October 31, 2023

Building "The week"

New app in the works 👀

The Origin

After testing the MVP and receiving positive feedback, the team decided to begin building the calendar feature. The main decision we faced was whether to integrate this feature into the core spark experience or to keep it as a separate product. We ultimately concluded that we wanted to continue testing this feature independently to avoid the risk of overcomplicating our current app. Although maintaining two separate apps will present challenges, we believe the trade-off is justified. We still have users who are dedicated to spark calls, and we see tremendous opportunity for growth of spark calls amongst families. This is the origin story of The week.


The Feature

The week is a social calendar designed to let you organize your social life up to two weeks in advance. You have the option to share your calendar exclusively with friends or make it public for friends of friends to view. This app caters to the dynamic lifestyles of young individuals who may be curious about what's happening around town, eager to meet new people, or seeking to organize their lives in a purposeful manner. Our distinguishing feature is our purpose tags. When you create an event, you are prompted to add a purpose tag to clarify the intent behind posting the event. Whether you're looking for company, making plans, indicating you'll be busy, or wanting to forge new friendships, purpose tags act as an open invitation for others to join you in your activities.

Imagine you've just relocated to a new city where you know only a handful of people. You could use Week X to add your five friends to your social calendar. Ideally, those five friends will each have ten friends, and those ten will have twenty, exponentially expanding your network. Suddenly, you have access to a community where you can discern if someone's activities align with your interests. See a friend of a friend posting about a volleyball game later? Join in. Trying to organize weekend plans? Add a 'Making Plans' tag and send out a mass message to your friends. If scheduling with a new acquaintance is proving to be tricky, simply share your calendar with them and let them pick a time that works. Life becomes a touch more exciting when it's well-arranged.

Welcome to The week: bite-sized updates of what your friends are up to.