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Entrepreneurship Software

From Idea to Working Prototype: Startup App Development Guide Initial Stage

From Idea to Working Prototype: Startup App Development Guide Initial Stage

A new app is born every minute. Sometimes it is a gaming app, >or a social network, >or a business app developed to meet certain objectives. However, all these apps have one thing in common: the initial development stage. It all starts with an idea, which moves on to a strategy, and eventually it reaches the stage of a prototype, where the idea is fleshed out for the first time. In this article, we’re going to take a look at these first few steps of the app development process.

The idea

Calibrating with the development team

The first step of the app development process involves relaying information regarding your company, business objectives, target market and competition to your development team. This means that you will have to go through an initial calibrating stage, where you will provide the development team with relevant business documentation such as your business plan, pitch deck and business model canvas. A request-for-proposal is also very useful at this stage. We’ve covered this area of the development process in depth in this article.

Strategy

The previously mentioned documentation should cover the competition, but it would be useful to dig a little deeper. There are three main factors that should be taken into account when checking out a competing app: the number of installs, the ratings/reviews, and the history of the company behind the app. Most of this information can be accessed for free at the app store, and on the company website (where you will find case studies, white papers, and announcements on their blog).

Once you’ve found the top competitors within the market, you want to study their apps and see how well they address customer needs. This will help you find new niches and angles of attack, where you can provide more value through your app.


Next, you want to consider monetization. You will sometimes develop internal apps, which are meant to improve business processes such as HR, or they may be meant to mobilize the sales force. In other cases, you might want an e-commerce app, or a client-facing app meant to augment business services and act as a marketing tool. You also have a third kind of app which directly targets a segment of the market and which benefits from direct monetization.

Depending on the type of app that you end up developing, you have several monetization methods at your disposal, including in-app purchases, advertising, premium features, subscriptions, and selling user data.

You then want to take marketing into account. You will have to figure out a marketing strategy, preferably an iterative one that will allow you to increase app adoption, user retention, conversion rates, and other relevant metrics. This could mean adding an on-boarding process, push notifications and a variety of other features.
Finally, at this stage you want to consider the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The main idea is to determine and understand your app’s key functionalities, and prioritize a list of features that will go into the MVP first.

This article presents a linear approach to executing the strategy. There’s also another way where the whole application scope doesn’t have to be tackled at once. The process is followed only for the functionalities within the scope of the MVP, then the app development starts immediately and further functionalities are iteratively added to the sketches, wireframes and prototype while the MVP may already be monetized.

From Idea to Working Prototype: Startup App Development Guide Initial Stage

Prototyping

Between the idea, and the MVP, you have the prototype. A prototype is a fleshed out version of the app’s UI, meant to test for functionality and user experience issues at a very low cost. Prototypes are perfect for iterative design and development, being less complex than an MVP.

Identify key functionality features

The first step of prototyping is to identify the key features of your app. If you’ve gone through your strategy in the previous development stage, you already have a prioritized list of features written for your MVP. This list will work here as well. Take the top 3-4 features from your list, and consider how they would be accessed and where they’d be in your UI.

Create user personas

User personas are a powerful design and marketing tool, and they are meant to represent the major user groups for your app. Your app can target many different user segments, but it’s important to categorize these segments in a way that translates into UI and functionality decisions.

For example, you’re building a productivity app that targets both 20-something young adults in college, and 40-something soccer moms looking to set a schedule for their children. The key differentiating factor between these two user groups may be the level of technological competence, or it may be the desired functionality features. By understanding your user personas, you are able to make important design decisions early on, where you have very low costs of implementation.

Sketch out the primary screens

Once the conceptual work is out of the way, it’s time to put something on paper (digital or otherwise). This is where the sketch comes in. The sketch is a perfect tool if you want to understand how elements will be positioned on the screen. Sketches are dirt cheap to create, and they can be used to get buy-ins from stakeholders, before moving forward with the app.

Turn the sketches into wireframes

Once the sketches have been approved by the stakeholders, it’s time to start the wireframing process. Wireframing is a low-fidelity representation of the UI, but it still lacks functionality. Some companies will skip the sketches and dive straight into the wireframe. However, fixing a wireframe is slightly more time consuming than fixing a sketch.

Create the prototype

Wireframes can be easily transformed into a prototype by adding basic functionality and interactivity. A prototype will help you calibrate the UI and improve the user journey. The main advantage of taking this route, instead of jumping straight into the MVP is cost saving. Each step of the way allows you to calibrate the fundamental elements of your app for a very low cost, a process which could otherwise be very expensive if complex code and design is added to the app ahead of time.

User testing and recalibrating the prototype

From Idea to Working Prototype: Startup App Development Guide Initial Stage
Apps concept drawn on a notepad placed on a desk

Once the prototype is up and running, it can be shared with stakeholders, users and investors. This is also the point where you can start the initial user testing, and calibrate the prototype to perfection. Based on user feedback, you will be able to go into the MVP with a market tested UI and UX, and start adding core functionality to your app.

Prototyping tools

There are several prototyping tools out there, which allow your team of designers to create prototypes in an expedient manner. In some cases, some of these tools are so accessible that they eliminate the need to use sketches before designing the actual prototype. Here are 5 of the most popular tools today:

Balsamiq

Balsamiq is a tool designed to build wireframes, but it has a feature which allows you to create interactive prototypes that can be used for testing and demos. The main strength of Balsamiq comes from the community, which generates a ton of content that can be used to speed up the design process. You will find assets, templates and other elements online for Android, iOS and BlackBerry.

Justinmind

Justinmind also works with wireframes, and the great thing is that any change you make on the wireframe is reflected on the prototype immediately. This tool also includes simulations for various gestures such as swipe, tap and hold, and others. To top it all off, you have access to a large library of user-generated pre-built widgets to speed up the design process.

Moqups

A free to use tool, Moqups is one of the most accessible items on this list. It has an easy-to-use interface that comes with a lot of pre-built materials such as image placeholders, sliders, and others. You will also have access to numerous templates that come with platform-specific UI elements. The only downside to this tool is that it only produces wireframes, which then have to be transferred to another tool, in order to add functionality.

Proto.io

Proto.io is a prototyping tool designed specifically for mobile applications. This tool allows you to create prototypes without any code, and it has a great feature that allows testers to add feedback as they are using the prototype. It is also very accessible. The entire prototype can be developed from a single screen, where designers add the various elements of the app and determine the interaction between them.

UXPin

UXPin is available for multiple platforms, and a wide range of resolutions. The main advantage of this tool is that it has strong version control, which makes iterative work easy. On top of that, it has useful features such as real-time commenting and editing. UXPin is the tool to use if you want an emphasis on rapid UX development.

Conclusion

In order to ensure maximum cost efficiency, and a perfect market fit, it’s best to have an initial development stage that includes prototyping and an MVP. If the development process starts with a laser focus on the target market and its needs, augmented by iterative development, the resulting app will be much cheaper to develop, and it will be much more effective at achieving business objectives.

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Blockchain Software Technology

Blockchain education: Meet our meetup!

We’re just wrapped up the second edition of Poznań Blockchain Meetup. While the first edition was strictly technical, this time speakers focused on more varied blockchain matters. These included legal considerations, token types and the wider perspective on blockchain design. We’re glad to promote a more well-rounded approach to blockchain education. Here are some presentations and pics from the meetup.

As the organizers, we have to say this first. Blockchain education is something important to us. And we’re so proud that our meetup is seeing such interest. We’re hopefully on the way to creating a real local ecosystem, considering that not only devs are turning up to listen to the talks. So we’re encouraging non-experts in tech to come and join us in September for #3, both as speakers and as audience.

Let’s talk about #2 first, shall we? Here’s a quick summary of the three presentations.

Blockchain education – technology

The first talk Trustless off-chain computing in DApps,  was a more advanced technological tutorial. But what else can we expect from our Head of Blockchain? Only top-notch blockchain education. By the way, he’s written some great articles for our blog (about blockchain regulation or the benefits of a decentralized organization). Check them out if you’d rather read than listen. He’s also one of our blockchain training experts. Marcin demonstrated how you can retain trustlessness and data immutability while implementing applications that need a lot of computing power. Ordinarily, blockchain tends to be slow as it wasn’t designed to handle massive amounts of operations. See how he deals with those limitations here:

Trustless off chain computing on the blockchain from Espeo Software

Blockchain education – legal

The second presentation handled some legal matters. Adam Polanowski, a practicing lawyer, showed the meetup crowd how to differentiate between various types of tokens. He also spoke about the legal requirements behind ICOs. Of course, this segment of blockchain education works best in direct contact with your lawyer, however, Adam’s remarks were very helpful, and a good starting point for more in-depth considerations. Legal matters around blockchain are worth keeping up to date with, considering how much in trouble one can be in this rapidly evolving ICO landscape.

Initial Coin Offerings – legal requirements and types of tokens from Espeo Software

Back to basics

Software dev Michał Chatłas offered a wider look at blockchain design and the reasons behind using blockchain. The gist of his talk ‘Distributed, immutable, secure…’ is that there is a lot to consider before deciding on blockchain as a solution. Blockchain offers a lot – but the implementation has to be well thought-out. Take a look at his presentation – the flowcharts should be particularly helpful. Is blockchain the future? We think so. Is blockchain the future for you? See the presentation first.

Distributed, immutable, secure… from Espeo Software

Poznań Blockchain Meetup #3 plans

Make sure you don’t miss our third meetup. We’re planning it for early/mid September. Oh, by the way, you can become a speaker too – if you’ve got what it takes. Interested? Drop an email to blockchain.meetup@espeo.eu. If you’re looking for more personalized blockchain education, just so you know – we’re offering tailored blockchain training.

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Blockchain Entrepreneurship Public

How blockchain regulation should look

Despite what you might read online, not all blockchain regulation is bad. Regulations are, in general, necessary. They help businesses thrive on markets that suffer from information asymmetry. What’s more, they also make the industry landscape clearer and sanction the government’s approach towards it. Regulations also protect customers’ interests if access to information is limited or if there’s a constraint on competition between market actors. However, blockchain regulation can be done wrong, as we’ve seen in some cases. Let’s raise some questions and try to look for solutions: from green addresses to exemptions.

Thinking cross-nationally

Regulations are usually national. There are certain cross-national regulations, but they happen only to some extent. You don’t want people financing terrorism, for example. However, it can be futile to try and regulate companies that operate through using blockchain technologies only on the national level . That’s because companies can change the jurisdiction of their inc. to avoid unnecessarily harsh blockchain regulation. It would be very beneficial for the whole industry to create cross-national non-profit organizations and self-governing bodies that can address policy blind spots . Their members can range from industry representatives to government representatives. They could be tasked with suggesting and promoting good regulatory practices across the members and jurisdictions they represent.

Educating

As a technology, blockchain can’t be regulated or banned , as it’s only a concept/algorithm and a technical data structure. Entities (especially those non-formalized) operating purely on the blockchain that don’t interact with real-world companies can’t be regulated either. However, regulators should also be involved in education campaigns , spreading awareness of fully decentralized schemes or pointing to risks of suspicious schemes (example here).

Focusing on entities interacting with blockchain

Blockchain regulation should be focused on the entities that interact with blockchain technologies. They operate on the blockchain network, offering their services to other real-world consumers or companies. Regulation on this level shouldn’t be much different from what we have for similar non-blockchain services. This includes any financial operations, insurance, logistics, etc.

Allowing exemptions

As the technology is very innovative and can create positive change across many industries, there should be regulatory exemptions in place. Good examples include blockchain regulations in Switzerland or Gibraltar for small-scale operations. They’re measured, for example, by a maximum value of customers’ assets held by the operation without full license or by the exemption time. In these cases, the regulation is won’t limit innovation before it’s able to prove its positive value.

Self-regulation

Some fully decentralized schemes can and will impose self-regulation practices and extreme transparency . An entire industry built around providing analytical, monitoring and transparency services to existing fully decentralized schemes may emerge . This would increase the customers’ confidence in the schemes. So, regulators should also promote these practices – or companies offering them. Regulators and Central Banks can even go one step further and create national cryptocurrencies with self-regulating capabilities built right into their scheme. Decentralized services built on top of national cryptocurrencies can be considered safer by the end customers. Of course, if the scheme can self-enforce regulation best practices (proper KYC and AML).

Anonymous schemes

It’s possible that national governments and regulators may create their technical interfaces/APIs . For example, for proper tax calculation or for direct sales tax payment. So, those fully decentralized services offering their products to the citizens can become fully compliant with the local regulations even if they lack any real-world manifestation . Schemes like that can increase the customer’s safety. What’s more, they contribute to the view that customers can operate within the law even in the case of fully anonymous schemes . At the very minimum, regulators have to clarify their stance on the sales and VAT taxation applications to transactions conducted with blockchain .

Using green addresses

In some jurisdictions (like China), capital controls, especially the flow of capital abroad, are an important part of regulatory responsibilities. It’s hard to curb Bitcoin transactions as they’re naturally borderless. However, it’s possible to control all the participants that take part in converting fiat money to Bitcoin – and vice versa. There’s also the concept of Green Addresses. These are Bitcoin addresses that belong to a known and trusted financial institution which also manages the users’ bitcoin wallets. Whenever a user wants to make a transaction from a wallet to an external party, they can send it via its Green Address provider. Then, the outgoing transactions will look as if they’re coming from a trusted address of the Green Addresses provider. Regulators can require all transactions into and out of exchanges in a given jurisdiction to go via Green Addresses.

Fixing information asymmetry

The concept of information asymmetry exists in the general economy. For example, in used cars trading. Let’s say the buyer can’t really tell if a car is good or bad. The seller can easily hide some defects, which leads to increased distrust between two parties. Blockchain technologies can help, as they can provide irrefutable provenance proves. Every object can be traced back to its producer and all the previous owners. Additionally, you have trackable quality assessments and can see all the amendments and repairs ordered in the meantime. This information can’t be removed or hidden from the blockchain. Regulators could structure market transactions so that proper provenance collection is required for every newly built product from a certain market. This way, it gradually introduces complete reliability to this market and lowers information asymmetry.

Blockchain regulation catches up

These are only some of the issues that national regulators have to face. Some advancements were impossible to predict when regulators passed resolutions. It’s a difficult game of catching up. And if you feel you need to catch up with what’s currently allowed and what’s not, go for blockchain training.

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Blockchain Financial Services

Blockchain legal issues with DAOs

In my first article, I covered the benefits and possible problems that come with joining a decentralized organization. Today I’ll focus on some blockchain legal issues concerning DAOs.

Keeping things safe

  1. At its core, DAO was designed as an informal group of parties which operates entirely within the algorithm of its code . Theoretically, they can stay anonymous. However, it’s impossible that this code would cover every possible future case. There’s the obligations and interaction mechanisms between different DAOs and between different members and participants of the DAO. Moreover, if there’s no formalized legal structure in place for this entity, courts will impose one. A DAO most resembles a general partnership in which members/partners jointly represent DAO and are liable for its actions and obligations. The DAO may not have assets from which to indemnify third parties. So, it lacks assets or legal form. Therefore, the court could see the entity as fiction and could allow a lawsuit to proceed against individual members .
  2. A safe approach for DAO members would be to create a standard legal entity to which the DAO belongs. Every change in the DAO membership will have to be reflected in the entity membership/shareholding structure.
  3. A DAO can control cryptoassets. They can represent almost anything, including real-world assets, fiat money, valuable objects like cars, houses or precious metals. Those assets should be put under control of multisignature wallets (escrow) which DAO members have control over. Of course, proportionally to their DAO membership shares.
  4. There are initiatives in development that plan to setup “virtual jurisdiction” within which DAOs could operate. They could then cooperate with each other safely and with clearly defined rules. What’s more, they could have dedicated arbitration procedures in case of an unresolvable dispute.
  5. A DAO smart contract could also include a clause referring to a private court which specializes in smart contract disputes. It’s far better to determine preferred jurisdiction beforehand, than let a plaintiff or a government choose it afterwards.

Blockchain legal issues – DAO

  1. In the real world a ‘principal’ is liable for its agent’s actions . Check out agency theory for more. An individual developer or software company that created a DAO can be considered as principal in some scenarios. That principal can be held liable for the actions of the DAO (and its members) without having any control over them.
  2. Legal language is very different from procedural computer language. Usually, a software developer isn’t able to express all legal details accurately. Development of specialized smart contract law programming languages is still in its very early stages.
  3. There’s no common way, yet, to represent fiat money on the blockchain. Here’s an attempt. However, most of the traditional contracts still need to represent value using fiat money or precious metals . Possibly, Central Banks can also digitize fiat money on the blockchain. Until that happens, most of the DAOs operations will be very limited in scope.
  4. If we treat a DAO as a for-profit company, there is whole set of unanswered questions. For example:
    1. Can DAO members or DAO itself claim expenses against profits?
    2. If the DAO needs to buy a physical asset, whose name goes on the paperwork?
    3. If the DAO creates and patents intellectual property, who’s the registered owner?
    4. How a DAO can own an internet domain when domains still need to be registered to a person or company?
    5. How should taxes be paid if the DAO (or its members) make a profit?

Final remarks

Naturally, my article doesn’t constitute any blockchain legal advice. But these are certainly blockchain legal issues to consider. A DAO is definitely an interesting initiative that can fix real problems. Just make sure you’re prepared for every contingency. If you’re not sure you are – consider our blockchain training sessions. We’ll work through your problems.