#24 - How to build a successful Shopify App 🚀

Crazy week. 🤯

I don't even have time to think! I have a thousand things to do!

My daily to-do list is overwhelmed. I don't even finish yesterday's tasks and have to add new ones.

I want this week to end quickly! And I'm not joking 🥲

I take some time to write this newsletter as I didn't have time to do it yesterday. Yup, I'm late!

But honestly, this email will be quick!

The launch of the new dashboard

We are launching the new dashboard. It means:

• Emails to write for the users

• Making sure everything is working properly

• The articles to prepare

And as if it wasn't enough, since we have more and more users, we're getting so many support tickets!

And even if I take only the most complicated tickets, there are a lot!

The launch of the group for Shopify App Founders

I announced it on Twitter. I am finally launching the group for Shopify App Founders with the first 100 early members.

The problem is that I didn't expect this week to be so complicated. So I think I'll need to delay the group a little bit. Otherwise I'll die before opening it.

But it's here! 100 members I personally contact by email will have the chance to get early access.

They will receive 1 secret password they can use to enter the group.

Launching a big new feature or updating your dashboard takes time. And you can make a lot of mistakes so let's see together how I prepared it:

1) The preparation

The first step before building a big new feature is to think about what you'll create. And to do that you'll need the most important thing: talking to your users.

A few months ago we contacted new or old users who made money with our apps, and even users who didn't make money. We wanted feedback on our incoming feature.

We wanted to build a new dashboard and to do that we had to understand where people thought the dashboard was complicated to understand and which important features were missing.

Based on that we listed all the things we'd have to do.

2) The mockups

Then we used Photoshop to prepare the design. It was helpful to see what the dashboard would look like.

It was also great to gather feedback from users even before building. Because you need feedback from the people who will use the app at each stage.

Based on this feedback we could change the design or even the texts.

3) Building the dashboard

This is the dev part. You validated the problem, you validated the mockup so you can start working on it.

Most people will immediately work on the 3rd step. It's a bad idea. You need to know what people want and only have a rough idea.

4) Making the tests

Then come the tests. This is where we'll ensure that the dashboard works as expected. We tried everything.

Remember something, if you find yourself thinking: "No that's ok, users will not do/think that". Well, they will!

You will always find users who will not use your app correctly, so think about that and try everything you can!

5) New helpdesk

New dashboard means new helpdesk articles. It was unthinkable to build a new dashboard without writing the articles that come with it.

I've decided to prioritize the most important articles: the articles you have to read to understand the app.

And I decided to write the other articles later when I'll have more time and based on user feedback.

So I spent time re-writing the articles (and writing some new articles). I have to do it twice! For French and English.

It was sooooo long 💀 I wanted to kill myself many times. Doing the same thing over and over again.

6) Preparing the launch

Then it was time to announce the new dashboard to the users. We sent emails and added messages to our Facebook group about the incoming update!

So that our users won't be surprised by the new dashboard and they can maybe give us last-minute feedback.

We told them all the new features and changes coming with this new dashboard.

7) The launch

Now it's launch time! We release the new dashboard and then we have to send emails to announce it!

And I record videos to announce it. It's more "human" and people love videos.

8) Post-launch

Launching a new feature is not enough, you have to communicate about it!

And that's what we'll do:

• Live about the new update

• Many emails and many posts for the next 2 weeks

That's it for this week! It's quick but I have to go back to work!

Lots of things to do!

And no worries once it's calmer I'll take time to tell you where we are, what we do and where we're going!

I have to go! Bye! (and see you next week)

Mat 😁