
Lessons I’ve Learned from Three Million App Downloads - jordansmithnz
http://jordansmith.io/lessons-ive-learned-from-three-million-downloads/
======
firasd
Love this bit: “Sometimes you’re stuck on a problem, and there just don’t seem
to be any great solutions: maybe it’s related to a piece of code you’re
writing, or decisions around how you’re going to market your app. Then, you
start thinking about the problem from a wider perspective. You realize that
you won’t need to even write the tricky piece of code if you architect it the
right way, and that the marketing decision is one your friend (who has a knack
for that sort of problem) would know how to tackle. You could sum it up as
‘taking a step back’ from the problem.”

Taking a literal step away tends to help. I've often realized new approaches
or epiphanies when mulling a problem while walking or in the subway.

~~~
lacampbell
On solo projects I've been experimenting with a technique that sounds a bit
silly but seems to help a bit. I try and take off my programmer hat, or even
my analyst hat, and try and become a stakeholder.

What do I want this program to do? What will make me want to use it, and what
will be a deal breaker?

Once I finish thinking this through, I 'become' a programmer again and get to
work. Often I find that things that seem a big deal at a coding level either
don't matter, or are the wrong things to worry about.

~~~
pdimitar
Doesn't work for many people. They know the theory but can't apply it.

I can, but I've met plenty of bright people who simply haven't learned that
ability yet.

It does work wonders for myself though. I am well-balanced between wanting
technical excellence, ease-of-use and usefulness. It helps my job relations a
lot.

------
srinathrajaram
"What I’ve learned (aside from sucking it up, and sending a kind, helpful
response) is: design your product as if it was going to be used by people that
are a software literacy step below the target user."

Completely with you on the 'sucking up and sending a kind helpful response'.
Snark does not pay. It makes no sense to snap at a user.

Regarding the other point about first-time users. I have a slightly related
theory.

When you design something, design it for someone who has the attention span of
a two-year-old. Not because your app is going to be used by a two-year-old.
But because that is how much mental bandwidth a user is going to give you.
Your user is probably busy or just likes to multi-task.

Working that much harder on the UI pays off, or at least prevents a disaster.

~~~
snovv_crash
>When you design something, design it for someone who has the attention span
of a two-year-old. Not because your app is going to be used by a two-year-old.
But because that is how much mental bandwidth a user is going to give you.
Your user is probably busy or just likes to multi-task.

I think this is a common problem, and the problem is with the people
creating/selling/supporting the product, not the customer. We get so invested
that we are willing to overlook little pain points or special knowledge
required, which are precisely the things that drive customers away. We develop
our own obscure workflow, and just by being an expert in the topic we become
incapable of providing the feedback to make it friendly to new users.

------
sidlls
"So, don’t be stingy: a product with no paying users is (usually) better than
a paid product with no users. It’s much easier to upsell to an existing
customer than it is to find an entirely new paying customer."

This is generally true, but it seems a bit like applying an Enterprise view of
sales to a market of minnow sized budgets. It reinforces app consumers' view
that apps should only charge for marginal value, not core value or the biggest
value. This sort of "freemium" model leads to basically a market of pure crap
with extremely rare gems.

Edit: I'm not dumping on the author, here. Were I to "do mobile" I'd probably
take a similar approach because it clearly works.

~~~
taylodl
I must be in the minority, but I refuse to use freemium applications (those
relying on in-app purchases to complete their functionality). My attitude is
if you don't think your app is worth anything - I agree. Look, I'll walk into
a Starbucks and spend $3 on something I'm going to consume in 30 minutes
without even batting an eye. If you think your software is worth less than
that then it probably doesn't warrant my time to check it out. I'm willing to
concede I'm in the minority - but I'll also point out this goes a long way
toward explaining why the quality of indy mobile apps is so abysmal.

~~~
scarface74
Did you ever buy shareware back in the day like Doom?

What's the difference?

~~~
bluejekyll
This is a great question. Shareware locked into this idea that if I could only
get my game or application into people's hands, then they will love it and pay
for the other features.

This definitely is a similar model to a free app with in-app upgrades. The
challenge is coming up with a model where the user will decide they want to
upgrade. Is it more features? Is it a restricted timeframe? More game levels?

I bet different app types do better with different options. I'd be curious if
anyone has captured data on the best option for the different categories.

~~~
foobarian
A long time ago I made a DOS shareware app and posted it on various BBS/ftp
servers. 6 months went by, and to my great surprise I got a check for $10 in
the mail with an appreciative note asking for the full version with the extra
features. By this time I completely forgot about the app, and of course I'd
never made the full version. I think there might be a moral in there somewhere
kind of like how backups don't work unless tested regularly.

~~~
Jaruzel
A long time ago I made a Windows (3.1/95) app that invisibly used a file share
to send 'Post it' notes to peoples screens. It served a purpose for myself and
my colleagues at the time as we were in an organisation that barely used
email, and also had no IM facilities whatsoever.

I threw it online, by uploading it to several of those shareware app hosting
sites that used to exist and hosted it on my own site as well. The app was
fundamentally free, but if you wanted to use it legally in an organisation you
had to by per-user licences.

To my utter surprise, cheques started arriving in the mail, some for 100's of
user licences. Several were FTSE100 companies. It turned out that my app had a
killer feature - when you sent a 'note' to someone else, it appeared on their
screen almost immediately _on top_ of what ever they were doing. Apparently
traders loved this, so my apps was being used in several banks on their
trading floors.

The whole thing was short lived, and the money I made was a short bubble. Less
than a year later it all dried up, and NetNote[1] was consigned to history.

Back to point though, and why I'm replying - one of the large banks asked me
to come in for meeting to discuss upgrades to the app - as they'd paid for
1000+ user licences I felt duty bound to attend the meeting. However, what
they basically wanted was a complete overhaul of it and had a request list as
long as my arm. As an indie developer I couldn't commit to that, so I didn't
make any promises, and then completely failed to deliver on their requests.

Of course I regret that now.

\--

[1]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20030323215705/http://www.jaruze...](https://web.archive.org/web/20030323215705/http://www.jaruzel.com:80/netnote.shtml)

------
ensiferum
Regarding just trying again and again... "Winners never quit,quitters never
win but those who never win and never quit are idiots".

I'm reality most of us don't really have more than a few shots except in those
rare cases of the most trivial apps.

------
jansho
It's particularly encouraging to read the many hours of work and back-stepping
he's done, to get the quality really, really high. Startups are often
associated with speed, but less so on flexibility, even if lean philosophy
purports it. Ship fast. Get the bare-bones MVP done. Aim for viral growth.
This is probably why we have millions of apps, but only a few dozens last and
actually taken up by the mass. Different types of products mean different
processes after all, give or take amount of resources.

In this app's case, it's about re-imagining an existing function - timetables.
The designer knows that user experience is everything, and because of this
he's willing to scrap everything if need to. And even when this happens, it
isn't exactly waste as you understand the problem deeper and come to the
design of an even better solution.

Sure you can argue that an MVP can bring about those design iterations. Keeps
your focus on the users too. But arguably the market for this type of product
is _very active_ \- though not necessarily competitive. So rather than get
buried with the hundred others, it needs to shine right from the beginning.

~~~
snarf21
You're exactly right. I think the thing you said that people can't get their
head around too is that you sometimes have to decide you are wrong and start
something over. Learning from failure is the hardest thing to get right. The
missing piece is usually having enough data to _know_ if you have failed. With
that, going deeper and better feels like an improvement not a reset.

~~~
jansho
Admitting that you're wrong may sound like a bruise to your ego, but only if
you feel personally tied to the project. Pixar has a good approach; they
vehemently emphasise that the project is always separate and thus criticism
towards it are never personal. If you try and do it for your own project, you
can get a more objective view and explore much more design possibilities.

The downside to this is a longer process, and actually you become more prone
to "analysis-paralysis". But still I would argue that it's part of developing
yourself to become more objective, at least that's the experience with my
project anyway. It's funny that we're taking about this because two weeks ago
I had to tear down an entire product architecture, built over 3 years, to
start all over again. I had made one flawed assumption at the beginning, and
it got buried so deep that I didn't realise for a long time. It manifested
itself into a set of problems that I kept hitting into, until I had to concede
that there's something rotten at its core.

It sounds like a waste, but no: the new product was actually designed at a
much shorter time, and _far better_ than its predecessor (well you'll just
have to take my word for now ;)) And yes I do feel a bit silly for being in
denial before.

------
scarface74
What's sad is because of App Store economics. He can never depend on his
paying customers to ever pay for an upgrade. He will always have to chase new
customers.

~~~
jamescostian
Another sad thing is that a consumer can't tell their iDevice "hey, stop
downloading updates to this app; I like it just the way it is" \- the closest
we can get is turning off automatic updates for all apps, and then hoping we
never accidentally tap on the "Update" button for that specific app.

Currently, both of the problems can be solved in one kludge: release a big
upgrade as a new app. For example, I bought the app Things when it was at
version 2. I liked it so much that when Things 3 came out as a separate app, I
bought it too. And if I really loved the UI of Things 2 and hated the new UI
in Things 3, I wouldn't have to do anything. I could keep auto-upgrade on, and
never have to worry about my Things 2 app being upgraded to something I don't
like.

~~~
wingerlang
You can still download older versions of apps, it's a workaround but it can be
done.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Can to do that on Google Play?

I'd love to be able to undo app updates.

~~~
wingerlang
No idea, I meant App Store.

------
sriram_iyengar
Very impressive Jordan. Pls do consider releasing TimeTable in India - an
Android version if possible. Millions of parents of primary kids (more than
the students) will be happy.

------
ramshanker
TLDR: App design is equally important as coding. Design everything around
first time user and simplicity.

~~~
supercoder
Yep, for most apps design is typically the more important factor than the
technical implementation.

~~~
taneq
For most _software_ , design is typically the most important factor. An app
that does the right thing and has the right interface but is poorly coded and
inefficient is still useful. An app that does the wrong thing, or has an awful
interface, is not useful no matter how slick the code behind it.

------
djsumdog
A lot of apps are like this. I know dev who were like "They made that all that
money off Angry Birds." Didn't Rovio have a bunch of terrible ideas that
failed and Angry Birds was one of their last ditch projects?

~~~
asmosoinio
Yes, they spent years making games with relatively little success and bleeding
money.

------
lettersdigits
"Instead, my ‘moderate success’ story is closer to one of hard work, and slow,
steady progress"

------
abraae
I'd be intrigued to know what caused those spikes in your download volumes.

~~~
jordansmithnz
Sure, those follow the start of school/college semesters across various
countries. It's actually quite nice, it means some periods of the year (like
now) have relatively low usage so I can spend time on other projects.
Approaching those spikes, I usually invest more time into updates etc.

~~~
bfu
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September)

------
guard0g
Some profound product management wisdom there, Jordan. Wish enterprises
understood it as well as you've laid out. Thanks for the post and here's to
your continued mojo.

------
minademian
really great article. It's a breath of fresh air in the sea of churnalism
suffering from Mediumitis - "I did this in 3 hours and now I have self-worth".

------
FollowSteph3
It's sad that people aren't willing to pay $1 for an app but are willing to
purchase in app features. I feel mobile software is moving in this direction
and that it will only get worse with time. The sad part is it makes software
more complex and hence more expensive overall, and you probably end up
spending more over the lifetime of the product...

~~~
faet
I feel this way and it's mostly due to apple's return policy. Because it is
near impossible to return an app I generally look towards free apps with an
IAP to unlock everything/remove ads. If apple had a refund policy similar to
steam with a 2h return window I'd be much more willing to pay upfront.

------
jaclaz
>Sure, three million downloads is a lot, but that’s happened over more than
six years.

It still remains "a lot", US$ 500,000 per year, not exactly peanuts IMHO.

EDIT: Ah, no wait, I misread the article, he got a handful of downlads when
the app was US$1, the 3 million downloads are since it was made free/freeware.

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therealmarv
Does somebody know which blog engine and theme was used here?

~~~
RickS
[http://jekyllthemes.org/themes/kiko-
plus/](http://jekyllthemes.org/themes/kiko-plus/)

------
6stringmerc
Personal essay strikes again in business context - I like it very much and
glad to see it here. Looks like a useful read and educational.

------
tarr11
Would love to see revenue data!

~~~
jordansmithnz
Not enough to make this my day job, while paying off a mortgage unfortunately.
For short durations it has been, although my living expenses are much higher
now than they once were.

It's also very seasonal - it closely follows the download graph on the post.

------
michaelevensen
Thanks for sharing Jordan!

------
syngrog66
agreed

unless -- based on personal experience -- if it's treated as suspicious by the
local police/neighbors, even if its a skinny, geeky-looking, white male who
goes out walking alone late at night.

if I had a nickel for every time I've been harassed by police or local do-
gooders, I'd have a lot of those nickels. and I'm not even of the demographic
that PC-ness says should be oppressed. (ostensibly: black+male, or male+gay,
or non-white, or female, or mean-faced, or weapon-carrying, etc. in reality:
straight white male, innocent, no weapons, not in a gang, no drugs, etc.) "why
are you walking alone at this time? why are you looking at things? implied:
are _you_ a terrorist? a pedophile? explain immediately!"

We do not (always) live in an intellectual-friendly culture. At least not in
the USA, 2017. We (might, often) live in a small-minded, hyper-stereotyped,
very ignorant local culture. Obviously it depends on precisely where you live.
SF on Friday at 8pm? very different than Kansas, small town, Wednesday, etc.

not even joking. (And I submit this knowing it's not a HN-hivemind/PC-aligned
viewpoint, and thus will be downvoted. I do not care anymore.)

~~~
sctb
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14542573](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14542573)
and marked it off-topic.

~~~
syngrog66
I wanted to give you some feedback that I find this behavior to be passive
aggressive and toxic. I shared an opinion and a perspective, based on actual
life experience, which was related to the topic at hand, the comment I was
replying to. I wrote it in good faith. And then, from my perspective, you
parachute in and sabotage it.

I appreciate that you acted in a way that you think is trying to improve
matters.

But any normal person, in RL, would consider your action to be an attack, and
passive aggressive. It's chilling and toxic.

