Our clients include such ones: guys with glowing eyes and million-dollar ideas. We love them, but often the ideas of entrepreneurs are far from the realities of modern development. It turns out that to make a "second Uber" takes more than 3 months, and the budget of such a project is much higher than expectations.
This article will tell you what you should focus on before contacting any potential developer companies.
First: think through your idea as carefully as possible
Answer yourself the following questions:
- What is the purpose of the app?
- What current problem does it solve?
- Who is my target audience?
- What is the competitive environment?
- What are the overall market opportunities?
Yes, these questions are simple and even someone may seem too banal to publish them again. But you can't even imagine how many people don't think about it before they start a project.
Creating a business plan that answers these questions is a great start to determine the feasibility of investing in your app.
Second: Determine your MVP
MVP (minimum viable product) includes only the basic features that are necessary to test the idea. Millions of dollars have been invested in the market giants (TikTok, Instagram, Uber, etc.), but each of them was once a mere MVP. Divide the functions of your product into mandatory and additional ones — this way it will be easier to understand the immediate goals and determine the budget.
Third: Explore your competitors
Analyze the existing applications on the market that either competes with your idea or are attractive from the user's point of view.
You can spy on your competitors in the app stores, read the reviews, see what they are doing well, and what they are still lagging. Think about how your app can solve these problems and how you can attract users.
Another important point is the visual component of the project. It will be great if you have any wishes for the appearance of the screens. Collect examples of the applications that you like — this way it will be easier for the development partner to understand your aesthetic preferences.
These three steps are optional, but will greatly simplify the first touch with the development team that will handle your product. All of the above in the YuSMP Group is done together with the client at the stage of the discovery phase, only we are already working deeper and wider on each issue. Learn more about the next step here.