Greetings, fellow Goal-Getter! I thought I’d share a recent experience with a company that wanted to build an app. I hope I am not the first to tell you that this requires project management to the nth power. The business sells products and all other supplies needed to use them. There are two successful locations for this business that just beg for those with any budget to at least come in and investigate products. As soon as I had a brief conversation with the business owner, I knew he needed Goal-Getter Project Management for this strategic goal. If you are reading this, the chances are high that you may need Goal-Getter PM, too!
The original app was supposed to aid in the creation of the equipment functionality of the device in which it is being used. So I decided to wait until an initial meeting before I did any research as I wanted to see the human process before coming up with resources that would help in a more virtual build. When I first heard the idea I knew it was a process that I would have to see. I asked him if we could set up a meeting. I knew that there would be a few other employees with valid feedback; so inviting them went without saying.
I set up the meeting, and immediately after I arrived, I learned that the app project objective had changed due to the fact that someone had already created an app for the intended purpose. I told the executives of the company that even though there was an app, it may be worth looking into to see if there is one that could be even better. It is the way of technology to always have room for improvement. Also, an app may exist, however, the person who developed it could have missed key features that would boost functionality. They were already over the idea and I know that as project manager sometimes it is just best to quickly adjust and move on from ideas that stakeholders are no longer invested.
The new project presented was based on the possibility of finding a more cost-effective way to boost customer loyalty through an app, as opposed to the current POS (Point Of Service) system that which limited the customer experience. The current loyalty program is a shared app which also point customers to competitors in the market, which is the ultimate disadvantage.
The owner and other executives wanted the customers to have the experience much like he has with a athletic store app that he frequents. The current loyalty program that is in place does not allow for push notifications, nor any purchase history. He knew that having this functionality boost would assist him with inventory ordering. This change of focus gave me great relief because there is a vast majority of organizations and developers that would aid him immediately.
By this point of the meeting I had my laptop open and was already documenting the spilling of requirements so that I could later arrange them into a formal business case. He gave me a list of tools he was already using: an outsourced loyalty program (FiveStars which about cost $700 per month, a WordPress site hosted by GoDaddy.com, iPads for sales, and a few other resources.
I told the owner that I work for an app company that develops and manages an iPad app, and there is a lot more that goes into it than people think. I told him that there may be a need to gather APIs (Application Programming Interface) from some of his data resources. Getting an app approved by the App Store is a project in and of itself!
The Requirements of the App
Below is what I was told in the meeting, it was definitely a brainstorming session that proved to be brilliant in creating the business case for the project.
Next time I have a meeting like this I will record the audio. Revisiting a list like this after completing four hours of work on another app made this document seem like a grocery list someone gave you while you were streaming your favorite program.
I had to be quick when writing the notes because the ideas were coming from up to four people at the same time. It was great, though, because the feedback helped me to remember exactly how the next item of the list related to the concerns. The objectives of the creation of a loyalty app were painstakingly clear.
I did have a chance to look at the company website. It has a great library of content and covers a lot of the objectives geared for the app. I discovered is that there was no email building opportunity. That is a big deal! All sites that sell either content or products need a quick form that visitors can fill out to receive email addresses. This site does not have one yet, but this notion is on my radar. So I will definitely suggest to him to the idea of having a pop-up before the website visitors leave the site and offer some purchase incentive to begin building a list for some of the communications he had in mind in this initial meeting. Building an email list could at least increase the ability to have a direct line of communication to the customer which actually proved to be a high priority objective of building an app; and in the interim could help to build a list of potential app users.
Stay streamed in for Part 2 where I have a conversation with a developer about this project. Spoiler alert: the keyword is leverage.
Image of animation source: www.rightawaysolutions.com.
© Brianna Sudduth and GoalGetterPM.com, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Brianna Sudduth and GoalGetterPM.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
For more information on how to get your app started fill out the form below!
Error: Contact form not found.