Many aspiring entrepreneurs want to start their business online but quite a few of this lot actually succeeds in turning their awesome application idea into reality. The question arises, what to do with a crazy app idea?
Generally, businesses having their own mobile apps, ensure a strong connection with their customers or end-users. This connection nourishes when the business improves the overall user experience which further implies more sales and increasing revenue.
Here in this article, we will unravel some of the most useful tips you can employ to give life to your app or a game idea within the given resources.
Tips to Get Your Idea Working:
Prior to listing out these tips, let’s mention some of the most common misconceptions which hinder your overall progress.
- There are people who have the idea and resources but no coding skill.
- Others are quite well-versed in programming but they don’t have a team.
- Many of you may have an awesome idea and a team but no funds.
- Some people only have an idea and they complain about a lack of resources, team, and funds.
These misconceptions listed above don’t indicate that you cannot proceed towards building your application. Around 90% of the ideas die facing these issues while the remaining 10% of the ideas fight these circumstances and emerge successfully.
Let’s discuss how you can lay some groundwork for your next application:
1. List out Features:
Conduct brainstorming sessions and put everything that comes to your mind on paper.
Simply saying “I have an awesome app idea” isn’t always enough. Any idea which is not on paper has no practical value.
Jot down a feature list and make sure to add more features as you further your research. This is one of the most important steps where you are figuring out what exactly are you going to offer to the end-users. Make sure that the features don’t feel like “copied” from another app.
Once you are done writing all the points on paper, you’ll have a holistic view and you will begin refining your idea up to the point where you’ll come up with the core value of your application.
Additionally, listing everything on paper will clear out all the points which you will be discussing with your designers, developers, team leads, investors and the co-founders.
2. Conduct Market Analysis:
Having written the entire feature list for your application, you would have grasped the understanding of the whole idea by now.
The very next step before you get cracking is to conduct a thorough market analysis and list out the following:
- Competitors.
- Latest User Experience(UX) Trends.
- Any Specific Requirements.
First things first, you need to look for such applications that are already in the market and are offering features similar to that of yours. List down the following points while you are on the run:
- The features of those apps which are identical to your app.
- Users reviews about those features.
- Ratings on the app store.
- Such areas where these apps failed to provide an improved UX.
Once you have written all these down, go back to your feature list and update it. Add all such features and options which the users will appreciate and endorse. Remember, you are adding all these features to make your application more attention-grabbing and usable.
3. Know Your Audience:
An app with no pre-defined audience is an app worth the trash box.
You are on your way to turn an amazing idea into reality and you don’t yet know your audience? Seems like you shouldn’t be going ahead at all.
If you want to make a successful application, always take steps to know your product audience. There are several parameters to categorize the users, some of which are as follows:
- Industry-specific.
- Age group.
- Area.
- Gender.
- Income group.
- Profession.
- Personal likes.
- Religion and so much more.
There’s a simple rule which made the Facebook, Twitter, Google and the rest of the billion-dollar franchises to what they are today and that is:
“The better you know about your end-user, the better you can develop your application according to your audience’s needs”.
To better analyze the minds of your audience, you can do focused group studies, let the intended users fill our surveys and on the basis of the results, you can re-engineer your application to suit your users’ needs. Generally, such attempts to sneak into your audience’s minds increase the chances of your application’s success.
4. Figure Out a Way to Make Money:
One thing which will keep you motivated and energized to make your application the best out there is the money. While you are working on an idea, make sure to understand it to a level where you can also figure out a way to earn some money.
You can generate an income stream soon after releasing the beta version of your application using the following ways:
- Sponsored ads.
- Subscription fee.
- In-app purchases.
- In-app ads.
- User data.
All you need to know is the nature of your application, the audience, and the market trends. You can also follow the Freemium model in which you can offer the application for free and within your application, you can put an in-app purchase option which is packed with features.
Paid advertisement, although not appreciated by the users, can generate handsome revenue.
5. Develop a Wireframe:
A sketchy drawing of the core functionality of your application is something which is pretty useful in explaining your idea to the developers and to the investors alike.
You can use a pencil and paper to draw wireframes. Else, you can also employ some very useful and creative online tools which are free to use. A well-developed wireframe helps a lot in refining your product and it works as an effective method to optimize the navigation of your application on the whole.
No such technical skills are needed to create a wireframe. Rather it’s a simple sketch where you make use of your common sense to create mock navigation.
Every time you forget something, there is no need to turn hundreds of pages of the documentation when you can easily check out the finalized wireframe and resume your journey.
A neat wireframe can also help you in gaining investors and a team of awesome developers because they will only be able to see some real spark in your idea when it’s refined.
6. Start the Talent Hunt:
By now, it’s highly likely that a few good developers have contacted to partner up with you to make this dream a reality. If not, there is no need to worry.
Seek consultation from the local software development agencies and get quotes from those which show actual interest in developing your application. Else, you can also post a job on several freelancing platforms like Upwork, Fiverr and PeoplePerHour where the possibility of getting in touch with some really cool developers is quite high.
Moreover, you can also sign-up at the Crowdsourcer.io , create your project and specify the number of people you need. Credible developers and designers will join you along the way.
Here are some parameters against which you can rate the vendors whom you contacted:
- Portfolio.
- Past Performance.
- Work Ethic.
- Communication.
- Time.
- Price.
- Testimonials.
Always remember that a good vendor or a contractor will be the one who will assess every aspect of your idea and will put up a list of questions for you to answer. It’s your job to address every question and team up with someone who is responsible and competent enough to handle your project seamlessly.
7. First UI/UX & then Development:
After finalizing your development team, streamline the overall designing process by letting your team, work on creating a detailed and more organized wireframe. A more detailed wireframe will assist in ideating every screen function and the overall app flow.
Once the design team has turned in the final wireframe, task them with creating a visual prototype which only means to give you a rough idea of how it’s going to look in the hands of a user. You can add more screens and features at this stage or you can finalize the design and invoke the services of your development team.
Once the application developers are on board, you need to discuss every single feature with them by keeping the wireframe on the display. It’s usually better to create weekly milestones for your development team and you should always use a collaboration tool to ensure effective communication.
Keep a strict checking schedule and make sure your quality assurance engineers are continuously running their load tests and functionality tests over the developed features. Every single module should be tested to the fullest.
8. Launch & Market:
Finally, it’s time to launch your app!
You can launch it in the Google Play Store & the iTunes App Store. Make sure to implement the required marketing practices rather than hire a team for a couple of months for App Search Optimization (ASO).
Additionally, you can also seek consultation from several marketing specialists and listen to what they have to say on the matter. Get a couple of quality bloggers on board and introduce your application to them and ask them to write informative content on your application. Do a press release and enjoy the wonders your app has to offer!
Final words
Turning an idea into reality is not that much of a difficult job with the latest and most effective tools at your disposal. All you need to do is to make sure that you have already done your homework pretty well. If you haven’t conducted proper research in the earlier stages, every feature from your rival apps will haunt you until you make it a part of your application. Eventually, you’ll end up ruining the whole idea.
Focus on the core features of your application and leverage the potential of top-notch developers and awesome collaboration tools to make it a big success.