How to Balance Product Ideas & Project Constraints in App Development

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How to Balance Product Ideas & Project Constraints in App Development

The principal aim of technology is to serve feasible and convenient solutions to users to bring comfort to their lives. It is the purpose anyone, with a unique and innovative idea, can outshine in the technology world. After the inception of mobile applications in smartphones, it has revolutionized the world by bringing almost everything in the palms of the users.

There are millions of apps on various play stores creating differences in the lives of people and every day, the numbers are increasing rapidly. You just name the niche and you will find a large number of apps for it.

Mobile app development is a tedious task and requires meticulous planning and research. There are various factors that you need to examine before determining to go ahead with the idea. The idea should be original and should have the potential to bring the change or to streamline certain processes. Every day, we come up with ideas, but not all are attainable and business-oriented. You might consider that you have hit a potential business jackpot, but it might not be the case. Hence, an accurate evaluation of the idea is obligatory before you proceed further.

Project Idea Evaluation:

Validation:

First and foremost, you need to ensure whether the idea you want to explore has the potential to bring comfort or change to people’s lives or not. What is your unique selling proposition? What is the solution you are offering to the users? Is the idea worth spending money on? These questions might help you to validate the idea you want to explore.

Once you validate your idea, you will be able to focus on the core purpose that you want to solve. Also, your team would be able to contribute some inputs to alter/modify the idea for better and meaningful outcomes.

Market and target:

Once you have validated your idea, the next thing is to identify the application’s market and your target audience. You need to have a clear idea about the market segment you want to cover. If you are making a job portal app, your market segment covers all those possible candidates who are looking for better career opportunities. In that manner, you need to define your target group so that you can strategize accordingly as per the market segment you want to serve.

Competitor Analysis and Research

No matter which business vertical you belong, competitor analysis always bring some value to the table. Check out whether there are any other mobile applications in the market that offer similar solutions or not. Is there any particular service aspect where the competitor is weak? What are their strength and weaknesses? What is that uncommon solution that differentiates you from your competitor?

Conduct precise research about your competitors and you will be able to withstand against them by adding some more value to your proposals.
That’s all for product idea evaluation.

Project Constraints to watch out for:

You might consider a constraint negative word, but actually, it is not. In fact, constraints always help to outperform if you plan wisely. Remember, each constraint brings an opportunity to think innovatively to develop a smarter and more functional mobile app.

Business Feasibility Constraints:

Is the mobile application able to address the business objective that you are trying to accomplish? It is the core question that will decide the business feasibility of the project. Some more questions are listed below to distinguish the business feasibility constraints:

• What is the business goal you are trying to achieve?
• Are you offering an easy and viable solution to the customers?
• Is the revenue model of the project satisfactory?
• What are the features required to offer the desired solutions?
• What is the timeframe of the project and would you be able to complete the project within the timeframe or not?

Technical Feasibility Constraints:

Before you start developing an app, you need to take care of possible technical constraints that might emerge during the mobile app development. Here is a list of some of the technical constraints:

Operating System constraints:

Which operation system you want to use? Evidentially, there are multiple operating systems for different platforms. For example, the Android platform has many operating systems and Apple has its own operating system. Each of these platforms affects the overall performance of the app. Hence, you need to have a definite roadmap about it.

Discuss with the developers about the OS lifecycle, memory and battery consumption, background functionality of the particular OS and other crucial details to ensure that your app integrates well with the operating systems to perform placidly and effortlessly.

Solution:

The best solution to handle this constraint is to release a beta version first to check out how well the app supports the OS. Also, thorough testing is highly recommended to ensure that you release a fully-functional app.

Read Also: Google unveiling future of App Development with Android Studio 3.0 and Kotlin

Devices constraints

There are countless android-supportive devices available and you have to create an app that runs smoothly on each of these devices. Just developing an app that runs well on the latest version is not a good idea to go with. These devices have different pixels, screens, sizes, and overall performances. Hence, you need to address this concern in a meaningful manner to get the best outcome.

Solution:

The best way to avoid device related issues is to go for a responsive design that adjusts well in all types of devices with different formats and screen sizes.

Budget Constraints:

You might have decided the estimated budget for the app. However, when you actually design a PRD, you might find out that the features that you want to add in the app will require allocating more money. It is a normal thing and happens with most of the mobile app projects. Hence, it is a constraint that you need to address fairly and carefully.

Solution:

When you need to allot more to the estimated budget, it is actually an opportunity, as per the industry experts. It will help you to make your priority straight. by organizing brainstorming sessions, you will be able to find a way that is yet to be explored.

Timeframe Constraints

Setting a timeframe for project completion is a must for any project. It is one of the most stressful constraints developers face. Changes are inevitable in the mobile app development process and hence, completing the project in an estimated timeframe is difficult.

Solution:

Make a specific Product Requirements Document in advance and break down each task with an estimated timeframe required to complete. In this manner, you might able to make better resource allocation for each task as per its complexity.

How to balance the product idea and project constraints?

Balancing both- product ideas and project constraints- is significant. The best way is to design an in-depth PRD. A carefully written PRD will cover almost all the possible constraints. With it, careful planning is also recommended to check the product viability and possible constraints that might arise during the development process.

There is a possibility that you might need to make some compromises, but if you have planned well, you will be able to get an outcome that serves the core purpose.

Conclusion:
Studying project constraints in advance might help you to evaluate the product feasibility to a great extent. It does not only question the core of the idea but also lets you plan well to address those constraints superiorly and effectively. The best way is to prepare a PRD that addresses product feasibility and possible project constraints to help developers to develop an app that serves the core purpose and business objective in a most meaningful manner.

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