Top 4 mistakes app founders make when building their product

1. Building the perfect product. I once worked with the founder of a sports application who had the best intentions for their product. I saw this app taking off and becoming useful. However, they would constantly change the requirements. They thought they needed to get every little formula that counts calories and VO2 max just right. Well, as you might have guessed, they never released. In addition, the developers with whom they worked burned out because of the constant changes and rebuilding of the app. Yes, there is such a thing as a “pivot,” but what’s the point of making all these changes if the app never sees the light of day?

2. Focusing on the non-important stuff. Do we need an Apple login, or are Facebook and Google enough? Do we need a phone number confirmation? Should we build a pretty dashboard? Just ship your app and add tracking events if you want → you’ll learn much more about what your users like, want or dislike.

3. Not hiring professional designers. Yes, it’s a cost upfront, but it will save you a lot of money in the long run. Besides getting beautiful designs, a good designer will also help you develop UX for your app. Designers are not just artists who draw pretty pictures. They also help you understand how users will interact with your product. I have never regretted working with professional designers. But they have to be professional.

4. Being overly ambitious. I’m all for ambition. However, I’m also a realist. You can’t build Facebook with one developer working part-time in 2 months. I’ve seen lots of founders who want exactly that. They usually want to squeeze as much into their product as possible. This is great, but returning to point #2 - does your product 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 this feature right now?

In general - keep your app simple by focusing on essentials and 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀.

Is there anything that you would add to this list? What are some mistakes that the app creators encounter? Image by Dan Asaki - https://unsplash.com/@danasaki