You’ve dreamed up the perfect app idea, but your amount of technical knowledge is slim to none. Now what?
Coding experience isn't necessarily vital upfront when it comes to making an app, so never fear. “People … essentially use the lack of this technical talent as an excuse to not get started when, in reality, it’s sort of this chicken-and-egg situation,” says Jonathan Greechan, co-founder of and head of marketing for The Founder Institute. “A lot of people think, ‘I can’t start the business until I have the technical founder -- I can’t launch it,’ but in reality, you won’t find the technical founder unless you start building out the business.”Many first-time tech founders think they need to find a team immediately, but in the early stages, the most vital part of your business is the product concept. Consider waiting to bring on a technical co-founder until you have a deep understanding of your market -- because that understanding should inform who you want to partner with and the skills you’re looking for.
Your mission when making an app: Prove to the world -- and to potential investors and customers -- that you’ve got a sound business idea. Though it’s important to show people may eventually be willing to pay money for your app idea, focus more on creating an absolutely essential product for your market rather than generating revenue right out of the gate, says Rob Biederman, co-founder and co-CEO of Catalant Technologies.
Here’s your go-to guide for building out your business idea -- from identifying your audience to creating your app.
Narrow your idea, and focus on the problem you’re solving.
Before Nadia Masri, founder and CEO of Perksy, incorporated her company, she dove into researching the consumer insights industry and her target market: the millennial and Gen Z generations. Before you move forward with creating your app, you need to gather key intel, including gauging the strengths and weaknesses of competitive products. Just because you’ve dreamed up something great doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t had the same idea -- and had it sooner.
“People ... are intimidated to talk about their competition,” says Masri. “Competition is great -- it validates a concept. I think there’s a healthy level: Too much competition means the market’s oversaturated; not enough competition might mean that the idea is not that viable.” Of course, take any sweeping generalization with a grain of salt, she says. If you size up the competition and know you can do something differently to provide greater value to your end user, you’ve got a fighting chance. Make sure your potential product or service is something that you yourself need and want, and do an extensive amount of research to validate your app idea.To gauge whether or not you’re making a safe bet, you’ll need to test for demand. The first step: Identify your audience. “‘If you build it, they will come’ … is not reality,” says Greechan. Ask yourself: Who is this app for? You’ll likely need a niche market to start off, even if you want usage to expand to everyone, and a great way to start is a “factual screener,” says Cowan. Let’s say you’re making an app for HVAC technicians who fix air conditioning systems -- if you ask a group of them how many they’ve repaired in the past week and they say less than 10, you may have misjudged the need for your service, says Cowan. If you’re hearing different levels of demand from different sources, you likely haven’t narrowed your ideal audience enough.
Related: How to Make Your Mobile App Stand Out in a Crowd
Once you’ve pinpointed a niche audience, you can start investing in it long before your app launches. If you’re creating an app for writers, for example, you could start a Meetup group, host events or even launch a podcast or blog. The aim is to build an interested community. If no one clicks on your posts or displays any interest in the events, that could be an indicator that you’re not on the right track, says Cowan. But if you do see some interest, try to quantify it. One of the easiest and most effective ways to start is by creating a landing page for your app, explaining your goal and collecting email addresses from people who are interested.
Before Biederman launched his marketplace for MBA students, he tested for user demand with a $9 landing page on GoDaddy and asked people to enter their email addresses if interested. He says anyone can do the same on a variety of platforms with $10 to $20, and no coding experience is required. Options include Launchrock (a standard for building “really easy landing pages,” says Greechan) and Carrd. After you’ve built your landing page, get the word out -- and pay attention to how many email addresses you collect to gauge interest levels. If you go on to develop your app idea, ping your audience semi-regularly with updates.
Related: Apple Wants to Teach You How to Make Apps
Make it work on the cheap.
“Figure out the absolute cheapest way to have something that works that you can start offering to the target customer,” says Greechan. “In the beginning, you’re really just trying to release the [simplest] product that … solves one customer problem. You don’t need tons of technology to do that.”
Return to the original problem you’re trying to solve for your core audience, and make sure you’re focused in on it. “You want to prove as many things as you can about your end market and their pain and how you can solve it at minimum possible cost,” says Biederman.Once you’ve got the basics of coding down -- and if you’re set on making an app from scratch rather than sticking with a web app or other online tool -- it’s time to build your basic concept. You can pitch your design -- whether you created it on InDesign or using a web tool -- to engineers. “It’s a lot easier for engineers, or anyone else for that matter, to understand what you’re trying to bring to life once they can see a visual representation of it, even if it’s not that great,” says Masri. “It helps them envision what they could help turn it into.”
Related: 3 Ways to Build a Mobile App With No Tech Skills
To find software developers or engineers to help you bring your idea to life, you can reach out to your network, attend networking events and Meetups, search by skills on LinkedIn or check freelancer websites like Gigster.
A note about pricing: “Don’t go for the person with the lowest day rate,” says Cowan. “What you really care about is: How much does it cost you for them to get you to a certain outcome with your app?” Finding the lowest possible hourly rate, he says, is seldom the most economical way to do that. Something else to keep in mind? Ensure you’re clear about your vision for the user experience, including who the users will be and the problem they’re hoping the app will solve, says Cowan, before you offer a developer the gig, make sure they’re engaged and have relevant questions about the project. You can offer payment via cash or with company equity, but be careful about offering too much of the latter. “I’m in the camp of, ‘Pay ... someone a little bit, even in good faith payment,’” says Masri. “Find engineers who have full-time jobs who are willing to take this on as a side project.”
Combined with your vision, a clear audience and the quantifiable demand you measured earlier, the baseline version of your app should be enough to take to potential investors and customers.
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