how to choose the features to include in your new app – lean pirate framework

How to Choose the Features to Include in Your New App – Lean Pirate Framework

Puneet Yamparala, App Entrepreneurs Association


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In 2009 when I was working on my first app as the mobile product manager for a San Francisco Bay Area based

startup, one of the first questions I had to answer was …


… “what features do we add in our new app?” This is a very important question and the first version we

developed at the startup took us 14 months to …


… complete and when we released it in the app store, it got hammered. For the first 6 days we got nothing but

negative feedback and our best rating was a 3 star!


This experience really shook us up. Based on this experience, we decided to overhaul the complete app and

start from scratch. This was the toughest decision of …


… my life – having to throw away 14 months of work and to start again. On Retrospection, I am glad that we started

from scratch again. The second version of the app …


… did a lot better and you know the only difference in how we developed the two apps?

For the second app we used the Lean Pirate framework to decide what features to add to the app.


We created the Lean Pirate framework based on the concepts in the Lean Startup movement and the pirate

metrics for mobile apps.


Lean Pirate Framework – What Features to Develop in a New Mobile App


The lean startup movement suggests that before you build anything you must validate your hypothesis. More

uncertain a hypothesis is, more is the importance of testing the hypothesis!


While Pirate Metrics for mobile apps require that an app focuses on 5 key metrics, which are Acquisition,

Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue.


So by combining Lean Startup Movement and Pirate Metrics for Mobile Apps, we came up with the Lean

Pirate framework whose core principles are:


Your app should do just one thing really well

You need to identify the ONE killer feature in your app and only develop that. Any additional features should not …


… be developed unless they are required as per the other principles in the framework. E.g. if you are creating an invoicing app, your app should do just core invoicing …


… really well, you shouldn’t add any features which you imagine will make the app useful. So adding project

management or CRM functionality into the app will …


… just make the app more bloated and non-user friendly.


Quick path to value

Your app should demonstrate its value easily and as quickly as possible. Unless the user experiences the value

of the app …


… there is a large possibility that the user will get busy with something else and never come back to your app.


Retain users and make the app sticky

The difference between retention and stickiness is that retention refers to having your users come back to the

app and use it frequently, whereas stickiness …


… refers to your app’s ability to prevent users from moving to a competitor’s app. An example of a feature

which helps with retention is – contextual push …


… notifications such as being notified when an invoice is paid or when you have some new items available for

purchase in an eCommerce app .


Next, an example of sticky feature is – in an invoicing app storing client information for all the invoices which have

been sent so far. This helps in creating …


… invoices quickly and when a user wants to move to a competitor, he needs to start loading customer info on

the new app from scratch.


Growth

Both the lean startup principles and pirate metrics require that the app have functionality, which supports its

growth. So features which create virality are necessary …


… in every app. Viral functionality can start with something as simple as sharing on Facebook, which most apps have to

complicated invite functionality like we see …


… in some gift card apps.


Monetization

It is extremely important that you chart out your funnel for monetization before building your app. It is just not

enough to say that I will slap a few ads on my app and …


… make money. It is also not enough to just have a few in app purchase options. You will need to clearly think

through each step, which a user goes through …


… before making a payment. Once you have the funnel in mind you need to make sure that you put in the analytics

to figure out the conversion rate for …


… the funnel, which will help you optimize the funnel in your future version.


Don’t hesitate to ask for help

Sometime I am surprised when app entrepreneurs do not ask for advice and assistance when developing their app. These entrepreneurs repeat the same mistake, which …


… others have made. So instead of taking advantage of people who have developed an app earlier, they waste

time and money learning things the hard way.


Let me say this –

I can help you. Actually, I want to help you!

If you have an idea for an app I can provide you with the necessary guidance and advice to create the best possible

app.


Should you need any help or advice, please drop me an email at:

[email protected]

For More App Business AdviceApp Entrepreneurs Associationhttp://appentrepreneursassociation.com


http://appentrepreneursassociation.com/

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how to choose the features to include in your new app – lean pirate framework

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