Foundational Field Research: Indie Devs
Tl;dr
Hover built developer tools so that devs in emerging markets can have better access to infrastructure and build for the communities around them. Our primary product was an SDK which automated the error-prone, complex USSD menus so that developers could leverage USSD services as if they were modern APIs. A major subset of the developers using this tool were based in major “tech hub” urban centres in sub-Saharan Africa and work in the local startup scene. For 18 days in September 2019, the Hover Product Team visited two active developer communities in Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya to learn about the ways indie Android developers in those places found, assessed, and integrated third party tools like ours.