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Implementation

How to Get a Killer App Built

Now that you’ve come up with a million dollar app idea, it’s time to turn that into a killer app, something that is easier said than done. This is the stage at which most people drop their plans to become the next Evan Spiegel, but this need not be the case for you as long as you’re willing to invest some time/money, or both. Here are three simple steps you can follow that show how to get an app built, even if you can’t code.

STEP 1 — Decide how to get it built

Many of the biggest successes in the mobile app world have come from founders who played a leading role in the development of the apps in question, sometimes even being the sole developers of the earliest versions. This probably does not apply to you, unless of course you are one of the approximately 0.3% of the world’s population that know how to code, on some level. The good news for you is it's possible to join that number, but only with a lot of hard work, time, and potentially money invested. If you don’t have the time necessary/have other priorities, you can either look to recruit a full-time or freelance developer (through your network or on freelance sites such as UpWork) or an app development studio. The latter option has the benefit of being the most risk-free relative to the other two.

You may have to partner with independent app developers, or app development studios with experienced designers and developers

STEP 2 — Design Your App

This is the point at which you have to take the rough designs you sketched out in the previous steps and turn them into elegant, professional UI wireframes. You may choose to do this yourself if you are a decent graphic designer, or you could defer to professional UI designers or app developers. Either way, it helps to recognize that for many end users, bad design is a dealbreaker, so be sure to spare no expense at this stage.

STEP 3 — Build Your Minimum Viable Product

With all your research and designs done, you should now get to building your Minimum Viable Product. Most people waste a lot of time and get stuck at this stage — the approach shouldn’t be to get a perfect, fully loaded version of your app, but the most stripped down version that fulfills the goals you laid out. This will not only shorten your development time and give you a much better chance to actually have a finished product, it will also prevent you from spending time and money on trinkets that customers may not need initially.

STEP 4 — Test

This step is self explanatory. Put yourself in the shoes of your desired end user and fully put every aspect of your app to the test. This is also a good time to reach out to friends and potential customers and just ask for feedback on what you have so far.

The final chapter in this series will show you how to take your newly built app and roll it out in a way that gives you the best chance for success.

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