Build an app for your customers, not yourself

The conversation sounds like this, “Hey, I was using the app the other day and I don’t like this feature. Let’s redesign the entire feature to X.”

If you want to be the creator of an app, you have to get your ego out of the way. It’s no longer about YOU, it’s about serving your users.

I always respond with a deliberate question when this comes up.

“Is this just your idea or have you ran this past your users?”

I know this is a tough pill to swallow as an innovator. Typically, we are inspired to create apps because we’re solving a problem we’ve experienced ourselves.

But here’s the thing, once that app is out in the world it’s simply not just about you anymore. It’s an offering to your users. And now your app’s features and functionalities are on their collective plate — your personal opinion is just one of many opinions and doesn’t matter as much as you think it does.

Don’t send it back to the chef without a good reason — “I surveyed 300 of our most active customers and they all got stuck at this part of the process.”

AH. Ok got it. Yeah let’s fix it.  

Make sure your app idea solves a REAL problem.

For an app to be successful and accessible it needs to provide consistent and instant value.

It all boils down to one truth, if this is not something that is not going to bring value to me every single day, I am not going to have it on my phone.

Real problems that drive people to seek at hand solutions occur weekly or daily.

An app that taps into a weekly routine or real world everyday problem is instantly valuable.

A prime example of this is the Day One journaling app. Day One is one of the biggest apps in Utah.

People love to journal but a lot of times they don’t have their journal handy, or don’t want to physically hand write a journal entry.

Journaling can be inaccessible and inconvenient. But that’s where Day One swoops in. By offering a secure mobile process with templates, prompts, and notifications they’ve made it insanely easy.

Are you sold just reading that? Yeah me too, it's a really good idea.