I Have an Idea for an App. What Do I Do First?

If you’ve ever said this out loud, you’re not alone.

You might be a consultant, a physician, a VP, a nonprofit leader, a business owner, or someone deep in a specific industry who keeps thinking: There has to be a better way to do this.

You’re not trying to become a tech founder for fun. You’re trying to solve a real problem you understand deeply.

The mistake most people make?

They jump straight to tools, AI, or developers before they’ve done the work that actually determines whether an app succeeds or quietly dies.

Here’s what to do first, step by step.

Step 1: Be Honest About Who You’re Trying to Help

Before you open ChatGPT, touch a no-code tool, and Google “how much does it cost to build an app,” you need to answer one question clearly:

Who is this for?

And we’re not looking for “everyone,” “small businesses,” or  “people like me.”

You need to define a real person, in a real situation, with a real problem.

Ask yourself:

• Who experiences this problem often?
  
• When does it show up in their day or week?
  
• What happens if they don’t solve it?
  
• How are they handling it right now?
  

Literally write it down on paper or in a doc.

The more specific you are here, the easier every future feature, design, pricing, and even marketing decision becomes.

This isn’t theory. It’s why products that feel obvious to their users tend to grow faster. They’re built with someone specific in mind.

What “Good” Answers Actually Look Like

To make this less abstract, here’s an example we often use internally when coaching founders. Kindmind is a fictional product we use in discovery and strategy sessions to help clients practice audience and problem definition.

Here’s what answering these questions well looks like.

Who is this for?
People are actively looking for a therapist who wants to work with someone who understands their lived experience, identity, or values.

Not:

• “Anyone who needs therapy”
• “People interested in mental health”

But:

• Adults who are motivated to start therapy and feel anxious or discouraged about finding a provider who genuinely understands their background.

When does the problem show up?

• When someone finally decides to seek therapy
• When they open a generic therapist directory and feel overwhelmed
• When they’ve already had a mismatched or invalidating experience

This is usually a vulnerable, emotionally charged moment.

What happens if they don’t solve it?

• They delay getting help
• They settle for a provider who isn’t a good fit
• They abandon therapy altogether

How are they handling it right now?

• Scrolling large, generic directories
• Relying on word-of-mouth recommendations
• Trial-and-error appointments that take time, money, and emotional energy

The point of the exercise is to show how clearly naming the audience and the moment immediately shapes the product direction.

Once those answers are clear, everything downstream becomes easier:

• What information needs to be collected
• How onboarding should work
• What the core workflow actually is
• What “success” looks like for the user

Why This Level of Clarity Matters

When founders skip this step, they tend to ask:

• “What features should we build?”
• “What should the dashboard look like?”
• “How do we monetize this?”

When founders do this step well, they ask better questions:

• “What does this person need to feel confident right now?”
• “Where are they getting stuck?”
• “What would make this feel meaningfully better than what exists?”

That difference shows up in:

• Faster validation
• Simpler MVPs
• Better retention
• Far less wasted spend

Try This Yourself

Encourage readers to write something this specific:

This app is for [specific person]
who struggles with [specific problem]
when [specific moment or trigger],
and today they handle it by [current workaround],
which doesn’t work because [specific friction or cost].

If you can’t fill this in yet, that’s okay. It just means this is the work to do first, and not picking tools.

Step 2: Define the Problem Before You Define the Solution

Most founders start with the solution:

“I want to build an app that does X.”

Slow down, champ.

What matters more is this:

“There’s a recurring problem that looks like this.”

Before you think about features, screens, or tools, you should be able to describe the problem without mentioning your app at all.

Ask yourself:

• What’s frustrating?
• What feels slow, broken, or unnecessarily manual?
• Where do people lose time, money, or confidence?
• What do they complain about, but tolerate because they don’t see a better option?

If you can’t clearly explain the problem in a few sentences, the solution will always feel fuzzy.

A useful rule of thumb: If the problem isn’t painful, urgent, or frequent, people won’t change their behavior to use your app.

What This Looks Like in Practice 

Continuing with the same internal coaching example: Kindmind (a fictional product we use to help founders practice problem definition), notice how the problem is articulated without talking about an app, features, or technology.

A weak starting point sounds like:

“We want to build an app that helps people find the right therapist.”

That’s a solution statement. It skips the hard part.

A strong problem definition sounds like this:

• People who want to start therapy often feel overwhelmed and emotionally drained before they even book a first session.
• Searching for a therapist requires wading through long directories with little context or clarity.
• It’s hard to know upfront whether a provider will understand your identity, background, or lived experience.
• Many people book sessions, feel misunderstood, and quietly stop trying.
• The process costs time, money, and emotional energy at a moment when people already feel vulnerable.

Notice what’s missing:

• No mention of an app
• No features
• No marketplace
• No dashboards

Just the lived reality of the problem.

Once the problem is defined this clearly, the solution becomes much easier to shape, and much harder to get wrong.

Why This Step Is Non-Negotiable

When founders skip this step, they tend to build:

• Too many features
• Vague value propositions
• Products that sound good but feel unnecessary

When founders do this step well, they gain:

• Sharper product decisions
• Clearer MVP boundaries
• Stronger messaging
• Faster validation with real users

You can always change how you solve a problem, but if you misidentify the problem itself, everything downstream gets expensive.

A Simple Test You Can Use

Try completing this sentence without referencing a product:

“Right now, [specific group of people] struggle with [specific problem] because [current reality], which leads to [real consequence].”

If that sentence feels vague or hard to write, don’t move forward yet.

It’s a signal telling you where to focus next.

Step 3: Talk to Real People (Before You Build Anything)

This is the step many people skip, and massively regret later.

Once you’ve defined the audience and the problem, go talk to them.

Real IRL Conversations.

You don’t need to pitch. You’re not selling anything yet.

Ask questions like:

• “Is this actually a problem for you?”
• “How do you handle this today?”
• “What have you tried that didn’t work?”
• “If this were solved, what would ‘better’ look like?”

Then, and this part matters, share your idea.

A lot of first-time founders are afraid to do this. They worry someone will steal the idea.

Here’s the reality: Ideas are common. Execution is not.

A real-world example:

• Airbnb wasn’t the first company to let people rent rooms. What made it work was obsessing over trust, experience, and design in a way others didn’t.
• Dropbox didn’t start with a complex product! It started with a simple video to see if people even cared.

Talking to users early didn’t weaken these ideas. It strengthened them because they learned where their assumptions were wrong.

Step 4: Look at What Already Exists (Without Getting Discouraged)

Eventually, you will Google your idea and find other tools doing something similar.

That’s data.

Instead of thinking, “Someone already did this,” ask:

• What do they do well?
• Where do users get stuck?
• What do reviews complain about?
• Who does this not work for?

Competition helps you see:

• What users already understand
• What they’re willing to pay for
• Where the friction is

Your opportunity usually lives in those friction points.

Many strong products aren’t radically new ideas, they’re just better executions of familiar ones.

Step 5: Map the Core Workflow (Before Design, Before Features)

Now you’re ready to think about how your app works (but not in a technical way).

Start with the core workflow:

• What is the one main thing a user comes to do?
• What happens first?
• What happens next?
• What outcome makes them think, “This was worth it”?

This can be pen and paper. A whiteboard. Sticky notes. Literally anything.

Don’t worry about:

• Onboarding flows
• Payments
• Dashboards
• Settings
• Notifications

Those come later. Right now, you’re answering:

“What is the simplest path from problem to relief?”

If this part isn’t clear, no amount of AI or engineering will fix it.

Step 6: Start Writing User Stories (Yes, This Early)

User stories sound technical, but they’re just a way of being precise.

A simple format:

“When a user does X, the app should do Y.”

Examples:

• “When I click this button, I expect to see my data summarized.”
• “When I go back, my previous inputs should still be there.”
• “If something fails, I should know what happened.”

This does two important things:

1. It forces you to define expected behavior.
2. It gives you a way to know when something is broken.

This habit alone separates thoughtful builders from people who end up with expensive, confusing software.

Step 7: Prototype the Workflow, Not the Look

Now, and only now, is it time to prototype.

Use no-code tools if you want, but keep one rule: Don’t get distracted by design.

Early prototypes should focus on:

• Flow
• Logic
• Clarity

Many experienced teams intentionally prototype in grayscale to avoid debating colors instead of solving problems.

As you prototype, keep track of:

• What you asked the tool to do
• What worked
• What didn’t
• What you changed

This creates a clear cause-and-effect trail you’ll rely on later when things get more complex.

Step 8: Share It Again and Watch, Don’t Defend

Take your prototype back to the same people you spoke to earlier.

Don’t explain it too much. Let them click around.

Pay attention to:

• Where they hesitate
• Where they get confused
• What they expect to happen but doesn’t

This feedback is far more valuable than opinions about whether it’s “cool.”

At this stage, you’ll want to add lots of features. Most tools will let you.

Resist that urge and instead, identify three features that make someone say, “This solves my problem.”

Everything else is optional, for now.

Step 9: Think About What Makes People Come Back

Many apps fail not because people don’t like them, but because they forget about them.

Ask:

• Why would someone return tomorrow?
• What habit or routine does this fit into?
• What ongoing value does it provide?

Retention matters more than novelty.

If people use it once and disappear, scaling becomes very expensive very fast.

Step 10: Only Now Should You Think About Scaling, Developers, or Funding

If you can clearly answer:

• Who this is for
• What problem it solves
• Why your solution is better
• How users move through it
• Why they come back

Then you’re ready to talk about:

• Hiring developers
• Building real infrastructure
• Raising money
• Scaling responsibly

Skipping these steps is how founders spend a lot of money learning what they could have learned with a notebook and a few conversations.

Final Thought

Building an app isn’t about being “technical.”

It’s about being clear.

Clear about the problem.
Clear about the user.
Clear about the value.

If you do that work first, every tool, every dollar, and every decision works harder for you.

And that’s how real products get built.

FAQ Section

Q: What should I do first if I have an app idea?
A: Start by clearly identifying who the app is for and what problem it solves. Before using AI tools, no-code platforms, or hiring developers, talk to real users, validate the problem, and map the core workflow.

Q: Do I need a developer to start building an app?
A: No. Early stages should focus on problem validation, user conversations, workflow mapping, and prototyping. Hiring developers too early often leads to expensive mistakes.

Q: How do I know if my app idea is worth building?
A: If real users confirm the problem is painful, recurring, and your solution would meaningfully help them—and they’d use it more than once—you’re on the right path.

Q: Should I worry about someone stealing my app idea?
A: Generally, no. Similar ideas already exist. What matters is execution, insight, and solving the problem better than existing tools.