Was it loveable?

Only users could tell if it was loveable, but we did our best to be so. We have a mascot, Bill, that guides people through the whole process. We put a real focus on the UI. It was very different and more refined than any other expense reporting app.

Was it intuitive?

At first, it wasn’t that much. So we tested and added an onboarding, added tool tips, added a support feature so people could chat with us directly in the app, but the app was mostly quite easy to use: just take a snap, get an Excel.

Had it been done a million times?

Nope. There were a few competitor apps doing similar things, but they mostly weren’t doing it as well as us. Apart from a few exceptions, other apps felt heavy and complicated.

Still, nobody wanted our app.

Maybe we weren’t asking ourselves the right questions? So we started thinking differently, and a whole new set of questions came to our mind.

Did it provide enough value to be on someone’s phone?

This was a bit hard to realize, but the answer is no.

Given the monthly periodicity of our app, people would open it only once a month, leaving it in the clutter the rest of the time. And what do you do when you don’t open an app? You forget about it, or you trash it.

And what do you do when you don’t open an app? You forget about it, or you trash it.

Here are the some of the most popular app categories, in no particular order:

Messaging (SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Slack…) Calendar Maps Email Camera / Photos Transportation Music Social Networks News Candy Crush

There’s a reason why they are popular on mobile: they are highly contextual and take big advantage of the phones main functionalities, be it geolocation, camera or just voice and sound. They are also aimed at repeated use in small chunks of time. How many times did you open Messenger or your email app today?

We weren’t part of any of these categories, and weren’t leveraging people’s context (be it spatial, temporal or personal) enough. All in all, we didn’t stand a chance as we were fighting with both our competitors and other apps for a few more MB of room inside people’s phones.

Could our target market get it easily?

Nope. We were targeting small businesses and figured out CFOs and office managers would hardly get everyone inside the company to download it. The app would take room inside their phones. And we were mobile-only, which is not always ideal regarding expense software.

So let’s answer one last question!

Was the juice worth the squeeze?

No, it wasn’t. We spent so much time updating our app to comply with the latest OS released by Apple or Google, debugging the app, developing new features, ensuring our UI was well-integrated in the global OS, explaining CFOs how they could get everyone to download the app, etc.

And yes, it was. We’ve made many mistakes, and learnt a lot from them. The first conclusion we have is: when you have the right answers to the wrong questions, you’re doomed. So start by asking yourself: did you get the problem right?

Conclusion

Either you’re part of a category for which presence on mobile seems natural, such as a news app, a messaging app or a game, and you’ll have to fight fierce competition, and expect big rewards if you manage to beat Whatsapp and Snapchat…

…or you’re part of the B2B world and you’ll have the hardest time finding your target from the App stores if you only have a mobile app. We’ve made our minds and for now it looks like one of the best decisions we ever took!

“Creating a mobile app? It’s a trap” — Admiral Akbar

Sorry App Store and Google Play, but we won’t play with you anymore.

Today Birdly mobile is dead, long live the new Birdly!