Is a good idea enough to build a sustainable, scalable, and successful app?

A young ambitious entrepreneur once approached us and showed us his app. The app served exactly what many smartphone users need. He filled up the gap that other makers didn’t notice. Moreover, the app was easy to use and had an attractive UI. Naturally, the app became quite popular very soon. The maker was quite fast in resolving any issues pointed out by users. It was rated quite good in the AppStore and customers were happy. But it’s too soon to celebrate its success.

Unless entrepreneurs treat their app like a full-fledged product, add features, release versions, resolve issues, and scale it up the app quickly becomes a relic, a use case for others to emulate the launch but not the scalability phase. The said entrepreneur is aware that an alarmingly high number of apps fail even after tasting initial success. With so many app-making tools readily available it is very easy to make an app.

Like the successful entrepreneur, if makers incorporate all the essential qualities an app can become popular and successful. However, the toughest part is to sustain the success as more and more users start using it. The app can become a success only if more users continue to use it even after the initial curiosity subsides.

Every company will become a software company…

Treat it like a Software Product

Though it is true that most mobile apps quickly lose relevance or hardly sustain, it shouldn’t discourage developers and makers from contributing innovative apps to the ecosystem. No one says that all apps fail. The failure rate is significantly lower for B2B apps or apps that solve internal processes. There are also many success stories of several B2C apps. The primary reason behind the success of any app is product engineering abilities. An app should be treated as a software product. In one of our earlier blogs we discussed the critical factors that contribute to a product’s success, they are quite relevant for app development as well.

Product Thinking is Essential for Success

Consider this scenario. A small software company created an app to simplify an internal process. The app doesn’t contribute to any revenue or profits directly and was only installed by about a hundred users, mostly their own employees. But clearing a block in the process indirectly helped the software company in delivering value. This app is a success, its success is not measured in the usual parameters, its value lies in the simplified process. It is very different from our entrepreneur’s app. Yet, its success shows a way to extend the life of an app.  The key to the long-term success of any app is product thinking.

Scale it up

Any App should Deliver Value – There may be many factors that shape an app’s initial success. However, the key to scaling it up lies in thinking about it, not like an isolated app, but like a connected product that needs to stay relevant, continue to deliver value, extend it to other functionalities or domains. Despite how the world defines an app’s success, the makers should spend their energies on delivering value to users, to do it better, and continue to do so without any glitches even when the number of customers grows. This is where the technology literally becomes the backbone of any app, and a good idea, or even a great one, is no more enough. The makers should extend the app’s usage and stay attractive to users. Revenue will follow and the process will even open new revenue channels.

For example, many food delivery apps like Swiggy in India have excelled during the pandemic after the initial complete lockdown phase. The successful ones effectively handled the increased demand and also added new features to the apps, like delivering goods from one customer to another or groceries and medicines from the shops to the customers. Though by 2020 it was already a popular app, if it had not effectively handled the demand and fulfilled customers’ changing needs it would’ve become obsolete and some other app would’ve replaced it by now.

You need Experts, not Jacks of all Trades!

An app can be made even by a single person. But as it grows it needs a team of innovators. It should be treated like any business idea and analyzed and planned from several perspectives like sales, marketing, technology, design, etc. It needs a development set up, road map, and should consistently stay closer to users.

It may not be easy to recruit and build a team on your own. But it is essential. And to scale up the app you need to scale up the team. This may sound scary, but there’s an easier way. Outsourcing or recruiting a dedicated team through an established software company is a sure way to assure your app’s success.

Why coMakeIT is an Ideal Partner to Collaborate with

coMakeIT has about two decades of experience in helping businesses grow. We define digital strategy and roadmap. We also help you implement the strategy by building and managing web and mobile apps. Moreover, the development teams established to build the products are owned by you. As you grow bigger, we stay with you to support your growth, and then gradually you can become an independent company. Our collaboration helps you reduce business, financial, and operational risks, so you can promote new capabilities confidently. It is the runway to accelerate your product journey.

A good idea is necessary, but it is insufficient to make an app successful. The hero of this blog, the smart entrepreneur approached us to scale up his app. The app, rooted in the local needs of a country, is an on-demand one that connects service providers with their customers. It has been sustaining users for about three years now and has a very good chance of sustaining for a longer period even in a highly competitive and disruptive mobile app ecosystem. This is not a one-in-a-million success story of Uber or WhatsApp but a very relatable one that can help almost anyone find stability and success. Are you also seeking success? Write to us at info@comakeit.com to know more about how we can transform your business.