A couple of years ago, I noticed a need in one of my clients. There was a gap in functionality between the Salesforce platform and all available packages. This includes all official apps on the AppExchange and unlisted apps, which only Google knows about.
So I went about building a Salesforce app. With the image of this client in mind, I created a comprehensive app that seemed to fit all of their needs.
Not all work was done by me. As an architect, I was able to design the data model, build flows, and decide the product roadmap easily enough. For the complex apex code, I hired a developer to help. Reviewing his code was a guilty pleasure – I used to be a software developer in a previous life. Now I could only drool over his work and praise him accordingly.
As I discovered, designing and building an app is only a fraction of the overall process. Until recently, it still lacked
- A go-to-market strategy
- A partnership model
- A pricing model
These are kinda important, you know, and not as straightforward for me to distill 🙂
The takeaway
Going through this process provided me with a new found respect for Salesforce apps. Building a custom app for a single client is one thing; commercializing it for the masses is quite another.
PS. The reason why this email is late in the day is because I was deeply focused on the app.