I have an idea for an app...

If you’ve ever said, “I have an idea for an app”, you need to know some key reasons you should develop an app and how you can succeed. The app development market is projected to reach $6.3 Trillion by 2021! That is trillion with a T!

Why is that? Everyone, be it your customers or potential users, have a mobile device (or 20) and use them all the time, everywhere. To understand how to take advantage of this, we need to do what agile development does, step into your users’ shoes. This is our specialty, so let me take you on that journey.

If you are an entrepreneur or a business, you need an app to do one thing for you, drive users to your app and get them to come back daily. From this you can make money in any number of ways that make sense to your goals. Every business, even Amazon and Facebook, have niches they aren’t hitting well. These cracks in their armor are what make room for startups and other businesses to swoop in and take some of their users for that specific niche. From that, you and your business can grow and take over other areas, and so-on. Your users are kings & queens that deem how that growth happens.

Your app will be used in the way users deem it worthy of their attention. Currently, the attention span of a human is shorter than a goldfish, so this is no small feat. This means, your users attention is fleeting and gives you new found respect for Facebook’s user engagement of 1.28 Billion daily active users. So, how do you drive that kind of usage of your app and then drive sales, in-app purchases, or whatever it is you are monetizing with? User experience.

When you develop your app, you are presented with practically unlimited potential. You can utilize GPS to check-in and get deals, you can create social features that connect people, you can expand your business to the world, or any number of ways you can co-op the phone’s functions like camera, gyro, accelerometer, etc.. Add to this, each piece of your app can be developed in multiple ways. Even the splash screen (loading) has functionality that can change. It is nearly impossible to navigate as a non-coder and it just so happens focussing on the user’s experience in your app also saves a lot of these technical hurdles.

Agile software development focuses on the user in order to build a unique value. Since people can’t pay attention and have their “go to apps”, breaking into that is hard. The way agile tackles this problem is by developing your Minimum Viable Product (MVP). As the name suggests, this is when you take your minimum idea, the core value you are offering users, and test it, it may or may not need to be an app, but eventually you will get enough data to start developing and know your dollars are beings spent on exactly what you need to bring in users and keep them happy. Agile is heavy on testing and gathering data in order to make rational decisions on what should be developed and what shouldn’t’ be.

So, ask yourself, what are you offering that will make people leave Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc..? If you struggle with that, don’t worry, it takes experience to truly hit that goal of product market fit. Even an app that is being developed by a business needs this.

A business can spend a lot of money on an app, so why wouldn’t you want to only develop the value that will bring you a quick “bang for your buck”? We’ve worked with companies developing all sorts of apps for all sorts of cases. The one common thread is, they need the user they are seeking to engage with to do just that, engage. Therefore, just “outsourcing” will hurt you (even ignoring the large problem that updates from 3rd parties cause, breaking your app and requiring more work on the code to keep it functioning and making you money), there is no way you can constantly update your app (as quickly as once per week like our membership development sprints).

Business or entrepreneur, the holy grail of app user engagement and growth is without a doubt network effects. These are things that grow more and more with more and more users. You have users come to your app and then share it or connect with people in some way. This creates a network and is what creates explosive app growth. Facebook, Twitter, Product Hunt, LinkedIn, DropBox, Uber, Airbnb, and many others rely on these network effects and our time at Y Combinator’s Startup School focused on this as well in many areas. Network effects create viral and explosive growth.

That’s all well and good, but how do you create that secret sauce?

The answer is pretty hard to answer without more details about your specific app. We give free advice and a glimpse into how we work, just fill out our Scope Refinement and we’ll get back to you as soon as we get a chance. We also can talk real-time with you if you sign up for Mission Command (free)and sign up for our Slack team (we’ll send you an invitation soon after you sign up).

$495/m gets our expertise working with you and your team to devise an agile plan and get the input you need to own your product. When development becomes necessary, we work with you to find a great mix of form, function, cutting, re-designing, in order to keep your project on budget and on time. We partner with you and your team to give you a full agile development department.