How to Incubate and Launch Mobile-First Innovations In Your Business

Mobile is an all-consuming force that is charging through every market, every business and every process.

It’s an essential element of an omni-channel strategy, meaning customers can move seamlessly from any digital channel, to a physical experience, and back again.

As a result, expectations of customer experience are higher than ever, and this is particularly true for mobile apps. 

• Australian consumers are now spending 10 hours a day on internet connected devices.
• Just 16% of Australians use a landline on a daily basis
• 52% of Millennials have never used a landline… Preferring mobile & internet connectivity!

So why are only 49% of businesses mobile-optimised?

Marketers and businesses need to start getting ahead of consumer trends and stop playing catch up.

Last week I spoke at a Digital Women's Network event about how to do this, and I've fleshed out my presentation here.

In this article I’ll cover:

1. Common benefits of adding mobile to your business strategy
2. Simple actions to help you create an effective mobile product

1. The Common Benefits Of Adding Mobile

Increasing Revenue

Increasing revenue is usually the priority and will mostly come as a bi-product of getting some of the other benefits right, namely:

• Engaged Users
• Better brand awareness
• Better Data

Amazon is a great example of a company who added a new revenue stream via mobile.

They saw value in acquiring the mobile app Audible, and soon generated greater revenue in books being sold.

Creating New Efficiencies

Getting rid of manual processes and removing bottlenecks is one of the key abilities of technology when it is done right.

Areas where efficiencies can be gained include:

• Ordering
• Payments
• Communication (customers, suppliers & staff/franchisees)
• Transparency and so on.

A great example of a mobile app discovering new efficiencies through mobile is Steel Drive by Bluescope.

Steel Drive is essentially a digital solution to replace some current manual processes in the restraint and transport of steel via trucks. This improves the safety and protection for all parties involved in the end-to-end process of steel transport.

Better engage with external users (customers)

This is where mobile can excel because the user’s device is always with them.

If you can give your users a better, simpler and funner experience, usually you will win.

With this in mind, you can understand why UBER has been so successful.

Better engagement with internal users

When an organisation or network is large, mobile can go a long way to keeping everyone closer in their understanding and thinking.

It also provides a great opportunity to solicit feedback and understand the views of your employees on any topic.

Understanding how companies like Slack & Facebook for Business are creating tools to help companies improve internal engagement is important here.

You may however need to develop your own platform that allows for:

• Cultural alignment
• Privacy concerns
• Feature relevancy
• A small business budget

Better use of Data (Existing and New)

By including analytics and feedback mechanisms into a mobile app, it enables you to track user engagement, drop off points and collect any amount of data.

One of our clients, The George Institute, used the crowd-sourcing ability of mobile to build the largest packaged food & drink ingredients and nutrition database in the world (FoodSwitch).

Perception / Competitive advantage

When you have mobile as part of an omni-channel strategy, it demonstrates your business is committed to its customers by offering them the latest technology-based ways of interacting.

It can also give your company a significant competitive advantage, especially if your competitors don’t have a mobile strategy.

And if your competitors do have a mobile strategy, it makes it all the more urgent for you to address how you will compete in the mobile space.

Competitive advantage will usually come down to the user experience that you provide.

2. Simple actions to help you create an effective mobile product

Whether you are engaging with a technical partner or have an internal technical team that will develop your mobile product, we have put together some do’s and don’ts to act as a framework for doing it right.

Apply Design Thinking

• What is the problem your product will solve for users?

Remember, while your objective may be to increase revenue or build a database, your customers don’t care about these objectives.

You need to find a way to solve a problem for your app users so they will engage with your app, and you in turn can achieve your objectives.

• Who are your target users?

Identify app key user groups you plan to target your app for. Then quantify and prioritise these groups, because the app needs to be built to specifically engage these highest priority groups.

• How are your target users currently solving the problem?

To create engagement, you need to find a better, more enjoyable, easier, or more rewarding way for your target users to solve the problem.

• What are competitor products doing?

If your competitors have an app, identify what they are doing well and not so well.

Also examine how other industries are solving a similar problem. This research can save time and money on a trial & error process.

• What are the primary objectives for the first release?

If the primary objective is to validate an idea, then you only need to build the features will provide this validation in the first release – Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

This will reduce time to market and also keep your costs low.

• How will you determine / measure success?

It is important to determine what success will look like, especially for the first release.

If validation is your objective, then will this be downloads, time spent in the app, specific user feedback, etc.

• What is your budget / minimum ROI for first release and updates?

Cost will be determined by complexity.

By first developing a MVP, you will minimise the cost for validation.

However, to continue to develop the product will require a more significant investment in order to realise a significant return.

Your development partner will be able to advise you more accurately for your specific requirements.

Adopt a Lean Approach

• Only include the core features (MVP)

Besides the obvious benefits of cost and time, only developing the core features validates the primary reason for the app.

There’s nothing worse than spending tens of thousands of dollars (if not more), extensive staffing resources, and months of work on developing a mobile product, and then seeing it fall flat on its face.

This will also enable you to focus on getting each feature right.

• Keep the purpose of the app clear for users

This allows your target users to more easily understand the purpose of the app and quickly determine the benefit for them.

• Once agreed on a set of requirements, focus on only these requirements.

It is very easy to get excited and continually come up with additional requirements and features to include during development.

It’s best to note these in a ‘Potential Future Features’ list, but focus on the original first release development plan. It will save time and money.

• DON’T use the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ approach

The opposite to a lean approach is the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ approach where you try and fit as many features into the app as you can.

This will only confuse your users and cost unnecessary time and money.

Below is the Release, Measure, Update loop Buzinga uses to deliver digital solutions that minimises wasted time and resources.

Think like your target user

• User Centric Design is the key

Many of our clients start out with a user flow, look and feel using they’ve come up with based on ‘what they like’.

Where they usually end up is with a flow, look and feel that will attract and engage their target users.

More often than not, you are not the target user of your app!

• Why would your target users engage with your app?

What is the benefit for your target user? Is it useful, fun, essential, time-saving, etc?

• How will you keep them engaged?

Will you have regular contact or prompts built into the logic? Will you use gamification or social interaction? Will you deploy regular marketing campaigns with fresh content?

• How will you measure their engagement?

Who will monitor and analyse the data from your analytics package and how will this influence your actions?

• How will you solicit their feedback?

We include a feedback package into our apps where our clients can conduct short campaigns to solicit feedback.

• DON’T assume you know your users – Test everything

The better you get to know your target users and the more effort you make to give them exactly what they want, the more engaged they will be and so the more users you will have.

It won’t be perfect… and that’s OK

• You can’t think of everything

Consider where all of the most popular apps started compared to where they are now. It is important to get Version 1 out as soon as you can.

Launch hard and launch fast!

• Focus on the core user features first

Once your Version 1 is live, you can begin to analyse user behaviour… Sometimes user feedback will give you the best ideas for future features.

• Sometimes a STEALTH release is best for Version 1

If your strategy is to first release a basic MVP, then a full release but with no or limited targeted marketing to gauge user engagement & feedback… Then use these findings to create Version 2.

• Release V1 to a smaller test group – (bugs & all)

No matter how much testing is done before release, some bugs don’t become obvious before the app is live. Best to test first release on a smaller group.

• Save the big marketing spend for V2 or V3 release

After your limited release, work out what updates can be implemented based on your user feedback, then re-release with your planned marketing strategy.

• DON’T expect you’ll get it right first time

Understand that developing an engaging app is an iterative process and can take time.

Good Communication is Key

• Appoint 1 internal person as Project Manager

It is extremely difficult to work with a client when we are talking to several representatives, especially if they each have their own point of view about the project.

Your internal person responsible for the project should completely understand all the business objectives for the project and be up to date with the development progress.

Their role will be to consolidate all the varying internal requirements and feedback into a single direction/instruction.

• Identify & inform all your key stakeholders

All client-side individuals or departments with an invested interest in the project outcomes need to be identified and understand what will be required of them.

This concerns issues like timeliness and accuracy of feedback.

• Ensure all key stakeholders understand the test plan

Stakeholders need to be instructed on how to test the beta versions of the app and how to tabulate their feedback.

The best method is to create an internal strategy for a fast and accurate feedback response so that the project is not delayed.

• DON’T leave understanding your system to the end

This can cause serious issues if changes need to be made at the last minute. It will extend release dates and add cost to the project.

Trust your Development Partner/Team

• You are the subject matter expert

When you engage a development partner, we rely on your experience in your industry and with your customers, to be able to define the problem the app will be solving and have the background knowledge when we suggest solutions.

• Your development partner is the technical expert

We understand how to develop a mobile solution that will engage your target users. This is especially important to understand when it comes to UX, UI and Technical solutions.

• DON’T micro-manage the design & development process

It will usually lead to extended timelines, additional cost and a less-than-optimal product. Transparent collaboration will always net the best results.

Embracing mobile is no longer a choice - it’s a necessity for your business’ ongoing success.

The key takeaway that will put you ahead of other businesses is to release lean tech products, validate quickly, then constantly iterate for exceptional user experience.

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn famously said:

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

Keep this in mind as you go mobile!