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Social Media: How can I take an idea for a new app and turn it into a real product?
BN
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Brad Nickel, Startup strategy, presentations, marketing UI/UX answered:

As another comment said, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Here are some questions:

1. Have you validated the idea(s)? In other words, does anyone want what you want to develop? If it is a game or entertainment related app, validation is much more difficult and that is not my area of expertise, but if it has utility, productivity, or business implications, then you can interview the people that would use the app. Before you do that, I would either hand draw or use one of the numerous mockup tools out there to create what you envision the product doing.

What problem are you solving?
What are the benefits to the users or company or both?

These are all core components to understand before you even go down the road of development.

2. What is the market viability for the product? If people want it and it solves a real problem, how many people will want it? Is it enough to v make the investment of your time and your money to make it work?

3. Do you have the money to build it and then to market it?

Learn to code or use other tools that will let you build with less coding knowledge. You still need to understand concepts though. I like LiveCode (https://livecode.org) and Bubble (https://bubble.is/home). You could also use these tools to mockup the interface to provide for interviews or to a developer to get a quote.

You need to get a quote if you can pay someone to do it and that requires a detailed description of the product, mockups of the screens and flow, and other technical details. There are a lot of dangers in using outsourced development shops, because they may give you a low ball quote and then hold you hostage through the development process. I can't list all of the things you have to be careful of, but happy to help you with that process if you are interested.

In my decades of working with entrepreneurs that are not technical, I would say that about 75% of the ones that have already hired a developer were screwed over in some way.

If you are looking for a developer to do it for you for equity in your company, then you need at the least an executive summary of what the app will do, what the potential market is, and how much you think you can make with some basic financial projections. You also need to be prepared to understand and implement the legal aspects of it. You need to convince a developer that investing their time will be worth it and that is not an easy task.

Finally, if you've come up with a powerful enough idea, find an investment group, incubator, or accelerator that would be willing to invest and that already has a reputable development company with whom they work.

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