What Startup Founders Should Know About Software Development
Building software is rewarding but a challenging task as well, especially as a startup founder when you have to manage multiple things simultaneously. Today we are living in a massively competitive digital era which leaves no space for errors or glitches. So, it is crucial to have a perfect strategy and a clear vision before you kickstart the software development project that empowers your business.
As a startup owner, you have to be more careful while planning the resource allocation compared to well-established businesses. However, startups have the privilege to be more flexible while integrating any new strategy or development tactic into their business due to the short decision chain.
Now, if you are planning to integrate software into your business operations and this is your first time getting involved in a software development project, we recommend that you read this guide until the end to have some expert insights that have helped many entrepreneurs across the globe before. Let’s begin without any further ado!
1. Plan a clear budget
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Software development is a process that once begun requires running smoothly for the best quality outcome. For that, you will have to figure out how many hours the development process will take, and what other costs might be involved, and accordingly, you have to prepare a clear budget so the development process does not get interrupted in between. Your software development budget will include three categories of costs-
- Development costs
- Maintenance costs
- Marketing costs
- And Upgrading costs
2. Prioritize performance and user-friendliness
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Bogging down software with too many features will not do any good if the loading speed is not ideal and the visual user interface has too many features. Users will want to have a smooth and fast experience, so it is important to focus on offering the best performance and easy-to-understand visuals while designing your software.
It is also helpful if you want to target a massive user group as depending on the economical state of different user groups, the average configuration of their devices and the average speed of their internet connections might vary.
3. Scalability should be one of the many goals
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Users evolve in parallel with the invention of new technologies or new upgrades of existing technologies. So, it is important to keep your software scalable so it can evolve along with the targeted user base.
With time, you will have to add and remove features, target devices of multiple screen resolutions, onboard new digital devices, and more. So, scalable software can help you with the smooth transition to evolving devices and can be helpful from the perspective of increasing data volume and digital traffic on the platform.
4. Invest in quality assurance (QA) and maintenance
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QA is the key to ensuring that before your software is released in the real market, it has now flaws or glitches remained that could annoy users and create bad impressions. There are automated software testing tools existing that developers have started to use for faster testing of the quality of software. Many of these software testing tools also offer a range of devices to pick to test your software on.
5. Adopt collaborations with experts
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Collaborations can have multiple purposes. If you need technical support then you might have to collaborate with the technical experts, especially if you are from a non-technical background or require some assistance.
Suppose, if your startup is in the USA or your target market to launch the product is the USA, then you can partner with a software development company in the USA even if you are from any other country. This collaboration will be helpful for you to understand the local market better and optimize your product accordingly.
Another fact is, software development can be successful only when it has the right amount of visibility to attract the attention of the target potential users. For that, you will have to adopt many promotional strategies including collaborations.
This strategy includes partnering with marketers, influencers, or marketing agencies to prepare a marketing plan that involves introducing your software on multiple platforms. On social media platforms like Instagram, collaborations have become super popular. Popular content creators, through their videos, introduce software or mobile app development companies to their audience which provides software owners to onboard more users.
6. Prepare an upgrade strategy
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As mentioned earlier, the tech industry keeps evolving, and with that, user expectations evolve as well. So, you will need an already-prepared upgrade strategy that will involve plans like scheduling regular updates, quality testing, and more. Every now and then you will also come across new glitches faced by your users, so your upgrade strategy will also need to focus on taking care of these glitches periodically. This strategy helps keep the user experience fresh and users get the feeling that they are heard and their feedback is taken seriously.
7. Provide excellent customer service
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Customer service is also one of the most important factors that influence your software’s retention rates. If there are any issues faced by users, they will want someone to assist them quickly, especially if your software deals with finances and payments. For that, the quality of customer service matters a lot.
Plenty of businesses have adopted AI and machine learning-supported chatbots to provide customers with faster solutions. This also helps companies to reduce their customer service burdens and focus on queries of utmost importance.
8. Use popular tech stacks to build
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Popular tech stacks have many perks if you implement them into your software development strategy. For starters, you get huge community support with many open-source resources available for you to use.
Second, throughout the development process you are stuck somewhere, you can find support within the community that might be able to help you out. Third, popular tech stacks are also easily upgradeable as they evolve and if you are hiring third-party developers, it is easier to migrate from one development group to another due to the familiarity of the tech stack.
9. Keep user security on priority
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Unsafe software can not only create a bad impression and user experience but also ruin the reputation of the brand that has launched it. So, invest in making your software secure by using the best cybersecurity standards. Modern developers have also started relying on technologies like AI and machine learning to make security standards better to ensure their product is safer to use. These
Wrapping up
For first-timers who have no experience in building and deploying software before, it could be a challenging but learning experience as well. So, it is fine to take longer than someone with experience would take.
In our opinion, before you start the development project, do in-depth research to understand every perspective of your target market, find out the outcomes of your strategy through predictive analytics, and then use the best strategy to build the product.
Having the right amount of resources and the right people around you to help you through the development process can help you build software that goes a long way. All the best!
