By Idan Waller, a die-hard digital entrepreneur. I co-founded Bluethrone with my brother Alon, a startup specializing in buying and scaling mobile apps.
Your app achieved the notoriously elusive product-market fit: Hurray! So now you’re just collecting C-notes, right?
Wrong.
Dead wrong.
Upon achieving product-market fit (PMF), you’re likely to encounter new challenges, such as cyberattacks, shaky infrastructure and damaging reviews. This isn’t smooth sailing; it’s a battlefield.
At BlueThrone, we’ve seen developers falling prey to these pitfalls repeatedly and, at times, tragically.
Stay alert, identify these lurking dangers in your app and navigate the treacherous waters of PMF app growth with the following strategies.
Bad Posture
As more users come to know about your app, a certain standard will be expected.
Weak infrastructure and server issues can be avoided with proper planning.
Infrastructure
Slow loading times, an unresponsive UI and frequent crashes are symptoms of poor infrastructure that can lead to user frustration and abandonment.
Investing in quality infrastructure, such as scalable and reliable cloud-based servers, is essential.
Use content delivery networks (CDNs) to distribute your app’s content across multiple servers to reduce latency and increase response times.
Backend
Investing in your app’s engine is key, as a poor backend leads to bugs, security vulnerabilities and terrible performance.
Use modern programming languages, frameworks and libraries to ensure your backend is efficient, secure and scalable. Implement code reviews, automated testing and continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) to catch and fix potential issues early on.
Servers
Servers are essential to ensuring your app’s performance and reliability, but inadequate ones can lead to slow response times, downtime and a bad user experience.
The backbone of your app is no place to cut costs. Invest in servers from reputable providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure. Use load balancing and auto-scaling to ensure your app can handle spikes in traffic and remain responsive under heavy loads.
Balancing Out Costs
Quality infrastructure, backend development and servers can be expensive and damage profitability, while underspending can lead to poor app performance.
Work with experienced developers and architects to develop an effective infrastructure strategy that balances performance and cost. Use cloud-based services to reduce upfront costs and pay only for what you use.
The Price Of Fame
App fame is amazing, but as its popularity grows, the app may attract attention from malicious hackers who’ll try to hack into your systems and attack them with bots.
Bots
By artificially inflating your app’s ratings and reviews, bots make it difficult to understand user sentiment.
This leads to skewed analytics that can mislead investors and advertisers.
For prevention, have robust bot detection and prevention measures in place on top of monitoring ratings and reviews regularly to catch any potential issues early on.
Hackers
Stealing user data and compromising security are hackers’ forte. These issues can lead to legal problems, loss of trust and reputational damage.
Create security measures such as two-factor authentication and sensitive user data encryption. Conduct penetration testing and security audits to identify and patch potential vulnerabilities.
Criminal Record
Negative and angry reviews can harm your app’s reputation and drive away potential users, while violating app store guidelines can lead to account suspension and spell disaster for your app.
Negative Reviews
Negative and angry reviews can be frustrating, but they also provide valuable feedback for improving your app.
Respond to negative reviews and ratings promptly and professionally. Use customer feedback to identify and address issues with your app. Additionally, use customer support and community management to build positive relationships with your users and prevent negative experiences from escalating.
App Store Suspension
Violating app store guidelines can lead to account suspension, an absolute catastrophe for a PMF app. Common violations include spamming users, deceptive marketing and inappropriate content.
Monitor your analytics and ratings to catch and address any potential violations.
Skin Problems
PMF apps with poor design and user experience can be frustrating and confusing for users, which can lead to a high churn percentage and negative reviews.
Wrinkled Design
A wrinkled design can harm your app’s reputation and drive away potential users. Ensure your app’s design is modern, intuitive and easy to use.
Invest in quality design and user experience. Use modern design principles like flat and material designs to create a clean interface. Additionally, conduct user testing to identify potential design issues before they harm your app’s reputation.
Crooked Paywalls
These can damage your app’s reputation and drive away potential users. Make your app’s payment process transparent and secure.
Equip your app with quality payment processing and security measures, and use trusted gateways to ensure your payment process is safe and easy.
Additionally, be transparent about subscription costs or in-app purchases to ensure users are not surprised by unexpected charges.
Messy UI/UX
A messy UI/UX is frustrating and confusing; it can lead to abandonment and negative reviews.
Use modern design principles to create a clean and intuitive interface and conduct user testing to identify potential UI/UX issues before they damage your app’s reputation.
Bad Parenting
Sometimes developers lose interest, have too many apps to manage or want to move on to another project.
Loss Of Interest Or Wanting To Move On
Did you wake up and decide, “I’m done with this app”? Have you found a new passion?
Great, but don’t throw your hard work away.
Ensure your development team is committed to your product. Offer incentives and feedback to keep them motivated and invested in the success of your PMF app.
Additionally, consider external companies who can buy your app, allowing you to move to your next project, or partner up with them, augmenting your team and providing fresh perspectives and ideas.
Multiple Apps
Managing multiple apps can be overwhelming and lead to neglect and slow updates.
If you have too many apps, identify the most profitable ones and focus on them. Consider consolidating your app portfolio or outsourcing app management to free up resources for your PMF app.
Conclusion
PMF apps face various challenges, from technical issues to negative reviews. Success in today’s competitive app market means staying on top of everything and managing problems when they’re still tiny.
By doing so, PMF apps can overcome these challenges and build a loyal user base for years.
