Seque — Deep Work & Focus.
Co-founded, designed and ran a paid iOS product that reached 200K+ downloads — Apple featured it across 86 countries without paid acquisition.
I co-founded and designed Seque in a two-person team (me + iOS developer), from 23 interviews and 35+ hours of observation through App Store launch and editorial selection.
Key results
- 200K+ — Downloads across iOS and iPad (Measured)
- 86 — Countries featured on the App Store (Measured)
- Apple — "Apps We Love Right Now" editorial selection (Qualitative)
What I measured
- Downloads — 200K+ (Apple App Store Connect)
- Countries featured — 86 (App Store editorial placements)
- Editorial feature — Apps We Love Right Now (US App Store, Apple editorial curation)
- Design recognition — Indigo Design Award (Third-party jury)
People had already built duct-tape fixes for focus
Twenty-three interviews and 35+ hours of observation showed people already assembling their own focus systems.
Two-person team
One product designer and one iOS developer.
Self-funded
No paid acquisition; every install was earned.
Crowded category
Coherence and craft had to differentiate.
iOS only
Depth on one platform over thin coverage.
I put a physical sign on my desk that says DO NOT DISTURB. My coworkers still disturb me.
I have no idea where my time went last week. I know I was busy.
Research participant, tech role
Research participant, contextual inquiry
Plan · Focus · Optimize — a daily loop
The product became an end-to-end loop: set intent, work uninterrupted, then learn from the record.
“Build a Pomodoro timer that blocks Slack.”
“Design an end-to-end focus loop — Plan, Focus, Optimize — so the app becomes a daily habit, not a single-purpose timer.”
The structure made the app useful beyond a single timer session.
iOS only meant giving up the Android market.
With two people and no Android capability, one strong platform was the viable choice.
Users, maker, and external validation.
23 tech-role users
Their workarounds became product scope.
iOS Developer
Co-shipped the native experience.
Apple editorial team
Featured the product across 86 countries.
Indigo Design Award
Validated the interaction and visual system.
Observe the workaround, ship it as a feature
I asked people to show how they protected focus, then turned observed behaviour into product scope.
Plan, Focus, Optimize unified those workarounds. With no acquisition budget, platform-native craft also became distribution.
Calendar blocks → focus-session events
Desk signs → visible Focus state
Paper backlogs → daily Plan
Lost time → Optimize history
What I measured — and what I couldn't
App Store data and third-party recognition — the metrics available to a self-funded consumer product.
Craft validation
High on what it proves — honest on what it doesn’t
200,000+ downloads across iOS and iPadOS
+ Apple editorial feature ("Apps We Love Right Now")
+ 86 countries featured
+ Apple promoted on official social channels
+ Indigo Design Award
= Third-party validation of craft and end-to-end capability
(research → strategy → design → ship → measure)
What it is NOT:
= Venture-scale business outcome
= Evidence of sustainable revenue
= Substitute for post-launch engagement metrics
Apple's editorial team selects features; they cannot be bought
200K downloads is a demand signal, not a profitability signal
The relevance to B2B work is end-to-end capability and shipping proof, not this project's business model
Long-term retention
No analytics SDK captured active-use or retention curves.
Team-focus impact
This build tested individual focus, not team coordination.
Revenue at scale
The product had paying customers; retention and P&L are private, so sustainable unit economics are not claimed.
What worked · what I'd do differently
What worked
Observing workarounds, shipping them as features.
Observed workarounds produced a coherent feature set without speculative ideation.
What I'd do differently
Build for teams, not individuals.
Test team planning and visibility as a coordination problem before choosing the next business model.
FAQ
200,000 downloads sounds impressive — but what's the business outcome?
A real business: paid product, paying customers, two people, three years. Never venture-scale, and it didn't need to be. What it achieved: a researched problem (23 interviews, 35+ hours of observation) turned into a product people paid for, Apple's editorial feature in 86 countries on zero marketing budget, and three years of sustained iteration. What it deliberately wasn't: venture-scale. Productivity is crowded and low-margin; I kept the P&L private and the team at two. The durable outcome was the education. Pricing, scope, support load, App Store economics: founders don't get to delegate those. When a Business Owner defends their prototype or a C-level asks what a feature is worth, I've sat in their seat. It shows in the Transfers and Contract Pricing work, and it's why those stakeholders became advocates.
How is this relevant to enterprise B2B work?
Four ways: 1. Business literacy: three years making commercial decisions, not just design ones. The fastest way to earn a Business Owner's trust is to have been one. 2. End-to-end capability: research → strategy → design → implementation → measurement → iteration. Same skills, different context. 3. Shipping proof: I deliver, not just design. The app exists and people use it. That matters when evaluating whether someone produces results. 4. Craft validation: Apple recognition is third-party verification. Their editorial team reviews thousands of apps and chose this one. Externally validated, not self-assessed. The domain differs from B2B enterprise, but the skills transfer directly.