Avoid Drag and Drop Nightmares
Recently, the tech industry has witnessed the advent of quick-fix mobile “solution” companies offering a growing list of shortcuts. But, while the prospect of a speedy Band-aid solution is appealing to enterprises of all sizes, these types of quick drag-and-drop solutions often wind up rendering disappointing results.
In many cases, companies are forced to scrap the application and start from scratch, wasting time and money. And what started as an earnest attempt to create or improve an app becomes a crushing blow to the enterprise’s operations and bottom line.
In this article, let’s discuss how to avoid the problem.
Companies of all sizes need to get the most out of limited budgets and should make every effort possible to avoid mobile app problems by building out their app the right way. Here are some steps toward avoiding the “drag and drop nightmare.”
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Before You Start
Before choosing a trusted mobile app expert partner (more on that in a moment), make sure you clearly define your business. Sadly, this step is too often overlooked; it is a blind spot you definitely want to avoid.
Begin your journey by defining your business’s value prop, philosophies, and core objectives. Committing these explanations to writing will help you communicate your needs and wishes better once you build the app. After all, how can a mobile app company help you when you are unsure what you want to get out of the app?
The First Step
The first, most vital step – and the foundational pillar for the inception of a mobile app journey that is on the right track from day one – is to partner with reputable app experts and app innovators in the mobile app dev arena.
Resist the temptation to favor “quick fixes,” “out-of-the-box features,” and drag-and-drop solutions. It’s better to be there alongside a quality team as they create something from the ground up. That’s the only way to ensure that the result is successful. Take Toronto-based TheAppLab, for instance; they treat their clients as partners, internalizing their business ideas and goals, and personalizing apps based on client needs and human experiences. The results: apps that are scalable, intuitive, and accessible.
As you put together a shortlist of mobile app developers, consider…
The Reputation Factor
Finding a reputable mobile app developer is essential. Reputation means the mobile app developer built a trusting relationship with countless clients and most likely built a good part of their business based on word of mouth. If they’ve proved countless times in the past to be reliable, you can bank on them being reliable for your project.
Closely scrutinize each potential pick for your shortlist. Compare and contrast the specifics within each developer’s track record and consider how those specifics apply to your business objectives.
A True Partnership
Ideally, you want a true partnership – not just a “technical” partnership. Look for a mobile app company with true partnership in their DNA: a passionate and genuine partnership philosophy that goes beyond dollars and cents and delves into purpose and a collective united objective.
Optimized True Partnerships
Once you’ve established a partnership with app developers, there is a lot of room for optimizing those partnerships even further. Let’s delve into some of the ways that you can ensure your true mobile app partner can optimize that relationship with you:
- Allow the mobile app experts to work in your day-to-day and shadow some users.
- Onboard them as if they were actual employees.
- Ensure that they understand your industry at the level you expect an existing employee.
- Invite them to company events and other activities, so the mobile app experts can better understand the company culture—this is key for UX design and planning for internally used apps.
- Share Zoom meeting recordings with existing customers and invite the app expert to customer meetings to better understand the customer’s core business and culture.
- Educate the app expert on your customer’s various industries and niches.
- Share any lessons learned from the past via reports or lesson-learning documents.
- Facilitate internal focus groups.
- Facilitate focus groups with your customers.
- Help with first trial versions bringing in employees and customers so the app expert can better understand what works and what needs to be improved.
Next Steps
With the first step safely behind you, the next step is self-education. You can undergo this alone, but the best way to learn is usually through collaborative education – asking questions and gleaning insights from the mobile app experts you have chosen.
Asking questions about mobile technologies and how they relate to your business is especially important. By increasing your knowledge, you are essentially solidifying the partnership with the mobile app developer and greatly enhancing the prospects of an optimized solution from the start.
With a bit of self-knowledge, the right mobile app developers, and the willingness to enter that partnership with an open, collaborative mindset, you can make an app that’s head and shoulders above any drag-and-drop app solution. Best of all, you’ll be rewarded with a scalable app – an investment that has real staying power and good ROI.
