Season 3, Episode 25: How to launch an app (with Offer Yehudai)
Aug 13, 2024
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In this discussion, Offer Yehudai, CEO of Arya and former President of Fyber, shares his insights on launching consumer products. He emphasizes the need for a solid product foundation while balancing quick growth. Offer highlights the importance of understanding audience targets without initial data and discusses optimal metrics to track during product development. He also addresses user engagement, retention strategies, and early monetization approaches, revealing valuable lessons from consumer behavior to enhance intimacy in relationships.
Offer Yehudai highlights the crucial transition from B2B to consumer products, emphasizing the need for emotional engagement and understanding individual user value.
The importance of launching a minimal viable product (MVP) is stressed to facilitate rapid testing and validation, guiding future product iterations based on user feedback.
Deep dives
The Shift from B2B Ad Tech to Consumer Products
The transition from B2B ad tech to consumer products involves a significant shift in focus and understanding of the target market. Ofer Yehudai, having spent years in ad tech, recognized that selling to consumers is distinctly different from selling software to businesses. His journey led him to create ARIA, a platform aimed at enhancing intimacy in relationships, demonstrating a personal connection to the problem he sought to solve. This shift requires not only understanding the technical side but also determining how to emotionally engage and provide value to individual users.
Product Launch Philosophy
Launching a product effectively means prioritizing speed and validation over perfection by testing concepts quickly. Ofer emphasizes the importance of launching a minimal viable product (MVP) to gauge interest and willingness to pay, even if it means starting with a mobile web app rather than a fully developed app. This approach allows for immediate feedback and adaptation, creating a foundation for the product that is directly informed by user responses. The focus on immediate monetization not only validates the market need but also informs future iterations of the product.
Understanding User Acquisition Metrics
Measuring the success of a product launch goes beyond tracking virality; it requires a deep understanding of user acquisition metrics like cost per acquisition (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV). Ofer stresses the importance of ensuring that customer acquisition strategies are sustainable and that insights from user behavior inform future marketing and development. Analyzing which creatives attracted users and led to paid subscriptions can guide effective strategy adjustments for retention and growth. The emphasis on paid retention further informs the understanding of whether users genuinely find value in the product.
Feedback Loops for Continuous Improvement
Implementing feedback mechanisms is crucial for refining a product based on real user experiences and desires. By creating a dynamic cancellation flow, ARIA can better understand the reasons behind user churn by offering alternatives rather than simply seeking feedback. This strategic approach helps identify user needs more effectively and informs product improvements. Continually analyzing engagement alongside paid retention provides a comprehensive view of how well the product meets market demands and allows for agile adjustments to enhance user experience.
My guest on this episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast is Offer Yehudai, the CEO of Arya, a product that helps couples re-ignite intimacy in their relationships. Prior to Arya, Offer was the President of Fyber, which was acquired by Digital Turbine in 2021.
In this episode, Offer and I discuss the process and methodology of launching a consumer product. Among other things, we explore:
Offer's philosophy for launching and growing consumer products;
How to balance the desire to grow as quickly as possible and seize a market opportunity with the necessity of building a strong product foundation;
The most appropriate focal metrics to optimize against as a product is called, and how those metrics might change over time;
The right approach to thinking about audience targets at the earliest stages of product development, absent data;
How to manage product optimization at the early stages of product growth;
The right approach to monetization at the early stages of product growth.
Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:
INCRMNTAL. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
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