The challenge of creating a new product can be daunting, and if this is your first time running a business, it can feel like there are far too many things to think about. In the mobile app development industry, you have the added worries of trying to create something that will be well received by your customers, alongside managing your business. One way in which you can make the whole process slightly easier and less stressful is to identify some of the common mistakes that new app developers make and do everything you can to avoid these pitfalls. We’ve created this handy list to help you with just that.
- Not Doing Enough Research
This is an issue that all new business owners can run into if they’re not careful. Research is one of the most valuable things for a business as it can help you to identify exactly what your product, in this case, your new app, needs to do to succeed. This research should also include your target audience, what features will increase your chances of more people purchasing your app, and what your competitors are doing that could sway people to choose their app over yours. Make this research a priority, and don’t forget that it isn’t an isolated activity for starting your app development journey. This needs to continue throughout the process, which also means that your entire project needs some flexibility, allowing you to change and add any features to suit the changing needs of your audience.
- Failing To Manage Their Budget
As a new app developer, the chances are your budget is limited, especially if you’ve started to do this off of your own personal investments. Whatever method of funding you are using to develop your new app, it’s very important to set a budget and stick to it. There are many scenarios in which you might start to push your budget to the limit or, in fact, exceed that set limit, especially if you haven’t accounted for hidden expenses or simply planned out everything you’re going to need to pay for. Because of this, it’s highly recommended that you factor a detailed budget into your business plan from the start and don’t begin development until you are happy with your predicted spending. The last thing you want is to get into financial trouble by ignoring your budget and then simply being unable to even finish development.
- Not Conducting Sufficient Testing
This is a very important step in the development process, and failing to handle this professionally and with great scrutiny can lead to your app being riddled with bugs or even security issues. Launching an app that is buggy can ruin the UX or user experience, leading to negative reviews and a reduction in the number of downloads. You should also make sure to conduct security tests too, using this guide to application security testing by ForAllSecure. Ensuring that your app is tested using these methods regularly will allow you to identify any weaknesses in the software and reduce the risk of critical problems once you launch to the public. These problems could include data loss and hacking attempts, so it’s imperative that you don’t skip this part of development.
- Failing To Create An MVP
When developing an app, it’s quite common to get new ideas for features as time progresses, even towards the later stages of development when you’re preparing for launch. This can lead to something known as feature-creep, in which developers continuously delay their launch schedule because they keep adding new features. This can frustrate your audience, however, and could seriously harm your business in the long run. Accept the fact that you might not be able to get every feature implemented at launch and save some things for future updates. You should create what is known as an MVP or minimum viable product, which should be decided during your early planning stages. If you have this MVP fully realized, you should ensure that you launch your app as originally planned. It might be the case that you create the MVP ahead of schedule, and in that case, extra features are a bonus. Just don’t delay for the sake of adding new features that weren’t originally planned.
- Not Communicating With Their Audience
Communication with your customers is essential no matter what your business does. Whether you provide a service or create a product, you need to listen to what your customers want and aren’t happy with. During app development, this communication will more often than not take place after launch, but it will also be important if you run public testing too. This communication will allow you to fix reported bugs and make changes to certain features that your customers just aren’t happy with. One key way in which you can communicate with your audience is via social media platforms, and therefore it may be worthwhile hiring a social media manager or outsourcing this work to a professional social media agency. The chances are there will be at least some bugs after you launch, but you can reduce any customer outrage by being candid and communicative with them.
