From App Idea to First Hundred Users

Validate before you build

The cheapest app is the one you did not need to build. Before a line of code there are three ways to test whether anyone wants it, and all cost under a fortnight.

1. Do it manually. Run the service by hand for ten users with a spreadsheet and a phone. If nobody wants it done manually, an app will not change that.
2. Landing page. Describe it, ask for an email, spend a small amount driving traffic. Measure interest before building.
3. Mobile web first. A fraction of the cost, no install barrier, and it tells you how often people would actually return.

Every failed app we have been asked to rescue skipped all three. Every successful one did at least one, usually the first.

Launch narrow

Pick the smallest group with the problem most acutely. One trade, one city, one company, one team. A narrow launch gives you users who care enough to tell you what is wrong.

• You can talk to all of them personally
• Their feedback is coherent, because they share a context
• Word of mouth works within a defined group
• You can fix things before a wider audience sees them

The first hundred users

This is the group that decides whether the product is right. Talk to as many as you can, watch them use it, and read every review and support message yourself rather than through a summary.

1. Contact every early user personally — a short message, not a survey
2. Ask what they expected that did not happen
3. Watch five of them use it without helping, which is uncomfortable and invaluable
4. Track which feature drives return visits
5. Find the users who came back a third time and understand why

That last question is the important one. The people who returned three times are showing you the actual product, which is frequently not the one you designed.

Getting the first hundred

• Your own customers and contacts, individually asked
• The specific communities where your narrow group already gathers
• A partner who serves the same people
• Trade press and industry newsletters, which are cheaper and better targeted than social ads
• App store optimisation — helpful later, near-useless at zero reviews

Paid acquisition at this stage buys users who do not care and hides the signal you are launching to collect. Save the budget until the product retains the users who arrive for free.

What to do with the feedback

Count it rather than reacting to it. The loudest request is not the most common one, and the most common request is often a workaround for a problem that could be solved differently.

That last row is why analytics matters at this stage: the people who leave say nothing, and they are the majority of what you need to learn from.

Frequently asked questions