Black Friday Sale! 50% Off All Access

A Pivot Could Save Your Mobile App From Failing Make sure the first version of your app isn't its last by taking customer feedback into account and adapting.

By Rahul Varshneya Edited by Dan Bova

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Chances are that your new app will fail. An estimated 80 to 90 percent of apps are eventually deleted from users' phones, according to Mobilewalla founder Anindya Datta. Only a handful of apps make it past the magical 1 million downloads or $1 million in revenue.

Essentially, most apps fail to make the cut. It's not because the apps sucked in their initial form, but because their designers failed to collect the feedback and insight to rebuild them into something that people wanted to use. Don't fret if you don't get it right in the first instance.

"The startups in the tech incubator Y Combinator, whose acceptance rate is less than 3 percent, change products and markets so frequently that the idea they applied with is often irrelevant to the final product," said Paul Graham of Y Combinator.

Pivot, a term coined by The Lean Startup author Eric Ries that means "a change in strategy without a change in vision," is the answer to building a successful mobile app.

Related: Do Pivots Matter? Yes, in Almost Every Case.

Ries gives an analogy to explain the concept better: "You don't ask your car's GPS where you want to go, you tell it where you want to go and it helps you get there. Vision is where we want to go; strategy is our GPS for figuring out how to get there. That structure of experimentation, rapid iteration, and pivoting, I think that's at the foundation of modern innovation."

Successful apps did everything they could to take advantage of what they'd built so far. While you'd naturally think about remodeling the entire app itself, there are many other possible ways to pivot, based on the feedback that you draw from your customers. In particular, here are three types of pivots outlined by Ries:

Customer segment pivot: Your product may be designed for use by one customer segment, but is unexpectedly adopted by another segment. You must be able to spot this trend in the adoption of your app and pivot to serve the needs of the segment that's driving its growth or use.

A great example of this is Snapchat. The founders of the app were struggling to attract users, but it started going viral in high schools. This discovery led to the shift in focus in customer segment.

Customer problem pivot: Try and get feedback early on through early adopters of your product to understand whether the problem you're trying to solve is really a problem worth solving. In other words, this type of pivot solves a different problem for the same customer segment.

Related: How a Brand Pivot Helped This Startup Disrupt a $30 Billion Dollar Industry

Keep your ears to the ground while listening to customer feedback and evaluate whether it is a common problem across most users or just a handful of early adopters. Also, be careful and draw feedback from those who have used your app, rather than the ones who want to use your app but haven't yet.

Springpad was first launched as a notes-based app that allowed users to make lists and get organized. But it wasn't long before launching into a public beta that they heard from users that having an easier way to capture the information they want to organize was key to the app's future. And so the focus shifted.

Another interesting example is Starbucks, which pivoted when it went from selling coffee beans and espresso makers to brewing drinks.

Feature pivot: When you build a product with too many features, and you realize that customers would rather want just a few, you select those specific features from the current app and reorient the entire app around that.

Burbn started as a mashup of foursquare and Mafia Wars as a mobile web app that let you check in to locations, make plans, earn points for hanging out with friends, post pictures and more.

When the founders created the iPhone app, it felt cluttered and overrun with features. They saw mobile photos as an opportunity to try out some new ideas and spent one week prototyping a version that cut everything except for its photo, comment and like capabilities. What remained was Instagram.

Related: Why Starting Small Can Lead to a Better App

Rahul Varshneya

Co-founder at Arkenea

Rahul Varshneya is the co-founder of Arkenea, an award-winning web and mobile app development agency.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Living

These Are the 'Wealthiest and Safest' Places to Retire in the U.S. None of Them Are in Florida — and 2 States Swept the List.

More than 338,000 U.S. residents retired to a new home in 2023 — a 44% increase year over year.

Business News

DOGE Leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Say Mandating In-Person Work Would Make 'a Wave' of Federal Employees Quit

The two published an op-ed outlining their goals for their new department, including workforce reductions.

Starting a Business

This Sommelier's 'Laughable' Idea Is Disrupting the $385 Billion Wine Industry

Kristin Olszewski, founder of Nomadica, is bringing premium wine to aluminum cans, and major retailers are taking note.

Business News

These Are the Highest Paying Jobs Available Without a College Degree, According to a New Report

The median salaries for these positions go up to $102,420 per year.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Starting a Business

He Started a Business That Surpassed $100 Million in Under 3 Years: 'Consistent Revenue Right Out of the Gate'

Ryan Close, founder and CEO of Bartesian, had run a few small businesses on the side — but none of them excited him as much as the idea for a home cocktail machine.