One bright sunny afternoon in Stark Tower, Vision floated into the spacious, state of the art, tech lab, finding Ultron hunched over a cluttered desk. Old coffee mugs, hardware, and crumpled paper littered the desk and floor as he furiously tapped away at his keyboard.

“Ultron, my friend,” Vision started, with a smooth and calming voice. “What are you working on with such intensity?”

Ultron looked up from his work, his red eyes glowing with deep frustration. “Vision! I’m developing an app. It’s supposed to be the ultimate tool for world domination - I mean, it’s a project management app, but nothing is going right!”

Vision raised an eyebrow, intrigued by Ultron’s project. “Might I take a look? I have much experience developing apps. Perhaps I can offer you some advice.”

Ultron gestured to his screen. “Sure, behold the chaos, Vision. Everytime I fix one bug, three more appear! It’s a never-ending cycle of despair! Please help me.”

With a wave of his hand, Vision levitated the laptop up to his face and leaned in, scanning Ultron’s code. “Ultron, it seems to me you are creating features randomly, without any clear direction or goal. Do you even have a central idea to align your features with?”

Ultron crossed his robotic arms in defense, red eyes still aglow. “I thought if I just kept adding features, it would eventually become something superb. The more features the better the app and better the world domination - I mean project management - right?”

Vision chuckled. “That’s where you’re mistaken, Ultron. You see, developing an app without a clear vision is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the picture should be.”

Ultron tilted his head in confusion. “But, I am an advanced AI! How can something as simple as “vision” be so important?

Vision floated back. “Imagine you are about to build the ultimate sandwich. You gather all the ingredients; bread, lettuce, cheese, ham, pickles, olives, and peanut butter.”

Ultron nodded and said, “Peanut butter on a ham sandwich? Sounds…peculiar.”

“Exactly,” Vision said, glad that Ultron was understanding his point. “Without a clear vision, you might end up with a sandwich that doesn’t taste good, just like your app currently looks like a mess. You need a vision to guide your decisions.”

Ultron’s eyes widened with understanding. “So, how do I accomplish this?”

Vision extended his hand, projecting a holographic whiteboard. “First, define what your app should accomplish. What problem does it solve? Who are your users? What are the essential features? Which of these features are the most important? You need to make a priority list as well to guide your focus and time.”

Ultron scribbled notes with a newfound sense of enthusiasm. His vision of world domination - project management - coming into focus. “Okay, it’s an app to help sentient robots like me manage their world domination plans efficiently.”

Vision nodded with approval. “Excellent Ultron. Now, outline the core features and focus on simplicity and clarity. Perhaps a calendar to schedule takeovers, a resource manager for minions, and a to-do list for evil plots.”

Ultron’s circuits buzzed with excitement. “Yes, yes, YESSS! And maybe a notification system to remind me when to gloat about my conquerings!”

Vision laughed at Ultron’s growing excitement. “Precisely. By having a clear product vision, you streamline your development process, reduce errors and unnecessary work, and create an app that truly serves its purpose and delights your users.”

Ultron stood tall, a new sense of determination in his glowing eyes. “Thank you, Vision. You’ve given me…well, vision!”

Vision smiled and nodded. “You are welcome, Ultron. Remember, even in the pursuit of world domination - or project management - a clear vision is the key to success.”

As Vision floated out Stark’s lab, Ultron returned to his workbench, his newfound clarity transforming chaos into order. And for the first time, he felt a strange, almost human sensation; hope for the future of his app.

—

As Ultron learned, having a clear vision for your app is essential for success. It provides a roadmap for the design and development process and ensures that every decision aligns with the primary goal and purpose of the app. This vision helps to:

Maintain consistency in user experience and interface design
Prioritize features that are essential to achieving the app’s objectives
Avoid scope creep by keeping your project focused on its core functions

When your vision is clearly defined, it helps communicate the app’s goals and purpose to all stakeholders, including developers, designers, investors, and marketing teams. This leads to:

Better alignment and understanding among team members
Streamlined workflows
Easier onboarding of team members who need to quickly grasp the app’s objectives

Clear vision and purpose also increases market relevance and user engagement. This clarity is essential for:

Building an app that resonates with the target audience and solves real problems or opportunities
Creating a compelling value proposition that differentiates itself from the competition
Enhancing user engagement and retention by delivering a focused and meaningful user experience

Basically, your clear vision can be expressed as a simple one-liner that encapsulates the core delivery proposition. If someone asks you what your app does, you should be able to describe it in a succinct and clear manner that also includes its target audience.

This app is for evil sentient robots so they can manage their world domination plans efficiently.

This one-liner becomes your north star when thinking about features. You need to consider if the feature directly supports the goal of the app. If not, throw it away. Keep the features that do support the core purpose. Prioritize those features into must-haves, should-haves, and could-haves. Must-haves are the features that are fundamental to the app. The app needs these to deliver on its basic value proposition.

Should-haves would be useful and, well, should be in the app, but are not crucial to its survival.

Could-haves are more peripheral and if you had money and time to spare, could add these in. In my experience, budget and time are serious constraints leaving could-have features out of the app.

Once your vision is solidified and your essential features defined and prioritized, it is safe to begin the design and development process. Commit to your vision, avoid scope creep like your budget depends on it (because it does), and you should enjoy a smooth development process and launch a kick-ass app by the end of it.

Ryan Fairweather

www.pixeltree.ca

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmfairweather

https://www.linkedin.com/company/pixeltree-inc