How I Built an MVP for the Next Unicorn in 1 Week: From Idea to App Store with No-Code and FlutterFlow
Tags: nocode, flutter, mobile, startup
Published: 2024-07-14 20:21:06

As a software engineer, it’s very tempting to instantly open your favourite editor and start coding when a new idea pops up. 

A couple of weeks a ago, a very good friend of mine asked my help for building an MVP for the next unicorn startup idea 🦄 (who knows! 😉) For the first time in my 20 years of coder past, I resisted the urge of start coding on blank page and instead I wanted to give FlutterFlow a go, which is a no-code tool for building mobile apps.

### How did I do it?

To get the app up and running and publish to the App Store quickly, I followed these steps:

- Paper prototype
- Start building by using pre-designed template screens
- Authentication
- Database and push notifications
- Submit to App Store and distribute with TestFlight

Let’s dive into each of these 5 steps one by one.

## Step 1: Paper prototype

I believe prototyping is the fastest way of gathering requirements from the owner of the idea (or any other stakeholder). 

For the MVP, we sketched out the screens on a blank sheet to clearly see what’s expecting us in the development phase.

![Paper prototype](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/n5v7745law9gz5knlsrc.jpg)


## Step 2: Start building by using pre-designed template screens

Flutter flow has hundreds of professionally designed screen templates for almost any kind of screen you might need such as login screens, product listings, checkout screens, etc.

Thanks to these templates, you don’t have to start from scratch.

![Pre-designed template screens](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/56gu6dz8egc0ns1cqtor.png)


## Step 3: Authentication

FlutterFlow is integrated with Firebase in a very smooth and seemless way that allows us using it for almost any kind of backend related tasks in our application. 

Implementing authentication with email/password, Google, Apple and many more providers is really straighforward.

![Firebase authentication](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/f8a4rxr39lfpkucz2xdi.png)


## Step 4: Database and push notifications

Again, Firebase handles all the hassle of creating a database (Firestore) and sending push notifications (Messaging) to your users. You can just create your database models such as users, posts and comments even without leaving the FlutterFlow dashboard.

![Firebase Firestore](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/951332j8tofpuo6im2xc.png)


## Step 5: Submit to App Store and distribute with TestFlight

You have two options for submitting your app to App Store.

1. You can download your Flutter code, build the project and publish it via Xcode.
2. FlutterFlow can directly submit to the App Store for you.

By the help of TestFlight’s public link feature, we were able to distribute the app to a group of 50+ early bird users just within a few minutes of time.

![TestFlight public link](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5u0gnbgkpqskbaza76lj.png)


## Conclusion

As a software engineer, my overall experience with FlutterFlow during this journey was quite satisfying. It helped me building an end-to-end MVP starting with a paper prototype, not writing any code and not doing and UI designs. I really enjoyed using the drag&drop builder which is usually a disappointing feature in other similar tools.

Here is what I liked most about FlutterFlow while building the MVP:

- Predesigned templates
- Drag and Drop builder
- Firebase integration
- Automated testing
- Code export (Flutter)
- Custom code if needed

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Throughout this journey, FlutterFlow not only helped me build an MVP quickly but also reshaped my perspective on no-code development. It empowered me to bring ideas to life faster than ever before. I hope my story inspires you to explore no-code tools and transform your own ideas into reality.


Let’s connect! Share your no-code experiences in the comments and follow me for more real-life development stories and tips."