"I first started coding from books for fun when I was about eight or nine. I had no idea you could make a career out of it"
With regular algorithm changes and now the advent of AI overviews in search results, many in the media industry have long realised that they cannot rely on search engine traffic to grow their audiences and revenue attributed to content or advertising.
Mobile apps play a huge role in enhancing user engagement and are used daily by millions on their smartphones. These apps offer an alternative to media owners to over-reliance on search by deepening the relationship with audiences.
It's not so simple however, to pivot and just develop an app, though. Alignment with business strategy, operational processes, and a whole catalogue of other considerations need to be considered. Strategic and tech planning - and good experience - is important, so we've been working with seasoned Apps Specialist Gabby Earnshaw as we further develop our app plans.
Hi Gabby, tell us a bit about your background and areas of expertise.
I'm a mobile app specialist, with a focus on strategy, leadership and engineering. I help business leaders to maximise the value of the mobile app products they are building.
I have a background in software engineering and began specialising in mobile around 15 years ago.
I’ve held a number of leadership positions, including being the Mobile Practice Lead for Infinity Works [now Accenture], a digital full-stack engineering consultancy, and CTO of Bearable, a successful health and wellness app start-up.
"With the right business model, you can harness that user engagement and turn it into business value."
I've worked on a broad range of app products across many sectors in both product and consultancy roles.
Gabby Earnshaw discussing mobile app development on a Leeds Mobile panel.
What was your journey to get into the digital tech industry?
I first started coding from books for fun when I was about eight or nine. I had no idea you could make a career out of it, so after studying Metallurgy, Economics and Management at uni, I got a job in credit risk with an international bank. I spotted an opportunity to save hours of work on a very boring task by writing code to automate processes within Excel.
It turned out I enjoyed doing that much more than my ‘day job’, so I bought another book, taught myself how to code properly, blagged a job, and the rest as they say is history!
What is the importance of apps for sports publishers?
Apps are important because they are a very effective channel for user engagement.
People always have their mobile devices with them, so you can reach into someone’s pocket with notifications, and provide them with valuable features and content exactly when and where they need them.
With the right business model, you can harness that user engagement and turn it into business value.
"The potential to use [AI] to accelerate all aspects of developing and delivering apps is huge."
What are some key challenges faced when developing and running apps for a sports publisher, and how do you overcome them?
The first challenge is to really understand your business model, and how you are going to turn that user engagement into business value. Understanding that allows you to drive your mobile app product in the right direction. It's not difficult to overcome, you just need to spend some time thinking about it, but that's something many teams overlook in my experience.
Once you know what you're aiming for, the next challenge is to be able to ship changes to your apps little, and often. This gives you fast feedback on whether you're app is generating value as you need to, so that you can adjust quickly if not. This is all about setting up your development workflows, so they are repeatable and consistent.
The final challenge is how you measure your results. There are a lot of moving parts for a sports publishing app. You need to be able to track all the things you do, from advertising campaigns all the way through to app features, to measure their impact.
To overcome this, you need to ensure you're using the right tools in your tech stack to make the right attributions and collect the right analytics to inform your decision-making, and integrate everything in the right way.
How important are the people, teams and their culture when developing apps?
People and culture is always THE most important thing in tech projects, in my humble opinion!
What future developments or innovations in app technology are you excited about? Do you plan to incorporate them into your work with Planet Sport?
Not very original on this one, but it's got to be AI. The potential to use it to accelerate all aspects of developing and delivering apps is huge.
AI is also becoming more important on the user engagement side of things. Apple have just announced the ability to integrate AI with apps much more closely in the next version of iOS, allowing you to talk directly to your phone to take action within your apps. It would be great to help Planet Sport leverage something like this within their apps!
What’s your proudest career moment?
Since becoming an independent consultant, I've had some wonderful feedback from the people I've worked with. It makes me very proud to know that the work I do has a big impact on the teams and products I work with.
Thanks Gabby.
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