Scaling Apps Post-MVP: Best Practices for Tech Startups

We’ve seen many hyped apps, such as Clinkle, Quibi, Google Wave, Formspring, and Auctionata, fail miserably. These failures cost millions of dollars and often result in companies going bankrupt. So, why didn’t these apps scale and succeed as expected?

Scaling an app is not limited to technology upgrades; it’s a process that requires careful planning and execution. So, the main objective is to move from a basic prototype to a solid, dependable product that can handle more users, add new features, and stay efficient for a long time.

When a tech startup launches its Minimum Viable Product (MVP), it often experiences a mix of excitement and uncertainty. The MVP is a crucial testing ground for validating ideas and gathering user feedback. When it proves successful, the challenge shifts to scaling it effectively, which may be tricky but still possible with a few smart moves. 

This write-up will share a few of the best strategies for scaling apps post-MVP to ensure your startup gets a head-start over its competitors.

Why Scalability Matters for Digital Products?

App scaling involves more than just increasing user counts and conducting load testing. It requires a fundamental shift in mindset. This shift influences how you approach problem-solving and creating long-term value for your app. Here is why scaling your app is so crucial:

• User Retention: A slow or unresponsive app can quickly frustrate users, leading to higher churn rates. When your app struggles to keep up with demand, users may become dissatisfied and look for alternatives.
• App Speed: Scaling helps maintain fast load times and makes your app responsive to user queries quickly.
• Reliability: Traffic spikes are inevitable, which may be due to sudden surges in users or seasonal trends. A well-designed product handles traffic spikes so that it performs consistently during peak periods.
• Enhanced Features: If you want to add new features within the app, a seasoned app developer will help you implement these changes.
• Market Positioning: A scalable app that adapts to market changes and user needs gives you a strong competitive advantage.
• Future-Proofing: As your app grows, so will requirements related to technology expectations. Business leaders must be ready to adapt at all times.

Six Proven Strategies to Scale from MVP to Full Product

According to Zippia, 22% of startups fail in their first year, and 50% don’t make it past five years. Only a small number of new businesses achieve lasting success, which often happens when they take the right steps at the right time.

If you’ve created an impressive MVP but have no clue what to do next to ensure its success, below are some effective tactics that have helped us deliver successful digital solutions. 

Analyze User Feedback

App scaling starts with a thorough analysis of the feedback you received during the MVP phase. This feedback offers insights that can guide your next moves. Start by diving deep into the data to understand what users appreciate most about your app and where they see room for improvement. This involves looking at feature requests and complaints and analyzing patterns in user behavior and usage statistics.

With this understanding, you can prioritize which features to enhance or introduce. A prioritization framework such as MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won’t have) or RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) will help you make the right choices. You just focus on features that impact user experience and engagement rather than adding unnecessary complexity that might detract from your app’s core value proposition.

Optimize Your Technology Stack

It’s crucial to determine if your existing technology stack is ready to support increased user loads and growing data demands. You can begin this evaluation with cloud services, databases, and development frameworks to ensure they can handle app scaling and are reliable. If your existing stack is starting to show signs of strain, we recommend going for other scalable solutions. For instance:

• Transitioning to microservices architecture or adopting serverless computing can offer greater application scaling.
• AI-supported automation can help catalyze development
• Implement Continuous Integration/Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to streamline your deployment processes.
• Use manual and automated QA and testing tools to maintain code quality and reliability as your app grows.

Focus on Performance

Performance is one critical aspect of your digital product growth strategies. To maintain peak performance, implement comprehensive monitoring tools to track key metrics such as load times, error rates, and user engagement. These indicators will help you identify performance bottlenecks and areas of improvement.

We regularly analyze and optimize database queries, which are highly crucial, as underperforming queries slow down apps and affect user experience. When your user base grows, it will lead to an increase in data retrieval and processing, so ongoing optimization efforts are necessary to keep your app scaling and responsive.

Build a Rich User Experience

If you are a tech startup, ensuring outstanding user experience will help you retain users and encourage engagement as you scale applications. Investing in UI/UX design is crucial for making your app’s overall interface appealing to users. We focus on developing a lean, easily navigable interface that meets user requirements.

There are several available tactics and activities you can perform, including a user acceptance test (UAT), that will help you gather direct feedback and make wise design decisions. In order to offer comprehensive user assistance, don’t forget to have round-the-clock customer support. At Cubix, we usually add chatbots to handle quick queries and have a dedicated support team in place for more complex issues.

Plan for Infrastructure Growth

When it comes to scaling apps, increased traffic, and data load are among the biggest challenges faced by product owners. In such situations, cloud solutions like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure are needed to handle this growth. They allow adjusting resources dynamically based on demand, which helps manage varying loads without experiencing downtime. 

Load balancing is also another major issue in infrastructure planning. We distribute incoming requests across multiple servers, which improves performance and prevents any single server from becoming overloaded. This ensures that our app remains stable and responsive even during peak usage periods.

Develop a Marketing Strategy

You’ve got a great new product, but your app will not scale unless you have a well-defined marketing strategy to help you get the word out. A successful marketing campaign will help you expand your app’s reach and the user base. You should refine your value proposition to communicate what makes your app valuable or unique. We leverage insights gathered during the MVP stage to ensure the product resonates with clients’ brand identity. There are several common marketing practices you can follow to get the most out of the app, including:

• Digital marketing channels such as social media, SEO, and content marketing can be used to increase visibility and attract a broader audience.
• Aligning your campaigns based on user demographics and behaviors to maximize their effectiveness.
• Offer users additional features, premium content, or virtual goods directly within the app.
• Incorporate ads within your app, such as banner ads, interstitials, or native ads, and partner with ad networks to monetize user engagement.

These marketing strategies will help you effectively scale applications, attracting many audiences and creating potential revenue sources. 

Set to Lead with an Outstanding MVP?

Scaling an app post-MVP is a challenging but rewarding journey for those who put in the right efforts and resources. At Cubix, our MVP expertise knows no boundaries. We provide custom MVP development services for various use cases to help startups grow. 

Remember, app scaling is not just about increasing downloads and user engagement metrics; it’s more about creating acclaimed products that consistently deliver value. If you are a business owner, startup, or large enterprise, connect with us to discuss your winning app ideas and how our teams can build an app that’ll help your business thrive.