Phase 1: All apps start with an idea, even if yours is just to have a mobile application presence. Refine that idea into a solid basis for an application. Make sure your initial analysis includes actual demographics, motivations, behavior patterns and goals of your buyer persona. During each stage of the process, keep the end user in mind. Now, try to think of your customer’s lifecycle, once their characteristics are pinned down. After you reach them, they need to be acquired, converted, retained and their loyalty nurtured. By the end, you should understand how the customer will be using the digital product. Doing this at the very onset will set you on firm footing, and your clarity will give you and your investors, much-needed confidence.

Phase 2: Wireframe

The next step is to document and wireframe the app, to understand future functionalities. Although time is not on your side at this point, actually drawing detailed sketches of the envisioned product helps you uncover usability issues. Sketching does a lot more than merely tracing your steps. It can be a powerful communication and collaboration tool. When you’re done sketching, wire framing will help refine the ideas and arrange all components of the design in the right way. You can overcome any technical limitation found in the backend development process in this initial phase. Now, aim to develop a clear understanding of how your proposed features and ideas will fuse together into a functional app. You should also create a roadmap or a storyboard, to demonstrate the relationship between each screen and how the users will navigate through the app. Look for opportunities to incorporate your brand, focus on the user experience and keep in mind the differences in the way people use a mobile app versus a mobile website.

Phase 3: Technical Feasibility Assessment

You might have a clear understanding of the visuals by now, but you also need to consider if the back-end systems will be able to support the app’s functionality. To know whether the idea of your application is feasible technically you need to get access to public data by sourcing public APIs. An app, depending on its format (smartphone, tablet, wearables, etc.) as well as the platform (iOS, Android, etc.), will have different requirements. By the end of this exercise, the team may have different ideas for the app or decided that some of the initial functionality isn’t feasible. At this point, brainstorm a little, ask questions and review the status.

Phase 4: Prototype

Build a rapid prototype. Rapid is the key word here. You can’t truly comprehend the touch experience until and unless you touch the App and see how it works and flows. So, build a prototype that gets the app concept into a user’s hands as quickly as possible to see how it works for the most common use case. Use rough and not exhaustive wireframes for this phase. This will help you see if you are taking things in the right direction. Include the stakeholders in this process, allowing them to touch the prototype will give you their feedback and implement it into your work. And moreover, the prototype will give different stakeholders the first look at your app and will help you validate the information you’ve gathered.

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