How to make a successful app?

Despite the fact that nowadays almost everyone uses mobile apps for many different activities, the competition in the market and growing users’ requirements make the app development process more and more challenging. Is it hard to create a successful app then? 

Well, in this article you’ll find out that it takes time, but proper preparation for the process and understanding of the market can make your app idea a fine-tuned plan for successful app creation. 

Mobile apps market – statistics and facts

Let’s first have a look at some rough statistics and facts to understand the background and the mobile app industry overall. 

Statista’s forecasts say that:

• In 2025, the estimated revenue from mobile apps will reach 613 billion U.S. dollars.
• The number of mobile app downloads worldwide is quickly increasing over the years – in 2021 consumers downloaded 230 billion mobile apps, while in 2020 there were on average 218 billion downloads. In 2016 the number of downloaded apps was 140.7 billion. 

On the other hand, according to Zippia’s mobile app industry statistics:

• More than 50% of users uninstall an app if it takes up too much memory on their device.
• 71% of app users churn after three months.
• 62% uninstall an app if they experience errors.
• 25% of app users abandon apps because it takes too long to load or download the app.
• 39% is the highest app retention rate after 30 days – this applies to e-commerce & retail apps 
• 75% of mobile apps will fail basic security tests.

Why should you try your best for the app’s success?

Based on the above mobile app market statistics, it’s not hard to draw conclusions on why it’s so important to take care of your app development. Do you think it’s easy to create a successful app? Well, with a number of more than 3.5 million competitors on the Google Play Store and 1.6 million on the Apple App Store, it might be pretty challenging to stand out and encourage users to download your app. 

Besides, what needs to be pointed out is that even if you manage to gain a lot of users, it doesn’t really mean they’ll keep using your app over a long period of time. 

That’s why you have to try your best to create a successful app that will gather a loyal target audience and bring your business steady profits. Let’s explore how to do that.

Creating a successful mobile app

A successful mobile app can be built with many different techniques and methods, with the use of different systems and technologies. Things that matter actually happen before app developers enter the show to code particular features. The most important things are related to the market, target users, your vision and the overall preparation for the process. 

Don’t want to do all the below activities alone? Don’t worry. You’ll also discover a solution to get through these steps with the help of an experienced team in the later section. 

Market research

The very first step to be taken in a successful app development plan is doing in-depth market research. Your app idea, even if it’s the perfect one, should be validated in terms of competition size and overall market needs. Here you’ll find different market research strategies you might follow. You’ll find out:

• What needs to be done at the initial stage of your project
• Why it’s so important to do the market research
• What the different stages and strategies of app market research are – how to conduct market research. 

Competitors analysis

One of the market research parts is also doing the competitive analysis. You should have a look at existing products to be able to build an app that will help your customers solve their problems in a bit better or more convenient way than your competitors. That’s what the analysis is for – it’s a research of competing apps that will help you find flaws in other products and lacks in features, and get to know their audience needs. 

Target audience & user persona

Then, the time should also come to find the target audience of your app. An especially helpful activity to help you do that is creating the user persona. It describes the ideal user of your app. In fact, the best idea is to create a couple of user personas that represent different types of your target audience. 

To create a successful app, you definitely need to know as much as possible about target users and adapt every feature and decision to their needs. 

User feedback

Is it possible to get user feedback before launching a product in app stores? If you just try hard enough. Creating user persona and market research will help you find specific groups and communities where you should look for potential customers – users of your app. If there are ways to find them, there are also ways to listen to their feedback. You can use various ways to do this, it's hard to even list all the possible ones. For example, use social media, create surveys and read reviews of competing products to find out what opinion they have or might have about the functionality of your future app. 

Product vision and goals, UVP (Unique Value Proposition)

Then, it’s also important to gather general information about your product, your business and your goals. ​​This is the bare minimum that you will present to everyone who will be involved in any way in your product creation and development. There are many documents and materials you can prepare to help you get started in the app business and also to streamline the app development process. These materials are, for example, Business Model Canvas, user roles in the app and a UML diagram.

When it comes to the Unique Value Proposition, it means finding the answer to a question: Why is your product (in this case: your app idea) unique? The development of your product should be based also on the UVP as this is what makes the app unique and competitive. Thanks to this analysis, it will also be easier for you to manage the marketing strategy. 

Monetization model 

Another important thing is the monetization strategy for your product. You can either implement and use it from the very beginning, so right after the app’s release, or later to start earning once the app is well established among the target audience. Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to have the strategy set from the start for a successful app. 

Success metrics

Another thing to consider is what metrics you’ll need to measure once the app is finished and released. Estimating potential results at this stage can help select the technology stack to build your app and establishes a target to aim for, which provides additional motivation.

What’s most important here is to set the strategy, just like with the monetization method. Decide what metrics you’ll need to measure for your successful app. 

Wireframes

Going forward to more specific and technical things, the best preparation for successful app development includes creating screens for your mobile app – wireframes and/or prototypes. You can take different approaches to that. One of the ideas is to create such wireframes on your own. If you don’t have any UI/UX design experience, they’ll need improvements and development, but it’s ok to show off your vision this way. You can also use the help of a professional designer to create the prototype of the app. 

Features description

Obvious? Not necessarily. Often the goal of people who have an idea for a new product is simply to "do something similar" to another existing app. However, it is crucial to describe the product's features well. There is no point in creating something that will be almost identical to a competing solution. Nor can developers involved in programming be expected to come up with the perfect solution without providing specific requirements. Successful mobile apps are tailor-made solutions in which core features were thought out and tailored to the audience. 

The right mobile app development team

Well, for sure you’ll need a rocket team to create a successful app. Finding experienced developers, Quality Assurance specialists and designers is a challenge. You will also need someone who can manage the project properly. The right mix of team members is key when you want to create a successful app. 

Therefore, you need to be ready for the fact that the search for a team will take some time and your contribution to this task is very important. You can complete your own in-house team or turn to an agency that will take on your project with you and help you at every stage of the project. In this article, you’ll find hints on which way is better for you.

MVP

To create a successful app, you should start by building an MVP. A minimum viable product is a mobile app with a minimum set of features needed to meet the core objective and most important needs of users. Basically, every big and popular app started with an MVP because it’s the right thing to do. Once the first version is launched and you start measuring app performance and monitoring user feedback, you should plan the next versions of your product. 

All-in-all solution – digital product consulting for mobile app development

If you don't want to take the above steps alone or have done some of them and want to start working on building an app, you can attend a workshop together with the team at a mobile app development agency. The product design workshop is one of the services we offer at FiveDotTwelve. Almost every project begins with such a workshop. Their agenda depends on what documentation our Partners come to us with. 

Here are three core steps we fulfil during the product design workshop:

Product vision

At the initial stage, we help you in shaping your product vision to make sure your app idea has business potential. The result is a fully shaped vision and business plan.

Design and documentation

Then we gather all the necessary materials to start the development together and create a product roadmap and design. As a result, you receive a detailed list of the functionalities for MVP or the first version of your product and a final app design in Figma.

Time&cost estimates

Next, you’ll find out what budget you need and how long it will take to build your product. Here’s when you’ll receive a detailed estimation of time and budget for the project to fully understand the real cost and time it will take to build your product. 

If you’d like to know more about the product design workshop – have a chat with us. We’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Conclusion

The above steps are everything you need to create a successful app. Feel invited to take action and complete your plan to create your own app and start a new business!

PS. Once the app is released, don’t forget to measure its success with app metrics, take care of app store optimization (ASO), gain user feedback and plan the next development moves for your app.