What to do when there’s no time to waste
At Coherent Solutions, we’re accustomed to fast-moving projects. Recently, one stood out: a 30-day timeline to turn a rough idea into a working mobile app. Not a mockup. Not an outline. A fully functional, user-ready proof-of-concept (POC).
The challenge? Build a mobile feedback app capable of evaluating an actor's performance against a specific methodology — something real-time, reliable, and intuitive enough to demo quickly.
When you have just one month to deliver a POC, every decision matters. A small team led by Project Manager Sergey Semukha, iOS developer Alexander Borisevich, and AI/ML Engineer Hristo Hristov took on this challenge.
And they delivered — on time and with enough momentum to immediately launch an MVP.
Here’s how this successful proof-of-concept came together.
Clear goals, flexible execution
From day one, there was a clearly defined outcome. As Alexander put it, “Our goal was to develop a functionally comprehensive mobile application that was intentionally designed to be simple and genuinely useful for its users.”
Even with this outcome understood, there were several paths to achieving it. The client had a rough idea of what they wanted, but our team retained the freedom to define how to get there. That flexibility helped shape Alexander and Hristo’s proof-of-concept approach and gave their team an opportunity to apply their decades of problem-solving experience.
Moving fast, staying aligned
When faced with a short deadline and a roadmap that's yours to define, you have a choice: rush — or take a breath, get aligned, and move with intention.
The timeline left no room for delays. To deliver what the client needed, our team focused on short, structured cycles, and consistent communication.
These client calls weren’t just check-ins, they were working sessions where ideas got challenged, refined, and immediately applied.
The team also met weekly with domain experts provided by the client. Rather than guessing what might work, they asked questions and shaped priorities based on real-time feedback.
That collaboration paid off. As Hristo noted, “In the beginning, I was still exploring the architecture on the fly.” He initially considered building a custom authentication flow but switched to using an AWS identity provider. Partway through, he moved some of the logic into a serverless Lambda function — a shift that made the AI app lighter and faster.
These course corrections worked because the team stayed in sync.
“We didn’t cut corners; we prioritized the right ones.”
In a 30-day build, it’s impossible to include everything. What matters is knowing what to prioritize.
“We didn’t have time to develop the entire system from the ground up,” said Hristo. So, the team made early calls to skip nonessential components, reuse existing infrastructure, and rely on tools that could do more with less configuration.
“We had to make some conscious trade-offs to stay focused on our primary goal,” Alexander said.
Hristo added: “For example, the most time a user will spend in the app will be on a particular screen — so we needed to make that screen more engaging.”
Other items received less attention, but this wasn’t about cutting corners. These were deliberate trade-offs made to keep things moving without sacrificing what the client needed.
That judgment, knowing what could wait and what had to be perfect from day one, was guided by the team's experience and a clear understanding of what mattered most.
Need a proof-of-concept in 30 days?
Coherent Solutions can help you go from idea to working app — fast.
What the UI doesn’t show
The finished app delivered a clean user experience, just as intended. However, behind that clean design were tightly integrated features working together in real time.
“Despite its seemingly minimal UI, the app involved some non-trivial technical challenges,” Alexander noted. “Particularly integrating video recording, speech recognition, and speech playback to work seamlessly together.”
The real-time speech recognition and playback features weren’t nice-to-haves, they were central to the user experience and critical to the project’s success.
Even with all that complexity, the team kept the system lightweight and flexible, making decisions that worked for the POC and laid the foundation for future scalability.
What made it work
Projects like this don’t succeed on technical execution alone. They succeed because everyone is aligned from the start on the goals, priorities, and the proof-of-concept success criteria.
From internal standups to working sessions with domain experts, everyone stayed focused on the same outcome. The client stayed engaged after kick-off, offered feedback, and made quick decisions. Even non-technical stakeholders remained involved. That alignment is what kept this project on track.
“The most important factor was strong team alignment,” Alexander said. “Open communication, shared ownership, and a clear focus on delivering value made it possible.”
At Coherent Solutions, this is intentional. We invite clients into the process early, not with endless updates, but through short demos, visual flows, and collaborative reviews that help keep priorities clear and momentum strong.
That’s how you ship a fully functional, client-ready proof-of-concept in 30 days.
Proof-of-concept best practices
If there’s one thing the team recommends for projects like this, it's simple: Don’t try to do it all; do the right things well.
“Map out what can realistically be done and prioritize based on what the client truly needs,” Hristo said.
It wasn’t the tools or frameworks that made the difference; it was knowing where to invest, when to ask questions, and how to stay aligned under pressure.
This mindset isn’t just for projects requiring a fast turnaround. It’s how strong teams deliver under any condition.
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