Houston’s Top Mobile App Developers | Avoid These Mistakes

Thousands of small businesses and startups have fallen down the mobile app development mistake tree, hitting each and every painful and thorny branch along the way. Learn from their broken, bruised, and bloodied apps so yours doesn’t have to suffer the same fate!

There are over 5 million apps available today on Google Store and the Apple App Store. Some have become a part of our everyday lives, others have become must-haves in their niche, and many more are helping companies to deliver a better experience to their customers. But for every successful app, a thousand miserable failures are lurking in the darkest recesses of the iOS and Android app stores. Many mistakes can cause an app to fail; if you are planning to build a mobile app for your business, you need to make sure you don’t make these mistakes.

After all, apps aren’t cheap to develop. Even the simplest, most bare-bones app you can think of may have cost $16,000 to develop while all-singing, all-dancing apps that have all the features together with good looks and a fabulous UI/UX can send costs spiraling to $500,000 and beyond. Whatever your budget and your goals, if you can avoid making mistakes, you will save time and money while boosting your ROI.

So… what are those mistakes? Glad you asked!

In this post, we’re going to share some of the most common mistakes that small businesses and startups make when pursuing mobile app design. Just knowing what these mistakes are will help you to sidestep them. In turn, you will make smarter decisions in your mobile app development journey, enabling your app to hit all the goals you want it to, becoming a success story that adds to your business growth and reputation.

Big Mistake in Mobile App Development #1: Going In-House Instead of Hiring a Mobile App Development Company

This mistake is a huge one – and unfortunately, a very common one, simply because on the face of it, it all makes sense. Hiring an expert and telling them what you want means getting great results, right? Even better, as they’re in your office, you can keep a close eye on development and be involved in the process.

There’s nothing to stop you from doing this, and there’s a chance that it might work out. However, if your approach is to give that person a room and a computer and leave them to it – or get involved to the point of intrusive and disruptive micromanagement – then you’re unlikely to get the results you want.

It’s easy to think of developers as solitary creatures who sit in a dark room creating magic with lines of code (at least not all of us). It’s a myth that Hollywood loves to propagate, but the reality is a little more boring, even disappointing.

Like everything else in business, apps are a team effort. You need project managers, business analysts, UX designers, UI designers, QA testers, and engineers to build a successful mobile app for business – and that’s just a bare-bones support crew. Chances are, as a small business startup, you don’t have the budget or even the space for all of this, never mind the time for interviews, onboarding, and training!

The better option is to look for mobile app development companies who work on contract. These companies specialize in developing apps and have their own professional teams. You can hire their experience and know-how and benefit from their natural team dynamic without any of the headaches of building your own in-house team.

That’s not to say you should never have an in-house team, but it’s best to wait until your business and app are at a stage where it makes sense to invest in one.

Big Mistake in Mobile App Development #2: Skipping Important Market Research and Going Straight to Development

Back in the mid-to-late 2000s when smartphones were new and apps were the Wild West, it felt like anyone could cough up an idea for an app, execute it, and meet some level of success.

Unfortunately, those days are long gone. In fact, we’re not even sure that those days ever really existed outside of myth and legend! Then, just as now, it was market research that set apart the truly successful apps from the ones that have long since fallen by the wayside.

It’s simple: nobody is going to download and use your app if it doesn’t satisfy a need or solve a problem that they have. The only way that you know you’re developing a mobile app that delivers something the market wants is through research.

While it can be very tempting to rush through research, don’t.

Every week and month you spend in research will pay dividends when your app is finally live. Remember: an idea is great – but validating that idea through solid market research is even better. It’s the best protection you can get for the investment you’re going to make!

Big Mistake in Mobile App Development #3: Not Launching with a Minimum Viable Product to Test the Marketplace

Following on from the last point, it’s important to remember that your app doesn’t need to be perfect at launch. It doesn’t need to have every single feature on your wish list, and it doesn’t need to be as close to its “final form” as possible.

Trying to achieve all of this before launch will send your budget skyrocketing and lead to a seemingly endless series of delays to your product launch. Worse, you don’t even have any reliable data to show that all of this work will be worth it!

Rather than make this mistake, focus on developing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) instead. For apps, this simply means launching with the basic features to test whether your app works in the real world, if people actually want it, and – more importantly – use it.

Sure, the MVP may not be your dream vision, but what you get with an MVP is invaluable data and real-world feedback. You’ll see how people use your app, find out what features they use the most, and what features they want – some that you might not even have thought of!

You simply can’t get this kind of feedback without putting your app out in the wild, which is what makes launching with an MVP so valuable. Not only will you reduce mobile app development time, but you will also optimize that time by focusing on the features and fixes that matter, rather than wasting time and money on aimless development.

Your vision is important, and you can still achieve it through iterations – but putting it aside for a short time to get the benefits of an MVP is a no-brainer. Save time, save money, and make your app even better!

In Mobile App Development, The Small Mistakes Matter Too

When it comes to mobile app development, there is a whole world of things that can go wrong. We could fill a whole book with common mistakes that small business startups make all the time!

But for now, here are some of the biggest small mistakes that people love to make:

• Going ga-ga for features and overloading your app and slowing it down while confusing users – keep it simple
• Not spending time researching your mobile app development team to find the best fit for your business
• Developing apps for iOS and Android at the same time – pick one to start, then launch on the other to optimize your results on both
• Skipping QA and testing because you “don’t need it” – you’re guaranteeing a buggy app where horrible glitches are the main feature
• Not focusing on feedback from your app users – give them what they want, not what you think they want

The Secret of Success Is Based on Knowing What Mistakes to Avoid

It can be intimidating to realize just how many mistakes you can make when developing a mobile app for your small business. The good news is that many of these can be avoided using common sense – and many more can be beaten simply by being aware of them.

The key to a successful app launch is taking a smart, careful approach. There’s no need to rush, and even less need to create an app just because you want an app.

If you take your time to research everything and focus on testing and feedback, then you’ll avoid all the major mistakes and many of the minor mistakes that can quickly kill an app. In other words, use a critical business approach in your decision-making when building your app.

You will probably still make some mistakes anyway – and when you do, realize that it’s completely normal and, more importantly, learn from your failure. This approach will help you to make the most of your investment.

Sidestep All These Mistakes: Hire Expert Mobile App Developers!

Based in Houston, 71Three offers a team of professional mobile app developers with over a decade of experience in building successful mobile apps for small businesses and startups in a variety of niches. We understand the challenges that you face – and how to overcome them with proven processes, data-driven decisions, and the latest in mobile app technology.

We treat our clients like partners, putting your success at the forefront of everything we do. And, if you’re also looking for a partner who can help your business to excel in other core areas such as website development and more, our full range of small business and startup services are designed to help your business to grow. Find out how we can help you – contact us today for a free consultation!