You might be under the impression that the most important thing to do when starting your new business and app idea is to get started creating it, but you'd be wrong! Taking the time to sit with an industry expert to explore your business idea, target audience, market, problem and solution is key to your success.
Start at the Beginning
It sounds simple, but isn't the beginning a very good place to start? Taking time to review why there is a need for your product, who it's for, what you're solving, heck, how you're even going to make money - these are all super important pieces of info to keep in mind and know before diving headfirst into software development.
We advocate for a discovery process with every customer, especially new business owners or first time app creators. Reasoning being twofold: we get to learn in depth about how you got here and where you're going, allowing us to frame all of our recommendations and effort into your focus; additionally, you get the benefit of further vetting your business model with an industry expert, gaining guidance, perspective, and hopefully critical direction.
What is this Discovery Process?
Simply put, the discovery process is a series of sessions with our founder (Matt) working through a process honed with many clients to probe and elicit as much information and clarity as possible before ever embarking on the software creation journey.
Sessions can be on the phone, video conference, or in person; they are structured over usually 4-5 two hour meetings. Typically there are "homework" items for you to research and clarify between sessions and we'll all learn a lot through the process.
At the end, you're given a written prepared document outlining many details about your business requirements, customer base, monetization strategies, functionality and so much more.
Why would I do all that?
There is immense value in simply being forced to think and decide certain key factors throughout the early stages of your app creation. Should you offer free with paid in-app upgrades, or capture payment up front at install? Should you target iOS only, or Android as well? The list goes on and on.
By making decisions guided by an industry expert, you've put a lot of groundwork into your business. We've had some clients realize that perhaps the reason they haven't seen this done before is because it can't be profitable and table the idea. We've had other clients rethink their strategy entirely. And we've had clients that gained perspective, but were doubly sure of their product and market fit at the end of the process.
No matter the outcome, it's valuable to you and your new venture. On top of that, you'll be so well prepped on what you're wanting to accomplish and how you're going to do it, that getting high-quality, accurate proposals from software vendors will be so much easier to obtain and compare (hey, we've written about how to compare those proposals here). We hope you'll work with us!
