You’ve probably heard that old adage that the best things in life are worth waiting for, but at Rocket Farm, we say forget that. In a world of digitization and modernization, you must move fast to keep up.
Customer demands are everchanging, the workplace and employees’ needs can evolve overnight—as the pandemic taught us—and at least some of your competitors are bankrolled to the point that they can always be innovating when it comes to app ideas and product development.
To succeed, you must be quick to bring your new iOS, Android or web apps to market. However, speed can’t reduce quality. In other words, your mobile app development team should be able to deliver high quality fast.
A thorough, disciplined mobile app development process is critical to achieving both those objectives.
The lifecycle of successful product development
PHASE 1: Concepting & Discovery
At Rocket Farm, we call phase 1 Discovery, and it’s that critical time in a mobile app development or software development project where you are taking the time to gain a clear understanding of the opportunity. While up until this point, we’ve talked about how speed is a prerequisite for launching successful iOS, Android or web apps, this is one area that you can’t skip for the sake of moving fast.
During this phase, you will sketch out the vision for the product and how it will meet the needs of your target audience, gain an understanding of market and product fit, define your end users, and establish how you will differentiate the functionality or user experience of your product from competitors.
It’s during this time that you will lay the groundwork for the mobile application and affirm that it will be viable once it hits the market.
PHASE 2: Design
This phase is all about UI/UX design and the process of designing a product that meets the target audience’s needs and expectations. If you’ve done your due diligence in PHASE 1, you should have a solid understanding of your end users’ pain points, challenges and demands.
During design, you will be focused on the user interface, usability and how user-friendly the product is for mobile users.
During UI/UX, you’ll define the structure and shape of the app experience and you will create the visuals that reinforce the branding and messaging. You will design the overall architecture, including the backend, frontend, tech and marketing stacks, CRM and other functionality required to run the mobile application. You will continuously test your assumptions around the target audience, user experience and features.
PHASE 3: Development
During phase three, the focus turns to building the iOS, android or web apps.
Throughout the product development, you will build, deploy and test to the product as you uncover issues or find ways to better meet users’ needs.
At Rocket Farm, we focus on launching an MVP, the most basic version of the product or mobile application as fast as possible. The MVP includes the core functions and features necessary to attract and retain end users. Most important, it provides a baseline to begin testing and launching new features and functionality.
Phase 4: GROWTH
Many mobile app development companies see their role ending once the product launches. Rocket Farm is different in that we view the launch as the beginning of the process. During Growth, we follow a continuous Build-Test-Learn process where we focus on incremental improvements to improve the user experience.
We measure, brainstorm, prioritize ruthlessly and then build and release the features that will keep users loyal to the product. Growth is an ongoing process because, ultimately, no mobile application or digital product is every truly finished.
So many mobile apps fail. Yours doesn’t have to.
Download our information-packed ebook, “Why Do Great Concepts Fail?” for a proven mobile app development process. Takeaways include:
- Why the number of downloads is never a measure of real success
- Your critical first step: How to confirm market fit
- 5 actions you MUST take before you start your mobile app development
- Strategies for overcoming the biggest obstacles you’ll face
Download your free guide now!
