2. Why am I here?
ADVISING
TECHNOLOGY NETWORKIN
ANALYST G/MOBILE
STARTUPS
AGILE
SOFTWARE
IT MANAGER
DEVELOP-
MENT
3. Why else am I
here?
“Despite the fact that every day
over 50 million mobile apps are
downloaded, 95 percent are
abandoned within a month.”
Nuance Insight report, November 2011
4. success (the only boundary
that matters)
failure
The point of the presentation was to explore the limitations and how they can be superseded. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised they all added up to one line – whether or not an app is used consistently and over time, either by business users or consumers.
Mobility is driving a need for convenience and immediacy, which needs to translate into apps. From business perspective:Finding stuff out – user needLogging stuff – business needCollaborating – everyone’s need
Clock starts ticking when app opens. How long do you have? People might use an app more than once, but will tend to the easiest path.
This remains true when the train goes into the tunnel – app needs to carry on working, even in restrictive environments
It would be easier if the user perspective was like this.
But it doesn’t look like this
Or even this
It’s more like this. People are forgetful, clutter is an issueOther options, particularly for collaboration (e.g. speaking to people!)Field sales – little black bookMention demographics of platforms – doctors want iPads, nurses want android?
What about the business. We’ve come a long way from “data entry clerks” being slaves to the machine
The shackles have been removed – and technology can’t afford to slow people down as it will simply be left behind.Such a thing as too much functionalityAlign with users, then business processes – people can be restricted to a point, but easier to enable themNote that mobile apps happening in parallel with flexible working
As well as process we have data – cf Bento with data clutter. Yes thisis about presentation, but also back-end integration
The BYO question is partially a red herring – as it is as much a symptom as a cause, adding rather than replacing. More important is that people are choosing the set of options that work best for them, cherry-picking from diversity.
So, how to plan ahead? The difficulty is, knowing when to plan for – the window of opportunity is short, and change is a constant. Six months is already too long?
But even more importantly, it becomes crucial to do everything possible to ensure the success of an app. The line between winning and also-ran is very tight indeed – need to think in ‘winning edge’ terms.
Don’t forget training if possible – anything you can do, do it.Go where the people are – “that’s were the money is”Opportunities exist where they didn’t before – not simply mobilising existing apps. E.g. Textbooks. Align with users then businessRefresh apps, add gaming elementsApps are a gateway, not a destination – if people don’t cross boundary, will never get thereAnd yes to manageability, security etc – but don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater