The 1st part of the Entrepreneur’s Guide to App Development covered some of the basic questions such as – how much mobile apps cost, how long it takes to build one and which platform should you go for depending on your app idea? In case you haven’t read that guide, you can find it here. In this 2nd part, we’ll dive in deep and take up some other key questions that you should have answers to before turning your ideas into mobile apps:

Once you have a general idea of your app’s cost and the time it’ll take to build it, your focus should shift to finding the right app development partner, which isn’t easy and you’ll learn why through the course of this blog. You’d also want to know the development process a company undertakes to build mobile apps. Well, we’ve got all the answers for you in this post and we are sure that after reading it you’ll feel confident and eager to start your app development journey.

Q. What’s Your Mobile App Development Process?

Most app owners prefer not to concern themselves with the app development process as the final product is what matters the most to them. But it’s a good idea to get a sense of how an app developer/company goes about building apps. Almost all the steps in the development process have to be followed in their proper order. If not, your app’s quality may be compromised.

Often, you’ll have to explain your app idea at some point of time during the discussion and before you do that, make sure you both have an understanding and are prepared to keep the conversation confidential. Getting robbed of their idea is entrepreneur’s worst nightmare. That’s why you have to be ultra-careful when it comes to sharing your idea with anyone. Initially, you want to pass down bare minimum information about what you’re trying to create, enough to give a vague idea to the developer but not enough that allows them to figure out what your final product will look like. Keep the details to yourself until you’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement, something we do right away at Code Brew Labs.

Just like NDA, there are lots of other steps/stages in the app development process where you have to know how to react. If you’re unsure about the right development process, you can find more details here. At Code Brew Labs, we follow these steps to build cutting-edge mobile apps.  

1. IP protection – Your idea is priceless and that’s what we look to secure first thing.
2. Meeting – Here we discuss and understand your idea in its full detail.
3. Finalising scope  – Once the idea is clear, our business experts define the scope of the app.
4. Planning – We define a plan, allocate resources and set up a timeline for the project completion.
5. Design – The soul of your app is its design and in the designing phase we define its visual experience.
6. Development – The app development is performed with close attention to detail followed by QA Testing. Once everything looks clean, it’s time for the big launch!
7. User acquisition & Growth hacking – We devise a strategy to make your app reach its users.
8. Data analytics – Our team digs deep to study and analyze various types of data and what it means for your app.
9. Product iterations –  Your app needs constant updates, maintenance, and refinement, that’s what we do in each product iteration.

Q. How Do I Hire The Right Mobile app development Company?

Often you consult a lot of expert developers for your mobile app idea. With over 6000 mobile app development companies listed on Clutch and everyone trying to sell themselves as the best in the world, it’s easy to experience buyer’s dilemma. So how do you know what mobile app development partner is right for you? First thing first, you have to know what you truly want your app to do. Once you know that, from there on the going gets easier.

Here’s what you could do to ascertain how a mobile app development company racks up against the rest and whether or not it’ll be a right fit for your project:

1) Go Online To Look Up Company’s Reputation

Internet has made our lives so much easier. It’s the fountain of information. Almost all businesses are online(in case, they aren’t, they really are doing themselves a disservice) to make it easy for customers to find them and learn about their services. But internet works as a double-edged sword for businesses. Whereas on one hand, they may acquire new customers online, on the other reading a bad review could harm their reputation, causing other potential customers to explore better options.

As someone seeking a professional service, you have to perform a thoroughgoing online research of the company you’ll be partnering with. Online review submission websites such as GoodFirms, Clutch could prove to be a great help here. These websites provide an in-depth information in the form of – total staff, average hourly rate, minimum cost of project, portfolio, focus areas and year of establishment of tons of mobile app development companies from all over the world. Take a look at their review section. This really is an eye-opener and where you can expect to find the good and bad stuff about most companies. There are full-on project details in some reviews, describing how a certain client came across the company, how their initial conversations took place, what the development process was like and so on. You’ll find this information to be of great help in deciding the right mobility partner for your app.

2) Are They Customer-Centric?

With so many contenders out there, mobile app development really is a buyer’s market. Companies have an obligation to value their clients, respond and react promptly to their request if they’re to build their reputation. But that’s not always the case. You’ll come across many companies online that are just concerned with selling their apps. They barely care for the vision of the client and build the app with little innovation. After selling the app, they disappear very quickly leaving you all but frustrated. No client paying for the service deserves to go through such a nightmare of an experience. That’s why you have to look for companies that are client-centric and thoughtful of their bigger ambitions. Following are some of the questions you could ask almost any development company. It’s either the manner of their answers or the answers themselves that will make it clear to as to how well they know their expertise:

• Who’ll be working on my project? Do you have your own full-time employees? For how long have they been working for you?
• Do you use the Waterfall or the Agile Model?
• Who’ll be my point of contact?
• What are your thoughts on my app project?
• What do you think will the biggest challenges for you going forward with this project?

3) Company’s Pricing

We can’t neglect the price factor as it carries so much weight. Let’s face it – getting mobile apps developed isn’t cheap by any manners and as previously said there are thousands of companies out there, each with different hourly rates. Both the company and the client want to make a profit and that’s what makes matters somewhat tricky. There’s often the conception that a lower priced service results in degraded quality and vice versa. Although, in most instances that might be true, sometimes even money can’t guarantee success. It’s been observed that as companies grow and gain more recognition they settle on a competitive price. You’ll find huge variations in the cost of startup companies, who are still trying to figure out how much they should charge for their services. Our advice: Go for a company that’s been in the industry for a good 4-5 years and has a reputable client base.

4) Value Innovation & Creativity

You don’t want to partner with a substandard, run of the mill app development partner who brings nothing new to your app idea. Look for companies that are known for their innovative and creative edge, companies that put a price on their services because they know what they carry is something unique and result of years of practice. Customers are always looking for new and imaginative solutions and if your solution won’t add anything new to the mix, they aren’t likely to take any interest in it. As well as out of the box thinking, companies should also be well-versed in the latest technologies. That will allow them to create solutions suit the current trend and also render them future-proof.

On that note, we can bring the part 2 of our ‘Entrepreneur’s Guide to Mobile App Development’ to a close. Let us know your thoughts in the comments’ section below. Part 3 of this series will be published soon. So stay tuned for that.