Here’s a question for you.

What does every successful app have in common?

If you answered, “Works on an iPhone,” “Cross-platform” or “Priced at 99p,” I’m afraid you’re wrong.

If you answered, “Great icons,” “Cool animations” or “Supports multi-touch,” you’re wrong again.

It’s not that these things aren’t important.

They’re just not as important as the common factor behind every successful app.

Knowing your audience

Every successful app has one thing in common.

The people who developed it know their audience.

They know their audience either because they did research to find out what their audience want or because they know what their audience wants intuitively (usually because the developers are the audience). Having a knowledge of your audience clarifies the business problem you are trying to solve. It means you know which functionality is key and what functionality you can leave out.

But when I ask developers, “Who’s your audience?” I find they tend to fall into four groups.

The first group tell me that they don’t know, and they don’t care. It’s rare that these developers create a successful app. And the fact that you’ve read this far means I doubt this applies to you.

The second group tell me that they don’t know, and want some help identifying their users. They want to know who they’re designing for but they’re not sure how to go about it. If this applies to you, read on.

The third group claim they know their users but tend to talk in generalities. They’ll usually say, “Everyone with an Android handset”, or maybe they’ll be a little more specific and say, “People who like playing games”. Because they can only describe their users in general terms, they can’t use the information to make specific design decisions. If all you know about your users is their mobile platform, you’re designing in the dark.

The final group tend to be the developers of successful apps. When I speak to them, I hear something very specific. They say, “One of our typical users is Peter. He’s a blogger who wants to quickly share photos and videos from his Android handset so that the articles he writes are part of today’s news, not yesterday’s.” Their knowledge of users is very specific and can be used to answer design questions. It’s as if someone turned on the lights.

20 questions about your audience

Here’s a quick quiz to assess how well you know your users. If you answer ‘No’ to more than 5 of these questions, look out for my follow up post for some advice on how to flesh out your knowledge.

1. My app is targeted at a small number of customer groups with a specific need.
2. I know the primary user group for my app.
3. I can describe a typical person who uses my app without resorting to generalities.
4. I know the kind of jobs my users do.
5. I know the age range of my users and I know the age group where most people are clustered.
6. I know my users’ level of computer, Internet and mobile know-how.
7. I know how frequently the typical user will use my app (daily, weekly, monthly).
8. I know the apps that they use the most.
9. I know the other apps like mine that users will use alongside my app.
10. I know the other apps like mine that users might choose instead of mine.
11. I know what motivates people to use my app.
12. I know how users would satisfy these goals if my app didn’t exist.
13. I can describe the specific benefits that users say they get from using my app.
14. I can describe the minimum functionality that my app needs to make users think it’s worth downloading.
15. I can describe a successful user journey with my app, from download, to install, to first use.
16. I know how the user would describe ‘success’ with my app.
17. I can describe the specific tasks that users expect to be able to do with my app without reading help.
18. I can describe the typical setting / environment where my app will be used.
19. I know the specific trigger that will cause the user to open my app and start using it.
20. I know the major platform (iOS, Android) and the specific device (iPhone, HTC) that most users have.

In the next post, I will give you a method to quickly (and cheaply) gain the knowledge required to make your app successful, so stay tuned!