Powstania Warszawskiego 15
31-539 Kraków
Planning guide
Knowing how to plan a mobile app matters more than knowing how to build one. The plan decides what the first version includes, how long it takes and what it costs. This guide walks through the planning steps we go through with founders, from the first idea to a launch in the stores.
Short answer
To plan a mobile app, start with the one problem it solves for a specific group of users, not with a list of features. Write down what the first version has to prove, keep onboarding short and ask users only for the data you need. A development team then turns this into a written scope, screen mockups and a price, usually within about two weeks. A first version typically takes two to three months to build, delivered in stages you can test on your own phone.
Key takeaways for founders
The most common planning mistake we see is a feature list modeled on the biggest apps on the market. A feed from one platform, a chat from another, recommendations from a third. Each item sounds reasonable, and together they bury the one thing the app should do better than anything its users have today.
What follows is usually perfectionism. Every addition pushes the launch further away, and the product still has not met a single real user. A good first version does one job well for one group of people, and the rest waits until users show what they actually need.
A recent example: a founder planned a long onboarding with polished animations, several screens before the user saw anything useful. We could see it would cost sign ups before the app had a chance to prove itself, so we replaced it with two short screens that ask only for what the next step needs.
For everything else on the list, one question does most of the work: does the core flow work without it? If it does, it can wait. In practice this often moves things like chat between users, extra ways to sign in, referral programs or AI features to version two. None of them is a bad idea. They simply work better once you know how real users behave.
It helps to write the core flow down as a short sequence before anything else. For a home workout app with a subscription, it can be as simple as this:
Everything that serves this sequence is version one. Everything that does not is a candidate for later. Applied to the same app, the split could look like this:
The more data an app asks for up front, the more people leave before they finish. Ask only for what you need at this moment.
We see it in almost every project. A profile photo, preferences or a delivery address make more sense when the user already understands why the app needs them. Whatever the product, the order often looks like this:
For a product in a niche, the most valuable thing a founder brings is industry knowledge and a clear picture of the target group. Who the users are, what they do today without the app, what frustrates them and what would make them switch.
A development team can design the flows, choose the technology and build the product, but it cannot invent the users. When it is unclear who the app is for, even good code ends up solving the wrong problem. Before the first workshop, it helps to have short answers to four questions:
It is also worth lining up five real users you can talk to in the coming weeks. Not friends being polite, but people who have the problem today. They will give you honest feedback on the mockups and test the first builds on their phones.
A plan needs a finish line that is not the launch date. Pick one number that shows the app is doing its job, and a target with a date. Without it, every discussion about the next feature turns into a matter of taste.
For a marketplace it could be completed transactions each week by the third month. For a subscription product, how many people are still active after thirty days. For a community app, how many members post or reply each week. One number is enough, and it settles a lot of later debates about what to build next.
When founders describe a platform, they usually describe two apps: one for customers and, on a marketplace, one for providers. The third part rarely makes it into the first plan, even though the business depends on it from day one.
That part is the admin panel, where your team approves providers, settles disputes, issues refunds and edits content. It has no store listing and no users outside the company, so it is easy to forget, and when it is left for later the same work happens in spreadsheets and email threads.
To plan it, list the tasks your team will handle every week and the decisions you would not leave to an automatic rule. Each of them becomes a screen or an action in the panel. On a platform where providers meet customers in person, verifying each provider before their first job is a typical example.
A plan does not need to be long to be useful. Before you talk to any team, check whether you can answer these points in a sentence or two each. Gaps are fine, they simply show what to settle first.
A quick readiness check
Once the idea is on paper, planning with a team follows a simple path.
After a few conversations we write an initial scope and an estimate. If it works for the founder, we move to a workshop to settle the details, and only then name the final price. That way the number in the contract reflects decisions already made, not guesses.
The workshop usually takes one full working day, or two to three for more complex products. Our technical team and a UI and UX designer sit down with the founder, and with the founder's own technical team if there is one.
A good workshop is mostly questions, and the useful ones are rarely about technology. Expect to hear things like:
The workshop is also where the line between version one and version two is drawn for good. Ideas that come up later are not lost, they become the next stage. More on how we approach first versions is on our page about MVP development for startups.
A typical first version takes two to three months from the signed contract to publication in the stores. Two things stretch that time more than anything else:
Budget follows the same logic. We keep figures out of articles, but our pricing page explains how first versions are priced.
Every project is split into stages, and each one ends with a demo of working features rather than slides or status reports.
Between demos, test builds go straight to the founder's phone through Firebase App Distribution on Android and TestFlight on iPhone. So instead of waiting months, you tap through the first part of the app yourself early in the project.
A few tasks stay with the founder whoever builds the app. None of them is technical, but each can hold up the launch if it waits until the last week.
On your side during the build
Starting them while design and development are underway keeps them off the critical path.
Leave a buffer for publication. Store review sometimes takes longer than expected, and no development team can speed it up, so a launch date with a few spare days saves a stressful final week.
After launch, fixes are covered by our warranty, and ongoing work such as updates for new system versions and monitoring runs under a separate service level agreement. Our page on mobile app maintenance services has the details.
With us, about two weeks from the first conversation to a signed contract. That includes a few conversations, a first scope and estimate, and a planning workshop of one to three days.
No. The founder brings knowledge of the users and the market, and the team handles the technology. What matters most is a clear picture of who the app is for and what it should make easier.
A clearly defined scope in a product requirements document, mockups of the screens and, for some projects, a clickable prototype. Together they are the basis for the final price.
A clear picture of your users and how they handle the problem today, the one task the app should make easier, how it will make money, and examples of apps or screens you like. Real content and the rules of your business help too.
New ideas are normal once you see the app working. We plan them together with you as a next stage, with its own scope and price, so the current stage stays on track. The clearer the first scope, the fewer of these come up halfway through.
Typically two to three months from the signed contract to publication. Complex business logic and advanced payments, such as commissions and payouts, extend that time.
Written by
Thomas Siudut
Co-Founder and CEO, Apps Value
Thomas sets the company's long term strategy and direction, identifies market opportunities, and owns business development and client acquisition. He builds strategic partnerships that last beyond a single project. He works with clients from the first strategy conversation, so their business goals, not just their feature list, drive every decision.
Next step
Send us your idea or book a short call. From the first conversation you get:
Q4 Workshops Slots Available