HorseKeeper · 0-1 Product: From Idea to App Store

Overview

RoleFounder · Designer · Developer

Timeline6 months, idea to App Store · 1,040 hours

StackFigma · React Native + Expo · Supabase · Claude Code

UsersOwners managing 3 to 15 horses · Trainers · Barn managers

ProblemHorse care lived across paper, calendars, texts, and memory, with no single source of truth.

OutcomeLive on the App Store: 140+ users · 230+ horses · 73% activation.

01Problem

Horse care happens in different places. The information shouldn't.

A single horse's care involves records, injuries, providers, appointments, feed, and expenses. Each creates important information, but it's scattered across notebooks, photos, phone calls, and spreadsheets.

Six everyday horse care tasks, each kept in a different place: records and paperwork, injury photos, provider phone numbers, feed and supplies, farrier appointments, and expenses. Six everyday tasks, no single place to manage them. — Six everyday tasks, each living in a different place.

02Define

Next, I framed it as a UX business brief first, then translated it into the everyday jobs owners need done:

Everyday challenge

Question

Paperwork

Where did I record that?

Injury

Where are the photos from last week?

Veterinarian

Where's my vet's number?

Feed room

When will I run out?

Farrier

When is the next appointment?

Expenses

How much have I spent?

03Create

Design concepts first, then a working prototype, then real owners.

From insight to solution: a hand-drawn overview of the process (discover, define, design, refine, repeat) beside six concept screens: dashboard, log health event, horse detail, care cycle tracking, calendar, and share or export. — From insight to solution: the core screens, sketched before building.

Prototype session: prompts to change the dashboard quick action to Schedule Appt beside the working dashboard. — Iterating with Claude on the working prototype.

Screens, color, and tokens evolved together as patterns were tested.

I wish it could calculate my horse's weight.

An owner showed me how weight is estimated from body measurements. A manual calculation became a feature opportunity.

I wish it could tell me when I'm running low.

Tracking supplies wasn't enough. Owners wanted to know when to reorder.

View the testing prototype ↗Design system & tokens →

04Deliver

The decision: Finish the case study, or build the product?

Testing revealed a real market opportunity. I had no engineering team, so I learned the stack and built it myself.

I decided to build it.

Figma → React Native + Expo → Supabase → TestFlight → App Store

05Refine

After launch, real users changed the product.

Less input. More flexibility.Users skipped fields, so I cut required information.
Multi-horse use changed navigation.Filtering, grouping, and faster access became essential.
The barn changed the requirements.Bad Wi-Fi and stray taps called for clearer feedback and stronger error prevention.

06Success metrics

140+

Users

230+

Horses

73%

Activation

11+

Releases

5.0 ★

App Store rating

v1.2

Live on the App Store

Horse profile

HorseKeeper Care calendar screen — Care calendar

HorseKeeper Feed plan screen — Feed plan

Did you notice? The product patterns?

The domain changes. The product patterns don't. Under the horse terminology is familiar enterprise product design: profiles, scheduling, documents, inventory, purchasing, expenses, and reporting.

07What I learned

Protect the timeline.Product ownership is knowing what not to build yet.
Shorten the feedback loop.Learn, redesign, code, and ship, sometimes in the same day.
AI accelerated the work.My UX experience still had to decide what was right.

08Try HorseKeeper

See it working in two minutes.

A demo account is pre-loaded with a full barn. Open this page on your iPhone, install, and sign in.

Email: demo@gethorsekeeper.com
Password: HorseKeeperDemo2026!

Download on the App Store ↗

gethorsekeeper.com ↗How I design →