The value of mobile apps for businesses is apparent to many people. In the 8 years since IPhone first came out (7 since HTC released the first Android phone) businesses and consumers alike embraced the technology and design capabilities of the mobile app market. With Google Glasses and Apple Watch coming out, the mobile revolution is quickly becoming the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution. The IoT is the idea that all technological devices and many non-technological devices will be all plugged into the internet, creating connected diverse devices responsive to each individual's needs and wants. 

Adobe: There Goes the Neighborhood 

During the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit in Salt Lake City, Adobe announced that they are becoming more and more mobile, focusing on preparing for the IoT: 

With updates to Adobe Analytics and Mobile Core Services, marketers will now also be able to measure and analyze customer engagements ... across Internet of Things devices. Adoption of these devices is growing quickly, and marketers must take the leap into the IoT realm regardless of the risk, Adobe executives insisted. 

Adobe has long been an industry leader in delivering online and creative content for multiple industries including marketing. As with their Creative Cloud services, followed by Microsoft's Office 365, Adobe's jump to wearable and other non-traditional technologies is just the cusp of a wave of change. 

Wearable, Flexible, Universal 

As reported by Entrepreneur, the next big thing discussed at SXSW were smart fabrics. From gimmick related devices currently on the market most easily described as high-tech lingerie, businesses have more and more options to integrate their apps with everyday products. 

Wearable fabric type technologies will create a universal use for mobile apps in multiple industries and markets, but for now, they are still future. What is current is the trend of diverse screen sizes and information management installed in compatible devices. 

While clothes which read your body's temperature, blood pressure, and other medical necessities are future tech, watches, smartphones and glasses which do some or all of that are the technology of today. For businesses, responsive design is a necessary part of integrating your mobile apps, websites and browser-based software with the plethora of devices currently on the market. 

Responsive Design 

Responsive design is done in such a way that optimal interaction and interfaces are beneficial across a multitude of devices. Many individuals see the value of responsive design for websites, but do not consider how essential it is to mobile apps.

Access to your app can be done from many different screen sizes, including tablets, phones and watches. This ranges in size from full-screen immersion to small phone and watch use. 

The diversity of screens creates an opportunity for your business to interact with customers, build relationships, and manage information no matter your industry or target market. 

Stick to the Basics 

With so many new trends in technologies, what can your business commit to technology-wise? The good news for businesses is that technology may change, but people are still people. Your technology needs to be effective for creating relationships, managing community and suited to your industry and target markets. 

Information management is the essential, basic function of mobile apps. As discovered in the decade and a half since the dot-com bubble burst, information and relationships have to go hand-in-hand. Thus the information economy is also the social economy. Whether you are interested in avant-garde wearable technologies or just using the incredible economic power of smartphones and tablets, your basic question is still: what am I offering, and to whom? 

For many businesses, your community just needs simple interfaces to order, track, and receive marketing information about products and services. For this, your essential basics may be a browser-based responsive app: any device can access it, and it is up to your customers whether they want to try and use a smart-watch or glasses with your app. 

For other businesses, your industry is cutting edge, and your target market wants access to you immediately via watches, glasses and more advanced tech. For you, the basics are focusing responsive design for specific devices used by your target market. 

No matter your needs, mobile technology is becoming an increasingly integrated part of the global marketplace, and you need to plan to reach your customers where they are found: on mobile. To discover more about mobile apps and responsive web design, please contact us.

The term "product/market fit," in its most basic form, means that a product is in perfect sync with its customers. The product has been refined to perfection -- assuming you define "perfection" as giving your chosen market exactly what it wants.

"Product/market fit" might be the buzz word -- the golden goose egg -- of start-ups, but everyone big or small needs it.

In Ryan Holiday's book Growth Hacker Marketing, he write this: "The best marketing decision you can make is to have a product or business that fulfills a compelling need for a defined group of people -- no matter how much work it takes to create this."

No matter how much work -- that's the key.

The old ways of doing things, however, like the Waterfall Method, are becoming sluggish. Like a winded runner in a race, those models are falling behind. Today's Screen Age market moves with incredible speed and complexity, and the slow-footed, clumsy methods of traditional assembly line marketing and product development may not be as effective as they once were.

Companies need agility.

The Necessity of Agility in Today's Market

The decline of the old model of traditional marketing is not news. Although it's still a popular blog headline and book topic in 2015, the writing has been on the wall for years -- even among household name companies. According to a 2013 article, Taco Bell CEO Greg Creed said: "Marketing in its traditional sense no longer works in the competitive restaurant industry."

Creed admitted how social media was running laps around Taco Bell and how it can be a major challenge for slow-footed companies who still rely on the old models of public relations and marketing -- yet still expect total control over their message in an age of decentralized media. "If you are a control freak, you’re not going to like the future," said Creed.

The heart of the problem is not just learning to master social media. Agility is needed at the heart of where success happens: at that crucial intersection between product development and marketing. Companies can flow with greater effectiveness when they master what we call a "scrum," a "lightweight project management methodology" (which you can read about in our page that defines a "scrum").

Smarter, Faster, Stronger

What companies need is the ability to react quickly to changing markets. In web design, for example, having a malleable, lightweight project management methodology -- like what we at Contensive have innovated -- gives you the versatility to create and update powerful web design quickly without compromising the product. It's like a championship athlete who learns to change directions on a dime without compromising their power and speed.

Another example: in the game-changing field of Mobile App creation, adaptability and speed is a must. And sometimes companies don't realize how a powerfully designed mobile app -- one that is seamlessly integrated into their operations -- can revolutionize the way they do business and upgrade their quality of service to customers.

For example, with our mobile application LoadLog, a trucking company could communicate with its trucks through encoded SMS messages intercepted from the server and the registered mobile device. Someone might ask, "So what?"

When your company's server has to track trucks and communicate with them, and your trucks are running 24/7 through remote areas of North Dakota where standard web communication for mobile apps is spotty at best, you quickly realize how valuable an encoded SMS system -- which proved to be reliable even in remote locations -- could be. It was a game-changer for that company.

The Sky's the Limit

These are just two examples of how this new methodology can change companies into agile performers in the digital marketplace. Whether you're needing web design, web app development, mobile app technology, or multi-platform responsive design, Contensive understands how agility can refine your product and the service you provide until you're in perfect sync with your customers.

Whether it means making minor or major adjustments on your quest to product/market fit, contact us to see how we can make you more agile and powerful.

What is a product backlog in Agile development and how is it used

Have you ever wondered, "What is a product backlog in Agile development and how is it used?"

In answering that question, it helps first to understand the core benefit of the process: the Agile method gives you the ability to make fast and powerfully effective course corrections as you construct your product backlog.

Power and agility have always been a winning combination.

Athletes who combine power with light feet and quick correction capability are usually the ones who out run, outmaneuver, and outscore their opponents.

In aviation, the F-22 Raptor fighter jet has "supermaneuverability" -- the ability to turn on a dime, yet maintain incredible power and control, in ways that outperform normal aerodynamic technology.

These analogies illustrate how product backlog works when you're applying the principles of agile development.

It's all about speed, effectiveness, and maneuverability.

The Crucial Role of Product Backlog

Venture Beat makes this important observation about product backlog:

A backlog is where you define and prioritize the functional and non-functional requirements of the app. Each feature within the app must have requirements associated with it. If the development is left open-ended and lacks requirements, then you are more likely to get something you didn’t expect.

In other words, product backlog ensures that every little component knows what it's supposed to do (and not do).

Going back to the sports analogy, it's very similar to crafting a successful play in football: the 11 players on the field know exactly what their job is -- and what their job isn't. (You really wouldn't want a 350-lb lineman trying to run a passing route to catch a pass.)

How the Agile Scrum Revolutionizes the Backlog Process

As you map out all of the requirements for your app's features, the scope of the work can be intimidating.

That's where the "Scrum" team in Agile development comes in.

This method saves you the inflexible, tedious burden of having to document every requirement in your product backlog at the beginning of the process -- a very imposing, slow-going road over the mountain, especially at the start when you haven't built much momentum yet in your project.

How is this accomplished?

The major stages of developing product backlog -- mapping out the requirements for features and bugs, for example -- are no longer kept separate. You don't do each type of work one at a time in a linear path like an assembly line (also called the Waterfall method). Each type of work in a Scrum is combined, developed, and refined all together into "sprints." This allows incredible flexibility, speed, and quick correction capability.

Mike Cohn of Mountain Goat, one of the top trainers in the Scrum method, wrote this about product backlog in Agile development:

"Typically, a Scrum team and its product owner begin by writing down everything they can think of for agile backlog prioritization. This agile product backlog is almost always more than enough for a first sprint. The Scrum product backlog is then allowed to grow and change as more is learned about the product and its customers."

Other crucial stages, like listing all technical work or additional research that is needed, are also combined with the other stages. The team -- as they review their agile list of features, bugs, needed tech work, and research to-dos -- then decide together which items are the highest priority and which of those can be done in a single "sprint."

Greater Transparency and Collaboration

This sprint-by-sprint, all-stages-combined process allows insightful transparency for the customer. In fact, it gives the customer real-time collaborative opportunities throughout every stage of development. They no longer have to walk away and wait for the team to make their way down the assembly line of the Waterfall Method.

It also helps to have a wonderfully talented team of engineers, analysts and designers -- something that we're very proud (and grateful) to have at Contensive. To discover more about agile development, contact us and learn how our talented, hard-working team can help.

Although Uber and AirBNB grab most of the headlines about new tech disrupting the transportation industries, there's much more happening in those industries behind the scenes. Apps are changing everything from maritime shipping to the trucking industry, and companies are taking advantage of new app technology to compete with the likes of Uber. It's a beautiful example of how free market competition creates higher quality products and more alternatives for consumers.

More Transportation Options for Riders

The Beck Taxi Mobile App, a company that caters to Canadians and competes with Uber, brokered a deal with PayPal and integrated a new in-app payment solution that will allow users to e-pay for their ride conveniently. They can now take their taxi without ever having to take out their wallet. This convenience gives Canadians an event stronger variety of transportation options, and it gives Uber stiffer competition north of the border.

Private companies aren't the only ones pushing back against Uber. Public transportation agencies, which have lost riders because their commutes takes much longer and are less efficient than app-driven on-demand transportation, are partnering with TransLoc to create an app that brings a similar on-demand possibility for public transportation.

FastCoExist.com explains how the new public transportation app, slated to be released for a few agencies later in 2015 or 2016, works:

Riders using TransLoc's app, currently a prototype, give it permission to follow their route as they ride. That data builds maps that agencies can use to make routes more efficient, and eventually offer on-demand services. Someone could, for example, someday use the app to request a bus, and the system could quickly crowdsource a route to pick up several riders with a small bus or van.

Some industries, however, have had a less constructive response to the intense competition from Uber. The taxi companies in the City of Boston, for example, are pursuing legal action to shut Uber down, claiming that Uber's drivers are operating illegally.

Uber's response to the taxi companies?

Build an app.

If that seems a little tactless, from Uber's point of view it's common sense: if the taxi companies are upset about Uber, why don't they improve the way they serve customers by creating their own mobile app technology?

Safer Shipping Lanes

It's easy to forget that many of the goods we depend on come from ships. ReCAAP has created a new mobile app for the shipping industry that makes their long journeys across thousands of miles of ocean much safer, as MarineInsight.com noted: "The ‘App’ enables the ReCAAP ISC to share the latest Incident Alert...with a wider readership from the shipping community and facilitate quick access to updated information."

In addition, users can use the app to quickly submit safety alerts to the nearest ReCAAP "Focal Point," which then disseminates the alert broadly to the entire shipping community. It's user-generated, crowd-sourced safety on the high seas.

Grizzled Truckers in North Dakota Oil Fields Geeking Out on Tech

The stereotype that people who love tech live in offices and make pilgrimages to TED conferences and SXSW needs to change. Other people love tech too -- like the leatherneck truck drivers who handle the demanding, sometimes dangerous trucking routes in the remote oil fields of North Dakota.

As a hard-working team of analysts, engineers, and designers, we were particularly proud of what we achieved with our LoadLog app that we built for a trucking company that ships supplies into the gas and oil fields of North Dakota.

Our app is a hybrid online application that uses an SMS communication channel. When you're dealing with midnight trucking runs through freezing winter conditions, you need something that gets information to the truckers reliably, and SMS is much more reliable in rural North Dakota than the usual web communication. The app automates the driver's load logistics and driver tickets, and this reduces the time-waste for the truckers who, before the app, were constantly filling out paper tickets.

And the app is a miracle for the dispatchers. They simply log into the application dashboard to see the location of every truck, and to also track the truck's progress in its workflow. They can also use the app to issue new tickets to those truckers in real-time and calculate average delivery times.

Frankly, it was a game-changer for the company, and it's a powerful enhancement for the trucking industry.

Let Us Help You Create Your Next Big Idea

If your business needs a mobile app to make as big a splash in your industry as these apps did in their industries, contact us to find out what amazing things we can build for you.

Wanting an app is easy. In an increasingly mobile-dominated digital environment, it makes perfect sense to reach your potential customers through more ways than one, and a mobile app seems like a perfect solution. The more practical aspects of mobile app development, though, require more thought and planning. We'd love to help! If you want an app but don't know where to start, here are three things you should know before building your first mobile app.

1) Know Your Customers

Any effective marketing-related effort has to begin with your audience, and the process of developing a mobile app is no different. Before you even begin your app development process, you should know everything you can about your potential customers' behavior on mobile devices.

What is their preferred operating system? Would they really prefer an app over a more simple solution like a responsive website that adjusts its design based on their preference? How receptive would they be to the concept of native web apps or extensions that they can use without leaving their browser?

All of these are questions for which you should at least be able to make an educated guess on the answer. Getting that answer can involve surveys and even informal focus groups with your current customers, while you can glean some of the information (such as your customers' preferred mobile devices and operating systems) with a look at your analytics accounts.

2) Know Your Goal

Once you know what your customers want and need, it's time to figure out just what you want to accomplish with your app. This is, of course, intimately connected to the first question: knowing your customers will give you a better idea of what they expect from a mobile app.

But at the same time, pointing out the necessity of knowing your potential app's goal is worth its own point. Your app could function as a brand awareness-builder, a brand loyalty helper with an integrated reward system, or incorporate ecommerce capabilities.

Of course, there are many more possible directions for your app to go in, each of them requiring a different approach to get to the finished product. Establishing a singular goal and developing your app with that goal in mind will go a long way toward getting a polished and effective app that helps attract and retain customers.

3) Know Your Developer

Trust us when we say this: any app developer you work with will appreciate their clients coming in with answers to the first two points in this blog post. But at the same time, they'll be glad to help you figure out the direction of your app. Of course, that's where the similarities of app developers end.

As you may have noticed when you browsed through our website and past blog post, we are firm believers in the "agile" development process. That means breaking up a project such as your app into several different parts that can be developed at once, allowing for increased testing times and cost-effectiveness.

Of course, not every developer subscribes to this methodology. Others prefer a more traditional "waterfall" development process in which an app (or website) is developed in a more linear, step-by-step process. Understanding your developer's philosophy when it comes to app development is crucial to finding a partner that fits your needs.

If you're thinking about adding to your company's digital presence with a mobile app, you've made the first important step. Congratulations! Following the three above steps will help ensure that the rest of the process will go as smoothly as that initial decision. And if you need any additional help throughout your planning process, don't hesitate to contact us!