Product strategy
Ideas, MVP scope, categories, growth stages
Start with the playbook: mobile-apps — the rules that matter most, with links into these notes.
- Choosing an app category by revenue per install (RPI)Which app categories earn the most per install (health & fitness, education, business per RevenueCat), the RPI and revenue-to-download ratios Steve P. Young looks for, and how to estimate competitors' revenue.
- Designing the first version for conversion — UI/UX as the differentiatorWhy an app's v1 design must be built around conversion and revenue from the start, and why polished UI/UX is the main differentiator now that AI makes building easy.
- Finding app ideas from search demand — the Tentacle StrategySteve P. Young's step-by-step method to pick an app idea by finding an under-served keyword "tentacle" of a big, high-earning app (e.g. brown noise from Endel/Calm), validated before building.
- Reserving a marketing budget and choosing the first channelWhy new apps fail without an earmarked marketing budget, and Steve P. Young's default first channels (ASO + Apple Ads), with the warning that viral social views often don't convert to downloads.
- Scoping the first version — solve one problemWhy first-time founders should ship an app that solves one problem (not a multi-tool), and how Steve P. Young pairs a one-feature build with one keyword and a hard paywall to test demand.
- What building an app costs in 2026 — AI coding, hosting, startup creditsAn agency's 2026 numbers — v1 in ~2 months instead of ~6 with AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex), dedicated hosting at $100–150/month vs $600–800 cloud, and startup credits from Azure, Stripe, Cloudflare.
- What to work on at each stage — from launch to paid adsSteve P. Young's stage gates for a new app — rank