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LESSONS
We’ve built more than 10,000 mobile apps for every kind of company in
every kind of industry, and after working with so many we’ve seen certain
lessons keep coming up again and again.
Now we want to pass those lessons on to you. Every lesson that we pro-
vide here will save you time and money, but only if you learn them before
you make the mistakes others made.
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Lesson 1:
An Idea is Not a Plan.
You Need a Plan.
The first lesson we learned from Ideas, well, are just ideas. They ar-
the very beginning was the most en’t useful until you put them into
important one: have a plan and action.
stick to it. In fact, it’s so important
that it might as well be rule one Plus if you’re working with a pur-
and two. pose and towards a goal, you won’t
be distracted by things that WILL
What you should also learn is that come up during development, like
AN IDEA IS NOT A PLAN. Lots of meeting schedules and deadlines
people have ideas for apps. Good and conflict.
ideas, bad ideas. Very few app
ideas actually to turn into reality.
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How you can learn from this:
Make a plan and stick to it. Don’t Aside from aggravating your tech-
be tempted to change things when nical team, there are financial rea-
they don’t need to be changed. sons to consider. Every last minute
minor change and tiny tweak takes
Everything you want to build in time and costs money.
an app needs to be mapped out
during the planning phase, so Also if you’re racing competitors
when it’s getting developed, there to market, and are trying to reduce
shouldn’t be any unnecessary last prices for your consumers, con-
minute changes after. stant changes will delay your app
and cause you to miss your oppor-
Then once you have a scope of
tunity.
work defined and outlined, do not
change it.
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Lesson 2:
Apps Need to Do One Thing,
and do it Well
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Lesson 3:
Speed is Everything
(Execute Fast)
What’s worse is that the longer you take developing and building your
app means less money in your pocket. That’s for a couple of reasons:
• Opportunity cost is also a cost of your app and you have to factor
that into building it. You can miss out on a chance to make money
because you missed an opportunity.
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How you can learn from this:
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When that time comes, having an BuildFire’s core philosophy incor-
MVP will help you determine which porates this 80/20 approach to
feature or function can be sacri- rapidly accelerate app develop-
ficed without compromising the ment.
entire project.
After building 10k+ apps we learned
Without an MVP to clarify between almost all of them share 80% of
Nice to Have and Need to Have, de- functionality. We use our develop-
velopment will bottleneck as argu- ment platform to quickly and easily
ments and conflicts over what can replicate those features at no fur-
go will halt production. ther expense to you.
When you use this lesson, you will With the basics out of the way we
discover that it will speed up your can focus more of our energy (and
production as you eliminate all the your budget) on the features you
extra things in your app and re- really want.
move bottlenecks that delay your
launch.
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Lesson 4:
KISS
(Keep It Stupid Simple)
The best mobile apps require the Simple procedures and operations
user to perform the fewest amount will always create a better user
of taps in order to perform or reach experience, and happy users are
the task or function they want to engaged users. Engaged and hap-
do. py users talk to their friends about
your app. Make sense?
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How you can learn from this:
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Lesson 5:
Know Exactly Who You Are Building
Your Apps For
There are seven billion people So, generally speaking, if you start
on the planet. Half of them have out by trying to be everything for
smartphones. Half of those buy everyone, you end up being nothing
apps. That’s almost 2 billion peo- for everyone.
ple.
Trying to tap into such a huge mar-
Since people all have the same ket right away is almost impossible
basic desires, if something appeals because competition, economies of
to everyone, then that is sure to scale, and market research gener-
be a hit, right? Go for the biggest ally do not favor smaller develop-
amount of users, right off the bat. ers.
Wrong, most of the time. Plus it’s hard to build an app that
works for everyone.
Far too many people want to start
out with an app that does every- But there is a way you can put your
thing for everyone. Make sense, size and scope to work for you in
there are two billion people in the ways bigger companies and organi-
world who have smartphones, so zations cannot.
that’s a big market.
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How you can learn from this:
Start small and then grow. These are the people that become
the true fans of your app, the ones
We learned from Kevin Kelly’s 1,000
who will be hungry for your up-
True Fans that the most effective
dates and the content and func-
strategy for building a mobile app
tions it can provide. Build an app
is to structure it around a core
for that niche of people.
group of true fans who share a de-
sire or interest.
Once that niche is satisfied, look
at your app and do some analysis.
This number should be about 1,000
Why did it work? What features
people. 1,000 people is a reason-
were popular? Did it give a com-
able amount for a number of fans,
petitive advantage or appeal to a
and supporting them is a manage-
specific user base?
able figure for one person and app
to handle.
Careful analysis should reveal how
to monetize their engagement,
Focusing on this relatively small
which you can turn into Version 2
number is precisely why you will
of your app, and then expand your
succeed.
user base and increase your reve-
nue, and so on.
Because of their size, big com-
panies and organizations cannot
There’s an online company you
reach these groups, as the amount
might have heard of called Face-
they’d have to spend to engage
book that did exactly that.
them is more than they would
make from them.
Facebook started as a social web-
site for Harvard students. It was
That’s where you come in. These
exclusive to students there, but
groups are chronically underserved,
these early adopters became True
and hungry for technology or tools
Fans, and saw the potential of the
that can unite them or give them
platform.
the experience they crave.
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Once Facebook discovered its core Now it’s one of the biggest compa-
value proposition (allowing stu- nies in the world with 2.07 billion
dents to easily communicate), it active monthly users. Pretty good
expanded to allow other students for a startup founded in a college
at other schools to access the net- dropout’s dorm room.
work.
Your app can work the same way,
A few years later, after significant if you follow the 1,000 True Fans
investment in infrastructure and method like we did.
user experience, Facebook opened
its membership to everyone over
13 years old with a valid email ad-
dress.
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Lesson 6:
Eliminate the Middleman
When most people think of apps, So they just build and design with-
they just think of the little program out a plan or focus.
that lives on their phone, and does
whatever it is it is supposed to do. This is the software equivalent of
painting yourself into a corner:
What few people consider, espe- you’re trapped, and if you need to
cially the people building them, do anything important quickly, you
is who is actually going to man- have to pay someone else a lot of
age, operate, and update that app. money to do it.
Many people learn too late that you need to have a quick way to imple-
ment their app, because:
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How you can learn from this:
The best way to eliminate the mid- This reduces the time needed to
dleman is to build an app with a train employees to operate it, as
user-friendly and intuitive backend well as the time it takes for them
dashboard so non-technical people to implement critical updates or
can easily make changes, updates, messages.
or messages.
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Lesson 7:
Timing is Everything
The mobile app world moves real- For example, in 2012 Instagram
ly, really fast. Consequently, lots of timed their release to correspond
opportunities are time dependent. with iPhone and iOS (their primary
platform) updates to ensure their
There may be competing apps that app still worked with the newest
could beat you to the market and camera and software.
capture your valuable user base
and make your app obsolete. If they had hesitated their app
wouldn’t have worked and compet-
Plus, your app might need to cap- ing apps might have capitalized on
italize on opportunities tied to this to establish themselves as the
seasonal events, before a product dominant photo sharing app.
launch, a new internal business ini-
tiative, or a big concert. That’s one of the reasons that In-
stagram is now the world’s larg-
In addition to marketing and pro- est photo-sharing app and one of
motional concerns, smartphone Facebook’s biggest acquisitions.
hardware and software change so
fast that smart developers struc-
ture updates around that timing
and how it affects an app.
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How you can learn from this:
Do some research, find the right If not, determine if you the costs to
time to release your app and set add additional resources to ensure
a solid deadline, then work back- your app remains compatible with
wards from there to build your MVP the new software are less than
based on available resources. what it would take to ignore it.
Also, when creating a timeline be But, in the long term, if you don’t
sure to estimate the optimal return keep pace with the updates,
on investment. chances are your competitors
will, and they are probably already
The optimal ROI includes how working to update their apps.
much it is going to cost to meet
the timing goals against what the
costs of upgrading the app is go- Plan accordingly.
ing to be versus what the upgraded
app is going to bring in.
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Lesson 8:
Manage Expectations
Here’s a hard life truth. You’re not Most people seem to think these
good at everything. You proba- skills come naturally, rather than
bly aren’t great at slam dunking, needing to be trained and prac-
or painting a picture, or rebuilding ticed with experience. They are
a car engine. Maybe you are, but wrong.
probably not.
What’s even worse, most peo-
You might not even know you’re ple aren’t aware they they AREN’T
not good at these things, so you try good at these things, and so they
anyway. Then you break your arm set out, make a bunch of mistakes,
dunking, or blow up your car driv- and their project comes crashing
ing it, or make a huge mess paint- down.
ing.
Ultimately it’s nothing to be
The same type of consequences ashamed of, but if you are one of
can apply to building an app. You the lucky few who recognize your
probably won’t break your arm, but limitations, you are already ahead
you might lose your shirt. That’s of the game when it comes to
if you’re lucky. If you’re not, you building a successful app.
might lose your mind.
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How you can learn from this:
Whether you’re at the start of your Find someone who can help you
app building project, or halfway set realistic deadlines, realistic
through, just ask yourself, and be performance expectations, a real-
honest: istic budget, and your app develop-
ment will be on the right track.
“ Even better than using a single per-
If I had to pay someone to do the
son to plan out your timeline and
quality of job that I’m doing, would
resources is to consult with a team
I?
” of professional app developers who
understand how to build something
If the answer is “no”, then maybe
with you.
you shouldn’t be the one doing it,
be that design or project manage-
ment or coding.
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Lesson 9:
Don’t Forget About Maintenance
and Infrastructure!
It’s how you set up the backend for Those pathways have to be built to
everything and then keep it run- be scalable and expandable oth-
ning. No one, NO ONE first start- erwise data bottlenecks will oc-
ing out to build an app knows how cur, which drastically detract from
much time and money it costs to a user’s experience and will drive
maintain and grow one. them away.
Directly tied to the failure of peo- Plus, we’ve had countless people
ple to account for the additional come to us after they’ve built their
costs of backend maintenance and apps themselves or with another
infrastructure, is their failure to platform and beg us desperately
consider how their app will grow to untangle their technical messes.
and expand. Why?
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Lesson 9:
Don’t Forget About Maintenance and Infrastructure!
Because they built their apps with That additional amount accounts
no regard for how they will add for what the ongoing costs of time
more features, or improve their and money it’s going to take to
users’ experience, or even how they maintain, and operate, and improve
will access it, and now need us to your app.
fix everything.
Thirty percent is also a conser-
These people learn too late that vative estimate, based on a basic
the things you can’t see are the app. Your results may vary.
things that hurt you the most.
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How you can learn from this:
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Lesson 10:
Don’t Recreate the Wheel
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How you can learn from this:
Chances are an app already exists Copying a feature is only the first
that has some of the features you thing you have to do though. Once
want in. If you can find a way to you’ve found one that works, you
clone that functionality, do that so then have to integrate it into your
you won’t have to recreate it from new app.
scratch.
But, a platform that allows drag-
Find that app and modify the user and-drop plugins simplifies and
interface so that it’s what you streamlines the process lets you
want. If there’s a working model easily build your app and get it to
that makes it even easier, because market quickly.
its already been built and you can
just adjust it.
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Final Thoughts...
If you learn these lessons you will quickly and cost effectively, they
have a much smoother app build- turned to our Pro-Services App Ge-
ing project. Some of them might niuses.
seem obvious, but it helps to men- These dedicated consultants work
tion them to even the most experi- with each customer on an individ-
enced app builders. ual level to truly understand their
unique situations and goals, for
Armed with this knowledge, you a truly holistic approach to app
should be ready to build a great building.
mobile app. Get started and see
what you can do, and we can’t wait Then they apply their industry ex-
to see what you’ll build. perience and technical knowledge
to create a truly unique and stun-
But if these lessons have helped ning mobile app. All much quicker
you identify some of the short- and better than using traditional
comings in your app development development strategies.
project, and you don’t know if your
tech team can fix them, BuildFire Put our experience to work for you.
can help.
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