Building A New Product
Have an idea for an app? Use these strategies so that you can better define and plan out your idea.
As a developer, close friends and family always present ideas for an app. There are ambitious ideas and other ideas are just not well thought out. In a perfect world, these ideas come with a breakdown of the vision, mission, milestones and technical details. Here are the details that I believe should be written down before you bring an idea to any developer.
Mission
What is the purpose or problem you are trying to solve? I believe that the mission is the foundation of your product idea. The mission will help determine the goals and milestones for your product. With a strong focus on your mission, you can steer away from expensive and time-consuming decisions.
Do Your Research
Most likely you are not the only one trying to solve this problem. Perhaps someone else is solving the same problem but for a different niche. Gather research on what other products are doing and how they are solving the problem. Using this research you can also figure out what user experiences you would like to provide, and what experiences you don't want.
Know Your Audience
You need to know your audience. If you don't know your audience you don't have a clear idea of what you want to build. One good exercise for this would be to create personas. Describe each persona as if you are telling a story. Here is an example:
Product Idea: Water Logger
Personas
Lazy Larry:
- Larry's New Years resolution is to drink 8 oz of water per day.
- Larry has trouble getting up from bed and will go to the gym once a day.
"Everyone Now And Then" Ethan:
- Ethan knows that it is important to drink water.
- In fact Ethan likes a nice cold water with ice.
- However for every meal Ethan usually drinks soda and in the mornings he prefers to have coffee.
Ambitious Amber:
- Amber is a go getter.
- She drinks water every.
- She has tried multiple water loggers and hasn't found the one.
- Data driven and likes to review the data trends.
This will allow you to tailor your product to the needs and preferences of your personas. Knowing your audience will help develop an effective market strategy and increase the chances of success.
Must-Haves vs Nice-To-Haves
Be intentional and realistic with what you want to build. Make a list of must-haves and nice-to-haves. This will allow you to prioritize features and help define what your initial release will look like. Items that do not make it to the initial release can be prioritized for future releases. Building a product takes time and resources. With this strategy, you can lay out which features are of priority and build your focus and time around those items.
Example:
Nice-To-Have
- 3rd party Integrations
- Chat capabilities
- Social Login
- Email notifications
Must-Have
- Log in experience
- User Permissions (Restricted access)
- Responsive design
- Saving Data
- Edit Data
Milestones and Planning
Are you looking to launch your product in time for a special event? What does your product roadmap look like? Develop a clear and S.M.A.R.T. (Specific Measurable Actionable Realistic Timebound) roadmap. Break down the process of building a product into milestones. With milestones, you will have smaller and more manageable tasks. Tracking and making adjustments along the way will be easier to speak to. Below are some resources that I have used or that I recommend.
The Pitch
As a developer, I would be excited to work with someone that has a detailed plan of what they want to build. The clearer the picture the better a technical proposal or vision I can create. Follow these steps and you will have a good foundation on how to pitch your idea.