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Can you afford to build an app which was built and long forgotten, without even being noticed by the users?

It sounds scary, but can be true as well…

In this wake, you cannot deny the fact that not every mobile app is a success, but some make an entry in the morning and are lost by the evening, leaving a huge trail of failure behind.

But every app is same then what sets the standard for a successful mobile app…?

Hmm, a valid question and must be taken in consideration.

A successful mobile app is a combination of perfect app concept, development and has more to do with the app features as well, to make your app distinct from the others…but the question arises, that how to select the right app features and functionalities for your mobile app to make it successful?

App features are one of the most prominent factors responsible for your app success and cannot be replicated from the competitors’ mobile apps.

If you want to win the competition battle and want to get an edge in the app market, then you need to very particular of adding the selected features in your mobile app.

But HOW???

Eventually, there is no standard guideline for the selection, which states ‘Pick This and Leave That’ for your mobile app’s feature, but only a set of instructions, which if followed well, can bring the desired result through an app and in return you get the user’s admiration and appreciation in abundance…

And the instructions are…

Sift Down Your Business Market

Your business and its needs are nothing new to you, and you know well what your business needs.

But there is no harm in conducting a thorough research for your app’s sake, and once again analyze your users, competition, market trends, success factors, and challenges, since your market needs never remain same, and are in the constant change.

Once you make a firm grip over the detailed report, the very next step you have to strategized, that how your app is going to solve the users’ need and how the solution would help the users.

Explore Your App Purpose

Your app has a sole reason behind its purpose and you need to understand that how well your app is going to solve this purpose.

You might find it funny, that why am I addressing this issue even, but there is a strong reason behind.

If your app does not carry a purpose behind, then trust me it is of no use to get an app for your business.

An app for your business needs, must be full of possibilities and opportunities to explore your business further, but an app sans a purpose, is nothing, but a piece of trash, which is developed to be discarded by the users.

Keep Users’ Needs On Priority

On evaluating your users’ needs, the very next point you have to keep in mind, and must not avoid, is prioritizing the users’ needs according to the favor of business goals.

Once you follow this approach you only jot down the app features that can help your business to attain success.

If you wonder how to do it? Then ask yourself, whether the chosen features actually serve the need of users? Which features give voice to which objective? How this feature would add value to your business?

Get the answers to these questions, set those features as your picked features to proceed further and experience the difference…

Social Media Sharing Is Must

Even if your app has the best concept and is speaking the true essence of your business requirements, but if your app doesn’t have any social media sharing option, trust me, your user is something which would be used, but would never be cherished by the users.

The social media sharing is a must for your app, which allows your app to share its data, information tough the social media plugins like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and many more.

Apart from these essentials, you need to keep your app onboarding also as simple as possible without any rigid guideline of any typical login credentials, this actually irks down your users, if they find that your app has bridge long onboarding process.

Also, keep every element of your app in accordance with your app’s targeted users, here your research would get paid off.

On the other hand, if you are unable to find a professional app developer to create a mobile app for your app requirement, then you need to research and pick the best in the market to answer your app requirements.

However, before celebrating the fact that you’ve been able to survive this long, one must first consider if scaling is the best possible direction for your startup to take. Here are five things to keep in mind if you’re at this particular crossroad of whether to scale or not:

Determine Your Workforce’s Readiness

Scaling means higher volumes of work and more data to process. Is your team ready to take on this workload? Can they work under the stress and pressures that come with expanding to new market niches or new audiences? Sit down with other high-level staff, such as senior software development engineers and product managers, to figure out if your current team has enough collective brain power to handle the new technical challenges that scaling brings.

Start with the Small Things

It’s a preconceived notion that successful startups, such as Uber or AirBnB, were already high-functioning companies right from the start. However, these companies weren’t born superstars overnight. They began on the hard route, which is by working on tasks manually. Take Zappos as a good example. When the company started, its founder, Nick Swinmurn, visited local shoe stores and took photos of everything that was on display. He then posted those photos on a website. When someone clicks the photo and buys it online, he returns to the shoe store, buys it, and them mails it to the customer.

Figure Out the Tech First

A tech startup relies on technology to be able to move forward. If you haven’t figured out how to specifically scale your IT systems and product’s tech capabilities, it’s best to hold off any plans to scale. Figure out how to set up your cloud storage and organization, how to set up your hiring and training processes, how to automate your marketing campaigns, and how to improve on your product’s or service’s current technology to be able to offer future updates and features. The underlying tech behind these operations are vital for your company to keep up with new market demand without collapsing under the weight of increased costs.

Work on a Mobile App

A mobile app is an expected feature for any serious tech startup. App development and maintenance, however, can be expensive. You can choose to either have an app built in-house or by an outside app development firm. It depends on your budget as well as the technical expertise and specializations of your employees and teams. Look for someone experienced in Ruby, Swift, Java, and other mobile-friendly and agile languages. Before expanding to new markets, it helps to have a mobile app to represent your brand on consumers’ mobile devices. Without one, it’ll be difficult to get your brand out there.

Consider Outside Investment

Startups in general burn through cash quicker than traditional businesses. It’s one of the many reasons why investors treat startups as a high-risk investment. Before scaling, think about your runway. How much time do you have until you eventually run out of operating capital and require an injection of cash from outside parties? Six months? A year? Perhaps your startup is only afloat until the end of the month in which case it makes fiscal sense to focus more on how to bring in more investors and how to bring down the costs of software development and less on scaling.

Final Thoughts

Scaling a startup is a very tricky objective to say the least. There are a lot of moving parts, some of which are very fragile and reactive to change. Use the five things mentioned above as a template or checklist before making any final decisions and setting anything in motion.