Get Your APP Together

Editor's Notes

• #3: Agenda - My APP is stuck – Going to look at how to start building an app. Not so much the code but from inspiration and ideas. We will then take those ideas and see how we can come up with a MVP. We will then talk a bit about each of the app stores and the ecosystem that surrounds the mysterious “app store”. And when you think you are done…it is just the beginning. - Get off your app and go. – Now that we have the playbook – we can execute. We will look at various online learning sites as well as touch first development. We will talk about some of the tools and programs we have as well.
• #4: Where to begin – lets first look at these products. Phonograph, record player, boombox, Walkman, discman and iPod. All innovations however they all did not invent music- just how we listen to it. Use products and technologies around you to find inspiration on what to build or invent.
• #6: Building something that has never been invented is hard. Building something off of someone elses work is doable. Look around you and you can see inspiration for that in everything. What are your friends talking about. What are you family using or not using correctly? Are these items something that can be improved on? If so, then you have yourself an idea.
• #7: So you have a spark. Now you need to fuel it. Here is a list of sites that can take your idea a bit further. Linking up different data points, looking at other apps, finding art or design as inspiration.
• #9: We now have the overall concept of our app. We need to start with some basics. What is it going to do. List out all of the “features”/functions. All of them. Even the little details. List out all of it. This is the “WHAT IT DOES” Then think of the user journey through your app. Do they have to login first or can they start using it? What if they forgot password, how does that work? Can they use their camera with the app, is it awkward? Think of the user experience with the app by using flow diagrams to get the journey down. Then think about the hard part. The “HOW IT DOES” What platform? What API? Datastorage etc.
• #10: Concept is your “plan” or “requirements” The “WHAT it does” The UX is your flow linking all of the pieces together.
• #11: Then come up with the journey. What and where are users clicking or interacting. Then lay on the design.
• #13: As you go about designing anything – a house, a piece of software – you start with your full feature list. Then you need to remember you only have so much time, so much resources and so much money. It is a perfect triangle when they work in harmony but if one of them slip then another has to move as well. Need more time, well that will affect resources. Need more resources to get it done in less time, well more money is needed. There is a balance that is needed. Lets look at an analogy of a puzzle. 1000 or 5000 pieces. That is your feature list. If you start working on the edges of your puzzle you will eventually finish but if you have to stop during the build process what do you have? A frame of your puzzle. No design or artwork, just a frame.
• #14: Instead of focusing on all of the features, focus on what is important. But if we look at some pieces that will work together to start taking shape of something, the puzzle looks pretty good. We look at the “bang for our buck”. Lets focus on the mountains or the flower, or in this case the basket. Complete that portion and look what you have, something that looks like art. This approach is called Minimum Viable Product. Before I can define what exactly the MVP is lets look at 2 portions first. Minimum Product That is your edges of the puzzle. The easiest part. All we have is a frame. We can relate this to software or a game. We might has just one level. We completed it but there is no depth and no reason to come back to the game. That is minimum. Viable Product That is the puzzle completed. Took a long time but it is done. However, maybe it took too long and our tastes changed. In the software world that is called a line of business app. Companies start installing a large enterprise system to fix some sort of business problem and 2 years later it is complete over budge and a ton of resources but it is done. Going back to the game – this is HALO. Tons of levels, powerups, enemies etc..
• #15: What the MVP is the meat inbetween. Better than minimum that nobody wants and less then viable which you don’t have time for. Is it a portion of the ERP system? Maybe just top clients? Is if 10 levels of a game not 100? Maybe high scores but not leaderboard.
• #16: MVP is a feature set that can be put into a product that is good enough to sell. Not crap. But good enough to sell. The iterate. FAST. This is called the Lean Startup method. Build a MVP and iterate on it.
• #17: You take your MVP and iterate on it, not in a vacuum but with real world feedback and ideas. Maybe you original idea doesn’t work when you publish it, going quickly through the loop helps you change that idea quickly before you loose your user base. Build your MVP Measure it – bugs – downloads etc. Learn from it Go back in and fix your MVP
• #18: We talked about getting our ideas going - Inspriation. We talked about how we can start building upon our ideas and organizing them. We looked at when it comes to reality of building this app it could be daunting so we need to take the MVP approach. We are now going to talk about optimization. This will focus on optimizing our exposure of our app and our audience.
• #19: Marketing of our app – Naming Desciptions
• #20: Icons Screenshots People want to see your app before they download it – think about trials or try to buy. Even free with in app purchases.
• #21: Promote promote promote
• #22: Web is still king. People search the web and will find your app. Social is another way to get exposure of your app.
• #23: At Microsoft we are focusing on Mobile First and Cloud First development. However, we do not leave the learning up to you. We have a ton of resources and programs for you to help with your goals and development process.
• #24: MVA is one of the biggest resources we have. Online course that can take either 30 minutes or a few days to complete. Learn about all of our services and tools to help get your app to the finish line.
• #26: Events.MSDN.Microsoft.com – dev camps and other events
• #27: Once you have the knowledge you can start with the tools
• #28: Quick and easy way to get into development with very little programming experience needed. Good for prototyping or even MVP
• #29: Windows only but robust. Consume datasources to build a phone or a windows app. Best of all you get the source code!
• #30: FREE – did I say FREE. Normally this a few hundred dollars. Community edition is robust and perfect for all dev needs.
• #31: Open platform not just MS tech but Linux and Java. PHP, Ruby, Flask, Python, Node, Angualr you name it we run it.
• #34: Microsoft Ventures Community – Partners, Experts, BizSpark Accelerators Seed Funding
• #35: Community EcoSystem
• #36: Accelerators Detail Slide
• #37: Seed Funding
• #39: BizSpark Eligibility
• #40: BizSpark Benefits - Software, support, visibility