What information should a client prepare before custom app development?
Prepare six kinds of business evidence: who the app serves and what problem it solves, the one path the first release must complete, representative content or data, existing systems and third parties, personal data involved, and the operating regions and publishing entity. A complete PRD is not required to begin, but missing evidence permits only a range—not a fixed price and date.
Preparation is not training the client to be a product manager. It exposes facts that determine architecture, qualifications, cost, and schedule. A clear business description, workflow recording, several sanitized records, and target-user interviews are more valuable than a long list of Login, Home, and Profile screens. Wavesteam can develop the product design; the client provides business judgment, lawful data, and the operating entity.
| Material | Minimum | Decision affected | If absent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Objective and user | User, current alternative, problem, success measure | Whether to build and first value | Interview/prototype first |
| Core flow and scope | One end-to-end path, roles, exceptions, exclusions | Screens, backend, APIs, schedule | Quote discovery only |
| Content/data/hardware samples | Products, courses, forms, protocol, sanitized examples | Data model, recognition, migration | Inventory or technical proof |
| Systems and third parties | ERP/API version, payment, map, messaging, model accounts | Integration, permission, fees, dependency | Request sandbox and interfaces |
| Privacy and compliance | Data types, purpose, region, children/sector status, retention | Consent, policy, deployment, review | Legal/compliance review before build |
| Publishing and operations | Publisher, stores, regions, brand, support, moderation | Accounts, submission, continuing operation | Name owner and create accounts early |
Describe why users install the app rather than “make it like platform X.” Select the three most important tasks, map entry through completion, and cover failure, cancellation, refund, denial, and offline behaviour. Define early evidence such as pilot task completion, repeat use, conversion, or time saved. Android's core value guidance similarly emphasizes durable usefulness over feature count.
Samples must be real and sanitized. Commerce needs SKU, price, stock, and after-sales rules; education needs content structure and rights; IoT needs models, protocol, fields, commands, errors, and a test device; AI/OCR needs normal and exceptional lawful samples with approved answers. An empty shell tests pages but not search, recognition, performance, or operational effort.
Existing systems need documentation, version, sandbox access process, field definitions, and an original-vendor contact. Decide which entity opens payments, messaging, maps, push, service, analytics, and model accounts and how they charge. Use sandbox credentials in development; production secrets remain in client-controlled accounts and secret storage.
Both Apple and Google support individual and organization developer accounts. Apple's enrollment guidance explains the displayed legal name and organizational verification, including D-U-N-S requirements. Google documents personal and organization account types. A business product should normally publish through the client entity with at least two internal administrators.
The privacy inventory covers account/contact, location, media, identifiers, logs, payments, health, and user content across the app and SDKs, with purpose, necessity, retention, recipient, and deletion. Apple's App Privacy Details require disclosure of third-party code practices. Reduce collection during design rather than assembling a policy from SDK names before launch.
Publishing material includes localized names and descriptions, icons, screenshots, support URL, policy, content rights, review account, notes, age rating, and sector qualifications. Purchases, user content, login, account deletion, and background location add requirements. Wavesteam assists but cannot guarantee approval; the client owns business and material truth.
Classify unknowns as confirmed, client-supplied, third-party confirmation, or experiment. Sign a discovery or technical proof before a fixed build when a critical API, qualification, or content source is unresolved. Useful preparation links are the service process, app introduction, and submission checklist.