Monthly mobile releases without the Rails team opening Xcode

01 / Challenge

Every hour in Xcode was an hour off the Rails roadmap

Equipe is the software that runs equestrian competitions: entries, start lists, and live scoring for show jumping and dressage events. It's a Rails product with a live iOS and Android app on top, and the team is small. Every hour an engineer spends in Xcode or Android Studio is an hour not spent on the core Rails app that customers actually pay for.

Most months the mobile side doesn't need new features. It needs to keep working through new iOS and Android versions, Hotwire Native updates, the occasional crash that only shows up on a specific device, and the App Store and Google Play work that nobody on a Rails team enjoys doing.

Hiring a mobile engineer for that workload doesn't pencil, and leaving it unattended turns into rejected builds and stale apps.

02 / Approach

A quarterly retainer where I own the mobile surface

A quarterly maintenance retainer where I own the mobile surface. Monthly releases happen on a calendar, not in response to a fire, and bugs get triaged, fixed, and shipped without the Equipe team having to open Xcode. Apple and Google communication routes through me, including review responses and rejection appeals.

• Monthly releases to the App Store and Google Play.
• iOS, Android, and Hotwire Native version updates as they land.
• Native bug fixes and PRs back into the Rails codebase where needed.
• All Apple and Google communication, including rejection appeals.
• Weekly updates so the team always knows where the apps stand.

03 / Result

The Rails roadmap stays the Rails roadmap

The Equipe team hasn't had to context-switch into mobile in months. Bugs surface, get fixed, and ship on the monthly cadence. The Rails roadmap stays the Rails roadmap.

Equipe has renewed quarter over quarter since we started.