If there’s one thing that keeps product managers always on their toes, inarguably it’s the challenge and pressure of attaining product-market fit for their brand. With new trends coming up every year and the process of product management constantly evolving, it is up to these managers to strategize accordingly and ensure their products are always on top of the game.

                          Source: ProdPad

Take a brief look at the 3 main challenges in Mobile Product Management Business and how it can be overcome –

a. Competition

It is a common tendency to be discouraged when you see your competition ahead of you. However, instead of letting it affect you, the best strategy is to realign your mission and goals, accept change and shift priorities to deliver something that would please your consumers.

b. Market fit

Getting the right market fit can be challenging, but extensive research can be done to know more about what will satisfy your consumers and help you stay above the competition. Comprehending why people are not using your app or what could have been done to retain the existing consumers is an important step. So, re-prioritizing your product based on the feedback can help your mobile product be the right fit in the market.

c. Fragmentation

Fragmented markets happen when there’s not a single influential brand to take the market in a new direction, which can affect other mid-size brands too. You can use this challenging situation to your advantage by differentiating your product from the rest to attract consumers. The expenses at this point will also be comparatively lesser, and impactful campaigns can help drive new consumers.

Knowing the right strategies to manage a mobile product does not happen in a day, but here are the product management trends of 2019 that will help you in the process:

1. Customer journeys and expectations

When it comes to a mobile product, consumers have 3 main expectations – to have a meaningful experience, a good look & feel, and the ability to satisfy their ever-evolving needs. Having a mobile product requires it to be constantly updated with consumer sentiments in order to align the product according to their needs and expectation.

A few tips for tracking your consumer sentiment properly –

• Understand the willingness of your consumers in recommending your mobile product.  You can analyze it through NPS (Net Promoter Score – that measures the loyalty between the company and the consumer)
• Instead of only ratings/reviews, opt for more open-ended feedbacks like surveys
• Keep a tab on all your social media channels and conversations
• Promote direct and easy consumer feedback in all digital fields

2. In-app payments

“During 2019, the number of users who use mobile payments to pay for purchases in US stores will reach 150 million people. This is more than 50% of the country’s total population.” (Source)

Mobile wallets have been in trend and over the past few years, top mobile brands like Apple, Samsung and Google have built their own versions. A consumer would always prefer an in-app payment option rather than carrying plastic money/cash. Businesses are always looking forward to improving customer satisfaction when it comes to in-app experiences and a frictionless payment option will only add to your advantage.

Source: Cnet

Here are the top advantages of in-app payments –

• Consumer convenience and improvement of your staff efficiency
• Less time for checkout
• Improves the overall shopping/purchasing experience
• Targeted communication for today’s tech-savvy consumers. Also, this will give you extra opportunities to create loyalty programs via push notifications, discounts, etc.

3. Personalized Experiences

“89% U.S. marketers say that personalization on their apps has resulted in an increase in revenues.” (Source)

Personalization is no more a unique feature, but a norm when it comes to a consumer’s digital experience in present times. Moreover, this trend is expected to level up this year too. In today’s times, offering just standard personalizations like targeted emails, general product recommendations or special discounts are not enough, brands need to provide incredible experiences to retain consumers.

                         Source: HIT Consultant

Factors such as past interactions, leveraging mobile features like GPS for geo-targeting and using data to track people and segment them into relevant groups can make consumer interactions and personalization more meaningful, targeted and impactful.  There’s no one-for-all strategy that works here, it has to be tailored to your business to derive the maximum advantage.

4. Software development that is consumer-centric

Previously, software development happened mostly in silos; unbothered by other business priorities. However, this trend is witnessing a change now with software developers being increasingly sensitized to customer experience. More and more developers are experiencing application usage first hand and are becoming aware of user reactions.

Keeping consumers at the center, every project is being built and aligned based on their needs. This shift from the stereotypical method to the consumer centricity method is one of the major trends this year.

5. Augmented Reality & gamification to boost app loyalty

“Augmented Reality is predicted to drive $108 billion to the VR/AR market by 2021.” (Source)

Sensational games like Pokemon GO & PubG are great examples of what Augmented Reality (AR) and gamification can do for your mobile app. Brands are constantly in the process of pushing their limits to provide the best AR experiences in mobile apps.

              Source: Recode

Gamification, on the other hand, can help motivate your users to engage with the app and in return, earn rewards. It is indeed a great marketing tactic to pique up consumer interest, increase loyalty, improve interaction and ultimately, drive sales.

6. Data-driven decision making

In the case of business decisions, the importance and availability of data are immense, but it is also important to understand it well in order to utilize it for your maximum advantage. Project managers, first of all, need to understand the amount of data they require to base their decisions, as too little or too much of it can lead to negative consequences. Secondly, the time taken for processing and accessing the data is also important, as it will help in determining whether your product has been able to keep up with the micro-trends and if it is eligible for the competitive market.

The SmartKarrot Advantage for Mobile Product Management:

SmartKarrot is the world’s first PaaS platform that offers a comprehensive set of features for engagement, incentivization, and retention. Create, monitor, manage and also tweak online engagement journeys with a simple SDK/API integration for your mobile product management, without the hassle of having to develop anything from scratch.

Why Choose SmartKarrot?

Better Analysis

Get insights about what works best for your audience in order to reach better conclusions. The analytics suite also cuts down the learning time to a great extent.

Higher Engagement

Well researched features to provide everything you need to communicate with your audience, listen to what they have to say and act on their feedback.

Easy Incentivization

It allows instant gratification with several options for incentivization. You can design, test as well as optimize your engagement journeys without getting into the tedious task of coding.

SmartKarrot Platform Features:

• SmartSegmentation
• SmartNotifications
• SmartReferral
• SmartSurvey
• SmartJourney
• SmartIncentives
• SmartGeofencing
• SmartEngagementScore
• SmartContracts
• SmartGamification
• SmartAnalytics
• Smart A/B

Get the SmartKarrot advantage for your mobile product management today!

SmartKarrot is an Engagement-as-a-Service Platform, currently in its Beta phase. You can sign up for SmartKarrot Beta to test these features for free. There are many more features like User Journey design, Incentivization, Geolocation, etc. in the pipeline. Stay in touch with us to know more about the SmartKarrot platform.

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