I have an idea for your app

We launched our app (SoDunked!) just over one month ago. Ever since, we have been receiving suggestions from people for what features to add. There are a lot of good suggestions (thank you) and we have many of our own. When we are not working on the marketing for the app, we are prioritizing these ideas for when we are ready to do more development.

And, that is the big issue for us—to add features we have to go back to the developer and the graphics person and spend a good deal more money and time. We constantly question each other “should we go ahead and spend the money to add X or Y and when should we do it?”

The most common enhancement suggested to us is to be able to change the costume of the “dunkee” sitting on the dunking chair. We hear you and agree that it would be fun to do that. Other than that, people have asked for everything from customizing the background music to adding levels of difficulty.

To set our future development priorities, we employ our favorite tool—a spreadsheet. In this, we list each enhancement, write out a description, label the part of the app within which it would fit, note whether it needs graphics work or not, and other factors. Then we do our best to assign values to each potential enhancement. We consider the dollar cost, the potential added value, the risk of creating bugs and performance issues that take time and more money to resolve, and how the idea fits into the existing flow and experience of the SoDunked! app.

It is a good system, but even with the priorities laid out, is it a priority right now to make any of these enhancements?  We don’t know! The calculus for how and when to enhance any product—not just an iPhone app—is unique to each product. Surely some marketing expert would tell us that there are certain predictable patterns and triggers in product development that we could follow. Presumedly this calculus should include money and time cost weighed against benefit. Clearly we have research to do to help inform our decisions. But, we are short on time! We are very focused, and rightly so, on the marketing.

Hmm, did I just answer my own question? Given the limited time we have available to spend on the app as we juggle our day jobs and children, we only have time to do the marketing right now.

Maybe it IS that simple.

We also know from early user feedback that the product we have—as is—is a good product. For those “gamers” who expect a more complex experience, we dream of that one day, but it is not really a game as much as a simple entertainment experience. For kids, it is meant to be fun to take pictures, name them, and try hitting the target. For adults, it is meant to be fun to dunk someone and share it via social media. We don’t want to suggest you dunk Justin Bieber, Simon Cowell, or Flo (the lady from that 'heavenly' auto insurance commercial) and then post it to your Facebook page, but maybe that’s what makes it fun for some people. There are always bosses to dunk and neighbors who parked in the space you shoveled out, too.

All that said, if you could ask for any enhancement to the SoDunked! app or to some other favorite app you have on your iPhone or iPod Touch, what would it be? We love to hear user feedback and we are also curious about what makes you wish you could tweak any app. Send us an email to sodunked@sodunked.com and we will add the SoDunked! ideas to our list for consideration.

Also, don’t forget we are having a contest to win a $100 iTunes gift card! All you have to do to enter is play SoDunked! and, from within the app, send us an email. If you have questions about the contest, please feel free to write to us.