead, check out our show notes.

1:49 — My goal in building Foxbox Digital was to help large companies build with the agility of a startup while using modern development practices.

2:15 — React Native is a really phenomenal cross-platform mobile framework and the reason I like it is because I think it's well-suited to 90% of the apps out there. It's something that gives you the benefits of cross-platform so you have one code base and one team building for both iOS and Android.

3:47 — Typically, the reason companies decide they need Agile is because they’re experiencing some symptoms, such as late project delivery or reliability issues that come up during the integration phase (or worse, when the product has gone live).

4:53 — In order for Agile to work for everyone, the entire organization has to be bought in. This means the UX folks, the product owners, the developers, DevOps, etc. must be brought out of their silos—so everyone is bought into Agile from the start.

5:36 — What doesn’t work with Agile is to just choose one group, say your UX team, to adopt this approach. It must be all or nothing.

6:10 — In order to do real work, you must have an extended period of time of uninterrupted focus. That's when you can really get your “deep work” done—things that matter.

6:40 — So Slack is a perfect avenue for people to interrupt you. It's become part of our culture for people to expect immediate responses. But that's unfair to you because that prevents you from doing actual work.

Many stakeholder ideas sound amazing in the moment, but deciding which ones move forward and which ones do not can give you a panic attack. Here are a few ways we keep quality ideation without being overwhelmed by quantity.

How I Prioritize Product Features From the CEO & Founder

A Simple Way to Prioritize Product Features

It was like clockwork. The CEO would message me daily, if not hourly, on new feature requests, slightly changing product direction each time. He messaged me on every communication channel you can think of: Slack, iMessage, WhatsApp, and email. Whenever it was the most convenient for him, regardless of time of day, he would send me these requests.

These emails contained not only vague future ideas, but small tweaks and non-critical bug fixes, etc. Essentially, anything that came up mid-sprint, he would send me a quick note with his ideas.

A big reason why I enjoyed working with him was his excitement about the product we were building, and he was constantly thinking of new ideas. However, that came at a cost. I was drowning in new things to build, and I didn’t know how to focus these requests.

I appreciated his willingness to share his ideas, but at the same time I had to make sure we were building the right things. I wasn’t necessarily in a position to say no to these new features, even when I was only halfway done with the features we started weeks prior. I actually did care about what he wanted to build, I just didn’t think many of these features were the right decision.

I needed to ruthlessly prioritize our feature requests.

 But, again, who was I to decide what feature was right or not? So, I thought of something to help me alleviate this pain.

After a few panic attacks, I created what I called the inbox system. This was a place in our project management board where I collected all of his, and the team’s, ideas. It gave me a chance to say, “Great idea! Let’s discuss later.” He knows that his idea isn’t lost, and I don’t feel the pressure to act immediately.

In the next sprint planning meeting, we would go through all of these ideas, weigh them against all of the other issues (i.e. features, bugs, cards) in the backlog, and prioritize the things that will have the biggest impact towards achieving our company’s objectives.

The inbox system aims to solve the problem of changing the plan mid-sprint and allows you to slow down and consider your next steps. You don't want a reactionary engineering team where the latest ideas from the stakeholders are implemented over things that have been planned for weeks.

CEO sends feature request (and wants it built ASAP).

Acknowledge her feature idea and document the request in your project management board (AKA, the “inbox”) before committing to building the idea.

During the sprint review meeting, instead of asking the validity of the idea ad nauseum, discuss the priority of this request compared to everything else that needs to be built or fixed.

It was a small tweak, but it made a substantial impact. I was heard. He was heard. And together, we made the best decision for the product and the company.

Some Features Just Aren't Worth Building, Regardless of How Genius It Is

Every feature can certainly not be a winner.

This isn’t 3rd grade where everyone gets a participation trophy and feels like a winner at the end of the soccer match.

Implementing the wrong feature can significantly impact the trajectory and traction of your app. Not just because users don’t like it, but for simply how much effort and time it took to complete.

As a Product Manager or Project Manager, you’ll get a lot of input from your stakeholders. For us, it’s our clients. For businesses, it could be your CEO or boss. It used to give me anxiety when I heard all these lofty feature requests: I felt like I needed to implement all of the ideas my CEO threw at me over email, text, or Slack.

Many ideas sound amazing in the moment, but the luster wears off quickly. If it’s still a great idea during the next sprint planning, then consider implementing it. If not, then discard it—that’s okay to do, it’s part of innovation. All ideas can’t be winners!

Home Chef partnered with Foxbox Digital to rebuild their mobile app with React Native and help them increase ratings and conversions.

How We Increased HomeChef's App Ratings

, a subsidiary of Kroger, is the third largest meal kit company in the U.S. As Home Chef was scaling their business, and providing new offerings to their growing customer base, they were looking for a modern framework with extensibility to support their new service offerings. They brought in Foxbox Digital to rebuild their mobile app with 

, a modern cross-platform app framework, to help them achieve their ambitious goals.

Through our engagement with Home Chef, we developed and published iOS and Android apps using React Native. This helped them significantly increase app store ratings, meal kit conversions, and user engagement rates.

We focused on building a great experience from the ground-up

We knew that re-platforming to React Native was only one part of the solution. We worked closely with the CTO & Head of Product to deliver an experience that delighted their customers.

Here are three of the core activities we focused on:

 - We provided early architectural recommendations based on their future technical and business goals. This included a revised roadmap that better fit their goals to maximize customer impact.

 - We seamlessly collaborated with the UX team to ensure the app was instantly responsive to the end user.

 - Customers added their first item to the shopping cart 20% faster than with the previous app.

Foxbox Digital’s deep technical knowledge of React Native helped us move quickly through technical roadblocks.

 In early stages of the development, they guided us through architecture decision and foresaw many of the issues we would run into with our current development setup. If you’re looking for React Native developers, I can’t recommend them enough. 

With thousands of paying customers on the platform already, and owned by a large subsidiary, speed-to-market is often not feasible. Our deep knowledge of React Native and our philosophy of tight product and engineering coordination allowed us to build the new iOS and Android application 

Here’s a breakdown of how we were able to move so fast.

 - Our engineering team is focused on the React Native platform. This allows us to provide deeper recommendations and build a modern architecture best suited for React Native.

Strong Relationships and Coordination With Engineering, Product, and Design

 - We know that developing an application isn’t just a list of requirements. We start every project by determining the specific goals of each team and work closely with each stakeholder to build the best product possible.

- We were instrumental through the beta testing phase ensuring a fast feedback loop from their most valuable customers, prior to launch. We quickly iterated to implement the feedback, which led to a successful launch.

I think the app is easy to use as well as navigate.

 I’ve tried other meal services and this was the best! 

We enabled them to build better features based on data

Prior to engaging with us, Home Chef was having a difficult time experimenting with mobile features. Here’s how we resolved that.

Embedded Customer Behavior Data Analytics

 - We knew that to improve the experience of the app, we had to collect data at every major customer interaction. We worked directly with their executive marketing team to implement Amplitude to track key user data points and define the events they needed to track.

 - We implemented A/B Multivariate testing functionality. Now, instead of guessing which functionality makes the customer happier, it is simple to deploy A/B Testing for both iOS and Android.

 - With React Native and Expo, they're able to publish weekly updates with the push of a button. Allows them to collect fast feedback from customers.

Simply put, Foxbox Digital was amazing from start to finish.

 Their maturity in understanding our product, engineering, design, and business needs was exactly what we needed. They were proactive and intentional in every decision they brought forward. This product is core to our experience and we couldn’t have imagined a better partner than Foxbox Digital. 

- Julian Rockwood, Head of Consumer Product, Home Chef.

If you enjoyed this case study and you’re looking for a React Native development agency that can help you the same way we helped Home Chef, feel free to 

How We Helped Home Chef, the Kroger-Owned Meal Kit Delivery Service, Increase App Store Ratings and Meal Kit Conversions

When you set out to build a product, there's a disconnect between what you think people need and what they actually need.

How to Define your Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

When you set out to build a product, whether it's a mobile app, website, or a physical product, you'll envision how people will use your product and what qualities they need of your product. What often happens when building products is 

If you take the Lean Startup approach to designing and building your first product, 

, you're more likely to build exactly what your users need, and eliminate waste from building features they don't need.

), and when you're building a startup company, you have real constraints with how much money and time you have to build something. These constraints force you to be smart about what you spend time building; any wasted effort could put you out of business.

The classic model to create a product is called Waterfall, and it doesn't work. With Waterfall, you start by defining all requirements, then design the product, then build it then launch it. This sounds completely logical, but problems arise if requirements change at any point in the process. 

 When this happens, your project goes way over budget and you blow past the deadline.

With a lean approach to building a product, the idea is you take the steps in Waterfall and repeat them many times over. You divide up the problem into several product phases, where each phase fully delivers on a set of objectives.

 objectives of your project. People start using your product early on in the development cycle, 

 People tell you what's working and what isn't, and you can respond by altering the product roadmap.

Think of it this way: if you set out to build a car to get people from here to there, you don't start by building a wheel. That doesn't get you to where you need to go. You could start by building a bike. From there you could build a scooter, then finally a car. At each phase of the project, people are able to use your product to achieve the main objective: transportation. They'll give you feedback along the way ("it's too slow!"), and you'll incorporate that feedback and iterate the product.

This process allows for changes in your product roadmap during active development. Changing requirements doesn't mean pushing back your delivery date - because the process accounts for change. After people use your MVP, you might decide to cut entire features, and improve other features that they actually use.

After the MVP, you'll continue iterating the product in mini releases - every week or so. The product takes shape, change by change, until you've achieved all of your objectives. The product is tested in realtime during active development, so at the end, 

you'll have confidence that you hit the mark.

At Foxbox Digital, we take a lean approach to building mobile apps. We tap into our entrepreneurial experience of building startup companies, and apply that experience to how we build products. We'll help you 

build your product with a lean, agile approach

At the end, you'll have a product that meets your objectives, has the features you need, and eliminates the features you don't actually need. 

mobile app development

10 posts tagged with “mobile app development”