6 App Features Every Product Owner Must Consider

Mobile apps are a wonderful thing; they can entertain us on long commutes, solve our problems or even teach us something new. But we would get none of these benefits if the minds behind them hadn’t painstakingly picked out the right app features.

An app’s core features are its bread and butter. Your software can be backed by market research and have a bright logo attached to it, but this is all useless if its content is sub par.

It’s easy to overlook or even forget about some of the most important things an app needs to be great. With this handy list you can look at some must have features.

App Features That Solve User’s Problems

An app feature that solves a user problem will vary depending on the target demographic or the specific industry. But features that solve problems are one of the key reasons that people buy a product, pay for a service, (or in this case) download an app.

The Lean Startup method is a proven business model that explains that startups have the best chance of success if they cater to the needs of early customers.

No matter which helpful app features you decide upon, making them a priority will see you go one step ahead of your competitors.

Social Media Integration

If your app can solve problems then wouldn’t you want users to tell all of their friends about it? Alternatively maybe your app is just fun and users want to share with their peers.

That’s the case with both Candy Crush Saga and the Temple Run games. In Candy Crush, the social media integration comes from connecting your Facebook account in order to get more lives, while in Temple Run the game encourages you to tweet out your score.

While these may seem like an incredibly small app feature to include, when users have a few hundred Facebook friends or a few hundred Twitter followers, your app’s reach could become huge.

Does Your App Convert?

For many Product Owners, how well their app converts will also be a key issue. An app that doesn’t convert is a one that doesn’t get results.

Conversion features can be as simple as encouraging users to follow you on Twitter or as extensive as a fully working in-app store. Metrics for success can decide exactly what it is (e.g sales, social media follows, app downloads) that you want to achieve. Micro or macro conversions, you should set your goals.

A good example of an app that converts is the official Amazon app. As a retailer, they obviously want a lot of sales and so their app makes saving products to a wishlist possible. By adding something on the list, Amazon constantly recommend products to encourage you to buy.

A Good User Experience

It’s also important to check what your user experience is like. While it’s not an app feature per se, a poor experience will see users uninstall your app before you’ve even had a chance to apologize.

When going through your app you should ask yourself how a user would find things. Would they love your colour scheme? Would they struggle to figure out the sections? Are there things that would frustrate or annoy them?

User experience isn’t always the easiest thing to figure out, so going to UI/UX specialists like EL Passion can help ensure things are running smoothly.

Feedback Is Important

Part of the user experience (or at least a contributing factor) is if your app lets users provide feedback.

You could implement feedback functions with as little as a contact form or an entire survey.

The lack of a feedback section means that you’ll miss out on user’s opinions about your app features.

It also means that you’ll disgruntle the few users who provide feedback anyway. They’ll have to find your website or tweet to tell you what they think, which is only more hassle for them. That’s not fair for anyone who took the time to download and use your app, so make it as easy as possible for them to contact you.

Is Your App Bug Free?

Finally, this isn’t a traditional app feature but it’s what every Product Owner needs to focus on.

No matter how useful your app is and no matter how pretty it looks, if it’s filled to the brim with bugs and issues, people will not use it.

Testing can be used to eradicate critical bugs and catch them before release. You should also pay close attention to feedback and keep an eye on anything that can help make your app stellar.