We bet that you don’t remember the day you spent without a mobile device. In this digital world, it’s a real challenge to get something done without using mobile application. Each and every business has not only a responsive version of website, but they also provide an app to install on the smartphone and/or tablet. Shopping, booking, banking and hundreds of other services are easily accessible through the gadget and keep you connected 24/7. Mobile apps make the world go round today. That’s the very reason to go digital and make your own mobile app if you haven’t done that yet.
Thousands of people are working tirelessly to hit the “Idea Jackpot” that can be converted into a profitable app. But is it that simple? Or is it that improbable?
Are you one of those who have often asked themselves “How to come up with an app idea”?
The best app ideas we come up with and deem to be “new” are often inspired from something that already exists or from the acknowledgement of a problem that needs a solution.
A closer look at the future trends, an in-depth research of existing apps, and some serious brainstorming is a great place to get started in pursuit of coming up with good app ideas. However, there is great value in planning ahead while coming up with the best app ideas that would feature brightly among the big players.
It is natural for factors like money, funding, or investment to loom large in your head even when you know you have some really good app ideas. However, at this time when you don’t even have a good app idea, it is wise to stop thinking about the money matters completely.
In fact, you mustn’t even think about generating money from your app yet. Some of the best app ideas are focused solely on providing a service or entertainment.
In fact, good app ideas do not necessarily lean heavily towards monetization. In your efforts to come up with best app development ideas, the first concern should be about creating an awesome app and not about the matters of money or finance. The primary thought needs to be about thinking up an idea that will attract a good number of users. Even if you are planning for a startup, investors will only show interest when you have a solid idea and a proof of concept to back it up.
One of the best tricks to get your creative juices going is browsing through the numerous apps that already exist. Like I said earlier, most of the “new” comes from the “old”. Take a deep look at the popular apps and try to understand their underlying concept. It is a good idea to emulate their concepts and there’s no shame in it! We have all seen the way two of the biggest players in the world of social media – Facebook and Twitter, find inspiration in each other, from time to time. It may not be a great idea to clone a popular app, but there is nothing wrong in borrowing their concept and finding a novel interpretation for it. For example, Uber has a very basic concept – getting what you want quickly, on demand. This concept can be successfully applied to various industrial segments, in different markets, and bring about drastically different results.
Brainstorming together, or alone has in past proved to be greatly effective particularly when you are looking for good app ideas. In these brainstorming sessions, you need not focus on coming up with brilliant, fabulous, or perfect ideas for app. The idea here is to simply put all your attention on the process of brainstorming, it is only natural that a lot of ideas that seem promising will emerge from these sessions. Put your head and heart into it and promise yourself to come up with a minimum of 25 new ideas every day. This might seem like a big challenge as you start doing it, but gradually, as you start getting the hang of it, the task will seem less daunting. Eventually, you will reach a point where you will start looking forward to it and even start including other people in your “idea den”.
At this stage, you may even start facing a whole new challenge – to be able to zero in on one idea, because there will be many more that you would be churning out good mobile app ideas on a daily basis. Once you reach this stage, we suggest you pick the one idea for which creating an MVP will be the simplest and quickest.
This process is different for everyone. There are some who prefer to do this all through the day while completing their everyday tasks. Then there are others who find it more efficient to set aside a timeslot every day at the same time.
A new design is more often than not, a solution to a problem that people like you and me face in our everyday lives. Most of the apps are built on the same principle. The problems and their context may vary widely from fashion, to communication, organization, or one of the million other fields. Finding a problem that needs to be addressed is a good place to start when fishing for an app idea. You might have at some point of time looked for an app, and didn’t find it – there’s an idea! Discuss with friends and family, look up things online, find other sources and it will help you identify these problem areas. Look for the gaps that have not been filled or addressed yet. Explore different app stores and you would see some great ideas on under-performing apps, you might be the one to be able to hone it to perfection.
Almost everyone who is anyone is on some kind of a social media channel these days. These channels are rich resource pool to study the ongoing trends and the aspirations of the modern-day consumer. There is a good number of people who express a whole lot on the social media, whether it is to vent out, or to express their unfulfilled desires. There is a high probability to come across a horde of problems that you may be able to convert into some great ideas. There are multiple tools that you can use to measure and analyze the current buzz on the social media. A good place to begin with these tools is to conduct a keyword search of phrases around wishes and expectations, or imaginations for the forthcoming future.
Indulge yourself in the world of make-believe. Spare a little thought about where the future lies and immerse yourself in it. Some of the great app ideas have emerged when people became innovative and were able to think ahead of the times. Facebook or Uber are as big as they are today, because they could come up with an idea that was essentially “the future” of things that already existed. Immerse yourself in the near future, imagine what it would be like, and then work backwards to come up with ideas that would make a difference.
There would be times when you come with ideas, that at first glance might seem inconsequential, or ideas that might not be relevant in the current times. The real challenge is to move on from these doubts and understand that new concepts are often like that. If you sit on it for too long, you might be a little too late and someone else might identify the potential in that idea, use it build an app of their own and turn into a phenomenon themselves, leaving you behind to just play catch-up!
An app is meant to be used on a smartphone and the smartphone is a device that has made a special place in our lives. The number of smartphone users today has crossed 2.3 billion and it is projected to cross 2.5 billion in the coming year. This should give you, an app developer some great food for thought and a ripe arena to explore. An app that enhances the user experience on a smartphone has a greater chance of acceptance among the users. This can be done in two ways, one – work on the existing features and improve them and two – add on features that are missed on it. Spare a thought to think about how the smartphone can be turned into another device, let’s say a scanner, or even a guitar!
This should in fact be at the top of the list, but there is no way to emphasize more heavily than saying that if the research done is not enough, then you are probably spearheaded to failure. In our excitement about coming up with an idea and maybe shortlisting a few, there are times when one tends to skip over building a strong foundation of research. It is important to do intense homework on the field of a particular app to gain as much information as you can. A strong research would help you understand and monitor the market that you plan to launch your app in, the projected and possible risks, and the most suited marketing strategy, in addition to other critical information.
It is true that most of the app ideas probably already exist, which might deter you from moving ahead with the concept that you might have chosen. But it is important to remember that there would always be a competition that you would have to face, no matter which field you venture in. this competition might actually prove to be quite a heathy thing for you altogether! At this stage, it is important to understand and think about honing your idea into something that has an edge over what is already available in the market as competition.
While venturing out in the market, understand the nitty-gritties of each and every aspect of the market, and that is possible only through sound research. However, you must also consider the future prospects of the market. A market that is burgeoning today might not remain so for a long time.
In our everyday lives, it is quite common for all of us at some point of time to feel that this task can be made easier. The apps that deal with these everyday problems or make our lives easier are the ones that are most likely to do well. A simple app that helps you remind of little things that you keep forgetting otherwise goes a long way to simplify your day and helps you relax in the knowledge that you are not going to miss it this time.
What are the common problems that you, your friends or your immediate family face regularly, little things that wind you up and give you a headache? Think about these, list these out, and devise an idea to solve these problems through an app. If you can think of a simple way to solve an everyday problem, you might have a hit in your hands!
The world is becoming more health conscious and sticking to a regular workout schedule might be one of the toughest things to do. It might simply because it is dull and mundane. The results of a good workout are seen in long term and the motivation to continue the workout for let’s say a month might diminish as days pass by. The myriad fitness apps have changed the way we workout as it helps us track our progress real time, helps us keep a check on what we are eating through food diaries and gives us a sense of accomplishments as the short-term effects are visible too. What these apps do is give a sense of purpose to an activity that is quite mundane and make tracking a lot easier.
This approach of converting mundane to engaging can be applied to quite a few other such dull activities. What if you could create an app that made things like grocery shopping or research a fun activity!
There is not one person, who wouldn’t want some extra time on their hands and an app that can do it would surely win the users’ hearts. People are always looking for ways in which they can shrink their daily responsibilities and free up some time to engage in things that are dearer to them. There are apps like Summly that have taken on the tedious tasks and freed up the human-time for other constructive engagements like maybe spending time with the family, going out for a jog, or other such aspirational activities. It is probably the time saving advantage that made apps like Summly a big hit! Consider all those activities that busy you up for long intervals and think about ways in which an app would help you free up that time.
In the process of coming up with good ideas, it is important that you identify all the bad ideas and stay away from that track. Take care not to get carried away and try keeping the scope of your app idea centered around a realistic view of the technology that exists. Try and get a basic understanding of the processes that go into making an app.
At the outset, it would be wise not to start with being way too ambitious. Focus on making something that is grounded, is original, and not the “new Uber”.
Sometimes taking a break to distance yourself from the problem does wonders to open you up to new ideas. Don’t get so close to the process that you lose sight of the big picture. Step out of your office or home, go for a lazy stroll, finish your weekly chores, go for a jog or walk your dog. In short do something you would do normally on a given day. In doing so, observe what is going on around you. How are people interacting with the space around them? What can be done differently for a greater efficiency? How would you do it differently? What makes you a little more inefficient? Asking and answering these questions might lead you to the very problem that you can and will solve with a simple yet brilliant app idea!
It is a good idea to conduct your market research on various app stores to get an idea about the apps that are popular, are doing well on the money front and are taking care of everyday problems that need some attention. However, app stores are not the only place where you can get these ideas. Go through portals like Kickstarter, research startups on Angel List, and explore the innovations on Product Hunt.
Keep an eye on any kind of tech or startup pitch meetups or hackathons. Go to all of them, do not discriminate at this level. Not only would you be in a crowd that has the same things on their minds as you, you would be neck deep among people brimming with ideas of their own, and are willing to share their thoughts. You might actually be inspired enough to come up with an idea of your own!
Explore the fields or ideas that the investors seem to be interested in. Watch the investors you are interested in, and figure out what interests them. There are a lot of VCs and accelerators or other bodies that fund startups who share their interests and what they are looking for, on different channels including their websites and blogs. Another way to go about this is by going through the investor portfolio pages with a fine tooth comb and developing a map and an understanding of the companies that have gotten their attention and managed to keep it.
Doing market research is essential to build your own indie app. Based on the market research you do, you can make better decisions about design, development, marketing, and your app’s business.
Traditionally, market research has often been done by giving surveys to focus groups. Invite a few people, let them fill out some forms, or discuss a promo video, and you’re done. Based on those surveys, marketers then made decisions about the products they were trying to sell.
Surveys are fraught with selection bias, so you never know what you’re really testing. Do they just like the product or will they buy it? As it turns out, most people in survey liked a product – but wouldn’t ever spend their own money on it, outside the survey. Oops!
When you’re building your app, you’re also choosing from dozens of other app projects you could potentially build. Many app ideas haven’t been discovered yet; many markets go untapped. How do you pick the right project to work on?
Great apps solve a problem, so unless you’re out of problems, not all apps have been built yet. You always build your app for a specific audience, and that means you can solve the same problem for different audiences.
When you start with many app ideas, you go through a process of elimination. This is where Kill Your Darlings comes in. Instead of sticking with 1 supposedly great app idea, you start your market research with 10 decent app ideas and find out which one is the best. You kill the other ideas.
When I started working on the Crest app, I had a few app ideas:
I have a thing for to-do list apps – my baby darling to-do list app idea – so I was emotionally attached to the idea of building a gorgeous to-do list app myself. But I also knew that a to-do list app without a clear differentiator wouldn’t do well in the App Store.
What comes next is important: Instead of looking for proof that one of these ideas was the best, I started looking for proof that every idea was the worst. I wanted to get rid of these ideas as quickly as possible!
Instead of secretly hoping that my nicest, sweetest app idea would win, I scrutinized each of the app ideas. Are they viable? Technologically possible? Would my people, my audience, benefit from this app?
If not, kill the idea and move on. Let’s discuss how you can find out the difference between go/no-go for yourself.
When I’m researching an idea, my first stop is always Google Trends. With it, you can see the relative popularity of searches in the Google Search engine. It’s a great market research tool!
You can find trends like:
Quick Note: You won’t find how many people Googled a search term in Trends. Instead, it shows what percentage of people searched for a term relative to when this search term was the most popular (i.e., from 0% to 100%).
How do I test my app ideas? I type in my search queries into Google Trends and measure their relative popularity (see image above).
There’s two things you should know here:
Then, looking at the data, this is what you see:
It’s easy to make a mistake interpreting this graph! When working with trends, it’s important to consider the trend directions instead of shallow data points. Should I choose the planner app idea because it’s more popular than the journaling app idea?
A few examples:
It’s also a good idea to check what you see in the graph with what you know about that particular period. Don’t just use numbers in your market research!
For instance, Wunderlist was created in 2011, in the period to-do apps were popular. The first version of Bear was published in 2016, which coincides with the rise of journaling apps. Keep in mind that this doesn’t prove that the graph is right, it’s just data to support assertions you make about the trends.
What about the journaling app idea?
As you’ll discover in future articles about the work I did for the Crest app, I chose to combine a planner app with a journaling app, for a specific niche market. The assertion I made based on the Google Trends graph, is that “journaling” is a category that grows. Combine that growth with the purchase trends seen in planner apps, and you have a (theoretical) winner app idea.
And the other ideas? I killed them… Let’s move on to the next step!
Should you look for ideas that no one has invented yet? It depends. In most cases, I’d rather build an app with fierce competition than with no competitors at all. Your competitors help you create a market, and there’s often enough to share. If there aren’t any competitors, you might have to create the market on your own…
Yes, the next market research step involves another Google tool: Google Keyword Planner.
With this tool, you can find fine-grained volume data for search phrases. How many people Googled a specific search query? It’s typically used for search engine advertising and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but as a research tool it’s just as valuable.
I use Google Keyword Planner for two things:
A great thing about Keyword Planner is that you don’t have to come up with ideas for search phrases yourself. It can make suggestions for search phrases based on some input you give it.
Before you start your research with Keyword Planner, you have to ask yourself what it is you want to find out. Before I built Crest, this is what I wanted to know:
When you’ve done your research with Keyword Planner, you end up with a list of search phrases and their average search volume. You can use this for App Store Optimization, but also as a list of topics for website articles you can write.
Remember how we wanted to look for research data that already exists? The search phrases you find with Keyword Planner are the words your customers use to (potentially) search for and find your app.
Let’s break that down. Say you’re a potential customer for the Crest app. You have a problem: you’re having trouble to achieve your goal, starting a business, because you don’t have a plan. Your days aren’t structured, so you struggle to get where you want to go.
This is a problem. It’s the problem the Crest app solves. What would people with that problem search for on Google?
I put those search phrases into Google Keyword Planner and this is what came out:
Here’s what you can learn from my results:
Next, I want to get more accurate search volume data. These ranges are OK, but I want to know exactly how many people search for these terms. This also helps you to compare search phrase volume for different app ideas.
Here’s how:
Quick Note: You can also set the maximum bid here, i.e. choose a bid based on the line graph. This means you’re only seeing impression data for the first search results page.
The spreadsheet should now update, showing you more accurate clicks and impressions data compared to the ranges you got before.
Your version of Google Keyword Planner could look a bit different than in this tutorial, and that’s OK. The principles are the same!
Make no mistake – the dollar values you see are advertisement costs based on those search phrases. The impression data is real though! This is the number of times Google thinks your ad (or search result) will be seen in the given period (hence “Impressions”).
What do you do with this data? You can use it to rank app ideas based on popularity. A popular search phrase doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good app idea, but it gives you a rough estimate of the demand for your app based on the number of people that search for a given phrase. Awesome!
Let’s move on to the most important research step!
Don’t scope out the market in numbers from your Ivory Tower. It’s time to now move away from the cold research tool, and get into stories, problems and questions.
Thanks to Google Trends and Keyword Planner you now know where to look. That doesn’t mean you have a winner app idea yet!
You’ve eliminated some ideas, but the real litmus test comes when you present your app to someone that has the problem that your app solves. You can then validate your app idea, and see if there’s a real demand for it.
The next thing I did when researching the Crest app is this. I took all my researched keywords and phrases, and started using them:
What that got me was this:
By trying to put myself in the shoes of the people I seek to serve with my app idea, I learned a lot – more than I ever could from staring at numbers.
It’s the beginning of 2023, and the right time to analyze everything and think of the strategy for the whole year and have some prosperous mobile app ideas to be implemented in your business, project, or startup to reach the stated objectives. At the very beginning, it’s critical to identify key aspects like the features and functionality, platforms, tasks that your solution will solve. In addition to that, you should learn the industry trends that help you to stay competitive, improve customer experience, and even increase revenue. Let’s take a look at some of the most effective mobile apps ideas that can improve your business growth if adopted successfully:
In due time, an advanced headset was needed to experience any VR product. However, the progress of the technologies alongside applications makes a mobile device engaging. Thus, you have the capability to relish VR experience, fantastic 360-degree visuals. Today, it’s commonly used for the gaming industry, though the potential of VR solutions is undiscovered to the end. There are innumerable ways to use technology to achieve your goals.
It’s expected that the AR (Augmented Reality) market size will enhance up to more than 198 billion U.S. dollars by 2025. That makes the AR-based apps to be in the second place of the chart. Recently, the technology was used for entertainment only. The potential of AR is much bigger. Today, it can be used in different industries, including but not limited to education, medicine, marketing, e-commerce, and so on. Thereby, if you want to improve user engagement and boost awareness, then AR can be a pretty useful tool on your way to success.
IoT solutions and applications have already made our daily routine and lives more convenient, but that’s the very beginning. Yes, technology is connecting house equipment, cars, tablet/phone, TV, other gadgets and giving you the capability to control them via a single recall point. Home automation, IoT-enabled ECG devices, systems for smart parking and smart office are just a few ideas to take into account in 2021.
According to the forecast, the market size of blockchain will increase up to 23.3 billion U.S dollars by 2023. Blockchain is among the most invested technologies nowadays and has the potential to become extremely profitable if it takes hold. What’s more, it can be implemented in different industries from payment systems to education and healthcare which require to store data with high security. Being completely decentralized, blockchain innovative ideas are perfect for IoT, notary, distributed cloud storage, etc.
Being already a successful mobile app idea, e-commerce programs will be one the rise in 2021 providing a wide array of options for customers’ convenience. Such well-known brands like eBay, Dosh, Amazon, and other household names have already made a huge profit through the mobile shopping applications presented. However, there is room for improvement. Thus, you can realize some future apps ideas like brand, budget or collective shopping apps, pet care, and food applications, and so forth.
Chatbots are a critical tool for e-commerce companies to improve user experience. If successfully integrated, Chabot technology enables you to deliver 24/7 fast assistant for your consumers without additional expenses. The huge advantage of the solution is lively user interaction, the possibility to operate a large number of queries, better understand the customer’s needs and tastes. That makes Chabot an excellent mobile app idea to be implemented in the upcoming 2021.
The booking of tickets to the cinema, train, airplane are common situations, while the ability to see the available tables in the restaurant and book them via the app is still unexplored, but it holds the potential to be the prospective idea in 2021. Such apps allow visitors to book a table they desire from the restaurant layout. That is bound to improve visitors’ experience by times. What’s more, such apps can make the functioning and managing of the restaurants much easier.
Telemedicine is not a future, but the reality. The idea of getting professional help and consultation remotely is extremely popular today. The technology will reshape the industry and change the way people connect with the industry. Thereby, healthcare mobile apps are one of the best ideas for the upcoming year 2021.
Another promising and successful mobile application idea that is closely associated with the previous one is fitness apps. Users can get work out details, track progress, and get pieces of advice, etc. by launching a single application. Considering the high popularity of a healthy lifestyle, fitness mobile app ideas have great potential in 2021.
Traveling becomes highly popular. People plan the trip, book rooms in hotels, buy tickets using mobile applications. That makes the idea of creation of the app that can give you a detailed overview of the sights, tourist spots, facts, restaurants, etc. in a specific location pretty fruitful.
Being over busy, millennials don’t have time to meet new friends or perfect mate offline. However, smartphones and tablets can turn the world into a playground for dates, hookups, or even long-term relationships. Yes, today’s technologies can help you to find a soulmate through dating apps. Using applications of a kind like Tinder you can match with a chosen person, interact with him/her. Adding some features, options to your app, you’re able to create the next big thing!
High technologies reshape lots of industries with the trucking one included. Uber, Lyft and other apps like these have revolutionized the on-demand industry. Hiring and booking a cab with such added features as price comparison, availability of child safety seat, etc. can bring you not bad profit though. Clear up the options you wish to implement before developing the app.
Safety stands first. Thus, disaster alert apps hold the potential in the areas where natural calamities are common. This kind of apps can save lives by warning users about unforeseen emergencies, provide instructions to be safe. Such apps aren’t constrained to disasters. So, you can realize such mobile ideas as immediate assistance, tracking kids, suchlike safety apps.
With cooking becoming extremely popular, the range of TV shows appeared, cooking is a hobby for lots of users. Thus, the app idea with instructions, recipes, advice, food facts can be pretty successful in the future year. Think of the features you need to add to the mobile app to meet all the demands of your target audience (TA).
There are huge malls with dozens of sections, and it’s impossible to remember where each section is located. It’s quite time-consuming, time-wasting and annoying thing to search for the needed product section. The idea of a mall navigation app is useful for customers of various brands like IKEA, Walmart, Target and other large stores. The listing of the product range can be a great added feature by the way.
The idea of mobile apps for tax management is the next thing to keep into consideration. The apps can help you to maximize the speed, efficiency, and precision of your financial management workflow. Not only do they help to calculate taxable income and other data provided, but also you can add such features as generating invoices and reports about your finances, performing accounting and payroll tasks, etc. Thereby, it makes tax invoicing apps evergreen ideas.
The idea of mobile banking apps is not new. Yes, the mobile wallets with their benefits like the possibility of online transactions, account tracking have already replaced the dealing with cash and plastic money. However, the idea of a banking mobile application that will act as a single POC (point of contact) is fruitful. These apps can be used for rent payments, mobile bills, EMI deposits, and so forth. It’s a thing to think about.
Traveling and offshore working are highly popular nowadays. The language barrier is a primary problem that can be solved with the apps. Herewith, the idea to develop the mobile language learning applications shows enormous potential. Clear on the features and options, like word pronunciation, grammar, learning of particular words, etc. before starting the development.
Another quite fresh idea is mobile music apps. Such applications are on-demand lately. Creation of playlists, radio charts, search by brands, music sharing, and social media integration, these and a host of suchlike features are to be considered when developing an app of this kind.
Today users have dozens of subscriptions. Thus, there is an idea of an app to use for tracking all the subscriptions the user has. Not only will the app alert the user when the next subscription is due, its price, but also it displays what properties are offered. This is a way to manage the subscription, make up your mind in advance whether to continue or unsubscribe.
There are over 2 million app ideas each on Apple App Store and Google Play Store, but merely 1% or even lesser are actually successful. Is there a secret formula to their success? What is it that they are doing differently? Let us shell out some of the most effective tips and tricks to help you validate your app idea, before you get into the process of development yourself, or hire a developer for it!
Like most other things, the stepping stone to figuring out whether your app idea is good enough or not is a thorough research. Getting a clear idea of the market with respect to the app idea that you have been harboring is a good idea. Initially as you begin your research, you are bound to come across at least one app with the same idea that you have! However, this mustn’t discourage you, neither should you give up and move on! It is important that you acknowledge the fact that no matter which industry you delve in, there is bound to be some competition. Develop a clear user persona for your app while including all the demographic, psychographic and physiographic details wherever you see the need. Study this persona either on social media, or through a survey questionnaire. Another way to go about this is to actively engage in startup or business networking as some of them are happy to share their experiences on their journey to accent – good and bad. This is where you have a good opportunity to garner valuable advice on the viability of the idea.
Studying the app store charts is a great way to get some valuable insights on the ongoing market trends. Studying the top paid apps gives you an idea about the top ideas that people are willing to pay for. When you take a look at the top free charts, it tells you which are the free apps that are being downloaded for the biggest number of times. Once you take a look at the top grossing charts, however it will tell you which are the apps that are most popular and getting the highest revenue. One good way to go about this is to come up with a list of keywords that are associated with the industry and use them to search for apps in the app store. Study the apps that show up with each of these keywords and find out if the app is good enough to stand out! Try and understand how your app can improve the existing products and what is it that you can change to make your app more desirable.
More often than not, the idea might sound good to you and your close circle of acquaintances and solve the immediate and dire needs of this tight group of people. This scenario encourages quite a few startups to get into the building phase without considering whether the problem you are solving is something that the other users would be willing to pay for.
In order to validate the need of your solution, all you have to do is invest some time talking to people and gauge their challenges. Ask them what is it that they struggle with, in what way have they tried to solve the problem, and why have all the prior solutions failed to do what they needed. There is a good chance that even if you started with the intent to validate a particular app, you might end up discovering a need that is a lot more pressing all because you decided to question the potential customers with an open mind.
You have already developed a user persona, it is time mow to figure out the potential pool size of this persona that you would be targeting while designing and developing your app. One good way to do so is to begin with creating a list of keywords that would best describe your app idea and add them to the Google keyword planner tool. This tool then gives the average monthly searches that the chosen keywords are getting at the local and global level. It is only natural to infer that the higher the number of searches for your chosen keywords, the more will be the demand for the services that are associated with your app idea.
It is critical to clearly understand whether your app with be able to achieve a product market fit, soon after it is launched. At this stage it is important to analyze whether the targeted user would prefer to use your app over the existing apps on the store. You can create a list of features that are being offered by your competitor apps against their names and categorize them according to the monetization model. At this point compare the features and monetization model for each of these apps with yours.
It is important that you realize that the app that you develop needs to be unique and solve some real-world problems for a considerable market size.
For this, proof of concept is a small scale and probable way to exhibit the idea that you have. This is a great way to determine the actualization of the idea. The proof of concept is essentially a small-scale project that establishes the potential of the basic idea. Further on this process also checks whether the project or idea can satisfy the defined characteristics or not. To validate your idea of the app, proof of concept goes on to demonstrate the purpose of the application. This is done without actually making the app public while devising quite a range of technical solutions. In all, this is a great way to exhibit the feasibility of the app idea.
In case your app idea is aligned in part to the other trending apps, your chances of building a successful app goes up manifold. In case it is not, then it might be time to reconsider the whole idea once more. It is quite natural that we fall in love with the idea that we might have come up with, from the scratch, but if the market doesn’t have an appetite for it, the purpose is defeated!
Your USP or the Unique Selling Proposition is why most users would buy your app from you. Ask yourself, and ask often the following questions:
Refine and condense your idea into a simple language and brief that would easily be understood by the customer in a way that they are convinced automatically to buy the product.
The product you are creating is going to cater to a target audience or market, it is only natural that you look for a feedback from them. The user persona that you crafted during the research phase comes handy here. Whether you go through the social media, through startup communities, different campaigns or any other ways, it is important that you conduct a survey and try and get a feedback from this group about the idea. While a feedback from your friends and family might be encouraging, it is the feedback from potential users in the market that really matters.
This is especially important if you do not have the technical expertise yourself. Try and speak with a technical expert or those that would be finally working to develop the app for you. Utilize this conversation to develop a stronger understanding of the technical challenges that may be involved in the process.
Ask the right questions, like:
You have the idea, you have the technical expertise available to you, and you know that the users are ready for it. The next logical step to proceed is to develop a prototype. This is a greatly effective way to demonstrate how the app is going to function. A prototype essentially is an end-to-end working model that offers the possibility to interact with the app itself. A prototype includes data flow, process management and defined use of technology which contributes to the smooth flow.
The prototypes are typically bug ridden and have quite a few errors, but it is important to identify them at this stage. Timely identification of these errors goes a long way in saving time and money when you look at the bigger picture. A prototype is built with the intent to study the feasibility and is not the final and finished product, it has room for errors and their improvement during the development process.
The idea of creating an MVP or a Minimal Value Product lies in a strategy that has proven to prevent the expenses with the development of a product that is not yet fully defined. In this process, a minimum set of resources which are just enough to place and test the product in a particular group are developed. This is then used to analyze the way the users or the targeted group interacts with the product. The entire process allows you to perform tests with your app ideas in order to determine the viability and the scope of improvement in these ideas. This ensures that the final that goes out to the market is as competitive as it could be.
At the end of the process of creating and using your MVP to gain a deeper view into the path your product is going to take, it is time you begin building a brand for yourself. This is a world and age of information, and a new idea that was validated today, might become obsolete tomorrow, especially because who isn’t seen, is rarely remembered. Hence building a brand for yourself should be at the top of your list now.
The brand, the image, and all the related things that you set out to create for yourself should subtly convey the essence that you want your app to reflect. A strong visual presence and memorable design and identity goes a long way in creating a place in the public eye and memories while helping the potential users get an idea about the functionalities of your app and the value the app is capable of adding to their lives.
The next step up is to create a landing page for your app. App development might involved delving deep into software development, hence before you roll up your sleeves and jump in, it is a good idea to begin with something as simple as a landing page. You will have to define your own parameters of success of the landing page and it could be anything from gaining a big number of email subscribers or a considerable number of people who have agreed to and completed your mobile app idea survey. But these numbers aren’t all that you should worry about. The landing page that you create should have a short pitch for your app, basic screenshots or pictures that give the user an idea about the functionality of the app, and an email subscription form that can help them know about new updates and features.
You have a great idea for an app, you have a prototype, a landing page and all the works that go into determining the feasibility of your app idea. If the app doesn’t reach the audience you are targeting, all the efforts might prove to be a big waste. The promotion efforts that you take to promote your app might be free or paid and there are a lot of ways to do it in both the categories. To start with, let your friends and family know, then move on to the various social media forums where you can look for an organic and polite way to post it on relevant posts or threads. You can engage friends who are bloggers and let them write about the new app on the block and share it in the relevant community while circulating a quick survey for feedback.
If you have a brilliant app idea, there is a good chance that you have either considered signing an NDA yourself or someone might have suggested that you think about it, but it has been on your mind. And this is before you have entered any kind of conversation or discussion that you might have entered with the contractor or app developer that you are planning to hire sometime in the future.
The question at this early stage is, do you even know what an NDA is? Not just the basic concept of it, but what it is actually. Probably not.
Building a mobile app with your own idea is a business, a serious business, and like any other business, you can’t succeed if you isolate yourself and walk with the blinders on. It is important to recognize that there is an immediate need to take actions to cover or protect yourself legally.
The problem here is that most of us are not exactly aware of what kind of legal protection do we actually need! Of course, we would not want to be unaware and leave us vulnerable at any point, but on the flip side we wouldn’t even want to waste our time, money and efforts on doing something that might be completely unnecessary.
What this post will basically share are the experiences and insights that we have garnered in the long time that we have been engaged in developing mobile apps across industries. This is not legal advice and in case you do plan to get an NDA, it is imperative that you seek professional legal opinion.
An NDA or Non-Disclosure Agreement is a contractual agreement that binds both the involved parties into working together to protect the confidentiality of information and no matter what the complications are, it is agreed upon that the data would not be disclosed to any third party all through the duration of the agreement.
There are a number of other terms that are associated with the same and listed as under:
All these terms are often used interchangeably in the context of an NDA. There are three different types of NDA that may be executed as per the requirements of the parties:
Most of the NDAs fall in the first category that is Unilateral NDAs which mean that one of the parties or person(s) agrees to not share some defined information about the other party. For example you as a business owner, while hiring an employee, a contractor or a freelancer might ask them to sign an NDA with you about not disclosing a certain algorithm to anybody else. After signing this agreement the signee is legally bound to comply to this agreement and if they break it, they might open themselves to prosecution by law.
A mutual NDA is where both the parties involved agree not to share any information with anyone else. This is more common in case when two different businesses collaborate to work on a project.
Multilateral NDAs are applicable in case of three or more parties who would be sharing confidential trade secrets with each other.
NDAs are different form any other legal document in the fact that it is quite straightforward.
As someone who is banking on a unique app idea to develop a successful business, it is only natural that you would want to protect the idea for the fear of it being stolen. However, NDAs would not necessarily protect against ideas! This means if you have shared an app idea for delivering stationery, an NDA would not be able to stop them from building an app for the same service unless they are perusing some confidential secrets to do it.
In general, an organization would feel the need for an NDA only in case when they know that they would need to share any kind sensitive data or information with the mobile app development company, contractor, or freelancer who they are looking to hire.
It might also be of consequence to go looking for an NDA when your app idea is related to the key process of the business such as in the case of manufacturing businesses, research or businesses pertaining to finance. Let’s get deeper into the issue and list out all the reasons that you may need an NDA for!
In the rare case when you or the organization you represent has some concrete proprietary information that might be eligible for copyright or patent, it is absolutely necessary for you to go for an NDA.
This might be one of those situations where both the parties would have some interest in signing an NDA. Just like you might have some proprietary information to protect, the developer too might be evolved enough to have their own proprietary codes, algorithms or marketing strategies that they might want to protect.
If the contractor or freelancer you are hiring has no reservations about signing an NDA, go ahead and sign it, but make sure that the terms of the agreement aren’t too restrictive and in case of any dispute in the court, it shouldn’t appear to be too burdensome.
In case it is important that the project stay completely hidden from the public eye, you may insist on an NDA. This would prevent the freelancer from putting it up on their portfolio or pitch for similar projects with other clients.
There is a possibility that you might be able to serve the purpose of confidentiality in a short or fixed period of time. In such cases, chances are that the contractor or the agency might agree to sign the NDA. An NDA with no time limit would always be something that would bother the developer, and they would vehemently refuse to sign something like that.
There are times when someone, or an organization with an idea for an app comes looking for agencies or contractors to develop it, are scared that their idea for the app will be stolen by them and used to make a business of their own.
However, trust me when I say, insisting on an NDA can actually spell a bigger disaster for yourself than anyone else. The mobile app that you plan to build is essentially a tool for your business idea and you are going to pour in a lot of money to get it developed and put it out there in the market for users to download and buy your products or services.
What you essentially plan to do in such a case is come up with an idea, hire an agency to develop your mobile app, and signing an NDA with them to basically build in strength. Let me tell you there is no better recipe for disaster!
What happens here is that the idea is untested, not shared with anyone except the developer. Hence you have no feedback about the need and functioning of the app from potential users. There is a good chance in such cases that when you finally let the cat out of the bag, there wouldn’t be anyone interested enough to go ahead and pay for it!
What you need to know is that the best time to share your idea with the maximum number of people while looking for a feedback is before you have put in any money on it! There were numerous taxi services before Uber came in and Uber did not depend upon secrecy to become what they are today!
Even as you are beginning the process of interviewing or holding the first meeting with a developer or an agency, it might not be a good time to broach the topic of and insist for an NDA. This is the time when all you need to do is assess the agency for viability. In most of the cases if you mention the NDA a little too soon the experts or the agencies might lose all interest in you and move on even before determining whether they are interested in the project.
At this stage it is better to share the idea in the highest and brightest of lights and make them want to work with you.
You might believe in your idea and believe that it would make a considerable dent in the industry bringing about a revolutionary change, but few mange to do anything remotely like that. It is for this reason that many developers or the agencies stay away from an NDA. Often when the idea fails or runs out of money, signing an NDA means that the developer or the agency is stuck with the confidentiality agreement which eventually limits or completely crosses out any chances or ability to work with other promising clients with similar ideas. An idea simply may not be enough to warrant protection.
In the situations when you as an individual or an organization have a lot of work in the pipeline or budget for the developer, you hold some cards and negotiating power in favour of your demand for an NDA to be signed. However, in case you have only a small project, for a short time period, the developer would definitely not be inclined to sign on for the possibility of a legal liability.
You might have found the right one, the ideal developer for you, but they might be totally against it. In this situation consider the trust factor, their track record, and weigh your need for an NDA vs your preference to work with the same developer before taking the decision.
It is not uncommon to get inspired from an existing idea that has garnered success. In case most of the information that you want to protect with an NDA is already in public knowledge, then you might not have enough confidential information, making it ineligible to be protected by way of an NDA.
Some of the reasons why you shouldn’t go for an NDA maybe listed as under.
We can’t emphasise enough on the importance of getting pre-launch userbase and feedback from potential users. In the event of an NDA being in place, the project and the app stays under covers mostly till it is launched, you are robbed of the opportunity to create any buzz around it.
It might be true that you have an idea worth billions, but there is a good chance that the same idea is being developed by at least a couple of more developers who might even be ahead of you in their development process. The idea that you have might quite easily be inspired from an existing idea, which has the potential to inspire so many more like you!
It is understandable that you would want to protect your idea from developers copying it or stealing it. However, if an NDA is all you have to protect your idea, then it’s definitely not much! You might be protected from the developer you get to sign your NDA, but as soon as your app is launched, the idea is free for anyone to copy and most of the developers are proficient in reverse engineering any app. Hence to develop a defence strategy, you would have to have something more than a mere NDA in your kitty.
So you have an NDA in place with the developer and the agency that you hired to do the job. What do you think happens when they violate or break it? It is you would have to take on the responsibility to enforce it! This process is expensive and harrowing and especially so if the agency you are suing has more money than you! There is a good chance they would keep stringing you along till your accounts run dry while you are mounting legal bills. It is also quite a difficult concept to prove that the developers stole your idea, as they hear hundreds of ideas everyday from loads of existing and prospective client and may claim to have heard it from one of them.
Trust in any relationship is of paramount importance and this holds true for you and your app development agency as well. Trust cannot be assured by forcing the other one to sign a piece of paper. It takes time and efforts from both the parties involved. Maybe if you were to begin with a 10-minute conversation where you would give a brief of your concept or idea to the developer to gauge whether there is any interest generated, or discuss its validation.
In spite of all your misgivings about the app developer you are hiring there is all probability in the world that the app developer would not really steal your idea, even if they had the opportunity to do so.
As you approach someone with your app idea, you have to understand that you are not really going to build an app, you would be building a business by way of an app that the developer would do for you. The developers have the tools to build an app, which they would be doing for you, they do not have the bandwidth or the essential tools to build a profitable business from the app they develop.
This is a key point to consider. Let’s say you have a brilliant idea for a construction related app and hired a developer or an agency to do the app development for you. Let’s say that they stole it from you, and built their own app. But now what? They don’t have any understanding of the construction business, nor do they have a network that would help them get into it! They would have a tough time finding beta testers, establishing contacts, and getting a knowhow of the industry. Hence even if a developer or the agency did steal your idea, you actually have nothing to fear!
In an y industry, reputation matter a great deal. If a developer makes it a habit to steal their clients’ idea, their existence in their own trade would be jeopardized. Software or app development is usually a process that lasts long and sometimes one project leads to another, in such case, most developers would stick to their integrity and do nothing to lose the trust you place in them as a customer. However, if there is any reason for you to mistrust the developer or the agency you are looking to hire, it is maybe a good idea to change the agency altogether, instead of getting them to sign an NDA
Should you sign an NDA with the investors and would they sign it?
This is a practice that used to exist but has become obsolete today. Today, most of the VCs or investors would flat out refuse to sign an NDA especially in the initial stages. At later stages when there is a need to share any sensitive data, the subject may be broached for consideration.
Even in these circumstances, what they might do is include such provisions in the agreement they draw up, in case they decide to invest.
In conclusion, the mobile app market is a highly competitive environment. The key to success is not only in having a great idea but also in being able to properly execute it. If you have an idea for a mobile app, make sure that you research the market thoroughly and create a plan of how to make it successful. Utilize available resources such as online tutorials, webinars, and forums to learn more about the development process and how to promote your app. Also, consider working with experienced developers or professionals who can help you turn your idea into reality. With the right strategy and dedication, you can create an amazing mobile app that can make an impact on people’s lives.