Have An Idea For A Mobile App? Ideas Are Cheap, It Is All About The Execution

If you’ve ever thought of a ground-breaking idea for a mobile app, you are not alone. And that’s a good thing — we are in the midst of a truly transformative era when technology can be accessed and leveraged by anyone to build something disruptive. But the old adage is still true, that ideas are dime a dozen and execution is everything. So for someone with a very early stage idea, how do you start executing excellently?

#1 Stop dreaming about the solution, test the problem instead

It’s a huge mistake to assume that the product that you have in your head is the one that will be successful in the market. You shouldn’t even be thinking about the product right now. It’s not interesting that you have a great idea for a product. It’s interesting when you’ve identified a huge problem that a significant amount of people are willing to pay you to solve, either with money or attention. Kick the vision you have out of your head for now and identify the problem that you are trying to solve. And remember, life’s too short to be solving small problems.

#2 Come to terms with the resources you’ll need to get this done properly — money, team, time, talent

Do not underestimate the resources that others had when they built their successful product. They guys from Instagram sold their startup for $1 billion dollars when they had only 13 employees. That doesn’t mean that it took little to build something so great. It means the 13 people that they had in their team were awesome with the superior skills and work ethic to create something extraordinary. You can’t just walk into the Major Leagues, it takes a lot of preparation. You may have already done this by going through a challenging career, or by being a respected member of your startup community, or by already having serious backers. If not, get started on the basics and come back to your idea or willingness to build a startup later (see below).

#3 Don't think about outsourcing until you know what you need to do

Hiring someone else, whether that be a solo developer, a design shop in Bulgaria or a tech firm like?SmartShape Design?here in Cleveland is expensive. Don't confuse expensive with wasteful. Expensive is ok when you are efficient and the results are worthwhile. To be efficient, you must be prepared -- knowing what needs to be done, what you can do, what you can't do and what you are going to measure when it's done. Then spend on outsourcing if necessary.

#4 Realize that you're building a business

It’s naive to think that a product can be built without the support of a parent company. And to build a company, even if it’s just a few people, takes skill. You’ll need this company to survive and grow in order to support the product that you’ve created. If you are looking for an exit, realize that another company is not likely to acquire a product but will be looking at the entire infrastructure that allowed it to prosper. In fact, if you are looking for an exit you better be prepared to never get one — it’s a rare occurrence and you’ll most likely need to keep your business going in order to keep your product going.

#5 Read — this has all been done before

The first topic you should get comfortable with is?Customer Development. This subject was developed by Steve Blank, a godfather to the modern startup movement, and later refined by several people to better suit the types of software products that you see today on your phones.?Running Lean?is a good place to start. Written by Ash Maurya, this book will walk you through the process of finding and validating the problem and slowly working towards defining a minimum viable product (MVP). An MVP is a version of your product that has the minimum amount of features that your customer requires to start using it (and hopefully pay for it). Believe it or not, you can get to this point without writing a line of code or doing any design so it’s a crucial ability to have for someone who does not have these skills (but has plenty of hustle).?Google?for everything else.

#5 Stop talking to lawyers — no-one is going to steal your idea no matter how amazing or unique you think it is

In a few years you’ll look back and realize how much of a waste it was to have been so protective of your idea. If you went to the trouble of paying for legal support you’ll be kicking yourself even more. Not only do people not care about your idea, it’s going to be very difficult to make them care. There are two things that protect you from copy cats — 1) you will execute better, 2) they are not going to show up anyway. If you are still not convinced, simply require people who speak with you to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). They are?available freely?on the Internet.?

#6 Start talking to these people — potential customers/users, startup community leaders

Your time in these early stages should be spent talking to the people that might use your product in the future and people in your community that you’ll come to rely on for support. Your primary job is to be a convincer — everyone from potential investors, employees, co-founders and customers need to be convinced that this is something that they should pay attention to. So get out in front of them and bring evidence gleaned from your customer development pursuits to get them on board.?

#7 Find an accelerator and be prepared to quit your job (totally unadvisable for most people)

There’s a reason why there are 300+ startup accelerators in the US. They are practically crucial for most people who are stepping into the world of startups for the first time. They’ll take a meagre amount of equity from you in return for some cash to get going, an existing network of mentors who will be invaluable in giving you perspective and the ability to spend a concentrated time with others who are making the same leap. But this comes with a massive caveat — building a startup is not a good idea. Your chances for success are dismal. It’s easy to get started but even easier for it to end. You need to be ready to defer your life, lose a lot of money and damage your relationships. But if you understand this, can appreciate how difficult the journey’s going to be and still feel the desire to pursue this path, it’s probably going to be difficult to stop you.