Mobile app growth framework

I am fond of systems thinking and system dynamics, so I tend to present any business or ecosystem as a systems map outlining key feedback loops. This is the best way to get a 10000 meter view of any system and “see the forest for the trees” and not get buried in details.

Here is what I have for mobile apps:

I will be covering this diagram in details later describing key leverage points to accelerate mobile apps growth, but right now let me focus on key positive feedback loops:

1. ASO Loop — more installations → higher rankings in app store → higher visibility of your app → more installations. The key task here is to get initial visibility and there are a lot of ways to achieve that (from featuring to PR)
2. Viral Loop — more downloads → more active users → more users who share/recommend the app → more downloads. Key task is to reduce the time it takes user to share/recommend the app, improve the fraction of users who share, and the conversion from share to eventual download (making posts more visible & etc — I’ll cover more later)
3. Paid acquisition loop — more downloads → more active users → more paying users → higher revenue → higher spent on paid acquisition → more paid downloads. The key here is to make this loop start working (basically this is the problem with ANY positive feedback loop).

Our experience tells us that these 3 feedback loops are essential to growing any mobile app, so I will spend more time on explaining key factors impacting each of these loops in future posts.

And, of course, I strongly recommend to read at least 1 book on systems thinking: “Thinking in Systems” by Meadows.

P.S. Check out the video of my keynote on this framework