How to stop wasting time building the wrong features that won’t generate revenue.
As an iOS developer we constantly have new app ideas.
We would love to see our app(s) being downloaded and used many many times by hundreds of users. And we’re trying to achieve that by implementing one useful feature after another. Or so we think.
Without feedback we only really have a feeling what would be the best next feature. Sometimes that feeling is very strong and feels like knowing. But without feedback it really is just.. a strong guess at most.
How can we address that? How can we as iOS developers know what our users want? Why for example they download our app but then deinstall it again or let it go stale on their phone?
You guessed it: An in-app wishlist.
Now you might be thinking: Well they can leave a review in the App Store. Or you can implement a way of reaching you via email. However these approaches have some flaws. And are not as easy as “one tap” and done.
Leaving a written review on the App Store requires the user to perform a handful steps. Even when we build in that native review prompt, we just don’t seem to get as much written reviews. People are lazy. We are lazy.
On the other hand having the user reach out via email doesn’t tell you as the developer the weight of a suggested feature. For example if a user suggests a chart of some sort. And another email suggests a bookmark functionality. What do you know? One user wants a chart another a bookmark feature.
What about all the users who didn’t think of the chart but if they were “asked” they’d totally vote for it? Or the users who did think of a bookmark feature but just didn’t want to write an email. You as a developer are missing out on all that weight. On that very important feedback that 126 users would vote for a chart and 42 users would vote for a bookmark feature.
Instead you are working on a completely different feature like dark mode (shots fired, pew pew!) that you feel like would improve your users experience. But in reality all they want is a chart or a bookmark feature.
You know what’s easier than writing a review or an email? A tap of a button. “Oh I like that chart feature idea” — tap.
You know what else is great? You as a developer can even add your feature ideas to that wishlist and just observe your users vote on your own ideas to see which one you should be working on!
Here’s an SDK that I have built that provides a full-fledged native wishlist for your iOS app or macOS app with only 1 line of code: wishkit-ios 🔥
I would love to hear your feedback and what you think of this idea 🙂!
