My role: Lead the React Native–based mobile app development team (delivery, architecture, release strategy, and cross-functional alignment).
Context and problem
The Cobone mobile experience had become a liability. The existing iOS and Android apps were built on Ionic and had not received meaningful updates for years, which created three compounding business risks: declining performance on newer devices, rising maintenance cost, and a UX that no longer matched the brand customers recognized.
Internally, every “simple” request (new flows, refreshed UI, modern device support) turned into a rewrite-level effort. Externally, users were feeling the drag: slow screens, inconsistent patterns, and a product story that did not reflect Cobone’s rebrand direction.
Goals and success criteria
We anchored the rebuild around outcomes that mattered commercially:
- Reduce time-to-ship for new features and rebrand rollouts
- Improve reliability and performance on modern OS versions
- Standardize UI patterns to increase conversion and reduce support load
- Enable faster experimentation without duplicating effort per platform
A rebrand only works if the product experience earns trust in the first 30 seconds.
Approach and solution
I led the decision to move to a React Native application designed explicitly for the Cobone rebrand and a faster product cadence. We treated the project as a platform reset, not a cosmetic refresh.
Key delivery choices:
- Re-architecture for longevity: modular feature structure, shared UI components, and clear separation between presentation and data layers
- Design-system execution: reusable typography, spacing, color tokens, and components to keep the rebrand consistent across screens
- Performance-first UX: faster initial load, smoother navigation transitions, and tighter interaction feedback
- Release strategy: phased rollout with analytics checkpoints and the ability to iterate quickly without destabilizing core journeys
Measurable results
Replace the placeholders below with your exact analytics, but keep the format for credibility in WordPress:
- Release cadence: from quarterly/irregular updates → biweekly releases within 6–8 weeks of launch
- Development efficiency: ~30–40% fewer duplicated engineering hours by eliminating separate native rebuild effort per platform
- Stability: ~20–35% reduction in crash rate after migrating to a modern runtime and updated libraries
- Experience metrics: ~10–18% faster key-screen load times and improved navigation responsiveness in QA benchmarks
What this enabled for the business
The new React Native foundation made the Cobone rebrand scalable: marketing could move faster, product could test ideas sooner, and engineering could maintain quality with less friction—turning the mobile app from “legacy overhead” into a reliable growth channel.