5 Questions to Ask Before Building an App for Your Business or Brand.

Apps are all the rage these days. From big corporations to individual brands, everyone’s jumping on the app game as smartphone sales continues to rise and consumers increasingly go mobile. We recently came upon this topic at SLC as we continue to build our digital brand — Is an app something that is in our best interest?

In order to make the right decision from a business and consumer perspective, we asked Lauren Fellure, Director of Growth and partner at Chicago-based SnapMobile, to help with few questions we had around app building.

Whether you’re part of a startup team, or are an individual entrepreneur building a startup or small business, you’ve probably thought of building an app because — helloooo — 2016. But building an app is neither easy nor cheap. However, it can be a rewarding and valuable investment if you go about it the right way. As you’re deciding whether or not you’re ready to have an app built for you, here are 5 questions you should ask.

1. Are you sure you need to build an app?

When it comes to creating an app, companies often start the process of an building an app before it’s necessary, or before they have a solid plan to execute it. Product Opportunity Assessments (POAs) were created to help companies avoid this pitfall. Prior to putting anything else in motion, it’s important to work through a POA, which is a series of questions that lead you to whether or not you should build an app.

2. Do you need a mobile app, or a responsive web app?

There are pros and cons to building both mobile apps and responsive web apps. However, here’s what I personally feel are the major pros and cons of each.

Mobile Apps: Pros — (1) Provide the best user experience because you can take advantage of built-in features, such as navigation, camera functionality and push notifications. (2) Are the simplest and most user-friendly option if users will use your app frequently (this is because they don’t have to search the web for it each time). Cons — (1) Users are more likely to search a mobile web browser to discover new apps than the app stores, making it less likely that they discover your app if it’s not a responsive web app (plus the app stores’ search is much worse than mobile web browsers). (2) You need to build a responsive marketing site (at minimum) along with your mobile app. (3) Mobile apps tend to be more expensive to build than responsive web apps.

Responsive Web App: Pros — (1) Users can discover them through mobile search then try them out before making the commitment to download. (2) They are usually cheaper and faster to develop. (3) Users don’t like having lots of apps on their phones, especially apps they use infrequently. If most users won’t use your app at least a few times each month, you should consider building a responsive web app. Cons — (1) The user experience isn’t as good as it is with mobile apps. (2) Responsive web apps are a bad choice for apps that users will use frequently (due to the reasons stated above).

3. Should you build native or hybrid?

I used to be a big proponent of building native as opposed to hybrid. This was largely because original hybrid frameworks couldn’t access native device functions (such as GPS, camera, push notifications, etc.). Enter Ionic, which is a new hybrid framework (and the one we build with exclusively at SnapMobile) that can access almost all native device functionality. I now favor hybrid over native because hybrid is faster and less expensive to develop with than native, and you can build one code base then publish to multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Windows mobile, etc.). Ultimately, Ionic helps startups and small teams go-to-market with an app in a fraction of the time and cost it would take to build separate native apps. I would suggest seriously considering Ionic or another hybrid language.

4. Should we hire a dev shop, agency or find contractors?

This is one of the most difficult questions for you to answer. Below I’ve created a breakdown of your options. Ultimately, I usually choose the resource that is able to design and develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) version of the app as quickly and cheaply as possible, while still building a good, valuable product.

Breakdown of options…

Agency / Development Shops: Full-service (heavy on strategy), solid products, broad expertise, most expensive, longest timelines. Examples: Y Media Labs, Eight Bit Studios, Dom & Tom, Ethervision

Startup-Focused Development Shops: Full service, startup/MVP expertise, great products, less expensive and faster than agencies. Example — SnapMobile

Modular Development Shops: Develop using pre-built modules, solid expertise (although sometimes niche), least expensive and fastest options. Example — Broad Expertise: SnapMobile. Example — Niche Expertise — Juggernaut (On-Demand Apps)

Hire a Team or Contractors: I suggest going this route if you know someone in the industry who can help. Otherwise, I’d suggest reaching out to your network and see if anyone knows someone who could help. Timeline, expense and quality of work all depend on who you use.

5. How much should you budget for maintenance and go-to-market?

Two of the major mistakes entrepreneurs make in building apps are (1) spending their entire budgets on building and launching the MVP without leaving any money for marketing and maintenance after launch, and/or (2) simply not budgeting for maintenance and go-to-market after launch. Prior to setting your budget for building your app, be sure to determine how much you need to effectively support and market your app after it’s live.

To see the original post, and more like it, check out the SnapMobile blog.