[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]The possibilities afforded by technology grow more boundless every day. From automation to augmented reality, it’s easy to let your imagination run so wild about what your app could be that you forget about what it must be.
Scoping your project means knowing its boundaries—where it begins and ends.
Of course, your budget, timeline, and access to talent impose limits to the scope of your project. However, you must also possess a deep and intimate understanding of your project and its users to prioritize the components of its development and keep it from drifting.
Start with a 30,000-foot view of your project
Often, the initial questions you should ask yourself are so broad that they can completely escape you.
- Are you building a completely new experience, or are you deepening an existing experience?
- Who will use your app? How many users do you expect to attract, and is there a threshold of users?
- Do you intend for your app to serve your region? Your country? The world?
- When do you plan for your app to launch?
- What is the minimum viable product — the one thing your product must deliver or enable?
- Will your app be built to a specific platform (Android, iOs, web, etc.), or function across platforms?
Once asked, these questions seem quite obvious, but if you don’t ask them, you’ll build your app on a shifting foundation. Working with an app development partner can help you weigh these questions against your ideas and objectives to formalize a scope that suits you and takes all factors into account.
Work to understand your users
Though your team is building your app for your company, your app isn’t for you. It’s for your customer. The more you can understand their needs, goals, pain points, and habits around technology, the better you can understand what your app must provide.
It’s easy to assume that your objectives and the objectives of your customers are one and the same—they are not.
Your objective likely takes the form of a “conversion,” that is, a user taking a desired action.
The user’s objective is quite different. They take that action to achieve a result for themselves.
You should align your objective with the user’s objective as thoroughly as possible to achieve a delightful, usable end-project. Map out your customer’s journey to their desired outcome, and consider the functionality your project needs to support each step and hand off your customer smoothly from one step to the next.
Here are just a few functionalities your project might need:
- In-app purchasing capability
- Feedback tools like ratings and reviews
- Voice assistance integration
- Geolocation
- Augmented reality
- Chatbots and customer support
- Language support and localization
These are the most visible parts of your app, but some functions work invisibly. Security and accessibility practices are a must for any app to truly deliver a seamless experience and earn the trust and confidence of the user.
Take stock of your resources
Once you understand the boundaries of your project and the technological demands of your users, you can create a roster of specialists you’ll need to fulfill each demand.
Which roles can you fill with your in-house team members? Do you have the developers, privacy and accessibility experts, UI/UX designers to do the job?
Of the team members you have, which ones have the bandwidth to facilitate your project by its launch date? What priority will your project take in the context of their existing workload, and how will that affect the project timeline?
Whatever you lack, you’ll have to hire for. Not only will you have to add someone to payroll, but the time to find a hire and onboard them can significantly impact your project timeline and budget.
Don’t forget the managerial burden of supporting your team — project managers, scrum masters, stakeholder teams, etc. Managing your project across so many departments and phases poses a titanic challenge.
Working with a mobile app development company can alleviate most of these issues. They’ll have more talent and tools at their disposal than you could likely hire for, and they can rotate specialists in and out as necessary, meaning you won’t pay for talent that isn’t in use.
The right app development partner will become an accessory to your own team, working closely to stay aligned and on track to push the limits of your project.
Make your goals and budget meaningful
By doing the upfront work to accurately scope your project, you’ll save the cost and delay of adding elements mid-project. Having an accurate roadmap to your project’s completion makes your budget allocations meaningful and credible.
What we’re talking about here is ROI, but if you think of ROI strictly in terms of revenue, you might not be thinking dynamically enough.
Here are a few client goals we’ve worked with in the past:
- “My budget is $220,000, and my board expects a 3-1 ROI. Is that possible?”
- “We need to grow our basket size from $5 to $7.50, how can we support this goal?”
- “How do we prepare to launch our app in another country next year?”
- “After launching our MVP, what upgrades can we implement within the proceeding eight months?”
Then there are the KPIs that will indicate your project’s progress and success. Again, these should be tied closely to the user’s objectives.
Keep in mind, KPIs in themselves aren’t the only measures of success. They are indicators of success, and they can change over time. The KPIs for your app’s first six months after launch will be different than the KPIs after two years. Once users begin engaging with your app, their feedback may reveal things can change your whole perspective of your app.
You should do everything you can to conduct analysis and collect feedback to get a true picture of how well your app serves its users beyond the primary metrics. This information informs the next iteration of your project and how to best spend your budget.
Work With Us
Perhaps your in-house resources allow you to take on your app project internally, and maybe you have the support and management team in place to accurately scope your project and deliver it on time.
You’d still do well to consider partnering with an app development partner. Their deep industry expertise and experience can help you anticipate the latest developments in technology and trends. The right partner will feel like an extension of your own team and help push your app’s true potential.
TheAppLabb is a leader in the strategy, design and development of mobile apps. We work with global brands across a number of industries to create innovative and user centric business solutions and app experiences. Have an idea? Tell us about it.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]