How to Evaluate Your App Idea

Evaluating Your App IdeaFrom a Technical Perspective

Vance Lucashttp://vancelucas.com

Target Audience

• Limited technical knowledge/experience

• Anyone interested in everything that goes into making apps

• People who have app ideas, but don’t know who to talk to or where to start

Who are You?• Vance Lucas

• http://vancelucas.com

• Twitter: @vlucas

• Brightbit (local dev. shop) until 2014

• Consulting/Freelance afterwards

• Now full-time at NetSuite

Soundingboard.tv

This IS

• Pre-market validation of idea itself

• Technical feasibility determination

• “Is this idea even possible?”

• “Is this idea worth pursuing?”

This is NOT

• Good / Bad idea judgement

• “Your idea is [awesome|terrible]”

• Determination of success

• Market validation

Topics

• Idea

• Information

• Integrations

• Service

• Competition

• Money

Idea

• What is the idea?

• What problem does it solve?

• How do users solve this problem currently?

• How will your app solve this problem better?

Story: App Idea for Take-Out Menus

Information

• Does my idea require data or information that I don’t have?

• How can I get this data?

• What will it cost (time + money)?

• How hard is this data to get?

• Will I own or control this data?Story: App Idea for Road Trip Guide

Integrations

• Does this require integration with a 3rd party (Twitter, Facebook, data source, etc.)? How deep?

• Does it cost money?

• What are the risks in integrating?

Story: App Idea to Cancel Credit Cards

Integration Risks• Twitter: http://ryanmarkel.com/6446/

twitters-api-and-user-hostility/

• Netflix: http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/13/netflix-api-shutdown/

• Snapchat: https://medium.com/backchannel/snapchat-s-non-vanishing-message-you-can-trust-us-6606e6774b8b

Web Service

• Is a central database or web service required for your app to function?

• Are you going to have a user login?

• Will any data sync across devices?

• Is any content “shared” with, or “discovered” by other users?

• Is there any content not stored only on a single user’s phone or device

You Need an API!

• Whole separate (large) project with tight integration into your app

• Recurring costs? (domain, hosting, etc.)

• Risks? (security, availability, etc.)

if you answered “yes” to any of those…

Your API

Competition

• Are there any competitors?

• If so, how many? How big are they?

• Good ratings? Any complaints?

• How is your idea different?

• What is your unique value proposition

Market Analysis

• How big is the market?

• # of apps in this category?

• # of searches for app keywords?

• # of downloads of competition?

Awesome Tools

• AppAnnie.com

• AppTrace.com

• XYO.net

Money

• How will this make money (ROI)?

• One-time purchases or subscription?

• Free with ads or in-app purchases?

• How does this align with costs?

• Remember 30% cut for app stores

• Does it even need to make money?

Game Time!

Notes App• Integration with iCloud to

sync notes across devices

Camera+ App• Simple integration for

sharing photos on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr

• Integration with iCloud to sync photos to all devices

Angry Birds• Integration with Game

Center (iOS)

• Integration with Google Play (Android)

• Push Notifications / GCM

• Web Service

• API for app + 3rd party developers

• Integration with MLS + others

• Integrations

• Google Maps

• Push Notifications

• Web Services Galore…

• Integrations

• Crawls every website in existence

• Way too much to list…

Need Inspiration?https://twitter.com/search?q=#appidea

Questions?@vlucas | vance@vancelucas.com

I’m writing a book! http://soundingboard.tv/book