How do you take your brilliant ideas from thought to product? Research, planning, and—most importantly—running the idea up the flagpole to your boss.
The process can be long and intimidating, but once you earn your team’s support, an expert partner can help make your dream a reality. Learn how to convince your boss you should build an app and turn your idea into “the next great thing.”
Secure buy-in
Securing buy-in is a multi-step process to get stakeholders excited about your mobile app idea, and it starts from scratch.
Write it down
Having an exceptional idea is one thing, but you need to think it through to communicate and persuade. Use your favorite way to brainstorm to your advantage, such as:
- Writing notes.
- Doodling to get a visual idea.
- Mapping out how each piece will work together.
Record your idea while it’s fresh and your synapses are firing. From there, you can adjust and refine details until your presentation.
Create the elevator pitch
Speaking of your presentation, what are you going to say when you approach your boss?
Your elevator pitch is a 30-second to two-minute rundown of your concept, during which you want to convey its benefits and market need. Get to the meat of your mobile app and the problems it could solve, and explain your idea so that it’s understandable and relatable. Additionally, you’ll want to:
- Connect your project to stakeholder values. Show that you understand the business side and how your idea could propel success and make the company stand out as an industry leader.
- Be honest. Every idea has pros and cons, and you need to lay each on the table. Find a balance between both sides to encourage buy-in and set realistic expectations.
- Address questions and risks. “Why do we need this?” “How will it help customers?” Come prepared with data, statistics, and supplemental case studies to establish confidence and show why your app is a winning proposition.
Your pitch should communicate value and potential. Make your point without being overwhelming.
“Sell” your idea
Now you have the floor. Show your passion and “sell” the concept. Tell your boss how they can get involved, from including them in the idea to soliciting their feedback.
- Suggest a design sprint. If your decision makers seem interested, a small investment in a design sprint can help package your concept into something you can present to the larger organization.
Once your internal team is convinced, you can take your concept to an external partner to bring the product to life.
Start building groundbreaking products
You got the green light from key decision makers to start building your mobile app. But now you have to determine if the concept a.) is realistic and b.) can live up to expectations. If your app can cut it, you’re ready to build.
Proof of technology and design sprints
The first part of web or mobile app development focuses on the specifics of your concept. Give a name to the problem you want to solve and see if the product and its technologies align. Two pieces build out the puzzle: proof of technology and design sprints.
- Proof of technology can validate a technology stack or hardware.
- Design sprints can validate product ideas and user experiences.
With a closer look at both sides, you can decide if your idea is viable. If the answer is yes, your development partner can move forward.
Prototyping
Going from concept to reality is fulfilling. When you reach prototyping, you see design and development bring your mobile app to life. For stakeholders, a prototype gives credibility.
Suddenly, stakeholders have those “aha!” moments because they have an interactive experience at their fingertips, leading to both compliments and criticisms. Thankfully, with the help of your company and development team, you can iterate quickly and efficiently to make changes and enhancements.
Minimum viable product
MVP! MVP! We’re not talking about sports here. Instead, this is your minimum viable product. Taking a strategic approach to features and functionality can help you reach this stage. Work with your development partner through prototyping and design sprints to identify the core functionality that your app needs to go to market.
The app doesn’t have to include every feature at this stage. Instead, focus on delighting your customers and providing a solid user experience around your app’s focus. Here are some examples:
- If you’re creating an app for a utility company, consider limiting your functionality to reporting outages and saving billing features for future releases.
- If you’re creating an app for an automotive company, limit your functionality to locking and unlocking doors because research shows that is a primary concern for your customers. Save larger features—such as starting and shutting off the vehicle—for future releases.
At its heart, an MVP is a working product that is ready for customers. With your app on the market, you can get customer feedback for future iterations. All digital products—mobile apps, video games, software—continually get updated to accommodate customer needs and preferences.
- Example: Back to sports. MLB: The Show, a Major League Baseball video game, has a “Daily Moments” feature that challenges players to accomplish the same feats as the pros to earn points. In response to feedback, the game changed the time limit to complete challenges from a default of 24 hours to deadlines that match the difficulty of each task.
Users tell you what’s working and what isn’t, helping you prioritize future improvements and implement new features.
Get your “yes” and build to success
Your new app concept may be the answer to a problem someone in your organization is trying to solve. More importantly, the public could be searching for exactly what you want to offer.
Want to convince leadership? You need to craft the specifics of your idea, develop a pitch to impress and take it up the ladder to your boss. And by all means, make your concept a collaboration. Is your concept viable? Work together to find out.
Ready to build your new mobile or web app? Get in touch with Detroit Labs to discover our app development capabilities and turn your vision into reality.