Tips for a Multi-Platform App Launch Strategy

If you are already fully funded and ready to take on the tech-world, I provide to you this option. Launch Everywhere! Launch on Android, iOS, Web, Windows-Phone… If necessary, you can even include a desktop release on MacOS and Windows.

Although this approach is extremely rare, I provide this option for your reference. A multi-platform launch requires an elegantly choreographed dance between, you, Project Manager, Designers, Developers, QA Testers, and Marketing. The likelihood of launching everything together at the same time, on time, is against most odds. So for that reason I say, don’t expect a fully synchronous multi-platform launch.

Thankfully there have been some advancements in software development strategies. These strategies take a more agile approach, similar to the Lean Launch strategy mentioned in my blog Lean Launch Strategy Tips for your App Idea. The key is to launch quickly and launch often.

The team structure is important; You’ll need a design team that works across all versions of your applications. You’ll need a lead architect to help organize how data is stored and distributed throughout all the applications. It will also help to hire a lead developer that can oversee all application development. You may be able to find a strong developer that has experience in Android and iOS, and Web. This will help to share common code throughout all platforms, and save time overall. However this unicorn is hard to find, so you may need to hire a junior developer for each platform.

As the development begins, you will need QA to begin testing simultaneously (a great rule for determining QA effort is, 1/4 development time should be spent on QA). As a launch date is established, you marketing and sales team should also begin to hold your developers accountable to this date. However, it’s important that your marketing team never interfere with development decisions, and visa versa (this is a whole other blog topic in itself :).

A full multi-platform requires a lot of resources, a release can cost anywhere from $10,000 up to seven figures. One thing I have learned after 10 years in Tech, is that the app design and development cycle never ends. As hardware improves, operating systems adapt to new hardware, old apps become slower, it’s a never ending cycle. You must prepare your team for a long battle. The best advice I can give to you is, release quick and release often.

For more App Launch Strategies see my main blog, Five Options for getting from App Idea to MVP.

If you have found any of this info helpful, please feel free to comment and let me know how I have helped or how I can improve. Let me know how your app progress is going. Or if you’d like to brainstorm about your app idea, shoot me an email. And lastly, all of the options I provide above are available through my design services at williamharveydesigns.com