Here’s who you need to think about having on your app build team.

“How many people does it take to make a successful pizza restaurant that serves hundreds of people?”

Ah… different question altogether right? 

Making an app is similar to making a pizza — you could for sure find a one-man band who could make you a single app and probably even get in on the app store. 

But making a SUCCESSFUL app? That’s a different story. 

The apps that are launched by 1 or 2 people and go on to have major success are incredibly rare. And in those rare cases, the founder of the company is almost always a designer / developer. 

The purpose of this article is to scare you away from hiring a one-man band to build your next app idea, and instead, follow the process that works. 

So let’s talk about the different stages you’ll need to navigate and the different players you’ll want to have on your team: 

Here are the categories you should think about: 

• Project Management
• Strategy 
• UX & UI design 
• Branding 
• Build 
• Testing
• Marketing

Project Management

Project Management is all of the administrational stuff that it takes to keep an app development project on track. 

It can be basic stuff like setting up meetings and managing lists of features and potential features or it can be more complicated like reading through technical documents from your developer and getting all of the players on your team to speak the same language and have access to the same vision. 

Who does this for you? 

• YOU. You might be doing a lot of this at first
• A project manager
• A technical producer
  

Strategy

This is where you figure out why your app even exists — and you definitely need a better answer than, “I think it’s a good idea!”

It’s worth it to pay for some help to get clear about what problem your app solves, who it’s for, and what make it different from everything else out there. 

Who does this for you? 

• A marketing agency
• A freelance marketing specialist
• A sales copywriter
• YOU. You might need to do a lot of this work yourself in conjunction with mentors and a coach. 
  

UX & UI design 

This where a designer (or several designers) mocks up every single screen in your app. 

A lot of people get confused about the difference between UX and UI. 

UX stands for “user experience” and focuses on the overall usability of your app. Is it intuitive for your users? Are things where they are supposed to be? 

UI stands for “user interface” and focuses on the final design of the actual interface that your user sees when they use your app. 

Your UX designer worries about how your product makes a user feel, and how easily they navigate your product. Your UI designer worries about how cool the hover state looks on a button or the ease-in-out of a drop-down menu. A lot of times these roles overlap with one another, but as you can imagine this is a critical component of the development of your app. 

Who does this for you? 

• UX designer (specialist)
• UI designer (specialist)
• A single designer who does both (generalist) although, I’d recommend avoiding generalists. You can read why in this article here. 
  

Branding 

This is a fun stage in the process and it’s where you develop your logo, colors, visual identity, what typefaces you use in your design, and your overall style. 

Who does this for you? 

• Branding agency
• Freelance designer
• Multiple designers
  

Overall Build

A typical mobile app project is made up of three integral parts: back-end/server technology, API(s), and the mobile app front-end. In the build stage, developers create code, integrate analytics, and introduce features.

Who does this for you? 

• Developer 1
• Developer 2
• Developer 3
  

Testing 

This where you get feedback from your initial users by studying analytics and analyzing in-app behavior and consumption patterns to enhance your product. 

Who does this for you? 

• Your project manager
• Your developers
• YOU
• Your friends
• Your beta customers
• Your mom
  

Marketing 

Finally, it’s time to promote your app to users. This is where marketing campaigns and techniques are employed to communicate with users pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. 

Who does this for you? 

• YOU
• A hired marketing manager
• A marketing agency
  

So how do you navigate all of this? 

As you can see, this can be a LOT to manage. 

There are a lot of moving parts, there are a lot of people in the mix, and there can be a lot of personalities to manage. 

If you want help getting all of this going, that’s what we so at my agency here, Strides. 

If you’re in the build phase and you want to talk to a pro, reach and let’s on a strategy call. 

~ Austin