The Biggest Mistake When Talking About Your App Idea

When it comes to building an app most conversations start by talking about it’s killer features. The discussion about the app tends to revolve heavily around the bells and whistles you need to please your future customer. Below are a couple of conversation snippets I’ve overheard this month about feature ideas:

There’s a chat feature? Yes. Here are three chat options we are exploring…

Why the Facebook API? It allows us to access the data we need…

What about maps? We need custom maps and the Mapbox SDK seems to fit…

Customers login? Yes, I want customers to see personalized content…

Are there videos? Yes, a searchable library of over 100 videos…

Starting your first conversation about building an app by describing its features is dangerous. Very dangerous. Why?

Most of the time you don’t know what features you need when you launch your app. Especially if you have never built an app before. You tend to have zero customer data and zero analytics. No test group has even laid eyes on your idea. Therefore, how do you actually know what features you need in the app?

When talking with new customers at App Press our team starts every conversation about a new idea by asking, “What problem are you solving for your customer?” and, “how do you monetize solving that problem?” If you can’t clearly answer those two questions, it’s not time to start discussing features.

Think about it this way. When you go into a doctor’s office you commutate your problems and issues. The doctor then prescribes next steps and medicine. That scenario is the same for app development. Our customers describe the problems they are trying to solve. Our team then suggests next steps which may include a list of features or another path all together.

For example, last week I had a conversation with a customer that started great. He was really excited about his app idea. He was so enthusiastic that when we kicked off the conversation he quickly began listing features. He wanted customer login, chat support with Intercom, a searchable list of articles, native video and a way to create Gamification elements tracking how many articles someone had read. Then, I ask, “what problem are you solving for your customer?” As he started to talk about his customers it became evident that it was a small group of people (around 2,000). He expected around 1,500 downloads of the app. I then asked, “how do you plan to monetize your idea?” He had a shaky answer and did not think through this question yet. This was an especially important question given his small audience. Without having a rock solid blueprint for how the app saves him money or makes him money it was difficult to answer the next question, “what’s your budget?”

The main challenge to overcome with this customer’s app idea was the feature set did not align with the problem he was trying to solve for his small audience. Furthermore, the feature set he described was over his budget. Raising the budget for the app became difficult because he did not have a clear idea of how he was going to monetize the app. Faced with this dilemma I suggested a new set of features that aligned with his goals and audience. This suggestion was met with hesitation by the customer. Many times our alternate feature suggestions are met with opposition. Customers tend to have their heart set on the coolest new features that they use daily in their favorite apps. If that is the case, I recommend first creating a prototype with the alternate features for testing with friends, co-workers and family. Collecting data and having people interact with your idea as quickly as possible is the surest way to validate a path forward.