A 20 part series, we bring you an in-depth discussion of each question to ask before planning and designing your own mobile application. Read more right below the form.
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QUESTION # 15:
WHAT ARE THE DATA POINTS YOUR CLIENT WILL NEED TO GET FROM THE APP?
Creating the measures, metrics, and benchmark objectives into the mobile app at the design stage will help make sure that the mobile app build phase delivers against the key measures of success. If you don’t define the key metrics that underpin the tangible measures of success for the app at outset, how will you focus the decision on MVP (minimum viable product) features? Also mapping out the analytics and metrics during the build will save the agony of trying to retro-fit these late in the day, or worse – be duped into judging the success of the app based on what’s easy to measure, rather than what are actually the true measures of success. Core to this should be measures of recency, frequency, duration & lifespan.
Most clients want to know:
- How many downloads or users?
- On what platforms?
- Ratio of push notifications activated?
- How many that download are actually fully installing?
- How many active users you have (is this growing)?
- What features are being used the most?
- Where are the dead areas of the app that need re-thought?
- How frequently is the app being used?
- For how long (use session length)?
- How many transactions (sales) have completed?
Mapping the actual against expected, looking at the variance then working a plan to close the gap between actual and plan is what it’s all about. As long as these are defined up front, of course. You’ve got a huge role to play here, and a huge opportunity to generate information that will tell you your future optimizations and discontinuations.
So, your business needs a mobile app for a specific business purpose. That’s a great place to be right now, lots of possibilities, lots of choices and with that comes lots of risk. How do we reduce the risk to a successful mobile development project? We do our homework, we prepare, and we have the answers before we’re asked the questions. The largest Risk with any Mobile Project is time. Because we all know time is money. A mobile project that is loosely defined is a risk for all involved. It is risky for you (the customer) as well as for your vendor. Your company’s impact is missed delivery dates, misunderstood ideas, and most of all, cost. For the vendor, the risk is associated with reputation, delivering incorrectly functioning applications, changes after the start of development, and also cost. So, everyone involved has something at stake. It is best to set the ground rules before the project starts, just like playing a game if the rules (Scope) change in the middle of the game it is nearly impossible to win (hit everyone’s targets). I will go through several questions that you should be answered before contacting a vendor or while interacting with them. Armed with these tools (answers) you can get accurate estimates, accurate timelines, and most of all, piece of mind that you have done your homework. Scope creep will be minimized or eliminated from your project giving both you and your vendor the chance to succeed.
So, it usually starts with a great idea for a mobile app that will help revolutionize your business and reach out to existing customers and a whole new set of customers.
That’s Awesome!
A project that starts off in the right direction has more chance of ending up on time, within budget, looks, feels and does what you wanted it to. So, here’s 20 questions that need answered to before you start that mobile app build.
