How Important is the Discovery Phase in Mobile App Development?

The discovery phase of mobile app development is key to success. As compared to the strategy development, the discovery phase helps companies create a shared understanding of their product vision and objectives through detailed research, discussion, and analysis of the business idea. 

The end goal of the discovery phase is to visualize the entire scope of the app by defining a feature set that drives app goals and creates real value for users. 

Discovery is the first part of the app development process which lays the foundation for –

• Design,
• Development, and
• Deployment.

Most mobile app development companies organize a workshop-style meeting to dive deep into your business idea before they get started and this is a critical piece of the discovery phase. They can easily assess which important tasks to be done before the discovery workshop to make it the most effective.

The Importance of the Mobile App Development Discovery Phase

Why is it important to incorporate the discovery phase in the mobile app development process? Does it help to make your mobile app successful? What benefits do you expect?

Let’s settle these questions once and for all!

The mobile app discovery phase is the most critical phase which if done right can help you in many ways, like – 

• Understanding the market and targeted users,
• Analyzing competitors and laying out strategies accordingly,
• Defining and prioritizing must-have features in advance,
• Setting development time and budget,
• Designing all screens and features in advance, and so on.

7 Key Steps of Mobile App Discovery Phase

Mobile app discovery begins with understanding the app or business objective. At Cloudester, we usually start with questions like –

• What is the main purpose of developing this app?
• What is the desired impact after the app launch?
• What kind of competition the app will face?
• What will be the technical limitations? Etc.

This helps us get better clarity of the app idea to keep everything on the right track. We believe that starting with something without an objective in mind leads to product failure. That’s why we keep the discovery phase at the most priority.

Here are 7 key steps we consider within the mobile app discovery phase – 

#1. Research & Opportunity Analysis

Most people are unaware of the power of Research and Opportunity Analysis, thus they generally ignore this step! If done diligently, they can make their app stand out amid today’s cluttered competition.

You can hire a custom mobile app development company like Cloudester to get a team of experienced app strategists and developers who will analyze your app requirements and brainstorm the entire ideas to make your mobile app as unique as possible.

Having an expert by your side can help you analyze the gap in the market, the possibilities, technology advances, or new social trends which eventually helps create a solution that is perceived as useful, usable, and desirable. 

#2. Competitive Analysis

The discovery phase includes conducting a thorough competitor analysis to find out what to do and what not to do. Your team must perform detailed and complete scrutiny of familiar app concepts to determine what made the competitor app successful. Understand the user study and an overall study of the market to dive deeper and understand all the ‘whys’ behind the app.

#3. Strategy Mapping

This is a great way to jot down all your ideas, research reports, and competitive insights to come up with a strategy that focuses on the problem areas, the scope of improvement, and various other things. Strategy mapping is a vital step to visualizing your ideas and planning further systematically. You can also define the functional scope of work required to develop the app and highlight the features that are an absolute must-have.

#4. Technical Feasibility

In the mobile app development process, having a detailed idea of technical limitations and possibilities plays a vital role. This also helps your hired app development team to stay clear on what is needed and what can be ruled out while developing the app. Besides, these steps also lower the risk occurrence with the right technical specifications.

#5. Monetization Strategy

Whatever app you’re going to launch, the ultimate aim would always be to drive revenue out of it. Therefore, it’s crucial that you choose the right monetization strategy for your app based on the niche and everything. We at Cloudester can help you plan out a strategy on know-how’s of in-app purchases, advertising revenue generation, effective subscription model planning, and building a strong user base to meet your goals.

#6. Prototyping

Once the strategy mapping is finished, the next step is to design prototypes and wireframes. Keeping all the UX demands, needs, guidelines, and rules in mind, we will conceptualize an interactive visualization of the app and deliver the prototypes for approval. Once the client has approved, we move to the UI designing part. The prototypes are crafted based on the prime focus on demonstrating key scenarios and how the users will interact with apps.

#7. Technology and Platform Selection

In the mobile app discovery phase, you can decide which technology you’d like to develop your app with. Although, this can be decided based on your app requirements and users’ demands. 

If you want to reach out to as many people as possible, design iOS and Android-compatible apps. 

Final Thoughts

Implementing the mobile app discovery phase in your app development process will certainly deliver significant benefits later. It helps with clear identification of your app objective, userbase, and what will add real value to them.

So if you’re getting into app development, make sure to perform the discovery phase first.

To understand more about it, you can connect with our team of experts. Drop us an email or comment below to share your thoughts!