As of October 4, 2024, HarmoniQ officially celebrates its first month live on the Apple App Store! It’s been a thrilling and informative journey, and I want to share some key insights and lessons learned in this first chapter. My primary goal has always been to offer an awesome experience that allows everyone to effectively learn perfect pitch while genuinely enjoying the process. With a month of usage data, it’s time to reflect on what’s working and where there’s room to improve.
A User-Centric Experience, with Some Caveats
From the outset, I’ve prioritized ensuring HarmoniQ is intuitive and delivers a seamless experience. While there are many areas that genuinely need improvement to meet my high standards, I’m happy with the progress so far. One thing I’ve noticed is how diverse the user feedback has been. It’s essential to take user input seriously, but it must also be balanced with the product vision. Letting users dictate how a product works can be dangerous, potentially leading to fragmented experiences that don’t serve the vision.
For instance, feedback on the introductory unit has been mixed. Some users felt that there were too many octaves, while others thought there weren’t enough! This kind of conflicting input is a reminder that feedback is just data — it provides valuable insight, but doesn’t always point directly to a solution. What matters most is understanding the experience behind the feedback and finding creative ways to improve the product while staying true to the vision.
“Cheating” or Success? A Lesson Learned
One piece of feedback that stands out involves the unit evaluations like the “Finding C and F♯/G♭” lesson at the end of the introductory unit. Many users mentioned they felt like they were cheating. Here’s what happened: They’d get the first note wrong, often by guessing, but after that, they’d blaze through the rest with 100% accuracy, feeling as though they’d cracked the system unfairly. This wasn’t what I intended, of course, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be an indication that the app was working.
In reality, users were doing exactly what they should have been. After making the initial mistake, they were able to quickly identify pitches by comparing them to previous ones they’d heard, all without defaulting to relative pitch. This showed that users were starting to develop key skills in pitch recognition — they were recognizing pitches based on their unique attributes through differentiation. The experience wasn’t being communicated clearly enough, and users were missing this sense of achievement. With an upcoming update, I hope to improve the overall experience with this in mind.
Metrics
Now, let’s talk numbers. In the past month, HarmoniQ has attracted 106 users, with an average of 48.1 sessions per active device — more than one session per day on average, which is fantastic! Additionally, the conversion rate from viewing the app’s page in the App Store to downloading it stands at 11.3%. As I understand it, the search ranking algorithm takes these kinds of figures into account, so this is a promising start.
SEO & ASO: Small Wins
Leading up to completing this month of data, the most recent release included some initial SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and ASO (App Store Optimization) efforts. My goal was simple: get HarmoniQ to show up on the first page when people search for “Learn Perfect Pitch.” I’m thrilled to share that as of today, multiple users reported HarmoniQ was now the #1 result for that search term, and others reported it wasn’t #1 but was still on the first page. I don’t know all the intricacies behind the App Store search ranking algorithm, but I’ll happily take this as a win!
Looking Ahead
It’s been an exciting and informative first month. I’m incredibly grateful for all the valuable feedback and how it’s helping shape the future of HarmoniQ. I’m working hard to ensure the app continues to grow in a way that benefits users while staying true to the vision of providing an engaging and intuitive experience for anyone wanting to learn perfect pitch.
Thanks for joining me on this journey, and feel free to join us if you haven’t already. Stay tuned for more updates and enhancements in the months to come.