Few Tips To Validate Your Mobile App Idea

Competition is consistently on the rise in the app development industry. With so many startups built around the world, staying ahead of the competition becomes challenging, especially for those with a lack of experience or technical background. Therefore, if you too are looking to transform the market with your digital product, you should know how to validate your app idea to make it truly profitable. 

In this blog post, I will discuss the importance of idea validation and the steps you can take to ensure that your idea is valid and capable of generating high ROI.

What is Idea Validation?

Assuming that users will love your idea without seeking feedback beforehand is a really bad approach to building something. Because businesses can’t just assume that users will like their idea anyway, irrespective of what they think - this is one of the many reasons products fail to impress customers. 

Companies usually launch products into the market without even realizing or identifying the need and eventually regret it. This is where idea validation comes into play - it's about seeking feedback and opinions from the target audience about the idea.

Based on this you can identify whether the idea is feasible to launch or whether it needs more changes to fit the demands and address the pain points. 

Therefore idea validation enables you to build something that people actually want and/or need. Just imagine how much time, effort, and money can you save if only you know what makes people tick. 

How To Validate Your App Idea - Important Steps

Going through the following steps before you proceed with the design and development can really come in handy for validating your app idea.

Conduct Market Research

First, you should come up with an idea for your mobile application - only then can you validate it. Well, it’s pretty much a given.

The best step forward is to identify any specific problem that customers are facing and then develop a solution to address the problem. That’s how it works, right? For problem identification, you need to put yourself out there in the market and do extensive research, because market research will not only help you kick-start your idea but also help you tie up any loose ends. 

Competitor analysis is one of the most important parts of the entire market research. Why? Because your goal should be to deliver something unique and offer a value proposition, something that has not been floating in the market already. 

Considering the head-on market competition, if your idea doesn't stand out, it would take ages for you to get your rightful place in the industry. Just think of different approaches to solve a problem, then pick out the most effective and unique one. Keep in mind the following questions while running a market analysis:

• What problems are people facing?
• Who are your competitors?
• What are your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?
• Would you use this app if it already existed in the market? Why and why not?
• Will your app provide a unique experience and solution to a problem?

Identify your Target Audience & Market Size

Once you have known the problem, identifying your target audience becomes a lot more effortless. Keep in mind the following questions while running a market analysis:

• Who is your target market or your potential customers?
• What are your target market’s buying behaviors?
• How big is your target market and their financial capability?
• What are the demographics that you are targeting? Such as gender, age, etc. 
• What are your target market’s priorities and expectations?

Speaking of target market size, you can achieve that with keyword research. Yes, with a little bit of SEO. First, you need to create a list of all the relevant keywords. There are so many free/ paid SEO analysis tools available, pick any that has all the features you need. 

You can then see the total monthly searches on any particular keyword - the higher the searches, the higher the demand, and Viola, you have identified your tentative target market size.

Develop Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Now that you have worked your way through research, have a clear understanding of your potential customers and an idea about your app. Now, if you think that your idea is worth it and has all the potential it needs -- develop an MVP. A minimum viable product is just a working prototype of the end product but not fully developed yet. 

However, it works and functions exactly how you would like your actual product to do. The main idea behind creating an MVP is to get as much customer feedback as possible to develop something valuable with fewer inconsistencies. You can either have a focus group to test the app or put it on social media and other tech forums so that it can reach as many people in your network as possible.

Building an MVP in the beginning for gathering feedback not only saves your time but effort and money, too. Most importantly, it identifies the feasibility of your app idea and helps you determine any prohibitive barriers if any. So, if you are looking for MVP development services you are most welcome to get in touch with InvoZone.

MVP is probably the most important step that you can take to validate your app idea. Because this is where you would finally know whether your app has weight or not. 

Importance of developing an MVP

• It will help you secure funding and make informed future decisions to lessen the risks. 
• The initial concept in the form of an MVP can help you save money and enable you to develop only valuable features. 
• MVP helps you determine if it really fits the market. 
• You get genuine user feedback for improvements, feature deletion, and addition. 

In case you want to read more about mobile apps, you can visit our blog category of mobile apps specifically tailored to your customer demand and industry trends.

Key Takeaway

Businesses don’t usually take the idea validation process very seriously, but they should. Because a wrong idea can break your business - leading to irreparable financial damages.

Therefore, if you have newly stepped into the app development market, take a breather, look around, and really understand what people want- the problems they have, and the solutions they need.

Your app should not only focus on aesthetics instead, but it should also be able to solve real-world problems. Once you have reached your initial customer base, start thinking about the monetization model. 

If you wish to make your product a true success and know how to validate your app idea, give us a call.