10 Rules To Make Sure Your App Doesn't Suck

People keep asking, so I keep telling...here are some ways to make sure your app doesn't suck:

1. Before you think your idea is "amazing", please thoroughly research the competition from all angles.
2. Spend enough money on marketing. Spend at least what you are spending for the code...and then add some cushion.
3. You probably can't do a mobile app in house nearly as well as a mobile app shop can.
4. Ask a lot of questions unless you are an expert.
5. You're probably not an expert in mobile app development.
6. Know your user.
7. Apply standard ROI to everything.
8. Use explicit goals for independent contracts.
9. Spend extra on user experience (UX) and user interface (UI).
10. Spend a lot of money developing tactics and strategies for user engagement.

As a consequence of our credentials in mobile app development, we get a lot of questions concerning ways to enter this important channel: How should we create engagement in the mobile space? How many apps will compete against us? Should we do the Nokia first or Windows or master all platforms all at once? How much will it cost? Just how long is it going to take? The list goes on and on.

The best advice really follows vintage marketing strategy: develop your goals then execute against those goals. When you have specific objectives for mobile, then it's simpler to provide creative selections. By knowing who you want to engage and why you choose to engage those users, it's just a lot easier to develop tactics to guide your overarching strategies. In this regard, developing for mobile should really be as recognizable as developing for every other marketing or media channel...the better your planning is, the better the product will surely advance. A shortage of planning ordinarily cripples a mobile project rapidly.

And a thought here about money and following a good budget andtimeframes: a lot of teams initiate with a baseline number that they can retrieve of nothing or base it on a past project. My own experience is the fact that only some projects remain in scope and there must be elements of compromise envisioned right from the start. It is easy to consider it a "Plan B" or alternatively mitigation of the not known, but try not to procede with going into cost management without assuming some cushion outward. And be expecting items to take longer than you would imagine, in particular when this is your very first mobile venture.

So the bottom line here is do some basic research. In fact, do a LOT of research and spend some money on good mobile research. Don't just identify markets--identify users so that you can develop a strategy to not only gain and collect users, but to nurture them into the long term. Plan, plan, plan before you start having anyone code this project you've been dreaming up. Find out the best mobile marketing strategies before you start creating anything else.