Tim Collins Interviewed

We've been working with Tim for several months now, seeing Second Shootr evolve from an idea to a successful and popular iPhone App for professional photographers.

We caught up with Tim to ask him some questions:

Q) What do you do for a living?

I'm a wedding photographer who dabbles occasionally in software testing to supplement my income.

Q) What made you want to create an iPhone App?

I've had an iPhone since they were first released in the UK. Since then, I've wanted an application to help improve my photographic workflow. In essence, I wanted to create the application for purely selfish reasons.

Q) Is this your first venture into something like this?

I do have experience of the software development cycle, but I've never commissioned work like this before.

Q) What made you choose utopia 365?

Three main reasons:

1. They are based in the UK. I prefer to meet with people face-to-face... build up a strong relationship and to get clarity on exactly what I want.


2. They use Agile methodologies. Whilst I appreciate that the majority of people won't know/care about Agile, I am very much an Agile convert and it works well for this type of development.


3. Their skill is in iPhone app development. The iPhone is a unique device with a unique user interface - you NEED someone who knows exactly how the iPhone works in order to build an application that works well on the device. If your application doesn't work well, you're left with an application that nobody wants.

Q) How did you find working with them?

The guys are great. I left them with some VERY specific requirements, but they went above and beyond what I asked for.

Q) Are you pleased with Second Shootr?

Very much so. It's far better than I imagined.

Q) What are your plans for Second Shootr?

Honestly? I have no plans. Second Shootr fulfilled all my business needs in version 1.0. What I've been doing from here is listening to user feedback and asking the utopia 365 guys to implement the most requested features (if I can afford it). It sounds like a pretty rubbish business model on the face of it, but if you give your users what they want, then they'll use your app!

Q) How have you found the marketing / App store process?

I'd describe myself as very computer-savvy person, but the app store is a strange little place! Setting up your seller account can be challenging (lots of tax forms and stuff), but the guys at utopia 365 talked me through everything. I still don't know anything about code signing or uploading updates to the app store... I just leave it all up to them.

Marketing an iPhone application is hard. Especially a niche application like mine. If I was going to offer advice to anyone it would be to have a good marketing budget. If you can afford it... split the cost of development and marketing 50/50... otherwise your app won't be seen by your target consumer and you won't make money!

Q) Knowing what you know now, would you do it again?

Yeah... I'd do it again. At times its been hard (testing an application over and over again isn't exactly fun, but its important), but its been very rewarding to see an idea be released out into the big, wide world.