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Creating an app - Episode 1 S9E47

Creating an app - Episode 1

· 10:28

00:00
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10:28
Peter:

What's up, everybody? I am back after the break. It was a good break. Welcome to 2025. I'm gonna be starting a new series of episodes here on the PWpodcast, and this is gonna be giving you some advice if you have a desire to create an app this year.

Peter:

Now, this came about because folks always ask me very similar questions about how to go about creating an app and related questions to that. And I thought, why not turn this into a little series? So hopefully, this is gonna be useful for you because a lot of folks are like, I'm gonna create an app this year. So I've got some advice for you. Now if this is not your thing, that's okay.

Peter:

Stick around. There will be plenty of other episodes covering different topics, but we're gonna get into this part 1 here. And part 1 is you've gotta have an idea. Right? Forget all the tools, forget choices of technologies, and, you know, should I use Swift?

Peter:

Should I use Apple? Should I use Android? Should I you know, all of those questions. What tools should I use? What do I think of Xcode?

Peter:

Which IDE? All of those kind of things. Forget all of that. The first question you should be asking yourself when you want to create an app, have I got an idea for an app? If you don't have an idea, you're not gonna get very far.

Peter:

And I say that because otherwise, you're gonna be in the trap of so many people. You're gonna go away, find some cool sites or videos, and you're gonna learn to make an app via tutorials and that you'll never get any further than that. Because I find that the folks that make great strides and great progress in this area are those that have something they wanna build, some itch to scrap. Right? That is the best way to learn, and you get something useful for you at the end of it, which means you are invested in seeing this completed and using it and improving it.

Peter:

I mean, it's a win all around. Right? And, yes, I know you've heard it before. Well, what you know, I have an idea, but it's the same with websites and everything else. Right?

Peter:

If you're gonna paint a picture, you gotta have an idea of what are you gonna paint. Right? Same difference. So that's number 1. Okay?

Peter:

You've got to have an idea. And let me elaborate on that a little bit. There are some questions that go along with that. Let's say that you have an idea, and I'm not gonna give you any examples here because I wanna make this applicable to as many people as possible. So you've got an idea for an app.

Peter:

It doesn't matter if there are a 1,000 versions of your idea out there already. Right? You've heard me say this before. This is the first time you're building it. This is gonna be the first time this kind of app exists with your take on how it should be.

Peter:

So forget the fact that other versions of this idea exist. If it does already exist, it doesn't matter. Don't let it bother you at all. Don't let it into your world. Okay?

Peter:

Just forget that it exists if other people have already done it. The next question you have to ask yourself is, what does the app do? Now start simple is my advice here. Okay? Yeah.

Peter:

Okay. It might be boring because it's simple, but the bigger the idea, the more features you try to cram into it, the less likely you are to finish this. This is your first application that you're creating. Keep it simple. And all of this applies.

Peter:

Right? Whether it's a mobile app, a web app, whatever. It's all gonna be the same advice. So this is for all of you. Right?

Peter:

You just wanna create an app on some platform, some device, whatever. So ask yourself, what does it do? And then write that down. Define what it does and then hold yourself to that and keep it simple. Do not allow yourself to scope creep features over time.

Peter:

You are gonna we're gonna cover that subject later on. But once you've decided, you've got your idea and what's it gonna do, the next question you have to ask yourself is, who is it for? What does the user look like? Right? And we're not gonna get into user stories and all of that stuff.

Peter:

It's a very simple question. Who is it for? Is it for you, designed for you and only you? Okay. That's great.

Peter:

And if it's not and it's for other people, define what that user looks like. And I don't mean visually looks like. I mean, define what this person, this profile of them. Right? If it's an app about cycling then, you know, hey, they're a new cyclist, they're an experienced cyclist, there's they're a cyclist enthusiast, they're a cycling professional.

Peter:

Right? That's 4 different types of people right there I've described. So figure out who your app is for. And the wrong answer is to say, well, it's for everybody or as many people as possible. Again, you are setting yourself up for a foul.

Peter:

You need to define who it's gonna be for because that's gonna guide a lot of your decision. And if it's, again, if it's just for you, okay, great. Then, you know, define you. Go through the process. Write it down.

Peter:

And it doesn't have to be lengthy, it just needs to be a quick description of who is the user. Now once you've got that written down, you've now got an app and someone who you think is gonna use it. This is what you need to get started. Right? Now, I get it.

Peter:

It's not exactly that it sounds like the most exciting thing in the world, but it is crucial to get it right at this stage. Now that you've got that, the next question you you have to ask yourself is, okay, do I have some kind of timeline? Do I care how long it takes? Do I wanna get this finished in 6 months, 3 months, a month, or, hey, it's done when it's done. Right?

Peter:

And and this is not something you have to hold yourself to. But I find that by writing that down as well, gives you again a mindset of, okay, over time, can I get this idea done in this time frame? And if I get it done sooner, great. If it's gonna take longer, that's fine as well. But if you just say, well, it'll be finished at some point, you're allowing yourself the opportunity to start procrastinating when things get hard.

Peter:

Because trust me, at some point, they will. Okay? And by saying, okay, if I'm I'm gonna get this done in 6 months. Right? But it let's just say 6 months.

Peter:

You you have now set a rough timeline that that you're gonna hold yourself to that says, okay. I need to keep making progress on this. Now it doesn't have to be daily progress, weekly progress, whatever. That progress can be whatever you're gonna define it to be. But by giving yourself a period of time to make this application, you are applying a small amount of pressure that says I need to keep moving forward.

Peter:

Because if you just say, it'll be done when it's done, I guarantee you, it's gonna take way longer than your interest is gonna hold out. Now, I know that sounds tough, but trust me, I've seen so many folks do this. And it's not a question of whether you have a great fantastic idea. The simple fact is over time, enthusiasm goes down. It's it's just natural.

Peter:

Right? Interest in something goes down. And therefore, by defining this scope for yourself of both what the app does and the time, will give you a way to say, okay, theoretically, it's only gonna keep me interested for that long. And the reason I say that is you're not gonna lose interest at the end. What's gonna happen is when you have finished the first version, whatever that may look like, you're gonna be excited about this.

Peter:

Trust me. And you will have had a whole bunch of ideas along the way that you're gonna write down, and we'll talk about that again in a future episode. But you're gonna have those ideas that will be your next series of features, changes, whatever it may be. But you're gonna restrict yourself and say, okay, that's the next version. Right?

Peter:

That's the carrot that you're putting out there in the future. So by getting the base version done to get to those new things is the momentum that you're gonna need and the drive to get there. And by the time you have finished the first version, even if you get a little less enthusiastic towards the end and struggle, because you finished that first version, you are gonna be so proud of yourself and so excited that you will be renewed, ready to go back for the next round of whatever it may be, features, changes, things like that. That is how this works. That is why it is important to get that first version done.

Peter:

And it doesn't even have to be like ship it somewhere. You just have to get to the point where you say to yourself, you know what? I finished it. Because that is a massive momentum driver the first time you finish your first app. So that's what I've got for you, just a short series of challenges there.

Peter:

Go away, do that. Right? And then we're gonna in the next episode in this series, I'm gonna talk about, okay, what happens next. Right? But it's important that you get this down first.

Peter:

And if this is something that you think is a good idea for a series, hey, reach out. Let me know. And if you have questions or ideas or feedback, go to peterwitham.com and let me know because I wanna know if this is interesting to folks and whether I should keep this series going beyond the first few episodes. I think this is gonna be great. This should serve as a good, template, I think, going forward for folks to reference because I'm gonna keep it very generic as much as I can to incorporate however you wanna do this and whatever platforms you wanna do it on.

Peter:

That's it, folks. I'll see you in the next episode.

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