What Will It Take To Guarantee Your App Suceeds?

It’s tempting to jump right into building an app and seeing it come into reality. The stats are clear though – over 80% of software and web development projects fail. That means, they go over time, go over budget, and end up not capturing the dream that was started with.

Every year you hear about new tech success stories showcasing a new intuitively designed app that is a joy to use. These apps are designed well and solve a valid problem which causes the initial customers to spread the word, leading to exponential user growth. Think of a product like Slack which started in 2014 and reached over 1 million daily active users and a $2.8 billion valuation in less than two years.

How can your product become like Slack, rather than the majority of apps that fail?

Whether you’re looking to create the next startup success story, or you’re simply wanting to innovate by creating an internal tool for your day-to-day job, you need to ensure your app will be in the 20% of products that succeed!

At ProductDone we start all projects with a Product Roadmap Workshop.

This is where you’ll work directly with our product designers and developers (either in-person or remotely online). We take a deep dive into your app concept and your target users, and then prioritize features to create a plan on how to release your first version in just six weeks.

Let’s assume you don’t have an unlimited budget or unlimited time frame to launch…

The 80/20 rule is your friend if you want to launch a digital product fast – for almost all software, only 20% of the functionality is used on a day-to-day basis. This means potentially 80% of the features can be left out (at least for the initial version). Just think about Microsoft Word® and all the functionality it has on its toolbar…how many of those features does the average user ever use?

Our approach with Product Roadmapping is identifying what your minimum viable product (MVP) will look like. Additional features can be introduced later on, but the initial version of the app should be cut down to ensure we can release it publicly (or privately) and start getting real feedback from actual users.

Not just an MVP, but also an MLP (a minimum lovable product)

In a crowded marketplace with SaaS products and mobile apps being released almost daily, your app will need to stand out and resonate with people from the start.

That’s why we also concern ourselves with making your app beautiful and a joy to use, while also functionally solving the core problem your users have.

Why begin with a Product Roadmap Workshop?

Ship Fast

You’ll get a Project Plan outlining how to turn your app idea into a real usable product in just 6 weeks, instead of 6-9 months.

Reduce Your Costs

Redefining your product into an MVP app is the most effective way to reduce superficial and bloated development costs.

Follow A Proven Process

Use the same MVP design and development process that startups such as Airbnb, Baremetrics and iDoneThis started with.

Launch To Real Users

Ultimately it’s the users who make your product successful. Don’t rely on research, focus groups and assumptions.

Limit Your Risk

Avoid the 80% failure rate stats. For a small investment, an MVP allows you to start lean and focused.

Expert Advice

Our workshops will bring years of expertise and insights. Our team lives and breathes app design, development and UX trends.

What’s Included?

Product Roadmapping will leave you with a clear understanding of how you can design and build your app as quickly, economically, and reliably as possible.

Done with you in person (or remotely online):

Step 1: Discovery

We’ll start by taking a comprehensive dive into your business idea, the problems you’re solving, and the risks and challenges that we might face along the way.

Step 2: Product USP

After creating user personas and clarifying the core problem you’re solving, we need to identify the key competitive advantage of your app. How will your product solve the problem better than other options that exist today?

Step 3: Feature Backlog

We address all the features your product needs and then start defining the core features your app requires in the six-week MVP version. We ‘cut the fat’ so you can launch your app fast and on a limited budget.

Done post-workshop by our team

After the workshop session, our team will spend extra time doing additional research, including investigating any existing or historic products in the market we should be aware of or learn from.

Deliverable 1: Finalized Product Roadmap Summary Report

Taking all the learnings from the workshop, along with additional further research from our team, this document can be used as a blueprint for bringing your idea to market. This will include audience analysis, architectural analysis along with the product wireframes.

Deliverable 2: 6-Week MVP Project Plan

A technical breakdown on what can (and can’t) be achieved and shipped as 6-week MVP version of your product. Our developers go through the feature backlog and finalise what can realistically be shipped without sacrificing quality along with our recommended technology stack.

Deliverable 3: App Design Template and Guidelines

Our UX designers will create your app specific design template and guidelines which can be used for your MVP and even your full app. Also, taking key elements of your app’s USP, we will produce beautiful, clean, and intuitive UI designs to showcase as a concept for your app.