Being a start-up, an app budget is always a constraint but quality & time to market is also important. This is where you must do a thorough analysis on the ROI based on the above pointers and finalize a partner/ team that suits you the best.

Hidden App development costs that you need to know

Now that we have already discussed the key factors that impact the cost of the app, it’s time to look at some of the other aspects that are worth considering even though they might not have a significant impact on app development costs. 

1. Application hosting charges – This is the cost charged by the Apple App Store & Google play store to allow you to host your app on their platform. 

2. Infrastructure costs – This is the cost of deployment of the application servers. This could either be on premise or using a cloud service like AWS, AZURE etc. 

3. 3rd Party integration costs & Licensing fees – These include the fees paid to any 3rd party service being used by an application e.g. Payment gateway charges, Fees for using Google Maps API etc.

4. Support and maintenance costs (updates, bug fixes, enhancements) – This is the additional cost (maintenance costs) that is incurred for ensuring smooth functioning & upkeep of the app. This cost comes into play post deployment.

5. Marketing & user acquisition costs – These are typically the costs incurred on the marketing, advertising activities in order to spread awareness about the app & acquire more users. 

Checklist for successful product launch 

Now that we have understood the components that contribute towards the development cost of an app, let’s have a look at some key aspects that play an important role in determining the success of an app. 

Having the right product strategy 

It all starts with the right product strategy. You might have a great app idea but it’s destined to fail if the market is not ready for it.

So how do you go about defining the product strategy? In subsequent sections we are going to touch upon some of the proven & widely recognized tools & frameworks that can be put to use. 

Strategy definition 

Let’s begin with some building blocks for your product strategy. First, you must establish the mission for the product. This is the highest-level objective/ purpose of the product that simply defines how your product will change the world for the better. 

Before diving into our product strategy, it’s worth noting that sometimes the simplest ideas can lead to massive success. Take a moment to explore this article on Simple Apps That Made Millions. It’s a testament to the power of identifying unique value propositions. Next comes the overall product strategy itself: This is about finding something of value to your market that your competitors can’t or won’t deliver.

Finally, you should focus on a well-defined execution plan for the defined strategy. 

Since this topic is vast enough to have an article of its own, let’s leave the details on strategy definition for another day. In the meantime, you can touch base with our team of experts at DDN should you wish to go through a formal process of defining the strategy for your product. 

Let’s look at one of the simplest yet powerful frameworks for creating product strategy for start-ups i.e. The Lean Canvas but before jumping into it we need to understand the Lean start-up methodology that is being widely used by many start-ups to build successful business.. 

The concept of Lean Start-up 

As the author of the famous book “The Lean Start-up” Eric Ries defines a start-up as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty.

Let’s dig a bit deeper into his concept and understand what a lean start-up is.

Lean start-up is a methodology for developing businesses and products that aims to shorten product development cycles and rapidly discover if a proposed business model is viable; this is achieved by adopting a combination of business-hypothesis-driven experimentation, iterative product releases, and validated learning. Lean start-up emphasizes customer feedback over intuition and flexibility over planning. This methodology enables recovery from failures more often than traditional ways of product development. – Blank, Steve (May 2013). “Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything”. Harvard Business Review.

This concept assumes that start-ups can avoid huge financial disasters arising due to product failures by iteratively building products that cater to the needs of their early adopters. If they focus on eliminating waste and increasing value in their early phases, they have a better hance of success without requiring large amounts of outside funding, elaborate business plans, or a perfect product.

Remember – Iterative development, eliminating waste & focusing on activities that bring value are the key concepts highlighted above. We will understand how this is done when we introduce the concept of MVP in the subsequent sections.

Lean Canvas

Being a start-up/ Lean Start-up, you need a quicker way to get ideas out of your head into a tangible format so that you can communicate that with others. This is where the Lean Canvas comes into picture. It is an adaptation, by Ash Maurya, from the very popular Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder.

In principle it’s a one-page format that helps in brainstorming & capturing various aspects of your business idea in a simple & understandable format.   

You can read more about the Lean canvas here: https://medium.com/@steve_mullen/an-introduction-to-lean-canvas-5c17c469d3e0

We know that we have just scratched the surface with the details shared above, but the idea of sharing this article is to give you a well-structured guide that you can use to build your product.

Let’s move to the next key aspect of a successful product launch. Scope definition and identifying your MVP – remember we talked about MVP in the section on Lean Start-up.

Scope & Roadmap Definition

Product scope is the set of well-defined characteristics/ features that address how a product works, how it is made & how it will evolve in future iterations.

In order to clearly define the scope & product roadmap you will have to go through a well-structured iterative process that starts with the “Discovery phase”. This is where the various aspects discussed during the Lean canvas are translated into functional requirements. During this phase we deep dive into the objectives, constraints, operating environment and try to zero down on the scope by thoroughly evaluating and balancing various factors like the Costs, market needs, competitive landscape, our capabilities, technical feasibility etc.