Human-designed, AI-assisted. A native iPhone and Apple Watch app that turns every basketball training session into proof. One tap logs a make, one hold logs a miss, no screen required mid-session, so there's nothing to distract a player between shots.
ProblemMost players don't have access to a shooting machine or a dedicated facility, so they finish a session with no real read on their game, and no idea where to focus their effort.
DeliveryA native iPhone and Apple Watch app that closes that gap: the read on your game a shooting machine gives you, without the cost or the bulk of owning one. First version live in under a month, directed across four different AI tools.
OutcomeLive on the App Store now, built for players who already own everything the app needs: an iPhone and an Apple Watch. No machine to buy, no facility to book, just the read on their game they didn't have before.
01 / Problem
Players practise for hours. Great feedback costs thousands, and most players can't afford it.
A shooting machine gives players exactly the read they need, but it also costs thousands of dollars and takes up half a garage.
A phone on a tripod, recording sessions and running video analysis, sounds clever until the ball hits it, or the footage nobody has time to watch just piles up.
Strip both of those away and most players are back to guessing. They finish a session with a sore arm and no real read on their game, and no idea where to focus their effort next time.
Getting accurate session insights costs players a facility membership, or an expensive machine.
Reviewing an hour of session footage takes about an hour nobody has.
No way to measure or track progress.
Closing that gap without the machine's price tag became the whole brief, one I wrote for myself.
02 / My role
Actual Intelligence and experience. Empowered by AI
Shoot a Hoop is a solo project: the interaction design, the pricing tier, and which of five AI tools to use for the right purpose were all mine to make and orchestrate. Not a designer, not a developer, not a PM: a builder, someone who moves across all three and directs AI well enough to ship something real.
Strategise Research Coordinate Design Develop Launch Monitor
AIActual Intelligence
Gemini
Cursor
Claude
ChatGPT
Figma
That range is what staying relevant actually looks like right now.
03 / The solution
One tap for in. One hold for out. Nothing else to think about.
Every session starts the same way. Pick a mode, guided drill or open session, pick a shooting zone down to the sub-zone, set a target count, then shoot. A tap on the Watch logs a make, a tap and hold logs a miss, each confirmed by a different pulse on the wrist so a player never has to look down mid-shot.
Behind that simple interaction sits real structure: 15 shot zones from the free throw line to the corners, hot and cold zone mapping that builds itself from real sessions, and a fatigue impact metric that splits every session in half and compares first-half conversion to second-half. It's the one number no other tracker on the market surfaces.
The real test wasn't the build. It was whether players kept coming back to it.
Watch
During session
One tap logs a make, one hold logs a miss, confirmed by a pulse on the wrist, so eyes stay on the rim, not the screen.
Phone
After session
Every session breaks down into hot and cold zones, conversion rate and fatigue impact.
04 / Outcomes
Shipped with the business built in. Not bolted on after launch.
Shoot a Hoop replaces the tripod and the shooting machine's price tag with a tap on the wrist. Players train anywhere, screen-free, and still walk away with the zone-by-zone data a $5,000 machine promises.
The app is live on the App Store now, built and shipped by one person directing AI rather than a team. Monetisation, onboarding and the plan for keeping players coming back were product decisions made alongside the build, not an afterthought bolted on once it shipped.
The app also has a boundary most software doesn't: it only delivers value if you actually leave the couch and get to a hoop. That makes it a service as much as a product, one that runs across a real court and a screen, and it has to be designed for both halves, not just the one you can see.
Google AdMob monetisationFree-forever basic tierFatigue insight as the retention hook
