Great Products Consulting

Category: Define (Requirements)

  • Customers vs users (what’s the difference and why do I care?)

    Customers vs users (what’s the difference and why do I care?)

    Do you know the difference between “customers” and “users”? When I was creating my requirements writing course, these terms created some confusion with the person editing my content. It got me thinking that not everyone knows the difference. So, I’ve written this article to shed some light on a concept that is actually pretty important when you’re defining your product.

    In this picture, I’ve summarised the relationship between customers and users and I’ll discuss each of these below. 

    Customers

    A customer is the person or entity that will be giving you money. Note that I didn’t say – “giving you money for your platform or app”. This is because you may actually make money from someone that will never access your web platform or mobile app!

    There are many ways to make money from an app. The most common is someone paying money to access the app or to access special features within your app. These are your direct customers. So, if you have a web platform that charges $99 a month, the person signing up to your app will be your customer.

    If you make money from selling advertising space, then your customer is not the person that signed up to your app. It’s now the people or companies that are advertising with you or the ad network you subscribe to. If you sell the analytics from your app, then your customers are the people or companies buying that information. These are your indirect customers.

    You may have more than one customer. If you’re creating a 2-sided marketplace of buyers and sellers and the sellers have to pay you a commission, then the seller is your customer. If you then put advertising on your website, then the people advertising on your site will also be customers.

    Users

    The users of your app cover a lot more ground than your customer. Users will be accessing your app for a specific purpose – and it may not be for obvious reasons. As mentioned above, your customers may or may not be one of your users.

    When you’re starting out with defining your product, create a list of users for your app. Let’s start with the people that will be primary users – the ones that will sign up for your app or download it onto their phone. Then there are users that are invited by your primary users to interact with your app. If you’ve got an invitation platform, then these are the people that receive an invitation. If you’ve got a fundraising platform or event ticketing platform, then your users will also be those that give money to the primary user. These are secondary users – whose experience with your platform is just as important as the primary users.

    Next, there are users that will be needed to run your app – the people that work behind the scenes. These are your operational users. There’s a good chance there will be some admin involved – people to manage the users, people to create reports, create/update content on the app, etc. There’s also going to be support people who will answer questions from your users and help them solve any problems they might have in the platform.  

    The next level of users includes people that are managing the business end of your app (e.g. management users). Here you may have to be a bit more creative. If you’re primarily doing this on your own, then you’re going to be wearing lots of hats. You need to put on those different hats and think about what you might need the application to do so that you manage your business.

    For example, as the owner, there’s a lot of reporting that you’ll want to look at to determine what improvements to make and how profitable your app is. You’ll also be in charge of the security of your user’s personal information, so there are security concerns. Have customers or users in the EU? What do you need to support GDPR? If you’re selling advertising space, then you need information on how users interact with your platform. As a marketer, you’ll want user information that you can use to get new customers, retain existing customers or increase the spending of existing customers. Your accountant will want sales information.      

    As you can see, your list of users might actually start to get a bit long. Of course, not all users are created equal in terms of their importance in your app. However, being aware of them will help you to define a better product.

    Why do you need to know this?

    Your app should be driven by the needs and problems of your users. So, if you don’t know who your users are, then you won’t be able to define your product. In my last post on defining your product, I discussed how the users of the app should drive your requirements (e.g. “As a [user]…”). Knowing who your users are and knowing what they need from the app, will make it a lot easier to create a complete product.

     Your customers are just as important. Even though they might not use your app. You have to create a product that is worth them spending money on. So, understanding their goals and objectives will help you to include the features, functions and data in your product that your customers need as well.    

     

    Want some help to define your customers and users? Send us your details and we’ll set you up with 30-minute discovery session to get you on the right track:

    * When you sign up for a discovery session, we’ll also add you to our mailing list so you can receive emails from us (with your consent). These emails will include news and updates, occasional offers and promotions, and exclusive content and resources to help you on your development journey. You may also receive follow-up emails in relation to this session. We will not spam you. If you don’t wish to hear from us anymore, simply select the unsubscribe option at the bottom of any email that we send to you.To view our privacy policy, click here.

  • An intro to defining your product (aka writing requirements)

    An intro to defining your product (aka writing requirements)

    In my last post, I talked about how people often have trouble briefing their developers and specifying what they want their app to do. This week, I thought I’d share the basics of defining your web platform or mobile app. In “biz” speak, this is really your product definition and in “tech” speak, these are called “business requirements” and they represent a documented version of your product and what you want a developer to build.

    Defining your product (aka writing requirements) for apps is actually a skill. It takes practice to think about what your product should do and how to explain it to someone. You need to translate your high-level idea into something concrete and tangible so that it instructs a developer on what you want.  

    As the person that has the idea and the person that owns the business, you’re going to need to know your product inside and out. I’ve found that this is often a hard thing for newcomers, as they don’t know to drill down to that next level of detail.  

    There are a few steps to creating a full set of requirements for your product, which will take a while to explain (I’ve identified eight of them in my requirements writing course). So in this post, I’m going to jump straight the end to show you what a requirements looks like. This is what you want to get to.

    Need help with defining the requirements for your web or mobile app? Fill in the form below for a free 30-minute discovery call:

    High-Level Requirements

    If offering a solution (your app) to a person is all about solving their problems or helping them to achieve their goals (more on this another time), then when you define your product, you need to focus on three things:

    1. What is it that you want someone to do?
    2. Who is going to be doing this “thing”?
    3. Why will they want to do it?

    A “user story” is a handy way of pulling this all together in a single sentence:

    As a [user], I want to be able to [perform a task], so that I can [obtain some benefit]

    This amazing sentence is called a “high-level requirement”. It’s giving the reader an overview of a specific thing (or “function”) that needs to be supported in your app.

    Seems simple right?! Well, here’s where it gets a bit complicated. Your user story could include a very big activity – in which case, you’ll want to break your user story down into a bunch of little user stories. For example, imagine you were building a travel-booking website, one of your user stories might be:

    As a manager, I want to be able to view reports, so that I can manage my business.

    This user story covers quite a lot of ground – what reports do you want to view? What do you need to manage in your business? From this user story, you might actually create some other, more detailed, user stories:

    As a manager, I want to be able to view a booking report by property, so that I can see how many rooms have been booked for a property and make decisions about pricing.
    As a manager, I want to be able to view a report on total revenue by property, so that I can identify low performing properties to investigate.

    Can you notice the difference between the first user story and the next two? Look at how specific the second two are. Writing requirements this way forces you to be as descriptive as possible and also to think about what you really want.

    The important thing here is to make sure you’ve covered the whole breadth of what you want your product to do. If you miss something here, it may end up costing you more money, as what you ask the developer to do all of a sudden becomes a lot larger.

    As I mentioned in my tips article the other week, try and keep your product as small as possible. This will reduce the complexity in your project and ultimately the cost and time it takes to build. It’s always easier to improve on something that has already been built.

    And there’s more!

    Your requirements aren’t done yet! From your high-level requirement, you need to break it down even further into detailed requirements. This means that you need to provide a bit more information about it. The kinds of things that you need to consider are:

    • What data do you want to capture, store or retrieve?
    • How will users complete a particular tasks?
    • What are your users trying to accomplish? 
    • Are there different scenarios that might occur as a task is being performed?
    • What are some of the assumptions, prerequisites and dependencies that apply to the task?
    • Are there different rules that should be applied by the app?
    • Will there be things that you might want the app to do in the future?

     If you take our reporting examples, some of the detail might include the fields that you want to see on the report. Other things that you might consider are:

    • How do you want the data to be sorted?
    • Do you want to be able to filter the data? (e.g. by type of room? by date range?)
    • Do you want to see an average price across all bookings? Maybe by room type?
    • What other information do you want to see? (e.g. how many rooms have not been sold?)

    In addition to the user story above, the detailed requirement for the booking report by property might also say:

    The report should include a list of all properties available on the site.

    It should include the following fields: country, city, property name, property address, booking date, total rooms allocated by rate and by type, total rooms booked by rate and by type, and total rooms not booked by rate and by type.

    The data should be sorted by country.

    The user should be able to filter the report by country and by city.

    These are the kinds of things that you’ll want to think about and document. You have to do this for every high-level requirement that you have, so there will be a lot to do!

    The key is to get you really thinking about what you want. Don’t worry about getting all the detail down in the first pass. There’s a good chance that as you write one requirement, you’ll remember something for another requirement. You may create, combine or delete high-level requirements as you flush out the detailed ones. In the whole process of defining your product, you’ll probably go back and forth several times until you feel like you’ve got it all sussed out. You want your requirements to be as complete as they can be, but chances are you’ll miss some of the details. That’s ok too as your developers should pick them up when they review your requirements.  

    And there’s more!

    As you can see, it takes quite a lot of work to define your product. Even if your app will only have one or two functions, you still need to have a detailed understanding of what you want your product to do. As the person that owns the idea, people will look to you for guidance. The clearer that you can be about your product, the easier it will be to develop your app.

     So, to summarise – in order to define your product, you have to write both high-level and detailed requirements for each of the things that you want your app to do. These requirements will inform your developers on what you want to build. It’s important for you to have a detailed view of your product to ensure its success.  

    There are some more tips on writing requirements in my article the other week, so if you haven’t read that one, head over there now to check it out.

    Help! I need to discuss strategies for defining my product! Fill in the form below for a free 30-minute discovery call:

    NOTE: for those of you that understand what agile is, I understand that some of the detail would normally get flushed out during a sprint. However, I feel that people new to building apps should take the time to write detailed requirements upfront so that they can better understanding what their product will do and so that they can appreciate all of the decisions that need to be made to build it.    

    * When you sign up for a discovery session, we’ll also add you to our mailing list so you can receive emails from us (with your consent). These emails will include news and updates, occasional offers and promotions, and exclusive content and resources to help you on your development journey. You may also receive follow-up emails in relation to this session. We will not spam you. If you don’t wish to hear from us anymore, simply select the unsubscribe option at the bottom of any email that we send to you.To view our privacy policy, click here.

  • Telling a developer what you want your app to do (challenges and strategies)

    Telling a developer what you want your app to do (challenges and strategies)

    A common challenge of non-technical people building web platforms or mobile apps is that they struggle with how to tell a developer what they want. Defining your product is part of the requirements writing activities in the software development process and it’s an important part of building your app.

    Imagine you describe a feature to your developer and when it’s ready, it doesn’t do what you want it to.  Sound familiar? It’s actually not uncommon for this to happen. So, in this article, I’ll explore why this is the case and provide some strategies for overcoming it.

    A different skill…

    Explaining and describing things is a skill and so is writing. These are skills that we all have – most people have written an email or told a story. However, it can be a lot harder when you’re trying to articulate what you want your product to do.

    Imagine you want to buy a house and you’ve engaged a real estate agent to find you one. When asked what you want, you might say that you want to live in a particular area and you might mention the number of bedrooms and bathrooms that you’re looking for and may be a price range. The agent finds you a bunch of houses and you go and look at them. You then realise that you forgot to mention that you want a single-storey house and that it should be detached and have a pool and a lockup garage, etc. The real estate agent comes back with another list of properties – and you realise again that there are some more things that you want.

     This example illustrates what happens in app development projects all of the time! People are constantly adding to their list of “wants” and all of a sudden, the project takes longer and costs more than you anticipated.

    Have you also noticed that we very rarely talk about what we want in life at a detailed level? When we’re asked to do it, it can take us a while to come up with a really good answer. It takes even longer if we’re asked why we want what we want. When we’re documenting what we want our product to do, we’re doing just this – and if we haven’t practiced this skill, then it takes a lot more time and effort to do and we might not be able to do it very accurately.    

    A different audience…

    There are a lot of people that write for a living – newspaper journalist, author, screenwriter, songwriter, technical writer, website content writer, etc. All of these people fundamentally do the same thing, but they write different content and for different audiences.

    Telling a developer what you want works the same way – which means you have to write for your audience. 

    It feels like it should be easy – but it isn’t. Developers generally have minds that work a bit differently – and so they should. It’s what allows them to do the great things that they do. It also means, that if you don’t tailor your content in a way that a developer understands, it’ll be a lot harder to end up with the product that you want.

    Different content…

    The final reason as to why it’s so hard to tell a developer what you want is that you’ve probably never have had to talk about this kind of stuff with anyone before! Building an app is likely a new experience, so you might not realise that there are some things that you were meant to tell your developer.

    For instance, did you know that you have to tell your developer your expectations for how many people will use the app? How quickly you think your platform will grow, etc.? What information do you want to collect in a form? What kinds of reports do you want? What fields should display on those reports? These are the kinds of things that you probably don’t think about when you’re defining your product.  

    Like any profession, developers come in different forms – some are purely coders and follow instructions to the “T”. This is where the level of detail in your content is very important. You can also get developers that are a bit more adaptable and will ask questions for clarification. However, you still need to give them enough content so they can understand what you’re trying to do. Remember, any time they have to clarify something, that’s time taken away from coding your app.

    Strategies…

    So, with all of these things working against you, how do you effectively tell a developer what you want?

    Learn the skill:

    Defining your product and what you want it to do is a skill. In apps and software development, it’s actually quite a specific and difficult one. There are people that get paid 6-figure salaries in large organization to do this. I know this, because I was one of them! So, how do you learn this skill without years and years of experience?

    First start by understanding what information you need to provide and how to structure it. You can look for some examples of how others have done this before (search for “good business requirement examples”). Model your own writing after these examples – and then keep going. Odds are the examples that you find are going to be high-level ones, so you need to dive a bit deeper to get the level of detail that you need for your app.        

    Know your audience:

    Developers are coding programs for a computer to interpret so start to think like a developer. How you describe your product to a developer is going to be very different to how you might describe your product to a potential customer, so adjust accordingly.  

    Start by being logical and systematic in what you write. Use “if this, then that” language to describe how someone will interact with the app and how decisions should be made. Write in bullet points and avoid long paragraphs. Draw diagrams to illustrate concepts. Find examples of existing apps that can illustrate what you want your app to do.

    Write it down:

    Basically, if you want your product to do something, then you’re going to have to document it for your developer. They can’t guess what you want – and if they did, chances are, it wouldn’t be the same as what you imagined. Think about your experience with an online tool or app – what happens normally? What happens when something goes wrong? If you want the field on a form to be a drop down, then you’re going to have to state that in your requirements.

    To make sure you have the right content, think about all of the processes required to make your product work. Think about all of the people that will use your app and how they will use it – I’m talking about all of the support functions that will be needed to run your app too. Also, spend some time thinking about the detail – use workflow diagrams to map your person’s journey and then consider, in detail, what happens at each step.

    Building an app for the first time is quite a feat. There is a LOT involved – and you have to tell that developer exactly what you want. It’s a very good bet that if you don’t, you’ll end up with something you didn’t want. That’s just human nature – we make assumptions based on what we know – but those assumptions may be different from someone else. So, if all else fails, write it down!

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    It can be done!

    If you haven’t guessed already, I’m pretty passionate about this kind of stuff. Web platforms and mobile apps get built all of the time, so people have found a way to get past these challenges! But how much time did it take and how much did they have to spend?!

    My aim though is to get you to the other side without wasting time and money having to clarify what you want or extending your project because there were things that you forgot to include. I hope my strategies will make it easier for you to tell a developer about what you want them to build.

    * When you sign up for a discovery session, we’ll also add you to our mailing list so you can receive emails from us (with your consent). These emails will include news and updates, occasional offers and promotions, and exclusive content and resources to help you on your development journey. You may also receive follow-up emails in relation to this session. We will not spam you. If you don’t wish to hear from us anymore, simply select the unsubscribe option at the bottom of any email that we send to you.To view our privacy policy, click here.

  • Intro to Product and Software Development and Product Management (part 2 – at the beginning)

    Intro to Product and Software Development and Product Management (part 2 – at the beginning)

    In my last post, I introduced you to the concepts of product management, product development and software development. In this post, I want to bring it all together and explain what it means to a non-technical person starting on their app development journey. This all might seem a little daunting, so for now, here’s what you need to know:

    Product Development

    “Ideation” and “Analyse” are the most important parts of product development. In these phases, you need to be able to come up with an idea and see if it’s worth building:

    There are lots of different ways to come up with ideas for an app – but most usually come from personal experience – either at work or outside of work. Look for problems in your day-to-day life that might need solving.  Maybe it’s something in your industry or something in your job role.  Maybe it’s something at home, while travelling, parenting – the possibilities are endless!  

    After you have an idea, you want to make sure it’s the right one to pursue.  What makes you the right person to build this app?  Where might you need help? How big is the market? What’s the competitions like? There are lots of ways to evaluate your idea.  If you don’t validate your idea, then the rest of the process is really irrelevant. Validating an idea is about making sure you don’t want to waste your time and money on building an app that doesn’t allow you to achieve your goals.

    The product development process has natural “gates” that give you permission to stop what you’re doing and to go onto the next idea. If you don’t think your idea is good enough, keep repeating the “Ideation” phase until you have an idea that is more desirable. In the “Analyse” phase, if the idea doesn’t pass your validation criteria, you go back to the “Ideation” phase.

    Click Here
    To learn more about idea validation

    If you’ve decided to go ahead with developing your idea, you’ll then need to “Define” your product. This is about writing down what you want your product to do. This is an important process because it dictates how your product will end up!  Spend some time here really understanding the processes that people will go through, what you want them to do, what they’ll want to do and what information needs to be captured and stored. Also, consider all of the processes that might be involved in running your app – for example, how will people contact you if there is an issue? How will you respond to them? etc.

    Software Development

    The “Requirements” phase of software development overlaps with the “Define” phase of product development, so your defined product also forms the basis for the Requirements phase. The Requirements phase in software development will focus on the actual app being built; whereas the Define phase will look at everything that’s need to deliver and run the product.

    This phase is about telling people about what you want build – which makes it pretty important! If you can’t articulate what your product should do, then you might end up with something that is vastly different from what you expect. You’ll then spend a lot of time and money trying to make it right.

    Developers use the information that you provide about your product to estimate the cost of building it. This means that you want to be very clear about what you want your app to do. A lot of projects end up costing more money and take more time to complete because new things come up later in the project.

    Product Management

    Your product hasn’t been built yet, so the elements of managing the product through its lifecycle don’t come into play yet. However, you’ll want to start thinking about who your first users will be as you enter the next stages of building your product.

    What happens next?

    After you’ve figured out what your product needs to do, it’s time for you to start building. In our next article, we’ll look at getting your app designed and built.