How to write an APP product plan

Goals and background

It is very important to clarify what you want your APP to do. Does your app solve a real problem? Is it a game designed to promote vicarious learning? Interrelationship learning method. ) Listing your project goals not only helps us understand your APP, but also helps you consolidate your ideas and understand the rest of the product features.

If you do any market research about your project, you should add it to your project goals.

Audience

Who is (this APP) made for? The answer may seem obvious, but understanding who your APP serves can also help reveal what you will do in the future. Other functions, and can help us understand what the user experience of this APP should be like. If you are serving children, the visual design should be different, for example, the buttons might be larger.

Operating system

Do you want your APP to run on iOS? Android? Windows? Or both? From our experience, many people will develop Android and iOS programs. Knowing which operating system your APP runs on will be the most important factor in determining the price of your APP, so you should consider this matter carefully. At the same time, this will also affect what we do next.

Native or hybrid?

Developing an APP for iOS and Android is like writing the same paper in French and Chinese. Although we are doing the same thing, we are using two completely different strategies. Each operating system has a different development language, so if you want to do native development, it costs double. Mixed development can reduce costs. If you clearly understand the difference between native and hybrid development, tell your agency what you want. If you're not sure, they'll give you advice on what they think is best for your project. (Don’t know the meaning of native/hybrid? Then read this blog post "Native VS Hybrid APP"?/2014/11/native-vs-hybrid-choose/?)

Timeline Arrangement

Is your work overdue? Is your partner overdue as well? Try to be as detailed as possible with the project end date.

Functional design

This is the key. If possible, when the app development is completed, write the product introduction copy that will appear on the app store in the future. This forces you to describe the functionality of your app in a concise and clear way.

Unless you are a designer, it is best to leave the job of defining user interface and experience design to the agency of your choice. However, the functions of the APP need to be defined in detail, otherwise it will be difficult to give an accurate quotation. Generally speaking, the first step in developing any APP is to provide a detailed functional description. These instructions include all screen sizes that your users may encounter, as well as the interaction methods for operating the APP.

However, even though you carefully describe a set of feature lists, the agency may only give you a rough quote.

We always believe that an excellent APP needs to do a simple thing to the extreme, but the way to do this is through a series of its functional points. For example, if your APP needs to let you know when you encounter a big pothole on the street, it will have the following functions:

Automatically record your location in your report.

Allows you to include a photo with your report.

After clicking the button, it will be automatically sent to the correct person.

Think about additional features and decide if they are necessary or if they are worth it when adding them would exceed your budget.

The following are examples of several functions that may seriously affect your costs:

Push reminders. Need a reminder or something?

Geolocation. Need to know where you are, or show where you're going?

Social. Do I need to share to Facebook or other platforms?

Do I need to log in?

Are there user attributes?

Price model.

Will people spend money on your app? Will there be in-app purchases?

Will people give you ratings or reviews?

Will they link to the website? (Your website, youtube, etc.)

Does the content of the APP come from a database or an internal system?

Visual design

Most agencies have people who work from home. Visual designers, all of whom are proficient in mobile design. These designers are very communicative because they know how to create the best design and don’t like to go back and forth. If you work with such a "home office" team, they need to follow their own design specifications. Any instructions you can give them will be useful to them. Do you know what colors you want, what fonts you want? What kind of logo you want? Ideally, if you have guidelines for your brand, you should tell them that as well.

Operation and maintenance plan

You can discuss the operation and maintenance plan with the development engineer you choose, but you'd better show that you know that your APP needs operation and maintenance, and that you have Thought about how to do it. (You can check out our blog post about APP operation and maintenance and why you should do it?/2014/11/app-life-just-christmas/?)

Additional information

Provide a It would be useful to have an additional form with full contact details, as well as a resume for each person involved in the project, including email addresses, roles and responsibilities, as well as phone numbers and photos.

Summary

Writing a product planning document can not only help you realize what your APP will look like, but also prove your capabilities to developers and let them know that you will Is a good partner.

But it is worth noting that it is best to use your plan as a reference document rather than as an ironclad rule. It is likely that your APP will face many changes in the early stages, and then the agency you choose will tell you these situations and help you make these decisions.