Behind the Build: Prayer and Planning

Hello friends,

Taking over from Nate this week, I'm starting a new series on our blog called Behind the Build: a segment where we share a little behind-the-scenes from the designers and developers at PrayMore. 

When you hear "software design" or "building an app," what comes to your mind? Maybe scenes from movies where smart nerds frantically bash keys and type things on black screens with neon green letters. Or perhaps you picture your tech-savvy nephew. Or maybe you see tech-bros in smart polos flipping through PowerPoints. For us, building an app starts quietly: in prayer.

Every Monday, before we dive into any meetings or decide on what feature to tackle next, we take a few minutes to pause and pray. We don't just pray for the work we do at the company—we pray for everything: family, ministries we're involved in, relationships, praise for God's goodness, health needs, and more.

That's because PrayMore isn't just a product roadmap—it's real people opening the app with real burdens and real gratitude, talking to a God who is real and loves us. 

So what does planning look like?

As a UX guy at PrayMore, part of my job is gathering and organizing the feedback we receive (emails you send, reviews you leave, and support tickets). I look for patterns and ask questions like: 

• What gets in the way of prayer?

• How can I help users quickly start praying?

• Can we add a feature that can help someone stay more present with God? 

When we start to see a pattern, we choose a few "most important" things to work on next. In this process, we try not to design the actual feature right away, but to pinpoint the problem we want to solve. This planning and discussion process often takes multiple meetings spread across multiple days.

We also try not to rush into a new feature just because it sounds "cool," or because "everyone else is doing it." We want PrayMore to glorify God by drawing people to Him in prayer. 

Why does it matter?

Consistent prayer is hard; we want PrayMore to feel like a doorway, not a maze. Good planning helps us remove friction so you can spend less time figuring out the app…and more time praying. 

Committing to the Lord

"Commit your work to the Lord,
and your plans will be established." (Proverbs 16:3, ESV)

This verse reminds me that not every plan works out in the way that we imagine. However, it also reminds me that prayer isn't something we tack on at the end, it's where we start. 

Nerd Notes

(Some fun techy tidbits)

• When we started, we had a huge 10-foot (maybe even larger) whiteboard. We've since tried to digitize and move away from physical white boarding, but we still come back to it during our planning stages. 

Our old massive whiteboard

Our current one: small but mighty

• We have a soda dispenser in the office! We would go through so many cans of sparkling water that JJ, our Director of Technology, set up a restaurant-grade Wunder-Bar soda dispenser so that we could drink unlimited soda. 
  

Pray for us

Please pray that we have unity and clarity as we plan new features, and that the Lord would use PrayMore to help even more people spend time with God. 

One question for you: What part of PrayMore would you love to see “behind the scenes” next? 

(Header photo by Kevin Horvat on Unsplash)