Category Archives: Project Management

Step 1 – App store:

Good App – Without a good app you have no chance of succeeding, with tons of competition there is no reason for your app to go viral if it doesn’t have a unique advantage and a friendly UI. Put a lot of effort in design and simplicity as well as functionality.

Name – Start off with a good name, preferably describing what your app does. In our case Xodo Docs, explains that it’s an app that works with documents and it also gives us a unique name that can be easily found and used to create www.xodo.com and for twitter @xodo_docs

Logo – Coming up with a logo that is consistent with your app and relates to it, is the right move. With our logo we used four colors to give us flexibility with web and app design, as well as an X shaped logo for consistency with the name.

ASO (Keywords – Category – Screenshots) – The key to pushing up your ranks on the different app stores is using the right keywords and placing your app in the right category. For example Apple gives you 100 characters for keywords; you can use tools such as sensor tower to help you pick the right words. Placing your app in the right category help it become more relevant for users that are just surfing and checking the different apps and hopefully they would pick yours. Finally, don’t forget to capture attractive screenshots that show how the app looks like and what to expect.

Languages/Localization – Depending on your app, you might want to focus on localizations and the languages you have there, you can target more users from different countries if you simply translate your content. It is worth trying especially if you find users from different markets trying your app.

Markets – Publish your app on as many app markets as you can, there are more than the three big ones (iOS app store, Google Play and Windows store). The Amazon appstore is picking up, as well as the Samsung app store. Be sure to check the different Chinese app stores for Android as well if you are targeting that market.

Free vs. Paid (Promotion) – Having a free app definitely encourages users to try it out, but on the other hand retention rates are usually less for free apps. You might want to decide on that early on because depending on your decision, your go to market strategy will differ a lot.

Step 2 – Leverage your website:

Blog – Posting blogs frequently on your website helps create more visibility to your website as well as with boost your SEO. Your blogs don’t have to be always about your app, they could be about relevant topics in the industry or simply sharing some findings.

Video – Work on a descriptive video of your app and how to use it. Promote the different use cases and make sure you are addressing your target segment. Ideally the video should not be longer than 90 seconds.

Access to app stores – Always put links to the different app stores on your website, it encourages users to click and download rather than going to an app store and look for your app. The fewer number of clicks the better.

Step 3 – Outreach:

Review websites – Send out to as many app review websites as possible. They don’t always reply but it is worth the try. Also, look out for review websites that are specialized and in the same category as your app. This works especially well with game apps.

PR websites – Before launch have a Press Release ready and post it on different PR websites, some of them will offer that service for free but most will require registration and payment.

Social Media – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts are a must. Twitter specifically is recommended. Start following relevant accounts and people and try to engage in a conversation.

Step 4 – Listen to your users

User reviews – Check your reviews every day on the different app store. That is your user speaking to you, your most valuable channel. These users took the time to write something to you and you should be listening. Some app stores such as Google play will even let you reply back to your reviews. We have used this and it has helped us a lot!

UserVoice – There are different tools to track what your users or website visitors are saying, some with complaints and some with suggestions for new features. We use Uservoice to organize and track these requests and complaints and make sure we reply ASAP.

I had the opportunity to work in a huge Telecom operator with a customer base of 30 million. Starting as a Projects Engineer and leading small projects such as mobile applications, I improved my communication and leadership skills. I worked with teams consisting of 6 stakeholders from different departments of the organization. With different set of goals for the project from each stakeholder, my job was to align all these goals together to have the best product or service to the customer, as well as execute and launch the project within the agreed on time period, which is usually a 3 month period.

After gaining experience and people skills needed for project management, I had the opportunity to work on the BlackBerry 10 project. This was a critical project to BlackBerry, our management and I. I needed to prove my self worthy of this opportunity and put to use all my previous experience with other projects. especially that this project is very diverse and integrated in different  parts of the business such as the technical implementations and changes needed to the network, the value proposition offered to our customers and finally, logistics and handset distribution.

After assessment and several meetings with BlackBerry, I started distributing the tasks for the different teams to start development. Since this was a new project for BlackBerry as well, I faced some challenges during the project, some were due to changes in the technical architecture and others related to the final handset price. The biggest challenge of them all is having these changes while having a global launch date.

With dedication and hard work, I managed to provide an “outside the box” experience for our customers as expressed by the Regional Director of BlackBerry. Our value proposition and customer experience were much ahead and valued than the competition. Which then led to the highest handset sales for the Z10 for personal consumers between the other 2 operators.

The design and flexibility of the architecture that I developed allowed us to easily integrate and with minimal effort launch the Q10 and the Q5 handsets. Giving a consistent and reliable experience for our customers allowed for better word of mouth marketing and thus more sales.