#206: Evolving apps: Meeting user needs and staying intuitive with Paul Sakhatskyi, Head of Product Marketing at Readdle

Business of Apps Podcast

I think for all of us this experience is familiar. We download a new app we’ve been looking for to fulfill specific needs and for some time the experience is great. Then your needs may evolve and now you need a new version of the app to cover it. If your updated requirements for the app are more or less in line with what other people need, and if the developer closely monitor these needs, soon you’ll get the updated version.

Of course, the opposite is as likely - you may never get an update for the app, you can’t wait anymore and you go and download a similar app from other company. So, the question - how do app developers’ team can keep their users happy? On the other hand, how do you make sure that over time your app stays intuitive for its users?

Well, today we have Paul to talk about how their team handles these hard questions for their app Documents.

Today’s Topics Include:

• Paul's background
• About Readdle
• The Documents app by Readdle quick overview
• Staying ahead of app users' evolving needs
• Introducing new features while keeping user experience familiar
• Android or iOS?
• Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Paul miss most?
• What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

• Paul Sakhatskyi on LinkedIn
• Readdle
• Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

Quotes from Paul Sakhatskyi:

"So this is a very interesting question because we can look at it from different perspectives. So, I think there are two components, major components in this area. The first one, you should definitely reflect current needs of your users all the time, addressing their requests, addressing their issues, addressing new technologies that emerge all the time. But at the same time, you need to look forward to create something that people and users might not think about right now."

"We are using multiple things here. So first of all, we don't do dramatic changes that touch every single piece of the product. So we break it down into kind of components, use cases. So for example, we might redesign or create a new hypothesis, for example, an audio editing that we have inside the app. And we launch it."

Host

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012