Mobile devices have become central to daily life, with people spending over 3.5 hours a day on average on their devices. And that isn’t just scrolling through social media.

A 2021 survey revealed that 64% of working American adults use their personal smartphones for business. And countless statistics show the rise of mobile shopping both globally and domestically.

Over the past two decades, businesses gradually realized the need for an online presence to function as their digital front door. Now, with the rise — and dominance — of smartphones, we’ve entered a new era of change. It’s no longer enough for a business to just be online; you also need an optimized mobile experience.

A solid mobile experience strategy leads to more engagement, more conversions, and more revenue. Still, the first question to ask when considering a mobile app is “if,” not “how.”

3 Key Perspectives for an Optimized Mobile Experience

To determine “if” you should build a mobile app, you’ll want to think through three levels of strategy: business strategy, user experience strategy, and technical feasibility.

Jumping straight to app development — the “how” — without a solid foundation in strategy leads to costly missteps and wrong turns. But these perspectives allow you to outline a clear path that ensures your mobile app actually benefits your business in tangible, measurable ways.

Business Strategy

Before anything else, it’s essential to determine how a mobile app fits into your broader business strategy. In other words, how would an app directly support your specific business goals and KPIs?

This involves asking a lot of questions from various angles. For example, will the app:

• Increase sales?
• Drive customer engagement?
• Improve operational efficiency?
• Make you more competitive in the marketplace?

You’ll likely need to justify the cost of building and maintaining the app by showing a clear monetary benefit to your business. This begs further questions, like will the app:

• Offer in-app purchases?
• Require a subscription?
• Include ads?
• Create calculable internal efficiencies?

A word of caution here: You can’t choose D) All of the above. Or, you can, but it won’t do you any good.

Most businesses want improved sales and engagement and efficiency, and many other benefits all at the same time. The question isn’t whether these are good goals — of course they are. But if you aim everywhere at once, you dilute your efforts and, typically, produce an inferior product.

The real question, then, is which goals to prioritize and in what order. Setting priorities for your mobile app design will help you drive focus and investment of resources toward their most profitable outcomes.

Experience Strategy

The primary question to ask yourself regarding experience strategy is this: How will having an app significantly enhance the customer experience?

A mobile app needs to solve a problem the customer actually has. If it doesn’t provide real value, then it won’t succeed, regardless of its technical elegance or your strategic business intentions.

To help our clients avoid this scenario, we conduct research into the existing customer experience to ensure we fully understand the customer journey. If a mobile app would benefit this experience, then we consider the customer journey in sequence, identifying which touchpoints along the way where a customer would benefit from having this app in their hands to complete the action they want to take.

At each touchpoint, map out what your app will do for the customer. Will it simplify the buying process? Will it increase engagement through personalization? The objective you identified in your business strategy will help direct your efforts.

Technical Strategy

Lastly, consider your technology strategy. To begin, consider how a mobile app fits within your existing technology ecosystem. Will you start from scratch, or do you have an existing tech stack you can build from?

Once you define your business and experience strategies, you’ll be able to identify gaps in your current systems and platforms that you’ll need to fill in order to execute on this experience.

For example, if your monetization strategy involves in-app ads, you’ll need a specific set of tools. If it involves a subscription model, you’ll need a different set of tools.

Of course, you also need to consider whether you have — or have access to — the technical resources to build and maintain a mobile app. But not having these resources right now isn’t a deal breaker.

Many of our clients don’t have in-house teams with the technical skills and/or operational bandwidth to build, manage, and maintain a brand-new app. But that doesn’t mean they can’t get the project started.

As our teams bring apps from idea to launch, they take note of what resources clients will need to add in order to keep those apps working smoothly. In many cases, we’ve hired our own replacements after helping clients get a mobile app project off the ground.

Native vs. Web-Based Mobile Apps: Navigating the Options

The mobile app landscape has seen significant shifts since native apps first burst onto the scene. These apps leveraged smartphones’ full capabilities, sparking a rush among businesses to stake their claim in app stores and showcase their mobile prowess.

But as with many tech trends, the pendulum swung. The complexities and costs of native app development paved the way for web-based app popularity. These offered easier deployment and updates without the hurdles of app store approvals or platform-specific designs. Businesses suddenly had a way to reach users across devices and operating systems with a single solution.

Today, both options remain viable, each with its own strengths. Your choice between native and web-based apps should align with your business goals, strategy, and customer needs, as well as your technical team’s input on the benefits and tradeoffs of each approach:

• Go native if you’re after high performance and rich features that tap into device capabilities.
• Choose web-based if you prioritize broad accessibility and simpler maintenance, with more basic functionality.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The key is to select the approach that best serves your specific objectives and provides the most value to your users.

Staying Centered on Strategic Needs

It’s easy to get caught up in the technical possibilities of creating a mobile app. If you can build one, shouldn’t you?

Not necessarily. It’s important to stay centered on your business’s strategic needs. Technical capability shouldn’t drive the decision to develop an app; business goals and customer experience should.

Only when these issues are considered thoroughly should the conversation shift to technical considerations.

Questionnaire Recap: Do You Need an App to Optimize the Mobile Experience?

To make the many crucial questions above more accessible, I’ve compiled them below in a concise questionnaire:

Business Strategy Alignment

• Business Goals: What KPIs will a mobile app support? Before anything else, identify how an app supports specific business objectives. Whether it’s increasing user engagement, driving sales, or improving operational efficiency, understanding this alignment is crucial.
• Monetization and ROI: If the app is intended to generate revenue, what is the monetization strategy? For internal apps, this might focus more on cost-saving metrics rather than direct revenue.
• Market Demand: Is there demand or expectation for a mobile app in your industry? Analyzing competitor actions and customer feedback provides valuable insight into whether an app is expected or necessary.

Experience Strategy

• Enhancing Customer Experience: How will the app improve or enhance the user experience? Consider the touchpoints where an app will simplify processes, offer personalization, and ultimately make user interactions more satisfying.
• User Goals: What are your users trying to accomplish with your app? The app should facilitate these goals in a direct and efficient manner.
• App Awareness: How important is it for your app to be easily discoverable? Being present in app stores can boost your brand’s visibility and accessibility.

Technical Strategy

• Technology Utilization: Is it a native or web-based app? Certain app functionalities, like the use of an accelerometer for fitness tracking or a camera for social media, significantly enhance the user experience but require the enhanced phone access of a native app.
• Integration With Existing Technology: How will the new app integrate with your current technological ecosystem? Determine whether the app will be built from scratch or integrated with existing platforms.
• System and Platform Needs: Where are your gaps? Based on the app’s requirements identified in the business and experience strategies, what additional systems or platforms will be needed?
• Internal Capabilities: Does your team have the skills and resources to develop and maintain the app? Consider whether you need to hire new talent or train current employees, especially if you’re developing a native app, which will likely require separate skill sets for iOS and Android.