No One Wants Another App

Everyone I talk to these days has an idea for a software product or a web application. They dream of how it will work and how it will make them rich and famous.

It seems that people are squeezing their heads trying to come up with something new just so they can build an app around it.

At my software company, simplicityEngine, we get people coming to us all the time with all kinds of ideas for new apps that they want us to build for them.

But all these soon-to-be founders are missing something very important right from the start.

And that thing is:

Nobody wants another app.

Think about it. There are already thousands of apps out there. Do you wake up in the morning wanting to sign up for another online software product?

What people really want is having their problems solved and their pain go away.

But if you’re just starting out, why build an app to accomplish that?

Yes, you might have an idea of what your customers’ pain really is but you haven’t figured out an optimal way to solve it yet.

So, why not work with one of your potential app customers one-on-one. Offer them the service that your app would be doing and charge them more.

Then get a second, and then another…

In the process, you will learn exactly what those customers REALLY WANT.

And when you get to the point where you AND your customers agree on the optimal way for the problem to be solved including all the nitty-gritty details and parameters you know that you’ve nailed a good solution for the problem.

In almost every single time it will be different than what you initially thought, and that would be invaluable input for you to design an app in the future.

It might be very tempting to take what you’ve learned from working one-on-one with clients and use it as input to build your app.

Don’t! Not yet…

When you get to the point where you can’t handle more customers because the current ones are taking all your time, then you know its a good time to consider building an app.

Because over time, you’ll think of a product that automates whatever it is you are doing repetitively.

Only after getting overwhelmed with helping others, should you create a product to replace you.

Conclusion

Instead of building an app right away, try doing the service. Only when you can’t handle the number of customers manually should you then create the product. Do the one-on-one until you cannot do it anymore because you can’t handle the demand.

That’s when you know it’s time to build another App.

Don’t be the one who builds yet another app that no one wants!