Mobile projects can be challenging, even for experienced teams. It turns out that the recipe for a successful mobile project relies on 5 key ingredients: process, capabilities, experience, thinking, and talent. Slides by Conor Sheehan, Senior Experience Designer at Cantina

1. 5 key ingredients in
successful mobile projects
Can!na 2016
#mobile5ingredients

2. The mobile world has matured,
especially for developers

3. Mobile Development Tools

4. But a!aining mobile success
is s"ll proving to be a challenge

5. Mobile Success Rates
84%of users’ !me is spent in just 5 apps
25% of apps are used only once a"er they’ve been downloaded
25%of apps have 100,000+ downloads
5%of apps have 1M+ downloads

6. If apps are easier than ever to develop,
why are they so rarely successful?

7. Common Challenges
• Low user a#en!on spans
• Iden!fying user contexts
• User onboarding
• Feature creep
• Restric!ve rules
• Android fragmenta!on
• App performance
• Debugging
• Device tes!ng
• Mul!ple code-bases

8. “How much will it cost
To build our app?”

9. It’s not just an app
It’s not just a one-off project.
Even if it’s internal.
Even if it’s temporary.
You’re building a product.

10. “What will it take to build
the right product?”

11. It’s not enough to simply exist in the mobile
space. You must create mobile products that
cap"vate your customers and keep them
coming back.

12. The recipe is for a product
not just an app

13. People
experience
thinking
capabili
ties
pr
ocess
5 key ingredients
in successful
mobile projects

14. Process

15. First step: Adopt a process geared
for holis"c product development

16. Use Lean & Agile methodologies
to hypothesize and validate
solutions

17. Product Development Process
Vision Define Design Deliver Measure
Big ideas
Shippable
product
Tested features

18. Vision
Target audience explora!on
Problem defini!on
KPIs & success metrics
Solu!on idea!on

19. Define
Feature valida!on
Feature priori!za!on
Product road-mapping
Ecosystem evalua!on

20. Design
Design hypotheses
Customer interviews
Interac!ve prototyping
Usability tes!ng
Interface design

21. Deliver
Agile sprints
Automated tes!ng and CI
Tooling for easy device previews
API development to drive the app
Tech leadership when developing across pla%orms in parallel

22. Measure
Beta releases
Device tes!ng
Usage analy!cs
App Store reviews

23. Implemen"ng a lean, agile approach
will start your team in using a product
mindset

24. Capabilities

25. It’s not just about having iOS or
Android dev on hand

26. d
The right mix of capabilities
will unlock new opportunities
for your product

27. “Product Management with no User Experience
Design creates func"onal products that don’t make
users excited. User Experience Design with no
Product Management produces deligh#ul products
that don’t become businesses.”
Melissa Perri

28. The capabilities You’ll need
Product Management
Project Management
Experience Designer
Mobile Development
Back-end Development
Yes, they’re different

29. Product Development Process
Vision Define Design Deliver Measure
Big ideas
Shippable
product
Tested features

30. Focus for each capability
Product Management Project Management Experience Design
Mobile Development Back-end Development
Maintaining the vision
and feature backlog
of the product
Implemen!ng agile
prac!ces with the team
through each sprint
Researching, prototyping,
visual and interac!ve
design
Building performant,
produc!on-ready apps
API development to
power the app

31. A fully capable team will be able to
take the product from idea to launch
without stopping

32. Experience

33. Capabili"es are best backed up by
exper"se and experience

34. Faster to build
Faster to iterate
Faster to identify the features
your audience will love

35. Experienced designers
live for rapid prototypes

36. Experienced designers
know their design pa!erns

37. Experienced developers
understand the pla#orms

38. Experienced developers
can avoid common pi#alls

39. Experienced teams
know how to avoid feature creep

40. An experienced team will close the gap
between the product you’re building
and the product your audience wants

41. Thinking

42. Innova"ve solu"ons are
a product of innova"ve thinking

43. innovative thinking involves
problem solving and
breaking down complexity

44. The team should be thinking
about how to marry the user needs
with the business needs

45. The team should be thinking
about reducing the product to its
simplest form

46. The team should be thinking
about breaking down
technical complexi"es

47. The team should be thinking
about how the product fits in with
the user’s app ecosystem

48. The same style of innova"ve thinking is
used for solving product, design, and
technical challenges

49. People

50. Your people are the difference
between an idea and reality

51. Build up your team with people…
with a passion for mobile
with empathy for end users
who enjoy experimen!ng
who value open communica!on
who look to team up with others (hint: avoid “rockstars”)

52. The teams that consistently deliver
are the teams that trust each other

53. Embrace everyone on your delivery
team as a “designer”

54. If the people working on your product
don’t stand out, your product won’t
stand out

55. Wrap Up

56. Increase your likelihood for success
by focusing on the full recipe.

57. People
experience
thinking
capabili
ties
pr
ocess
5 key ingredients
in successful
mobile projects

58. Filling your gaps
Lack of…
Process
Capabili!es
Experience
Thinking
People
Approach
Codify the parts of your process that work well and those that
could improve. Start small and work your way up.
Expand your teams to include more diverse resources
Work on more mobile projects, even small experiments
Study up on principles and prac!ces necessary for mobile
product development
Staff up your teams or seek out external help that can not only
deliver, but help train your in-house folks

59. Don’t get caught in the trap
of thinking how much
Your app costs

60. build your app the way you’d
build other products

61. Deliver the right product
to the right audience

62. Thank you

63. About cantina
• Boston-based digital design and development agency
• Founded in 2007, 60+ employees
• We help clients like Putnam Investments, John
Hancock, CUNA Mutual Group, Epsilon, and Pearson
deliver be#er digital products for their customers
• Can!na’s people turn great ideas into digital reality,
execu!ng with the best design and development
techniques available