Everyone wants to build an app these days. The question for new developers-turned-entrepreneurs is how to go from concept to company to corporation without imploding along the way.
When it comes to creating and marketing an app, optimization is key. Not only must your app operate at the highest level, but also you must learn how to create it, fine-tune it and ramp up your marketing to beat out the competition. Your startup depends on it.
With more than 15 years of product development experience, my team and I have been providing an approach and plan to bootstrap startups based on app ideas for quite a while. We've helped both startups and Fortune 500 companies deliver their product ideas in a way that is sustainable and guarantees a future. Here are some practical ways to help you do the same:
Do Your Marketing Research
The first and most crucial step in generating your app idea is to test it against the market. No matter what concept you have in mind, someone has likely already thought of it and is touting it somewhere in the market.
If so, the success of current competing apps gives you an idea of how well your product will perform. Since competition will always be a factor, your goal is to determine how your app will stand out from all the other products.
Does your app have features that prove to be useful to consumers? Is there a demand for it? Will it prove to be marketable now or in the near future? The amount of research you conduct can answer these and other questions.
Get Feedback From Multiple Sources
The best way to fine-tune your app idea is to get feedback from a wide range of people at launch. Asking experts, peers, average users and techies what they think of your ideas can either sharpen the development of your concept or cause you to abandon the idea altogether.
When you gather feedback, try to get in-depth insight from people who know what they’re talking about and others who have no clue but just know what they like.
For instance:
• A web developer who can provide detailed user experience (UX) insight to help you improve the user screen.
• A marketing consultant who can help you target your demographic and assist with your online marketing campaign.
• An app junkie who can tell you what features they would use and which they would ignore.
• An app developer who can help you make your app more functional on various levels.
A common strategy app developers use to gain feedback is rapid prototyping. It’s a process of quickly creating the future state of a product and then validating its use or practicality with user groups, designers, investors or developers.
A rapid prototype is cost-effective and faster than building the entire app. It allows you to set the direction for your design by starting out small and then developing the design as you go. In rapid prototyping, you establish the solution, test it with users and then refine the idea based on the feedback.
Build Your Audience
Creating an awareness of your brand and your project is also crucial to success. This means promoting your project and keeping a steady stream of communication flowing to what will ultimately be your user base.
Start close to home and work your way out. Tell your friends, co-workers, peers and people in the industry who respect what you’re doing. From there, you can create a platform for your information.
Document everything. Stream live videos and photos, start a blog, build a web page and create a social page. This way, your audience can see the growth and development of your app from the beginning. By the time you release your product, your audience will be hungry to use it.
Choose Your Technology Well
If you don’t include games, servers or databases, mobile apps essentially fall into two categories: iOS and Android. Each platform has its own set of native apps, but hybrid apps do exist.
The type of technology you use depends on some core factors:
• Language (Java, JavaScript, Objective-C, Swift, Kotlin)
• The application programming interface (API)
• Android and iOs phone compatibility
• Web and desktop utilization
• The performance and purpose of the app
If you’re just getting started in the app world, you may want to opt for a native app platform, such as Reactive Native or Weex. Apps like these make it easier to create your product in half the time.
Find A Partner
If you’re going to hire a partner, you need to establish their role. For instance, are you hiring a code-savvy developer or will you need someone who understands the marketing side of your business?
Ideally, you’ll want to hire someone who is the yin to your yang. You create a balance in your partnership in which one person’s weaknesses are another person’s strengths. Make sure the role you create for your partner adds value to both your app and your business.
Here are some items to consider when choosing a partner:
• Portfolio of previous work
• Education
• Industry experience, particularly in your app category
• Your budget
• Cost vs. investment (i.e., Are they worth the money?)
• Ability to communicate
• Partnership mindset, not just a worker
Just Get Started
You won’t make any money simply because you have a great idea. Instead, you make money by turning your idea into an actual app that users enjoy time and again. So whatever your idea, sit down and start formulating a strategy to bring it into development. You never know if your idea is the next great startup.
