Know which problems your software is solving
When you are working on a software development project, it is crucial to have a clear vision for why that software is being built. And it needs to be a good why.
Anything that you bring in to existence, whether as a business analyst writing specifications or a developer implementing them, must solve problems for your users to be successful.
There must be something that users could not do before, or could not do as well or as fast before, that they can now do with your software.
We can significantly increase the chances of our apps being successful if we:
- Start with a clearly defined group of users;
- Understand problems that they are facing; and
- Build something to fix those problems.
When you start with the user need and understanding of their problems, the why for your app becomes very clear and benefits for users will be easy to articulate. Conversely, if your idea does not solve a real-world problem for people, you are going to have a hard time finding users.
Does the software you are working on have a good why? If not, take some time out to question it and see if you can better articulate it. Having a clear understanding of your users and the problems you are here to solve, will be immensely useful as you move forward and need to make decisions about your roadmap, releases, and priorities.
If there is no good why, maybe it is time to back off the idea. No doubt you have learned lots of lessons, and built some excellent components that you could reassemble into another app that solves a real problem.