Project Story
Inspiration
When I saw Gabby Beckford's brief, I immediately connected. Living in the Philippines, I've watched my girlfriend dream of bigger travel adventures and career moves—but like Gabby's community, she gets stuck between inspiration and action. I wanted to create something she'd actually use daily to become her best self.
What I Learned
This was my first time building for a female-first niche. I pored over Mobbin screenshots of successful women's apps (Notion, Day One, Finch) to understand their visual language—warm but professional, empowering without being patronizing. I learned that streaks can demotivate more than motivate (one missed day = failure), so we focused on win tracking instead.
Public CloudKit was the biggest technical leap. I'd used private CloudKit sync before, but designing a public database schema for anonymous aggregate stats ("Women in this app took 132 actions this week") while keeping everything privacy-first was a crash course in CloudKitRecordZone and CKShare permissions.
How I Built It
With only 7 days and a full-time job + life commitments, I started late but went full AI-assisted development:
Tools Stack: ├── PerplexityAI: Deep market research + competitor analysis ├── Claude: Custom SwiftUI components (ActionCheckButton, WinBadge) ├── Codex + Xcode 26.3: Core development + CloudKit schema ├── Gemini CLI: UI copy, research backup, git operations └── Grok AI: App screenshots for Shipyard submission
CoreData + CloudKit Schema (simplified for MVP): Challenge → ChallengeInstance → ActionCompletion ↓ ↓ ↓ Public stats CKShare (goals) Win tracking
SwiftUI + New York font throughout with custom micro-animations on win cards and action completions.
Key Decisions & Cuts
I ruthlessly cut features to ship:
- ❌ Friend reactions on shared goals (CKShare scope creep)
- ❌ Challenge activity sharing (complex permission flows)
- ❌ Advanced AI Insights (basic win counts only)
Free tier: 1 custom goal + 2 active challenges (sweet spot from competitor research).
Challenges Faced
- Time crunch: Started late due to work/life. Built in 3-4 hour evening sprints.
- Public CloudKit: Schema design + query optimization took 2 full days.
- Audience empathy: As a man, nailing the "ambitious women 24-35" tone was hard. Mobbin + Gabby's brief helped.
- Feature creep: Wanted social proof but cut it for stability.
Why It Matters
Leap isn't just another habit tracker. It's built for women like my girlfriend—driven, adventurous, balancing career dreams with travel aspirations. The win-focused approach (not streaks) builds real confidence through data: "You took 23 bold actions this month."
For Gabby's community: Perfect for "Plan Your Big Trip" + "Career Glow-Up" simultaneously. Premium unlocks "Book Your Big Trip in 21 Days" and exportable progress for Notion journaling.
Technical quality: Native SwiftUI, CoreData + CloudKit, RevenueCat. Ready to scale post-contest.
"Action Over Inspiration" – Shipping real progress for real women, in 7 days. 🚀
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.