ARABII

Mobile Arabic learning app — idea to App Store, on time.

ARABII is a mobile Arabic learning app — daily lessons, streaks, and progressive difficulty. I led product on contract from the first wireframes through public release.

Get ARABII ↗Read the story ↓

— STATUS

Live

— ROLE

Contract product lead

— OWNERSHIP

Founding team

— OUTCOME

MVP on time

— How it started

I joined ARABII because the team had the ambition and the audience but not the operating cadence to ship a polished mobile app on a deadline. That's the gap I close.

Contract product leadership is the right framing — I owned what changed under my leadership; I didn't own the brand or the business. Both can be true.

Mobile-first language app with streak mechanics, daily lessons, and a difficulty curve. Built by a small team I led through scope decisions, spec writing, and release cadence.

— What changed under my leadership

specific things, specific outcomes

01
SCOPE
Scope: cut to MVP
Walked the founding team through what to ship in v1 vs. what to defer. The result was a 60% smaller scope that hit the App Store on time.
→ MVP shipped on time
02
SPECS
Specs engineering could build from
Replaced the old verbal handoffs with written specs the team could read once and execute. Cut clarification cycles from days to hours.
→ Clarification cycles → hours
03
LOOP
A loop, not a checklist
Installed a weekly cadence — design → spec → build → playtest → ship — that the team kept running after I stepped back.
→ Loop running without me
04
HANDOFF
Cross-functional handoff
Tightened the design-to-engineering handoff so the team stopped re-deciding the same questions every sprint.
→ Re-decisions stopped

— Where ARABII is right now

post-launch metrics

— STATUS: Live
— ROLE: Contract product lead
— OWNERSHIP: Founding team
— OUTCOME: MVP on time
— Scope: Cut to MVP — 60% smaller, shipped on time
— Specs: Written specs the team could build from without re-asking
— Loop: Weekly design → spec → build → ship cadence installed

— What I learned

honest takeaway

— the takeaway

When you don't own the brand, the lesson is the contribution. Cutting scope and writing better specs moved a stalled team to a shipped product. That's the receipt that matters.

Contract product leadership has a lower ceiling on long-term direction — you can fix the loop, but you can't decide where the product goes after the contract ends. Pick the engagements where the founding team's direction is one you'd back.

Lock scope on day one, in writing. Verbal scope agreements drift. Ones written down survive the first week of disagreement.

Want to try ARABII?

Get ARABII →

ARABII is owned by its founding team. I led product on contract. The brand, business, and long-term direction are theirs.

← All products Next: Heat →

ARARABII

Scope: cut to MVP

Specs engineering could build from

A loop, not a checklist

Cross-functional handoff

ARABII