How to plan a mobile app development process?
A mobile application is a right step for any business. It gives your company exposure which creates a direct line between the company and the users. It increases operational effectiveness. The question that we need to ask before creating the application should be, “Will my application be able to solve a real challenge that someone is facing?” How is the application going to make the lives of customers easier? What is the app’s purpose? Who will this app benefit? How will it engage users? Questioning such challenges will help you to prepare the core concept and the purpose of the application.
It is essential to put the needs and preferences of the customer in the first place. The app has to be customer-centric. You should know how the app is going to meet their needs, goals, and technological preferences.
You should question yourself:
Who are your major stakeholders? How would they cope up with a problem you want to solve for them using the application? Find out what platforms your users interact with regularly (including device, operating system, browser, etc.)Knowing your users will help you plan and design features that will directly answer their needs.
The Steps for how to plan a mobile development
1. Research the market
It is also crucial to know and be aware of the other competitors in the market. This always acts as a driving force for any business. Exploring other apps will not only help you to find out how to distinguish yourself from the competition but also help you learn from their strategies and tactics.
2. Set up your goals
Keep your main goal in your mind. This will help to keep your team on track and help you with technical and business decisions. There can be many goals of your application and setting up a plan will help you to work towards the goals in the order of priorities.
3. Create Value Proposition
User benefit plays a big role in motivating you to work even harder for customer benefit. A good app concept includes a solution to a specific problem of your target user group. For a user to download your application, you need to offer a unique value, such as access to certain features unavailable elsewhere, the low cost of a service offered at a higher price by your competitors, etc.
4. Visualize the plan
Visualization is a powerful technique. For your team to work together with a goal and aim it is necessary to make a flowchart that will help to make the task simple and concise. It’s also a good idea to keep things as visual as efficiency allows, for example, by adding sketches of designs or particular screens.
5. Create app wireframes
Wireframe’s purpose is to present the app in a stripped-down format, showing its core functions and establishing what interactions will (and should) be available to users. Business experts, external developers, and designers are some of the specialists you should involve in the process of building app wireframes as they will truly serve the project and leverage their knowledge.
6. Discuss technical feasibility
There can be high costs of development or maintenance of the application due to several features and solutions that they might require due to long-term development. You must become aware of the costs and risks ahead of time because there is no other way to work on this. Your app’s technical feasibility should be understood beforehand.
7. Metric based analysis
Define the (key performance factors) KPIs for your app. This will help you to track the statistics automatically, with tools that can keep the record of the number of user sessions, viewed screens, etc. It’s possible to track a surprising number of custom “events”, including the number of finished registrations, users going through the onboarding process, viewed products, or pathways leading to a purchase.
8. Branding & Communication
Marketing is a very crucial step in your walk of success. People usually think that it’s early to market the concept before its development but it can be untrue at times. Building up user’s excitement for the application launch, getting their feedbacks helps to achieve a community of loyal early customers and helps to spread word-of-mouth. You should consider your marketing plan including the aspects like branding strategy and outreach.
There are a lot of things to consider when planning to develop a mobile app. Ensure that your app is developed to solve real users’ issues. Get your research done instead of making assumptions. Remember to know your user group and their platform preference. Creating a mobile app can be exactly the right step for your business.
