GetRDone
Instead of buying a family chore screen, Joshua thought, “I could build that.” GetRDone started as our own family’s app and is growing into a product other families can use.
The Brief
Why buy the screen when you can build it?
Every busy family juggles the same questions: whose turn is it, what’s done, and what’s on this week? You can buy a screen for that. Joshua looked at one and thought, “I could build that.”
So he did, for our own household first: a chore chart and family schedule on the kitchen iPad, where the kids check in and mark their own chores done, with points and perks that make it worth their while. Along the way, the next question was obvious: would other families want it too?
The Journey
From our kitchen to a product.
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Built for one family
The first version had exactly one customer: us. Every rule (on time, late, bonus, streaks) was shaped around a real household’s week.
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Three screens, one family
A parent dashboard for setup and approvals, a kitchen-iPad station where kids check in with a PIN, and a TV board that shows everyone where things stand.
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Built for real calendars
The family calendar is built to pull in iCloud, Google or any iCal link and refresh itself while the board is on, with the credentials encrypted at rest.
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Turning it into a product
A marketing site with an interactive demo and an early-access sign-up was built alongside the app from day one, ready for the families who come next.
The tricky bits
Kids don’t have email addresses.
A family app can’t ask a young kid to log in, so kids never get accounts. A parent signs in once on the kitchen iPad or the TV and marks it as a family device. At the iPad, kids then tap their avatar and enter a short PIN for a session on that device only; the TV just shows the board. Parents can revoke a device at any time, and behind it all, every read and write goes through the server, which checks the household, the role and the chore rules in code.
The Build
A closer look at how it works.
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▸ For parents
The parent dashboard
A setup wizard gets the household going. After that, chores, approvals, rewards, the calendar, groceries and notes all live in one place.
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▸ For kids
The kitchen station
Kids check in with a PIN, mark chores done, pick up extras from the chore bank and trade points for perks. It signs them out when they wander off.
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▸ For everyone
The TV board
A read-only board for the TV: this week, today’s chores by kid, groceries, notes and the family goal, refreshed every minute.
The Outcome
Where it’s headed.
Built on Wix-managed headless, the same stack as this website, GetRDone has grown from a fix for our own family’s week into a product we’re getting ready for other families.
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Screens: dashboard,kitchen iPad, TV
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Accountskids need
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Calendar sources:iCloud, Google, iCal
Have a project like this in mind?
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