How to Design Your Mobile App for Maximum Growth and Ask Good Questions: Combining Two Essential Skills

How to Design Your Mobile App for Maximum Growth and Ask Good Questions: Combining Two Essential Skills

Introduction:

Designing a mobile app for maximum growth requires careful consideration of the onboarding process, user experience, and engagement strategies. Similarly, asking good questions is crucial for discovering the truth and gathering valuable information. In this article, we will explore the common points between these two skills and provide actionable advice for both app designers and question askers.

Designing Your Mobile App for Maximum Growth:

1. Utilize Tool Tips Instead of Sliding Screens: When users open your app for the first time, don't bombard them with sliding screens that provide excessive information. Instead, incorporate "tool tips" layered on top of UI elements. This allows users to learn about the app's features while taking real-time actions, promoting learning by doing.

2. Focus on Clear, Dominating Actions: Ensure that each screen of your app has only one clear, dominating action. Avoid presenting equal choices or the possibility of accidental taps on the wrong button. Simplify the user experience by reducing cognitive load and increasing the likelihood of desired actions.

3. Reward Users for Every Action: Motivate users to engage with your app by rewarding them for every small action. Implement a progress bar to create a sense of accomplishment and encourage users to complete tasks. This can increase conversions by up to 40%.

4. Maximize Send Volume from Key Channels: Identify the main channels through which your app receives invites or referrals. Focus your efforts on maximizing send volume from these channels, such as SMS referrals. By consolidating your efforts on the most effective channels, you can increase the acceptance rate of invites and drive growth.

5. Cater to Deal-Seeking Users: If your app attracts users who are primarily interested in deals rather than long-term engagement, ensure that your onboarding experience sets them up for frequent interaction. Provide clear benefits and incentives for staying engaged with the app beyond initial deals.

Asking Good Questions:

1. Story-Eliciting Questions: Tap into the power of storytelling by asking questions that prompt respondents to share their experiences and narratives. Our minds are wired to process stories, making this an effective way to elicit information and build a connection.

2. Chunking Questions: Use chunking questions to navigate the level of detail in a conversation. Chunk up to gain a broader perspective and chunk down to delve into specific examples or details. This technique helps maintain a balanced conversation and ensures that responses are neither too general nor too specific.

3. Calibrated Questions: Calibrated Questions, popularized by former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss, start with "how" and are useful for eliciting information and keeping negotiations going. These questions put pressure on the respondent to come up with answers and contemplate your problems, increasing the chances of obtaining valuable insights.

4. The Columbo Method: Adopt the persona of the famous detective Columbo to disarm and engage your conversation partner. Begin with casual, random open questions to put them at ease. Then, strategically drop a question that gets to the heart of what you want to know. Finally, use the "one last thing" technique to catch them off guard and elicit unexpected information.

5. Alexander's Question: Challenge assumptions and promote analytical humility by asking what new information would change someone's mind. This question encourages reassessment and critical thinking, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of different perspectives.

Conclusion:

Designing a mobile app for maximum growth and asking good questions both require careful consideration, strategic thinking, and an understanding of user behavior. By incorporating tool tips, focusing on clear actions, and rewarding users, app designers can enhance user engagement and drive growth. Similarly, asking story-eliciting questions, utilizing chunking techniques, and adopting effective questioning methods can help question askers extract valuable information and discover the truth. Continuously evolving and improving both app design and questioning skills is essential for long-term success in these respective domains.

Actionable Advice:

1. Implement tool tips in your app's onboarding process to provide real-time guidance for users while they navigate the app.
2. Identify the main channels through which your app receives invites or referrals and focus on maximizing send volume from those channels.
3. Experiment with different questioning techniques, such as calibrated questions and the Columbo method, to elicit valuable information and engage your conversation partners effectively.