App Strategy

In my not so distant past I worked as an Applications Consultant for a wireless carrier. Years before the cool tools that exist today were available. Tools like oh- cool devices, fast networks, robust application development environments. It used to be that as an Applications Consultant for a wireless carrier you would realize your clients needed a game plan.

Now being at a carrier you also realize you aren’t paid to help them get that together. And a Wireless Strategy as we often referred to it was not exactly high on the radar of anyone in client accounts. How did wireless and mobile really affect a business.

In certain vertical markets like transportation, store delivery and anyone with a home service business mobile applications became paramount. AVL – automatic vehicle location- for example is now mainstream and anyone running around with trucks wants it and can affordably acquire it from a carrier or a carrier AVL partner.

Managing a bunch of BlackBerry users with a BES- addressing security, device management, access to instant collaboration- calendaring and e-mail. Table steaks.

Enter the mighty Apple. The application development capabilities of the Apple iPhone and its larger brother the iPad
bring the concept of Apps to the masses. Now suddenly Apps on a Smart Phone are a part of every day life. And consumers and business consumers alike interact on the Internet in a new manner. They consume information, services and indulge in games through these elegant untethered devices.

So what is the opportunity? Well for any CEO or entrepreneur you have the ability to figure out a way to be in your customer’s pocket, thats the opportunity. Accessible at the touch of their fingertips. The App must be revered and addressed.

The challenge is that people now want everything to be a game. They want fun. Bus-ertainment. Edu-tainment. Tickle me and tease me with your lighter side. Give me the happy button to push.

Hardly the stuff of hardcore business.

Where the Apple iOS and the devices it runs on (iPhone, iPad) have succeeded is that they give businesses the chance to connect with clients and to do their business better all with something you can readily build and deploy business and consumer applications on in 2-3 months if you play your cards right. Android is on the edge of this too. The tools are good, the devices are fun. Yet still the king App will remain Apple with its perfect iPhone 4 and it’s I want it before I know what to do with it brother the iPad.

So the first question is, what to build and why?

How do you figure this out.

First stop thinking ROI. Return on Investment is a math problem. Apps can be built inexpensively and won’t bankrupt your business. It’s not the end of the world. Return on Investment calculations – maybe moreso in companies north of the border, kill more useful ideas and initiatives than anything. It limits the scope of your ideas and the impact the final product will have on your business. Stop trying to add things up, this is art not science. We will bring science into the equation though. Lets call it App-enomics.

App-eonomics is the invisible hand of Adam Smith. Its kind of how I see Google. Their aim is to make all information useful and accessible. They organize organize organize information you want. They know what you want. They also profit profit profit. Google also clears markets in economic terms. They create a great product then give it away in exchange for being able to extract from it’s informational economic value. Whats the power of this?

Well its really predictive and analytical in nature and it doesn’t try to control you. Who wants to do something they HAVE to do? Having to do something is coercive and limits potential. It doesn’t allow the normal pattern of things. It is obvious. Do this now Mr Customer. “Really? OK”… or “Really? No thanks”. It forces. What it doesn’t do, is allow you to corral cats… and cats must be free to roam and stretch and party. Imagine putting your cat on a leash. You look odd right? Your cat will look oddly at you. Cats however can be low maintenance furry friends. You don’t have to walk them. Just give them a place to hang and some stuff they like to eat and play with and bam! They stick around and contribute a positive air to your world. Or so goes the relationship with people and cats. Customers are cats aren’t they? Are you really thinking you can control your customers? Well if you are a wireless carrier, maybe … but I digress. (Thanks for the fast networks, whacky data plans and crazy contracts. We love you. Some of you.)

Stop trying to shove your business down peoples throats. Figure out what your customers would do with your business if they had their way. How would they use you to their maximum benefit if they had a magic wand? Then you figure out how to let em do that thing or things – maybe they don’t even realize it themselves… preferably they don’t actually- you must think about this. Give them what the want in an App. Somehow. Your App is a mound of digital clay. Use it to give them what they deeply desire. Then use the Invisible Hand approach to connect, watch, observe and profit from that. Its behavioral feedback. You will learn more about your customer than they understand. Then reveal that ‘thing’ to them, enable them to learn and understand that ‘some-thing’ about themselves as it relates to you and your business.

Isn’t that what Apple has done? Isn’t that what Google does? Isn’t that what Starbucks has done? They give people things they didn’t even realize they love. Then when they get it- Aha! that is the ultimate experience. And they gladly pay for it because its no longer a math problem. It is not about ROI for the customer. They just pay $799 for an iPad that is made up with $125 in parts. They pay $4 for a $0.17 cup of french pressed magic.

And that is your App Strategy. You want to use the same tools of these three Aha! Companies. Come in. Sit down. Have a coffee. Wait not a coffee. A Latte. No wait a gingerbread latte. (What?) Here’s a comfy leather arm chair Mr. Customer. Stay a while. Oh here’s Internet access and some nice overhead music. Stick around. Don’t rush out. (What, What?)

The strategy is to engage with your customer- I don’t care if you deliver watermelons to aliens. You want your app to get in their pocket. On their digital wallet. Give them a button they want to push. Push the button, get gratification. An Aha! moment ensues. Watch it, and profit from it.

Ok so how do you get to this point? You really need to profile your customer. Your customer today. Your customer you don’t have. Then turn everything opposite. Turn it upside down. Imagine giving away your product. Imagine making it digital if it isn’t already. Imagine charging 10x as much for it. What would have to happen for these things to work.

Then imagine there is something you figure out that your customer wants but isn’t getting. Or is getting but wants more of or more information about or less of or — whatever. Now imagine that you can give them a button on a little screen to get it and they will push that button over and over happily sending you money with every button push.

Thats your app.

Looking for that Aha! relationship is the only way I think you can build something meaningful. You can build something LESS meaningful, and you might, but we begin with the macro. The big picture. You have a digital blank slate, lets use it. Then if you chicken out and take the path of least resistance thats fine too, but at least you had the opportunity to make your App great and to derive maximum benefit from it.

Once we document the App strategy, presumably get the money and resources you need to build something then we must design it. Design is the critical element that can doom your App in complexity, ugliness or boredom. Or it can make it fun, cool, useful — something that matters and you will get maximum engagement with your clients on.

But thats a different topic now isn’t it…