“You have so little time to capture somebody’s attention” — David Barnard, Weather Up

In the competitive world of subscription app development, failure is often unavoidable, as demonstrated by David Barnard's experience with the Weather Up 3.0 launch, which fell short of expectations due to strategic errors and unforeseen events. Barnard learned the importance of releasing smaller, incremental updates rather than saving features for a large launch, as continuous updates add value over time and keep the app relevant. His launch was overshadowed by major industry news, highlighting the unpredictability of timing big media splashes. Barnard also discovered that value-based pricing is crucial, as the perceived value by customers did not align with his pricing strategy, and he realized the potential impact of not offering a launch-day sale. Despite setbacks, Barnard emphasizes the value of learning from mistakes, experimenting with strategies such as paywall configurations, and sharing experiences to help the app development community grow and improve.