You don’t have to be a technical whiz to build a great app for your business, you just need to learn from these mistakes, writes Taryn Williams, CEO and founder of theright.fit and WINK Models.

Every entrepreneur wishes they could go back and do things differently at some point in their working lives. For me, it’s the year 2012 when I decided to build my first ‘app’, which was a real baptism of fire. In fact, technically speaking, it wasn’t really an app at all but a mobile-first website called ‘Wink Central’, which today manages over 650 WINK models, and all their respective jobs.

In hindsight, Wink Central was both an expensive and painful lesson, however it meant when creating and launching an app for one of my other businesses, theright.fit, I knew what to do and what not to do.

So, let me share with you what I know now and, most importantly, what I wish I knew then … 

5 top tips to building your first business app

1. Know what you don’t know

Non-technical founder? Same. And that’s OK – you can still build a great app or technical business. But you need to not be afraid to ask for help, and you need to upskill yourself as much as possible so you can understand some of the jargon along the way.

My key advice here is to seek out a great mentor and look at upskilling through an online course. Tech Ready Women and General Assembly are a few that come to mind.

Doing your own research through websites like this one and other business/startup/tech oriented sites, are also a great way to learn what others are doing. Compared to when I was starting out there is so much great content available, and a level of technical knowledge is a must if you want to get your project off the ground and trusted by others

A wise mentor of mine once said, “Any tech person – whether it’s a developer, supplier, product manager or consultant – worth their salt, will be able to explain to you what they are talking about in a way you understand so you can make the right decisions”. These are the people to seek out and work with.

2. Validate your idea

In my day-to-day business dealings, I’m all about asking for input, advice, and sharing my ideas to validate them.

You should always ask the questions:

• Would you use this?
• Is this a pain point, really?
• What features have we not thought of that you need?
• Would you pay for this app?
• What would success look like if we could deliver it for you?

In short: you never know unless you ask, and it’s better to know this before you start the process of building your app.

3. What’s going to make the cut in the MVP (minimum viable product)?

This can be the hard part. You have to be brutally honest with yourself about what goes in the MVP. That means asking yourself: what do people really need for you to see if your product is viable?

Don’t get distracted by all the fancy trimmings; clever people will see straight through them. A trusted colleague once told me, “If you’re not embarrassed by your MVP, you waited too long to launch”, which is so true.

My advice: make a list of the features you really need and have a robust debate with your advisors and mentors, until you have whittled it down. This gives you something you can get a designer to start turning into wireframes.

A good way to decide what goes into the MVP, and get an external opinion on it, is to run a UX (user experience) Discovery workshop with your design team. Over the course of the workshop, you’ll start mapping features in order of feasibility against the impact that they’ll have in the final product.

4. Find the right people for the job

Hiring developers or finding the right agency to build your app can be a very overwhelming process if you’re not a technical founder. I remember thinking, “How can I determine if they are any good when I can’t understand code?”

Instead of focusing on what you don’t understand, focus on what you do.

Ask yourself:

• Are they easy to communicate with?
• Do they understand your vision?
• Have they got good references?
• Have they worked on a similar project before (marketplace, SaaS product, etc)?
• Will they be a good cultural fit?
• Are they within budget?
• Can you speak to other clients they have worked with to get a gauge of their experience?
• What reviews can you find online about them?

You can then ask an advisor or someone you trust to check their coding ability on your behalf. I always recommend asking them to complete a test (if hiring in-house), or having someone review another project code (if an agency).

5. Try not to change the scope

This is where I hear so many horror stories of builds blowing out by a year, or ending up costing double what they were originally quoted. It often comes down to what’s known as ‘scope creep’. You might think that adding a small button here or changing a layout there might not be a big deal – but it is.

Lots of small changes will push your whole project timeframe back, which means extra expense. If you need to add or change something after the MVP is agreed, always be sure to ask, “How long is this change/feature addition going to take, and what implications will that have to our budget and delivery timeframe?”

By asking the right questions in advance, you can then make an informed decision as to whether or not it’s worth it.

Don’t forget: an app is never ‘done’. You will be constantly iterating after launch; therefore, you must decide if this is business critical or not for launch.

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Now read this:

https://www.kochiesbusinessbuilders.com.au/5-digital-apps-that-will-transform-your-workday/