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The App Readiness Checklist: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Build

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Building an app is exciting. But excitement without preparation is how good ideas turn into expensive lessons.

The App Readiness Scorecard gives you a quick score, but the real value is in the thinking behind each question. This article breaks down all 10 questions, why they matter, and how to honestly assess where you stand.

1. How clear is your app idea right now?

This is the foundation everything else builds on. If you can’t explain your app in one sentence, it’s a sign the idea needs more work — not less enthusiasm, just more focus.

Things to consider:

  • The elevator test. Can you describe it in 10 seconds to someone who knows nothing about your industry? If not, the idea might be too broad or too complex for a first version.
  • Features vs. purpose. A clear idea isn’t a list of features — it’s a statement of what your app does and why someone would use it. “An app that helps freelancers track unpaid invoices” is clear. “A productivity tool for professionals” is not.
  • Vagueness is normal early on. Don’t panic if you’re still fuzzy. But recognise that clarity needs to come before code. Talking to potential users is the fastest way to sharpen a vague idea.

2. What problem does your app solve?

The best apps are painkillers, not vitamins. They solve a problem that people already know they have — and that they’re actively trying to fix in some way.

Things to consider:

  • Can you describe the pain? If you can say “People currently have to do X, which is slow / frustrating / expensive” — that’s a real problem. If your answer starts with “It would be nice if…” — you might be solving a want, not a need.
  • Who feels it most? A problem that mildly annoys millions of people is harder to build for than a problem that really hurts a smaller group. Specificity is your friend.
  • Are people already paying to solve it? If potential users are cobbling together spreadsheets, hiring assistants, or using clunky workarounds, that’s strong evidence the problem is real. If nobody’s doing anything about it, ask yourself why.

3. Have you validated this idea with real users?

Validation doesn’t mean asking your friends if they’d use your app (they’ll almost always say yes). It means gathering evidence that real people have the problem you think they have, and that they’d actually change their behaviour to use a solution.

Things to consider:

  • Friends and family are unreliable validators. They want to support you, which makes their feedback overly positive. Seek out people who have no reason to be kind.
  • Conversations beat surveys. A 20-minute conversation with a potential user will teach you more than 200 survey responses. Ask about their current behaviour, not hypothetical futures. “How do you handle this today?” is a better question than “Would you use an app that does X?”
  • Prototypes accelerate validation. Even a rough clickable prototype or a landing page with a sign-up form can generate real signal. You don’t need to build the app to validate the idea.

4. How clearly defined is your target audience?

“Everyone” is not a target audience. The most successful apps start by being indispensable to a small, well-defined group — and then expand from there.

Things to consider:

  • Get specific. “Young professionals” is too broad. “Freelance graphic designers in their first two years of business who struggle with invoicing” — that’s a target audience. The more specific you are, the easier it is to find these people, talk to them, and build something they actually want.
  • Where do they hang out? If you can’t answer this, you probably don’t know your audience well enough. Knowing where they spend time online (subreddits, Slack communities, LinkedIn groups, forums) tells you a lot about who they are and how to reach them.
  • The “everyone” trap. Thinking your app is for everyone usually means it’s designed for no one in particular. Instagram started as a photo app for photography enthusiasts. Facebook started for Harvard students. Start narrow, expand later.

5. Which best describes your MVP scope?

Your first version should be embarrassingly small. Not because you lack ambition, but because every extra feature is a bet — and the more bets you make before getting feedback, the more likely you are to waste effort on the wrong things.

Things to consider:

  • One job, done well. What is the single most important thing your app must do? If you had to ship with just one feature, what would it be? That’s your MVP.
  • Feature lists are a red flag. If you’ve got a spreadsheet of 30 features for version one, you’re building a product roadmap, not an MVP. Ruthlessly cut until it hurts — then cut a bit more.
  • Speed to learning matters more than completeness. An MVP isn’t a half-built app. It’s the smallest thing you can ship that lets you learn whether you’re on the right track. The faster you learn, the faster you improve.

6. What’s the main goal of your first version?

Your first version isn’t a showcase — it’s an experiment. If you’re building it to impress people, you’re optimising for the wrong thing. If you’re building it to learn something specific, you’re on the right track.

Things to consider:

  • Define what you want to learn. Before writing a line of code, write down the one question your first version needs to answer. “Will parents actually log their child’s meals daily?” is a hypothesis you can test. “Will people like my app?” is too vague to be useful.
  • Impressiveness is expensive. Polish, animations, and pixel-perfect design feel important — but they don’t tell you whether your idea works. Save the polish for after you’ve confirmed people want what you’re building.
  • Investors care about traction, not aesthetics. If your goal is to attract investment, a scrappy app with 500 engaged users is far more compelling than a beautiful app with zero users.

7. What’s your target timeline for launching?

Timelines matter because they force trade-offs. A tight deadline means a smaller scope. A generous timeline gives room to iterate. Neither is inherently better — but unrealistic expectations create problems.

Things to consider:

  • Urgency can be helpful, but “a few weeks” is almost always too fast for anything meaningful. Building, testing, and shipping a quality MVP — even a small one — typically takes 2-3 months at minimum. Rushing leads to shortcuts that create technical debt and a poor user experience.
  • Flexibility is a strength. The founders who build the best products are usually the ones willing to adjust timelines based on what they learn. If user feedback reveals you need to rethink a core feature, being locked into a rigid deadline works against you.
  • Factor in what you don’t see. App Store review takes time. Testing across devices takes time. Fixing the bugs that only appear when real people use your app takes time. Build buffer into your plan.

8. What best describes your current budget?

Budget shapes what’s possible. Being honest about your budget early on prevents painful surprises later — and helps you make smart decisions about scope and technology.

Things to consider:

  • “Free” has a cost. If you’re hoping to build an app for free or near-free, the cost comes in other forms: your time learning to code, lower quality from the cheapest option, or a product that can’t scale. There’s nothing wrong with bootstrapping, but be realistic about the trade-offs.
  • Budget should match ambition. A simple utility app and a social platform with real-time features have very different price tags. Make sure your budget aligns with the complexity of what you’re trying to build.
  • Dedicated funds signal commitment. Having money set aside specifically for this project means you’ve already made a decision to invest in it seriously. That mindset — treating it as a real investment rather than a side experiment — tends to lead to better outcomes.

9. How comfortable are you with changing direction based on feedback?

This might be the most important question on the list. Building a successful app almost always requires adapting based on what you learn. If you’re emotionally attached to your original vision and unwilling to change, you’re limiting your chances of success.

Things to consider:

  • Your first idea is almost never the final product. Instagram started as a location check-in app called Burbn. Slack was an internal tool built for a gaming company. The willingness to follow the data rather than your assumptions is what separates successful products from abandoned ones.
  • Pivoting isn’t failure. Changing direction based on evidence is a sign of good judgement, not a sign that your original idea was bad. The best founders hold their vision loosely and their commitment to solving the problem tightly.
  • Build feedback loops into your process. Don’t wait until launch to find out what people think. Regular check-ins with users during development — even informal ones — keep you aligned with reality.

10. How involved do you want to be during development?

The best apps come from close collaboration between the person with the idea and the person building it. Handing off your vision and hoping for the best rarely ends well.

Things to consider:

  • Your input matters more than you think. You understand your users, your market, and your goals better than any developer ever will. That context is invaluable during the hundreds of small decisions that happen during development.
  • Regular involvement catches problems early. A feature that looks right in a design can feel completely wrong when you interact with it. Seeing work-in-progress regularly — and giving honest feedback — prevents expensive late-stage rewrites.
  • Collaboration doesn’t mean micromanaging. You don’t need to understand the code. You do need to be available, responsive, and willing to make decisions when they come up. The best working relationships are built on trust and frequent communication.

Where Do You Stand?

If you’ve read through these questions and feel confident in most of your answers, you’re probably ready to start building. If several of them gave you pause, that’s not a reason to give up — it’s a reason to do a bit more groundwork first.

The time you invest in preparation pays for itself many times over. A well-defined idea, a validated problem, and a focused MVP scope are worth more than any amount of code.

Want to find out your readiness score? Take the App Readiness Scorecard — it takes less than two minutes.

Or if you’d prefer to talk it through, book a discovery call and we can figure out the right next step together.