I remember reading this and saving it to my notes 14 years ago when I first started building apps, but have never found the origin. I refer back to this so much, and theres definitely updates to be made but it’s as true today as it was back then.

Some key things to keep in mind for speedy app development is:

• 80 percent of the main functionalities will be done within 20 percent of the time. The rest is polish, which takes the longest.

• That polish usually includes UI styling and coloring.

• Scope creep is the number one enemy of v1.0

• It's not just the application you're developing, it's the name, the icon, the description, the support website, the Facebook fan page. these are often the most overlooked during planning and will delay release of your product.

• Iteration is usually more successful than that awesome v1.0 that you hope will get you featured. Chances are high that it won't be awesome and even if it is, no one will care when you enter the market unless you have a few hundreds of thousands to throw at marketing.

So keeping those things in mind, here are some tips:

1. Make releasing your number 1 priority.

2. Cut and whittle down your application design to only the main functionality and stick to it like your life depends on it. Shelf any other features or unnecessary items for later versions.

3. Try not to make your app ugly, but don't go for that awesome styling or animation you have in mind. Shelf it for later versions.

4. Get other people to share the responsibilities. Have a developer that just develops, someone who just does the websites and screenshots and AppStore descriptions, a designer that does the initial designs and icons. When trying to do it all on your own, context switching will kill your productivity.

5. Make mistakes. Iterate versions to fix those mistakes fast.

6. At the same time, make sure everything is crash proof. Users will forgive a crappy looking app, they won't forgive crashes and serious bugginess. Users will give your app 5 stars for being useful and easy, not for looking good. They will give you 1 star for crashing and not doing what the app promised, not cause it looks like poops.

After v1.0:

The only thing to worry about from here is to find a product-market-fit. A few things to keep in mind about product market fit is:

• Retention is key. Does your retention curve level out above 0 after X amount of days? Meaning, do you have users who keep using your product weeks and months after their first download?

• Normally users use an app for one functionality. Anything beyond that one useful feature on your app is fluff and is probably done better by some other app. Stay focused.

• You and your partners are the best (and maybe only) users of your app. If you don't see yourself engaged after a few weeks, don't expect anyone else to be.

• Feedback is key. You've been developing your product in a silo, now you need to figure out what the world really wants out of it.

• The world might not want what you're offering, it might want something slightly different and your ego might not want to give it to them because it's not part of your grand vision.

So some steps to take after v1.0 is:

1. Use the app yourself and keep track of how it feels to you psychologically.

2. Reach out to others and find a way to keep track of how they use it and what they want. Hopefully you've included metrics in your v1.0 and a feedback button, if not, release a v1.1 with these right away.

3. Iterate and experiment. Don't let your ego get in the way of pivoting your product. Throw away the bad ideas, this is the hardest thing to do because if you have a feature that 1 out of your first 100 users use, you won't want to throw it away and lose that one valuable customer.

4. Research other apps that are competitors and steal their ideas.

5. Polish as you iterate on the features that you want to make sure aren't sticking because the UI/UX isn't the best. Give the feature a chance before throwing it away, but do this quickly and continuously.


If you're lucky and, after months of research and hundreds of versions, you find that one thing that users keep coming back for, then polish the hell out of it, throw any other feature or distractions away, and then advertise your app like hell. Now it's just about exposure and you'll hopefully be on your way to millions of Monthly Active Users (MAU).

I remember reading this and saving it to my notes 14 years ago when I first started building apps, but have never found the origin. I refer back to this so much, and theres definitely updates to be made but it’s as true today as it was back then.

Some key things to keep in mind for speedy app development is:

• 80 percent of the main functionalities will be done within 20 percent of the time. The rest is polish, which takes the longest.

• That polish usually includes UI styling and coloring.

• Scope creep is the number one enemy of v1.0

• It's not just the application you're developing, it's the name, the icon, the description, the support website, the Facebook fan page. these are often the most overlooked during planning and will delay release of your product.

• Iteration is usually more successful than that awesome v1.0 that you hope will get you featured. Chances are high that it won't be awesome and even if it is, no one will care when you enter the market unless you have a few hundreds of thousands to throw at marketing.

So keeping those things in mind, here are some tips:

1. Make releasing your number 1 priority.

2. Cut and whittle down your application design to only the main functionality and stick to it like your life depends on it. Shelf any other features or unnecessary items for later versions.

3. Try not to make your app ugly, but don't go for that awesome styling or animation you have in mind. Shelf it for later versions.

4. Get other people to share the responsibilities. Have a developer that just develops, someone who just does the websites and screenshots and AppStore descriptions, a designer that does the initial designs and icons. When trying to do it all on your own, context switching will kill your productivity.

5. Make mistakes. Iterate versions to fix those mistakes fast.

6. At the same time, make sure everything is crash proof. Users will forgive a crappy looking app, they won't forgive crashes and serious bugginess. Users will give your app 5 stars for being useful and easy, not for looking good. They will give you 1 star for crashing and not doing what the app promised, not cause it looks like poops.

After v1.0:

The only thing to worry about from here is to find a product-market-fit. A few things to keep in mind about product market fit is:

• Retention is key. Does your retention curve level out above 0 after X amount of days? Meaning, do you have users who keep using your product weeks and months after their first download?

• Normally users use an app for one functionality. Anything beyond that one useful feature on your app is fluff and is probably done better by some other app. Stay focused.

• You and your partners are the best (and maybe only) users of your app. If you don't see yourself engaged after a few weeks, don't expect anyone else to be.

• Feedback is key. You've been developing your product in a silo, now you need to figure out what the world really wants out of it.

• The world might not want what you're offering, it might want something slightly different and your ego might not want to give it to them because it's not part of your grand vision.

So some steps to take after v1.0 is:

1. Use the app yourself and keep track of how it feels to you psychologically.

2. Reach out to others and find a way to keep track of how they use it and what they want. Hopefully you've included metrics in your v1.0 and a feedback button, if not, release a v1.1 with these right away.

3. Iterate and experiment. Don't let your ego get in the way of pivoting your product. Throw away the bad ideas, this is the hardest thing to do because if you have a feature that 1 out of your first 100 users use, you won't want to throw it away and lose that one valuable customer.

4. Research other apps that are competitors and steal their ideas.

5. Polish as you iterate on the features that you want to make sure aren't sticking because the UI/UX isn't the best. Give the feature a chance before throwing it away, but do this quickly and continuously.


If you're lucky and, after months of research and hundreds of versions, you find that one thing that users keep coming back for, then polish the hell out of it, throw any other feature or distractions away, and then advertise your app like hell. Now it's just about exposure and you'll hopefully be on your way to millions of Monthly Active Users (MAU).