5 deadly sins you must avoid when building an app
In 2012 I participated in the making of my first app. I did it because I work in a company that specialized in web design and, at that time, I had been doing it for 5 years. The moment to create apps had arrived because we hoped companies around Colombia and Latin America would start needing them. The first thing we did was think about the app, without lots of technique we looked among ideas, which opportunities we saw that we could design to show what we were capable of making. After a few days, I remember as if it was yesterday, Simón Borrero, friend and work colleague, told me on our way to lunch:
“I got it, we are going to design an app to change the way people buy their groceries in the super market”.
He then showed me some sketches in a notepad, clearly, you could see an innovative and unique product. Besides, it had the support of a tech magazine graph we had found where it showed that online purchase of supermarket products was below 1% when online clothes shopping exceeded 40% in the U.S, probably in Latin America this percentage was lower. The number, to us, seemed offbeat, it was very random that lots of people would buy shoes online, taking into account you would have to try them on and see if the form fits their feet, and would not buy some cereal or milk needing them almost every day. This data reinforced the idea and when we got back from lunch design labors began, always the first step before developing an app.
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During those years UX, UI, design thinking, value proposition canvas, among other tools that add technique to design labor weren’t so popular, at that time, you just designed and that was it. With the support of a very talented team that had developed outstanding design capabilities by making hundreds of websites, we started the creation of a prototype that in a couple of months was ready to be displayed on an iPad. We showed it to all of our clients under the name of “Grocery glee” and presented it as the app that would change the way people buy groceries. It began by being sold as the e-commerce solution for supermarkets, nowadays, the product has been implemented by Grability a company that was born thanks to that product, in more than 50 retail stores around the world and continues to be a solution that helps reinvent e-commerce models in groceries stores. After more than 3 years of evolution, from 2012 to 2015, Rappi was born. A startup that begins with the technology created in 2012 and that has achieved, after its launch in Colombia, to expand successfully in Mexico and Brazil.
Without a doubt, a success story so far, we reached the conclusion that design was what opened the doors so that these achievements were possible and technology what build this company. Because of this experience and to the making of more than 200 apps in the last 5 years, we have had hundreds of lessons that I will try to summarize into 5 deadly sins you must avoid:
1. Don’t validate the market:
The strategy to validate it comes from each one of you, it doesn’t exist a manual or a methodology that will guarantee results, I have always believed that everyone finds their own path taking into account their conditions and their starting point. But what you must do is find the “checks” to that business model that will allow you to have results and funds to build a company.
2. Take shortcuts:
Building an app is a path that not everyone is willing to follow and invest in it. The majority of people that I have met that want to create a company based on a tech product like an app, try to jump the learning period of creating technology. If your company or business idea is going to be based on technology, it doesn’t matter if you’re a lawyer, engineer, manager, self-taught person, or anything else, everyone, without exception, must learn to build technology and what implicates managing and growing these products. Most don’t do it and jump these steps falling into decisions that kill projects or desires of chasing them.
3. Lacking an investment plan:
90% of the apps that I’ve seen in construction “ran out of gas” before being launched. Most of them don’t have their company’s commitment regarding design, technology, acquisition and user retention investment. It’s believed that creating an app is no more than building the app and that it supports itself, but, in reality, you need full-time designers and engineers behind the product every day for the rest of the life of the company. Creating the app is just the beginning of the work, if you don’t have the money to support and grow your app, it will be quickly forgotten. When talking about the creation of a tech company 20% max is destined to create the app. The rest is used in digital support and operational costs.
4. Not developing digital capacities:
I summarize digital capacities on design, development and business strategies. Creating an app requires the combination of the three of them, you can find them in companies that launch themselves to create technology and believe that they don’t need development engineers. In fact, I believe that everybody should learn to “code” as we once learned at some point to use excel or power point. Lacking this capability in a tech based company is a deadly sin, consequences are unimaginable, the most relevant in my opinion is lacking control of what is being built. To create an app, you can use different languages and techniques. Whichever your choice is, you must understand the pros and cons of each of them as well as project costs and the impact that it has nowadays.
5. Fall in love with the solution, not the problem:
A lot of ideas are born from you to own personal experiences with services or the lack of a good experience with them. But, How many of your ideas are opportunities or problems for a significant group of people that cherish what you are proposing as a solution? The deadly sin is falling in love with the problem and not the solution. Everyone that has had the opportunity of watching products born and then used has seen how the hypothesis that you have collapse faster than we ever thought and quickly we have to get to work to find a product that solves user issues.
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Creating an app is not “rocket science”, but it is a process that requires hard work, constant alterations and learnings that you should apply and communicate fast. Apps that work the best around the world are the ones who manage to acquire and retain their users, keep in constant growth and get at some point to become a company that generates profitability for them and their users. This needs vision, investment and a team with digital skills that compromise themselves to long term objectives. There’s no formula to avoid them, but knowing and being aware of them allows us to walk through the path well prepared. Without a doubt, there are more deadly sins. Which others do you think we should avoid?
Jose Bonilla, CEO de Imaginamos. Follow me on Twitter @josejairbonilla and LinkedIn
