How to Create a Mobile App – Part 1 – Planning

TIP: this article is full of checklists to help you build a solid foundation for your mobile app project. If you are seriously considering creating an app, prepare yourself for some serious work.

One of the key reasons to create an app is that 21% of millennials (Generation Y) open an app more than 50 times a day. It is hardly surprising, then, that businesses are keen to jump on the bandwagon.

Deciding to create a mobile app is easy — but how easy is it to actually build one and turn it into a sustainable business?

Step by step, let us go through the most important questions before spending a single penny.

Is Your Mobile App Idea Still a Good One?

42% of small business failures are the result of the absence of market need.

So let us be honest here. What makes you think your idea is good enough to last at least 5 years?

Do not misunderstand me — I am not here to discourage you; in fact it is quite the opposite. But if you decide to create an app simply because you want to build it, rather than because it adds value for someone, this already reveals a weakness at the concept level. You risk losing a great deal of time, money, and energy, and you will feel miserable and exhausted.

Fortunately, you can avoid this fairly easily.

What is the Value of Your Mobile App?

You cannot create a need. You can only make use of one that already exists.

… someone once said, and they were quite right.

Value is the response to a need, and the deeper the need, the greater the value of what is created to address it.

Remember that people have latent needs that have never changed since the dawn of humanity.

We all want:

• to feel good
• to look good
• to feel important
• to feel comfortable
• to be happy
• to be loved
• to have fun
• to be right
• to be attractive
• to make money
• to be productive
• to protect ourselves from life's uncertainties
• to be cared for

Therefore, all you need to do is respond to one of the needs mentioned above.

So, does your app:

• Provide entertainment?
• Solve any problem?
• Make life easier? (speed, security, convenience…)
• Increase social status?
• Make people more attractive? More influential? More interesting?
• Make them feel better about themselves?
• Improve their knowledge or skills?
• Make them feel better than others?

In short, what is the ultimate reason why anyone should use your app?

The Audience

To identify the right potential customers, you can use a few useful questions:

• Who do you want to see using your app?
• Are they your current customers? Or someone else?
• Do you have a specific demographic in mind?
• Do you really know them?
• Have you met any of them?
• Or have you only heard about them?
• Are they well represented in society?
• What do they do for a living?
• How much do they earn?
• Can you describe their daily routine?

You also need to roughly define the number of people who will use your app to check whether the market is large enough to generate a stable income.

• Is your app for everyone or just a specific niche?
• Is it a B2C, B2B, or B2E app?
• If it is for everyone, who will you try hardest to convince? (You need to go further than "the wealthiest").
• Where can you find your potential customers?
• How many of them can you reach?
• Can you measure the approximate (or preferably exact) number?
• How many people have the problem you want to solve?
• How will you find out this number?

Now, let us check whether they are looking for an improvement:

• What are they currently using to solve the problem you want to address?
• What is missing from the current solution?
• What is excessive in the current solution?
• What could be improved?
• What might they use in the future?
• Why would they change their minds and start using your app?
• Why would they change their minds and stop using what they use now?
• What do you have to offer that is better or different enough to make them switch?

And some further useful questions to explore in depth:

• How do they make purchases? (Do they prefer to save, buy on impulse, buy more than necessary, are not afraid to overpay, look for free products, want to buy to feel sophisticated, care about self-improvement, etc.)
• What other problems do they encounter every day?
• Can you spot another need or improvement in their daily lives that is not related to your app?
• How could you help them in areas beyond what your app addresses?
• Will your app appeal to their emotions or their logic?
• Can you offer them something new or improve upon what already exists?
• Will it help them save something or gain something?
• Will it help them look better or avoid "looking bad"?

Finally, can you stand alongside these people and say:

I know exactly what you are going through, and that is why I created this app — so that you no longer have to think about (insert problem here).

Competitive Research

You also need to check whether an app already exists that looks exactly like yours.

• If an app like yours exists, why do people use it?
• Why do they like it? Or what do they dislike about it?
• Why do others not use it?
• If there is no app like yours, why not?
• Has anyone tried something similar and failed?
• Why did they fail?
• What could go wrong?

If you see that there is room for improvement and you can do the same thing as others but better, you increase your chances of capturing attention.

• What is different about your app?
• Is your navigation or interface simpler?
• Do you have more customised features?
• Is your support better?
• Does it enable new possibilities?
• What possibilities? Are they tempting or significant enough?
• Does it improve the overall experience?
• Can it be used on more devices?
• Is it faster?
• Can it work offline?
• Is it cheaper?
• Why might people not want to pay for your app?
• Why might people not be interested in your app?
• How do you plan to spread the word?
• Etc.

Is Competition a Good Thing for Me?

If there is competition, there is probably also a product-market fit — so your idea has merit.

Check your competitors' performance — you may find very interesting data on how they generate traffic to their websites, where they advertise, what their team structure looks like, and how they are performing financially.

Do I Need to Be the First to Market?

No, but you need to be the best.

Being the best does not mean you have to beat your competitors in every discipline, but you do need to be number one in a specific niche or for a specific type of customer.

Business Model

Your business model is something you need to finalise before you start development.

The most important question is:

• Is your app worth paying for?

In other words, is the problem you want to solve significant enough for people to pay to have it resolved?

You also need to decide whether your app will be free, freemium, or paid.

Think about monetisation through advertising or in-app purchases, as everything depends on what you are looking for and what you want to achieve.

Also pay attention to the following:

• How much is your audience willing to pay?
• How much do they currently pay for a similar app or others?
• Do they actually pay, or do they only use free apps?

This way, you neither price yourself out of the market nor undervalue yourself.

If you are thinking of a free product as a way to get people hooked so they will pay for your premium version, check:

• What can you realistically give away for free?
• Is it enough to justify asking people to pay later?
• How will you motivate or persuade people to opt for a paid version?

Remember that a business plan is one of the first things your investor will ask for. Without one, they may not take you seriously — they might think your idea is just wishful thinking, so you need to show them that you know what you are doing and that there is a real plan for making money behind it.

Finally, once this is settled, you can look for a sponsor or an investor. When you do, it is time to start making serious commitments.

Thinking of Creating a Mobile App? These Tools Are Worth Using:

• The Business Model Canvas
• The Value Proposition Canvas
• SWOT Analysis
• PESTEL Analysis
• Porter's Five Forces
• User Is Always Right

Summary

As you can see, there is a great deal to do before you begin developing your app. Do your homework, conduct interviews with potential customers. You can simply show them a prototype sketched in your notebook, but make sure you get that invaluable external feedback.

Now let us set things in motion and bring your app to life in Part 2 – UX and UI. Stay tuned.