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Don’t waste time and money by jumping right into an app or web development project without doing your due diligence first. 

You’re in the shower one day, and inspiration hits you like lightning. You’ve just thought of a super idea for a new website or mobile app. You scour the web and the app stores, and nope, you can’t find this idea anywhere. Rock!

But wait, you’re not a corporation or serial entrepreneur with a huge budget and a dedicated marketing or development team. You’re just a person with a fantastic idea! Now it’s time to hire a web development firm and get it done, right? Not so fast, slick.

Although you’re confident that your idea will revolutionize the world NOW, taking the time up front to establish your user base and goals before jumping into the project is not only smart but essential. It’s going to save you both time and money. But where to start? 

Who Is Your True Audience And Do They Want This Thing?

Just because you think you know who your true audience is, that doesn’t make it so. In your head, it may be a universal solution to everyone’s problems, no matter what their demographic is. Or maybe you’re thinking of hyper-focusing on a niche group of people that won’t be able to live without your new idea. 

Either way, you can’t afford to waste precious time and capital on the wrong audience, especially if they don’t even want the product. That’s why performing a market analysis is of utmost importance before getting too ahead of yourself. This consists of asking potential customers a list of questions to get their feedback in response to your idea. Not doing this research will turn your “I think I know who I’m building this for” into an “I think I just wasted a ton of money by not being smart upfront”.   

But I Know How I’d Use It, Isn’t That Enough?

You’re enthusiastic about getting the project started, and you don’t have any time to waste. What if someone else comes up with the same idea while you’re off “prepping” instead of “doing”? Plus, you know how you’d use it, and that’s enough, right? Usually, that's not actually the case.  

It’s not that you didn’t have a great idea and know how you would use it. But ultimately your customers will decide how it’s actually used. The reality is that you aren’t the one that will be using the platform day in and day out. You’ve got a great base idea, but let the actual users decide how best to actually use it. 

If you go headlong into a project with features that haven’t been reviewed by their intended audience, you’re almost assuredly going to have to go back and make a ton of changes and updates that will be discouraging. However, if you reviewed these concepts with your intended audience, in the beginning, you’d save yourself so much heartache.   

The Long And Short Of It

It’s imperative to do the due diligence of strategy and design at the beginning of a project. If you wait till after you’ve launched, both you and your users will have a bitter experience. So play it smart! 

Do you want to know more about the strategy and design process? I’d love to chat or grab a coffee, so don’t be shy and contact me today!

-Daniel McMahan, Senior Project Consultant