You have your app idea. But since you are reading this, probably you do not know how to develop an app and where to get started. Creating an app can be inspiring but it can also feel frightening. There are a lot of variables app development formula: strategy, app design, app development, APIs, back-end programming, hosting, and launching. Turning the app into a successful business is eventually your goal which will need app promo and continuous support. With this article, we will not only give you insights on how to develop an app, but we will also provide you important tips on turning it into a successful company. There are 6 steps for taking your app from idea to having a thriving organization.
- Create a business development strategy
- Hire app developers
- Budgeting & planning
- App development
- Support & maintenance
While this article focuses more on mobile app advancement, it can still be an excellent read if you are producing web applications as the overall advancement procedure is rather similar.
Develop a step-by-step business strategy
Creating an app without a strategy is like building a house without a construction plan. It is possible, however, you won’t be satisfied with the final result. The method requires describing your needs, your goals, and your methodology to develop the app.
Breakthrough solutions creation is impossible without a thorough study of your product development and business strategy. This is why we here at Jetruby created a startup development methodology that allows you to launch a startup with minimal time and cost losses. Leave a short description of your distinct idea or a task on our very first and free advancement action: Product Development Strategy Session. And we’ll contact you in no time!
Identify the needs of your target market
There are more than 4.5 million apps offered in between Apple App Store and Google Play. However, less than 1% of these apps achieve success. Your app should be a solution to the problem or offer special value to consumers. Unique apps have a higher chance of success than blindly replicating existing concepts. Billion-dollar apps resolve huge problems that affect a lot of people. If you are developing a business app for your employees and customers, you must have genuine business needs. Every successful app has a specified purpose. For example, Google Drive allows you to rapidly and efficiently access, create, and store files. Facebook connects you with friends and relatives. Uber provides you ride-sharing services. Hence, your app needs to solve an issue and supply value to consumers. After all, developing an app is not just about creating a piece of technology. It’s about developing a great product.
Conduct competitor and market research
The Apple and Android app shops have been around for over a decade. Countless appы have come and gone. An app idea alone does not make it unique. Through research studies, you may find similar app ideas attempting to fix the very same problem. Even if there is a similar app doesn’t imply you need to give up on your concept since there is always a better way to do the very same thing. A competitive analysis will help you determine the strengths and weaknesses of these mobile apps.
Throughout your analysis, compare a competitor’s product features and advantages. Does their app resolve your problem? Can you improve this solution? How successful is rival’s app? Is there a market for another app with a similar idea? Check their prices and company culture. There are also paid and free websites to find the initial app development investment. You can learn how much capital they have raised to support their business.
Take care of logistics
If you want users to find your app, you need to promote it. A website is an essential step to promote your app (more on app promotion down listed below). It is necessary to secure a site domain name early while doing so. You will also wish to confirm that no other live apps share your name on the app store. We also suggest if this is a brand-new product then you ought to register a business as when you are ready to launch your app, you will have to register with the app shops using your company name. If you are developing an app for an existing business then you may not need to worry about securing a domain name but you must think about including a product page for your new app on your business site.
Hire App Developers
Once you developed a business strategy, it is time to build your app. Quality mobile apps need UI design, programming, QA testing, and project management. It is almost impossible to find one developer who will fill each need. That’s why you will need to hire a team for your project. Whom you work with will be totally depending on your budget and needs. You have several options.
Hire in-house Developers
In-house developers can be an excellent choice in particular scenarios. You can work with those who you really need and keep everything internal. Nevertheless, the procedure of developing a team can be lengthy. Sourcing each expert is a multi-week procedure. We are also seeing the greater merging of technologies. In addition to standard mobile technology, numerous apps consist of functions for artificial intelligence, machine learning, the internet of things, and augmented reality. So you require various expertise on your team. What if you are in a region that has a small talent pool? Employing the best talent is near impossible or could take months to fill the roles. That will set you behind schedule. Working with in-house developers can also add fixed costs to your payroll. If you are a startup or small business, you may likewise need to worry about providing them a workspace, computers, software licenses, and benefits. All of which can increase your initial investment.
Hire an app development agency
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Budgeting and Planning
According to Statista, less than one percent of mobile apps achieve success. Insufficient financing is among the main reasons apps face failure. So how do you estimate and budget your app concept? If you have in-house developers or if you are working with freelance developers then you must seek estimates from them. If you are considering employing an app development company then you must seek estimates from a minimum of 3 different companies. All successful apps have something in common: good quality. So when you reach out to an app development business for a proposal and estimates, you must consider offers that provide equivalent services and have actually a proven history of producing effective apps. This will make sure that you receive clear estimates. As part of your estimation and budgeting procedure, you will need to tech stack decisions. Do you want to develop a native app or do you wish to develop a mobile-friendly/ responsive web app? If you are developing a native mobile app then do you want to develop for iOS, Android, or both? Should the app be designed for smartphones only or it should support tablet users? Depending on what you chose the prices and timing might vary.
If you are trying to budget for a startup app business, keep in mind that technology/app development is normally 40% of your total investments. When you planning a budget, you need to consider both external and internal costs. You will require funds to invest in marketing, support, and administrative functions. You may also incur hosting fees if your app requires a back-end program running from a server. So for example, if the cost of app development is $100,000 and if your app is not going to start generating significant earnings soon after the launch then you should have at least $2500,000 available to create a successful app business. In case if you do not have enough funding available then instead of giving up on your app idea, we suggest creating a minimum viable product (MVP) or starting with wireframes/prototypes. This can help you demonstrate your concept to potential investors to get extra financing.
After you have budgeted your app project and secured funding, you must produce a product roadmap. A product roadmap is a shared source of reality that describes the vision, direction, top priorities, and product development strategy over time. It’s a plan of action that lines up the company around short – and long-term goals for the product, and how they will be achieved.
The roadmap will help you:
- Prioritize deliverables into turning points
- Prepare a timeline
- Develop a communication plan
- Develop success criteria
App Development
There are 5 stages in the mobile app advancement cycle: define, design, develop, test, and deploy
Define
Up until this point, you may have a clear concept of the app you want to develop. You may have produced a top-level specification and have drafts on how you want your app to look. Sometimes, that might be enough details to get developers to start the app development process. For the apps with a limited scope and simple functionality, you can develop an app in iteration following agile processes without gathering a lot of details upfront. Nevertheless, more complex apps will need user stories to catch detailed requirements for each function. All stakeholders from your business need to contribute to specifying the task scope. This procedure can help clarify the project scope for the development team. For example, the app might enable users to login using a username and password. A couple of months later, the client recommends logging in using an e-mail instead of a username. Making this modification can add unnecessary time to remodeling the login process. You can avoid this by gathering and discussing app requirements in advance.
All this can be done within Product Development Strategy Session. It’s a JetRuby’s program that helps you to work out your business’s conceptual component in detail. This requires an accurate estimation of the business goals and requirements, prototype development, setting up clear deadlines, and implementation steps. Thanks that program your business failure risks will decrease by almost 80%.After it, you will have confidence in your business concept and obtain more factual data for your project.
Design
In 2021, app design should be still the priority. Consumers prefer products that provide an instinctive user experience, clear UI design, and excellent performance. An experienced app development team knows how to create scalable and successful apps implementing best practices. The design phase concentrates on visual design and solution design. To create visual designs, the app designer can turn the app requirements into wireframes using design tools like Invision or Sketch. During this stage, all stakeholders must participate in providing feedback on the design. Implementing design changes after the app is already developed will be really expensive. In order to find a perfect design solution, your app development team will identify an app’s architecture, technology stack, database structure, and API design.
Develop
Once you prepared app design, it is time to develop your app. Many app development projects include a user interface, front-end advancement, API development, and back-end advancement. Do not simply delve into programming. Prioritize the requirements and create a milestone-based app development plan. To improve project progress, we recommend segmenting the development process into smaller-sized deliverables. Arranging status meetings will help you measure progress against project estimates. As your team reaches each milestone, you need to examine it to guarantee it meets your expectations. In addition, you will want to include a process for managing task changes. In many projects, stakeholders might make recommendations that change the project scope. Having a change control system will help manage, evaluate, examine, and prioritize changes.
Test
Quality control (QA) testing assists you to provide a stable, secure, and functional app. An extensive app testing procedure includes developing a testing strategy and test cases. Best practices suggest that you should conduct numerous tests throughout each aspect of your application. User experience testing will validate your app with app designs. App quality control will verify that each feature within the app works. Performance testing makes sure the app loads quickly, there are no memory leaks, and the app doesn’t drain the smartphone or other device battery. Security testing looks for vulnerabilities that could put user data at risk. Device testing guarantees the app functions with each yearly device release. Numerous modern applications rely on automation testing to decrease manual screening efforts. Automation screening can also replicate multi-user and load testing situations throughout testing. We encourage you to involve all stakeholders to take part in the testing phase. Any feedback you get in the test stage must be tracked, reviewed, and focused on. You should eliminate all defects before the app will be fully completed.
Deploy
To deploy your mobile app to the app store, you need to submit it to the relevant platform. For instance, the iPhone app needs to be submitted on the Apple App Shop, while the Android application must be sent on Google Play. As soon as you submit the app, it undergoes a review procedure. Google needs a few hours to evaluate as well as accept your app. Apple takes about a week as a result of its rigid review process. The App store will certainly notify you if your application does not fulfill its guidelines. In which situation, you’ll need to address those problems and also resubmit your application. The application will be readily available for download when the application shop authorizes it. The application authorization process can take up to 2 weeks. Make certain to include this time when you develop the project development timeline. If app development includes database and also back-end work, you will have to deploy these separately. Many companies rely on cloud service providers such as Amazon.com AWS as well as Microsoft Azure to host their web applications and databases. Cloud holding gives versatility as well as scalability. It can also decrease the companies’ upfront investment for hardware and software licenses. As part of your deployment stage, you should identify your onboarding procedure. For enterprise apps, you should carry out training sessions with your development team and external users. This will increase the adoption of your app and make your app successful.
Read: Essential features of a successful startup
Support & Maintenance
Imagine, your app became successful. You’ve got many downloads and positive reviews on Apple Store or Google Play. However, the work isn’t completed. Popular apps have a strategy for long-term improvement. Mobile app development is a recurring process. The reality is regardless of how good the original application is, there is always need for improvement. You should consider user feedback, market demands, new competitors, as well as advancements in technology.
App maintenance strategy should include security updates and bug fixes. Application maintenance ensures the app is compatible with the current versions of IOS as well as Android platforms. Application maintenance will include any type of updates related to app efficiency. Platforms like Google Firebase help app developers to check performance metrics. Firebase provides performance tracking, crash records, user analytics, and more.
App maintenance strategy should include security updates and bug fixes. Application maintenance ensures the app is compatible with the current versions of IOS as well as Android platforms. Application maintenance will include any type of updates related to app efficiency. Platforms like Google Firebase help app developers to check performance metrics. Firebase provides perfomance tracking, crash records, user analytics, and more.
Conclusion
There is a lot that goes into developing an app however with the effective strategy and the right team, you can turn your app idea right into a successful business. Let’s summarise. There are several steps for making an app:
- Business strategy development
- App developers recruitment
- Budgeting & planning
- App Development
- Support & maintenance
Launching your startup business won’t go smoothly, and you need to prepare for unforeseen circumstances. Proper planning and execution will allow you to restrict these obstacles. We here in Jetruby have developed a unique technology for launching and promoting your startup. Contact us, and we will free help you to build your future development plan.
