5 Steps to Launch your next iOS App Idea

Today, I will share a simple guide to launch your iOS apps on the App Store.

Some people have great ideas but don’t know how to bring them to the App Store.

Ideas mustn’t be stacked in a note (to capture and never forget them) but also be the concretization of someone’s drive to change the world. Passing from idea to project is one of the most exciting things developers can experiment with.

At the end of this issue, you should clearly know how to bring your idea to the App Store.

If you struggle to find ideas, I recommend checking this previous issue to help you find them.

Now, let's dive in.

1 - Bring Value To Users

An idea should be the answer to a problem, making the user’s life easier. From here, it will be easier for your idea to find its market. One common way is to solve the problem.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. Great ideas are often the simplest ones.

For example, I built ZapCardz because I want to learn and remember topics but don’t want to spend time creating flashcards. Some people, like students, may have the same issue and be interested.

Action Step: Select an idea among the ones you got that may bring value to users (including you)

2 - Check Technical Feasibility

You got an idea, great. Now, ask you the following:

• Is it technically possible to code it?
• Is the SDK available to achieve it?
• How can you confirm the idea's feasibility?

It would be a shame if someone spent a lot of time coding it but realized afterward that it was impossible. But you can avoid unnecessary time and energy loss.

Start by testing your idea, open Xcode, and code only the basics of your idea without styling anything.

Test your idea at its most raw state. It should take only a few hours.

With more experience, you will be able to guess if your idea is feasible without even coding.

Action Step: Test if your idea is possible to code. Open Xcode and code the raw idea to validate.

3 - Build The Foundation

You got an idea, and you can code it.

Now, things start being serious.

You can start building the app around your idea. Users need to be able to access the reason they downloaded your app.

Keep it simple.

Think about the fastest way a user can get values from your app.

For ZapCardz, I realized that I made an extra step for users to access the value:

• Before: Screen 1 > Screen 2 > Screen with values
• After: Screen 1 > Screen with values

These tiny updates can completely change the app’s user experience.

Action Step: Build the navigation to your idea and the value itself

4 - Collect Early Feedbacks

Developers tend to develop on their own before launching their apps. The risk with this approach is to diverge from what users truly want.

Someone gathering feedback during coding has a bigger impact on its idea value.

I developed the basics for ZapCardz and launched it on ProductHunt. The app is not ready for a basic flashcard app, but the main feature—generating flashcards—is done. It has brought some traffic and early feedback from users.

Action Step: Share your app to collect feedback

5 - Run a marketing Keep Improving everywhere

One thing that I regret from the 1 app/week challenge is that I couldn’t apply a marketing strategy. If I had to start the challenge again, I would probably extend the time for one app to one month.

Now that you have an idea working, with enough interest from early feedback, you can implement a marketing strategy to acquire users. It can be through:

• ASO keywords analysis
• Reaching some media with your PressKit
• Run sponsorships on blogs
• Partnership with Influencers

This list is not exhaustive.

Action Step: Improve your idea UI / UX while running your marketing strategy

Takeaways

Here are your takeaways from this issue to make your idea to the App Store:

1. Select an idea that solves a specific problem
2. Check your idea feasibility in hours
3. Build your app around the idea
4. Share & collect feedback from several users
5. Improve the existing UI / UX of your app
6. Run a marketing strategy to get more users

The journey ahead is just as important as the destination.

As you code your iOS app idea, I hope you'll continue to push boundaries, learn from setbacks, and celebrate each small win.

You got this!