So when Instagram was first built by its founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger by the way they were 1
both learning how to code in their free time when they built Instagram. 2
So for those of you guys who are learning iOS or Android app development with us keep that in mind you 3
might be making the next Instagram. 4
So anyways, so the first product that they came up with was called Bourbon and the idea was for users 5
to be able to share their location information. 6
Now when they launched they had a few users and there were people who were interested in using it. 7
This is maybe in the thousands. 8
But after a while the growth wasn't massive. 9
So at one point they had to look at what exactly were people using this Bourbon app for and they found, 10
by talking to some of the users, that a lot of people were actually using it as a photo sharing app. Just 11
to share the image that they took at a particular location. 12
And all of that location data sharing very much non-important. 13
People wanted to be able to show off their photographs. 14
So the thing that you think that your app might be about might not be the thing that uses value. 15
So you have to know who your users are and what they want to achieve using your app. And the best way 16
to do this is by profiling your users. 17
So the easiest way to go about this is a thinking exercise. 18
So keep your app in mind and then think about out of all of your friends, 19
who is this app perfect for. For David who's really geeky still painting Warhammer on the weekends. 20
Or is it for Jane who's you know really into her photography and she's like really artsy always takes 21
pictures of latte's. 22
So think about this person and build a personality into your app by tailoring around your user profiles. 23
So you can go as crazy imaginative as you want 24
but the important thing is to be granular. 25
Don't just say you know "I'm building an app for men between the age of 20 and 40." That's too broad. 26
That's like everybody. Think about making one particular person fall in love with your app and you'll 27
get pretty far. 28
All right. 29
So the main point is think about what is the core functionality of your app and profile your users to 30
continually re-evaluate that question. 31
Am I making it as easy as possible for my users to achieve a core task within my app?