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Unplug OS
Case study 02

Unplug OS

Turn your iPhone back into a phone.

Founder & Product Owner · Solo · iOS · Beta, launching 2026

Open the 24-screen prototype
Role
Founder & Product Owner
Timeline
2025 → present
Platform
iOS · formerly Landline
Team
Solo, concept through launch planning
Status
In beta, launching 2026

In short

  1. ProblemUnplug OS blocks every app except calls, texts, and a few chosen tools, and unlocks only while the phone is charging. It asks for a far bigger sacrifice than a blocker does, from someone who downloaded it ten seconds ago.
  2. ApproachI specified the onboarding as a 24-screen, three-act flow and iterated it to v12 as a tappable HTML prototype before writing any production code.
  3. ResultThe prototype is the spec: reviewable, sequenced, and cheap to change. In beta, launching 2026.
The same permission wall, steeper ask No existing user base to test on A paywall that has to land before the sacrifice feels real Solo, pre-launch

The problem

Free Time asks you to pause. Unplug OS asks you to give up your smartphone and get it back only while it's plugged into a wall. This is a novel concept and requires both explaining a hardware and software core mechanism in easy-to-understand ways.

How I broke it down

Three acts, each with a single job. Sequencing them this way is what made the flow reviewable. I could change the order inside an act without renegotiating the whole thing, and I could tell when a screen was in the wrong act because it was doing the wrong job.

Act One

The problem you already feel

Get the user to state the problem in their own terms before the product says a word about itself.

  1. The magnet
  2. Screen time
  3. The reveal
  4. When do you scroll
  5. Screen time snapshot
Act Two

The mechanism

Explain exactly what the product does, in concrete terms, so the sacrifice is legible rather than vague.

  1. The turn
  2. How Unplug OS works
  3. Apps are locked
  4. Start a timed session
  5. Timer ends
  6. Why offline
  7. What to do offline
Act Three

The commitment

Convert a stated problem and an understood mechanism into a goal, a payment, and a permission, in that order.

  1. Set a screen time goal
  2. Watch it drop
  3. Personalized plan
  4. Social proof
  5. Paywall
  6. Screen Time permission
  7. App picker
  8. Unlock limit & notifications
Three Unplug OS onboarding screens: our phones are like magnets, Unplug OS breaks that magnetic pull, and create digital boundaries by plugging in to unlock
The acts, as they actually read. Left is Act One doing its only job, naming the problem in the user's terms before the product says anything about itself. Middle and right are Act Two: what the product does, then the mechanic itself, plugging in to unlock, introduced only once the user has agreed there is a problem worth this much.

Decisions and tradeoffs

What I decidedWhat I turned downWhy
What I decidedPrototype the entire flow in tappable HTML before building it in Swift.
What I turned down

Building onboarding directly in Xcode. Prototyping in Figma.

Why

Twelve versions at roughly an afternoon each. In Xcode every pass is a day and a rebuild; in Figma it isn't tappable on a real phone, which is the only place this flow can honestly be judged. The prototype doubles as the spec I hand to anyone reviewing it.

What I decidedPut the paywall after the goal and the projection, not before them.
What I turned down

Paywall at the top, to filter early. Paywall at the very end, after setup.

Why

Paywalling early filters out people who haven't yet decided they have a problem, which is most of them at screen three. Paywalling after setup means the work is done and the leverage is gone. Right after the user sets a goal and sees the projected drop is the one moment the price is being compared to something they want.

What I decidedAsk for the Screen Time permission last.
What I turned down

Asking up front to fail fast and avoid wasted onboarding.

Why

Failing fast optimizes for my time, not theirs. By the last screen the user has named the problem, set a goal, and paid. The permission stops being a demand from a stranger and becomes the final step of something they've already committed to.