Choosing a Mobile App Partner: What to Look For

If your business is ready to take the plunge into mobile app development, you'll need to find a great developer to help you make it happen. To ensure the process goes smoothly, Ashish Toshniwal, CEO of app development company Y Media Labs, suggested looking for these five key qualities during your search for the perfect partner or agency.

Agility

The best mobile app development partners are committed to rapid and agile product development, Toshniwal said. They comprise team members who are flexible and adapt to your evolving requirements and needs as they shift throughout the project. The best mobile app development partners never use a cookie-cutter approach. Instead, they regularly implement a custom mobile solution that is in line with your business objectives, current technology capabilities and the latest market conditions.

Toshniwal said it's important for your mobile app development partner to understand that business objectives and the mobile ecosystem often evolve rapidly. A worthy mobile team is familiar with fluctuations and will pivot accordingly to overcome challenges and harness opportunity in an ever-changing mobile space. A pragmatic mobile agency also comes up with solutions quickly — for instance, drawing up stunning visuals in a short time span, coding in two-week sprint cycles and offering working prototypes along the way. Such practices will allow the app to be fine-tuned and scaled up, if necessary.

Strategy

The best mobile business partners are always stargazing, Toshniwal said. From discovery to deployment, strategic planning is always at the forefront of their design and technology work. At the end of the day, your app is a business investment — you are developing it to establish brand presence, and increase user reach and revenue. Constant strategic brainstorming, planning and implementation are all critical to achieving these goals.

An intuitive and effective mobile product begins with an in-depth product discovery, Toshniwal said. Your mobile partner should work with you to meticulously craft custom user personas, methodically analyze the competitive landscape and build a comprehensive mobile-app road map. Furthermore, your mobile-app partner should collaborate with you to challenge product concepts and fully flesh out key app features throughout the app development process. This systematic approach will ensure a robust mobile product aligned with your business goals, Toshniwal said.

Collaboration

Authentic collaboration requires active listening, patience and drive, Toshniwal said. It promotes creative thinking, insightful brainstorming and speedy problem solving. Some of the best app ideas have come from a few people sitting in a room with a whiteboard, thinking out loud and building off of each other's thoughts.

Through experience and expertise, a good mobile partner recognizes that collaboration is a proven practice. They make the conscious effort to have regular team meetings with clients to leverage their unique experience, creativity and the client's vision to create amazing mobile experiences.