Defining the Vision

Why everything you create should have a vision

For a few years now, I’ve been building apps the wrong way. I didn’t sketch out apps, nor did I use any design software (more on those in another post). But more importantly, I didn’t define my app’s vision. After all, why come up with a vision when I had the idea in my head. It sure felt like I could see where my app was going, so why did I have to spell it out?

Confusion with Mingle

A year and a half ago, I released an iPhone app called Mingle. It was a contacts app that I felt was a huge improvement over the built-in contacts app that we get with our iPhones. It had a pretty good launch, but what came after the launch was the problem. I started receiving a bunch of feature requests. Fuzzy search, favorites, keyboard on launch, and the list goes on. I had no idea how to deal with it, and no real idea where I should take Mingle. So I began checking off feature requests.

If I felt that many people demanded a certain feature, they were gonna get it, no matter what it was. It didn’t occur to me that I was going about this wrong. I was giving customers what they wanted, and that’s a good thing to do, isn’t it?

Well, the problem is, many times the people seeking out features don’t really represent what the majority of your customers want. And, even more importantly than that, sometimes your customers don’t know what they want. I don’t mean that in a condescending way. I just mean that, if you know where to take your app, and are providing innovative solutions to customers’ problems, then there’s a good chance that the feedback you get might not align with the vision of your app. And if that’s the case, then the feature should be ignored. Those customers don’t want your app, they want to turn your app into something that it’s not. That’s how you make opinionated software. By stating a vision and sticking with it.

So how do you define a vision? Well, it has to be something you’re passionate about, and something bigger than your version 1.0. Your vision shouldn’t be something like: “People should be able to use URL Schemes in their contacts apps.”

It should be bigger than that.

My next app, and its vision

I’ve been making an app that would allow people to keep a log of all the books they’re reading, as well as write down thoughts for each book. It’s really simple, but it’s something that’s going to be immensely useful to me, and hopefully to other people as well.

It’s a small app for now, but it does have a vision: “Art holds valuable lessons.”

If the above statement means something to you, I’d love if you subscribed to the newsletter on my website to receive updates on the app’s progress (It’s almost done).