We absolutely love building useful apps! Custom software development is what we’re all about! Why? Because technology brings so much to people’s lives in so many different areas. However, before investing time and money into building an app for your organization, you will want to know what impact it will have on your business.
We’ve been creating custom software and apps for a long time and through our experience, we’ve seen that there is a need for clarity before the development process begins, particularly in the area of how a custom software solution will impact your business.
Here are a few important questions to ask yourself while you walk through the planning process and look at the effect that custom software could have on your organization.
What Business Problem or Unmet Need Are You Trying To Solve?
Great innovations often come from great needs. Perhaps your scheduling process is too slow. Perhaps there are too many pieces of paper on someone’s desk or too many spreadsheets. Perhaps you are using the app as a sales vehicle. Perhaps you are using software that isn’t tailored to your process.
Clearly understanding the problem or unmet need you are trying to solve will help keep you focused. When building an app, there are usually far more ideas than the budget to complete these ideas. During that filtering process, you will want to constantly ask yourself, will this feature get me closer to solving this business problem?
What Are Your Desired Business Outcomes?
Most of our clients are building one of the following types of apps:
- An app created to sell as a product to your existing or new customers.
- An app designed to improve the way your business runs.
If you are building an app to sell, you probably have desired outcomes such as onboarding a certain number of users, revenue goals, or market share.
If you are building an app designed to improve the way your business runs, you might have goals of reducing paperwork, creating a shared database of information, or having a tool that supports your unique process.
How Much Are You Expecting To Invest in Custom Software Development?
Software is like housing. There’s a house at virtually every budget, and fancier is more expensive. When determining the budget you are comfortable with, you’ll want to consider your business outcomes. If you are able to achieve the business outcomes you list, how much is that worth for your organization to spend?
A good development partner can help you with this. We believe in finding what we call the Goldilocks budget. You’ll need to invest enough to get the value and impact you are looking for, but not too much that you are overinvesting before getting your product into the world.
What Is the Time Period You Need To Recoup Your Investment?
Sometimes when an organization is investing in custom software, they are looking for a short-term return. Other organizations might be building more substantial software for a longer-term outlook.
Knowing this will help you determine the right amount to invest, the milestones of your software plan, and the set of features in each stage.
A Free Planning Tool for Your Own Custom Software Development
Our desire is to simplify the custom software process for you so that you are sure of what you want to make and how you want it to look. This saves a lot of time in the long run. It ensures that you get a product that is more similar to the original design than not.
Our new KeyQ planning tool walks you through the process of refining the idea behind your app. Even if you’re totally new to the concept of a custom app, you can easily walk through the process using our tool step-by-step. Download it for free here.
