The science behind App Economics

By João Fábio Valentin, vice president of DevOps at
CA Technologies for Latin America

 

 

Gone are the times when companies created products without consulting their customers. In the past, with fewer offers and limited time and space, consumers were subject to a short list of suppliers. Today, the digital transformation already allows the consumer to buy the product he wants in any corner of the world, even allowing the “long tail” effect, which proves that there is demand for absolutely the entire range of products.

 

With the arrival of mobile and massive adoption of this technology, phenomenal applications became possible, which became successful overnight, making companies owners what we call 'unicorns'. It seems like a fluke, but there is a lot of science behind hits like Pokémon Go, for example, that has won a wider audience than regular gamers by offering ease of access and handling, and by having a database of location to envy on any GPS.

 

There are several techniques for building a successful application and the most important of these is to understand the consumer: before, during and after launch. The improvement and iteration must be continuous, since the competition for the user's attention is constant and fierce.

 

In the world of big data, the competition is brutal. Through Analytics tools, companies end up having access to the same information. The name, however, is misleading: Analytics does not provide the answer, but an indication of trends. To be successful in the Application Economy, it is necessary to have high power of interpretation and willingness to make quick decisions.

 

Analysis plays an important role even in cases where the initial idea comes from insight, not research. In addition, through gradual tests with the desired audience, it is possible to detect whether there is adherence to the application, allowing companies to define whether they want to continue its development or not. This kind of fast, continuous feedback is critical to fixing and improving apps.

 

Other increasingly decisive factors for the success of applications are agile methodologies and the Continuous Delivery process (DevOps), which make it possible to divide a single project into smaller parts, under constant review, updating and improvement, even after it is launched. In this way, problems are isolated more quickly and with less impact on the user experience, as well as improvements are developed in an increasingly shorter period. After all, it was the time when a product took months or even years to receive a new version.

 

The world today happens in real time and is constantly changing: once made available to the market, an application produces an immense database, which makes it possible to map the path taken by the user, how long it was on each screen and where he placed his finger, for how long, etc. Details like following the evolution of cell phones, whose screens have become bigger and bigger, and understanding that the reach of the thumbs begins to be limited to the middle of the screen, makes the attentive developer position the important buttons in the lower half of the screen, improving navigability. In the same way that an app designed for the cell phone has to be rethought for a tablet and, of course, for a smart watch. Each device needs a new app design to deliver an exceptional experience and thereby highlight the brand, influencing its revenue growth.

 

I have already seen executives saying that they are not satisfied because they have invested a lot of money in several application screens to, in the end, realize that only a few are, in fact, accessed. Today, only those who want to make this mistake, since it is already easy to track which pages are "hot" and improve products and services, improving the user experience.

 

There are three important pillars in the development and maintenance of an application: Code, Design and Infrastructure. Everyone needs to work well to achieve excellence. With Application and Analytics performance monitoring tools, a lean team is able to have a total view of the business and focus on providing the best experience, keeping the user at their fingertips and helping in the growth of business revenue.