Coming up with original app ideas is often the game of choice over a beer with friends or even during your quiet, solitary moments. If you want to get serious about taking the next step, here are a few tips to keep in mind.
1. Think Flexibly
You undoubtedly already have at least one app idea that feels innovative enough to put you on the growing list of app successes. It’s essential, however, that you avoid falling in love with one specific idea. Instead, treat your concept as an inspiration and a starting point — a springboard for your creativity rather than a set of walls around it. When you allow your mind to stay agile, you enable yourself to come up with breakthrough ideas. You’ll also be wise enough to jettison impractical ideas early in the game.
2. Study the Market
Plan to spend some serious chunks of time in the iTunes App Store and Google Play Apps. Budget enough money to spend several weeks downloading and using apps, analyzing which app characteristics match up with the greatest popularity. Continue your market study until you feel you have a clear grasp of why certain apps have succeeded or failed, and check your perceptions against authoritative experts. It’s ideal if you can arrange to interview a few successful app developers, learning from them which general types of features are most successful. If this isn’t possible, then spend time reading online interviews and commentary by these experts so that you become truly familiar with the app market.
3. Seek Feedback
Once you’ve narrowed down your app idea through market research, the next step is to share it with people from your industry and seek their feedback. You can use your own network of connections for this purpose, and you can also leverage the vibrant tech communities on MeetUp or attend a Lean Startup meeting. Eric Ries, entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School and founder of the Lean Startup network, says, “[B]eing embedded in a startup ecosystem is an important part of
entrepreneurship.”
4. Tweak Your Idea
Once you create a minimum viable product, or MVP, which is your prototype, you can begin to gather more direct feedback. Beta testers are essential in this phase of development, and the online marketplace offers many beta testing services. You can go with individual freelancers or hire a beta testing platform that crowdsources these services. Alternatively, you can rely on your app development team to provide various testing phases as part of its wrap-around services. On the basis of the feedback you receive on your app, you can tweak your ideas or move forward with development strategies. Every new product goes through a trial by fire at this stage. It’s important to remember that your app could be a big hit in the market or a total flop.
5. Respond to Consumers
Once you have released your app into the wild, a whole new phase of feedback begins. Be patient during this phase because it takes time to measure market reaction. Based on the response to your app, including number of downloads, the reviews and the amount of revenue you’re receiving, you can adjust your startup’s course. You can make new add-ons or set an entirely new course for your next product. Meanwhile, you’ll always continue to update and improve your existing apps.
By 2017, the app market will have become a $77 billion business sector, according to Entrepreneur. Its statistics note that 46 percent of people who download apps say they’ve paid money for an app, while 17 percent have paid more than $20 for at least one app. There’s a place in this huge market for your app idea as well if you go about developing it with the right mindset.
