How to Work with Users Feedback During the Application Growth Stage?

Creating an application from scratch requires immense dedication and brainpower. You could have the best team of developers, helping you create an application. However, the only way to make sure your application grows and develops at an exponential rate is by getting the right feedback.

Often you spend too much time in the development of an app that you overlook certain fallacies. These problems could easily be pointed out by a fresh set of eyes who have never worked for you before. 

Another reason why feedback is important is that you may spend a lot of time perfecting the application. This process might cloud your judgment and result in you working inefficiently. So, make feedbacks on your priority during the development and growth phases of the application.

There is a certain way you need to approach this process. You must know about the various method you can collect feedbacks in. This will help you create a functional app that has very little to no issues over time. Getting feedback is also a great way to ensure positive growth in the popularity of the application. 

What is the process of application development?

Like all development processes, your app development has a life cycle too. This life cycle helps you break down the progress of your application and work accordingly. Once you understand what the life cycle of an application entails, getting the feedback of users in the growth phase will become significantly easier. 

Here are the first few stages of app development.

1. Planning stage 

The first stage of app development in the planning stage. Here you sit down with your ideas and brainstorm on concepts that you can implement in your future application. There is not a lot of scope for feedback in this case. However, it is still wise to consult a few like-minded and otherwise, people to get a wide range of ideas.

2. Technical documentation 

Once you have the skeletal structure of your application ready, you can now move on to the technical details. In the technical documentation stage, you will need to define the roles of your employees and document all your requirements on paper. This is the list-making stage where you essentially create a blueprint for your application.

3. Prototyping 

In this stage, you need to create rough sketches and a draft framework of the application you wish to create. This allows you to make any changes that you may need. In the prototype stage, you can also rectify any errors you faced after planning. This stage is the intermediate between the planning stage and the development stage. 

4. Development 

The development stage is of crucial importance. Now you need to focus on building your application with extensive coding. This might take a lot of time but paying close attention to your application in this stage is of critical value. You can choose to get feedback on your application during this process. However, there is not much to criticize when it comes to programming. So, just focus on entering the right inputs and making a strong base for your app. 

5. Assuring Quality

After developing the bases of your app, you need to fix the problems that arise. It is highly unlikely that you get it right in the first go. It is advised that you pay close attention to your app in the initial growth phase. This is the time where you get to observe the maximum number of problems. You must ask for user feedback at this stage. This will help you find out problems that you might have missed while testing the app on your own. 

6. Publishing & Maintenance

After development and bug fixes, it is time to focus on your publishing. You must invest a certain amount of marketing your product to your audience. This will help you reach a wider range of people and creating a better network as a whole. 

The life cycle of an app

After you develop the application, you now keep a close eye on its growth. There are three main stages of growth in the life cycle of an application. These stages have varying degrees of progress. You must learn to take the user feedback in all the growth phases and immediately learn to work around them.

1. First Phase

You will notice that the growth and popularity of your app is a little slow in this stage. The infancy of the application is great for you and a test group to try out the functions on their own. You can carry out your programming and bug fixes in this phase. 

2. Second Phase

The second growth phase is crucial in the life cycle of an application. Now your app has reached a decent number of people. You need to figure out a way to collect feedback from these users so that you know how your app is performing. This is also known as the exponential growth phase of your application. So, you must be very attentive to all the changes you need to make during this phase.

3. Third phase

After making a significant amount of changes in the app, you will finally reach the third stage. Also known as the adopting stage, here you will need to go the extra mile and revamp your application after considering all your feedback. 

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What to do before collecting the feedback?

Now that you are ready to take feedbacks from your users, you need to learn the right way to do it. There are certain things that you need to do before you collect feedback from your clients. Mentioned below are some things that you can try to make the process of collection easier and more efficient.

4. Know the objective

If you are a developer, you must know why you are collecting this feedback. You must have a clear understanding of your application and its functions. You should also know what stage of development your app is in concerning its life cycle. As mentioned earlier, each phase in the life cycle entails a different approach to feedback collection. 

As a developer, you should also know which genre or category your app falls in. This determines the method of feedback collection too. So, you must know everything about your application before you begin the feedback collection process.

5. Know the cost

Like everything else, collecting feedback is also going to come with a price tag. You might not be able to estimate the accurate cost of the venture. However, you can have a ballpark figure ready before beginning the project. 

Some of the things that will cost you in this procedure are designs, operations, and development. A major chunk of your finances will be invested in these three aspects. So, you must figure out how much you are going to incur beforehand. 

How to collect the feedback?

There are many ways to collect feedback during the growth phase of your application. You must pick the right one for you. Each technique has a different price point. So, choose one that does not put a dent in your finances but does the work either way.

Here are a few options that you can try to collect feedback from users in the growth phase of your application. 

1. In-built question

You can start taking your feedback by asking a simple question to your audience within the app. You can start by asking if your users like the application or not. This easy yes or no question will allow users to give you a brief insight into what they think without providing you with thorough feedback. 

2. Through Emails

One of the most common ways to collect feedback from users is by email. Clients get to open mail from the app itself. After this, they are asked to type out their views on the app and send it across to you. This is an easy way to get feedback from your users. You can credit its low cost and easy navigation to its popularity. Developers choose this technique over most because of how cost-efficient it is. However, users do not like getting redirected to the mail app through your application. This could be the only downside you might have to face. 

3. Circa News APP

This method is a little more expensive than the email alternative. You can use this technique of collection to increase the number of positive feedbacks concerning the negative ones. The additional cost will only be in terms of back-end development. This method will prove to be useful in the long run. You can use this technique in the later phases of your app growth when you have sufficient funds. You will also need a team of capable developers so that you can pull off creating a website for feedbacks.

4. Addition of pictures, texts, and multimedia 

Feedbacks are not really what your users are looking forward to. If you want your customers to give you honest feedbacks diligently, you will need to be creative. You need to be creative and gain your customer’s attention. You can do this by adding images to your feedback forms. Your customers can easily navigate through images and multimedia and provide you with better feedbacks in little to no time. 

During the collection of feedback

Once you set up the system and have a good in-flow of feedbacks, you must tend to them diligently. As a developer, you will need to constantly check the feedbacks and do the needful regarding them.

You will also need to reply to your users as soon as you can. This will show them that you acknowledge their feedbacks and are ready to do the needful. 

The next step

After you collect the feedback and inspect them thoroughly, you will be left with certain aspects that need help. Here is where you take the next step forward and consult with your peers. If you feel like a change is necessary, you must go ahead with it. 

The growth and development of your app solely depend on how carefully you tend to it. The chances are that the feedback you get will end up providing you with some of the most helpful opinions. Make sure you set a budget for this project and stick to it. It will help you create a stronger application and grow at an even faster rate than you imagined.