Thursday, September 10, 2015

Managing App constellation and App unbundling








App unbundling is nothing but carving out specific functionalities from the app and offer them as stand alone specialty apps under the a single umbrella and in turn create app constellation. It is not necessary that App constellation will always be created by carving out some feature from the existing app, a new feature can also be launched as a new app. Unbundling has received a lot of attention from big and small players equally in the recent past.

This post will not only ask the right questions to help you decide on your app strategy, but also give you the pointers which could make all the difference

Why create App constellation?

Mutually exclusive user segments primarily use only selected functionalities of the app. Hence it makes perfect sense to unbundle the app for specific users. Also assimilating more and more features into a single app makes it bulky, clumsy, prone to more crashes and requiring more frequent releases then what users would tolerate.

It is also an effective way to use your established app with a large user base to drive traffic and distribution towards your newer app.


When to unbundle

It is easy to see the need of unbundling if you have strong use cases for separate apps or even when the app you are splitting into is not just a feature, but a full fledged service. But the need is not this clear. Some of the subtle cases which are easy to miss include 

1. The prime spot dilemma - Competition arising among different functions for the primary CTA and all are equally important for a great user experience.

2. The Growth boost selective blindness - User base and feature set combination grows beyond initial focus but continues to serve the original mission


Advantages of Unbundling

1. Faster Iterations - Less the usecases an app caters, lesser the QA cycle will be and the time to market will be slightly faster

2. Robustness - Less the features in the app, lesser will be the complexity and in turn lesser the number of crashes

3. Specialized and Simplified experience - Mobile app user is often task oriented. In other words users almost exclusively use selected features. Unbundling allows you to concentrate on more targeted user base and what they want

4. Increased ad inventory, Controlled update cycles, App size arrest are some added advantages of unbundling


Challenges in App unbundling

1. Increased cost of user acquisition - App user acquisition cost easily ranges between $1 - $10. So the more the number of apps, the higher the spends will be.

2. Navigating the development and design requirements - Since every organization has limited set of resources, the more apps you add in your portfolio the difficult it becomes to deal with the versions, interoperability and keeping pace with the app upgrades.

3. Keeping the engagement high over time - It becomes difficult to keep the users always excited about your app with a limited set of features and specialized offerings.

4. Play store visibility - Gaining visibility in the app stores can be magnified when dealing with multiple apps. Though with the latest Play store desktop revamp, I believe it turns to your advantage. At least the right rail of your app page will not be taken over by competitors apps showing up there.

5. Network effect - Demand-side economies of scale can go for a toss if the existing user base starts splitting in unintended fashion

6. App rank - Play store rank is an indirect is a function of download, which will go down with split in the marketing efforts & users

7. Authentic experience confusion - A confusion can easily arise in users mind if he sees multiple apps from a same developer to which one would fit his needs in the best possible way

8. Also, lets not forget about the fact that should matter most - Inconvenience to users. As more storage is needed for installing multiple apps, the chances of app cannibalisation increases drastically



Types of App constellations / Ways to Unbundle 

1. Based on User segment
(Zomato for business, Zomato order, Zomato restaurant finder, Linkedin Recruiter)

2. Based on a strong specific use cases
(Linkedin’s Job search, Linkedin Pulse, FB messenger)

3. Based on operating Market
(OLX Brazil, OLX Indonesia, etc.)

4. Based on Premium features
(Nova Launcher prime, CamScanner License)

5. Based on Verticals
(Gdrive – Sheets, Docs, Slides,)


Best practices

1. Keep it light - Constellation apps should be lightweight as the overlapping user segments will probably need to have more than 1 app now on their devices

2. Have a Transition period - Before you require your users to download the new app, ensure they understand what it is and how the new app is going to better serve their needs. The additional benefit of this approach is to work out any kinks in the new app

3. Cross App login - Automatic profile transition and login helps with the user adoption as they can directly start using it

4. Avoid the Nuclear approach – Don’t force the download with the approach of download the app or loose this feature. Forcing download results in –ve app rating and can potentially lose a user segment

5. Cross promotion and interaction - Create the communication bridge between different apps. Surface the entry to other apps at right places but in a subtle way. Keep the path open for cross app back and forth


Stats that matters

Following are some numbers that you should consider before deciding on going down the unbundling road

1. Apps used by users per month : ~ 20-25 (varies depending upon the user market)
2. Average Apps installed per phone: ~ 20-25
3. Most users generally use ~20% of overall experience of an app (except the game apps)

4. The amount of time users spend on apps increased from 2013 to 2014, but the average number of apps actually used remained flat year-over-year at roughly 26

5. Finally, do an analysis identifying the overlap of users between the usecases you are planning to separate. If the number of users is high, take a pause and re-assess the whole strategy


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