How do you balance the frequency and size of mobile app updates with user feedback and expectations?

1 Know your goals

Before you decide how frequently and how large to update your app, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. What are the main problems you want to solve, the main benefits you want to deliver, and the main metrics you want to improve? Having a well-defined roadmap and a prioritized backlog can help you align your updates with your goals and avoid unnecessary or irrelevant changes.

2 Understand your users

Another key factor to consider is your users' feedback and expectations. What do they like and dislike about your app? What do they need and want from it? How do they use it and how often? You can gather user insights from various sources, such as reviews, ratings, surveys, analytics, and beta testing. By listening to your users, you can tailor your updates to their needs and preferences, and also communicate with them effectively about the changes.

3 Choose your strategy

Depending on your goals and your users, you can adopt different strategies for updating your app. For example, you can opt for a continuous delivery approach, where you release small and frequent updates that are automatically deployed to your users. This can help you deliver value faster, test and iterate more easily, and reduce risks and errors. Alternatively, you can choose a scheduled or event-driven approach, where you release larger and less frequent updates that are manually downloaded by your users. This can help you create more impact, build anticipation, and avoid update fatigue.

4 Test and measure

Whatever strategy you choose, you need to test and measure the impact of your updates on your app's performance and user satisfaction. You can use various tools and methods, such as A/B testing, crash reporting, user feedback, and app store optimization, to evaluate the quality, functionality, and usability of your updates. By testing and measuring, you can identify and fix any issues, validate your assumptions, and learn from your results.

5 Optimize and refine

Finally, you need to optimize and refine your update process based on your findings and feedback. You can use data-driven and user-centric approaches, such as agile, lean, or design thinking, to improve your update cycle and deliver better outcomes. You can also experiment with different update frequencies and sizes, and see how they affect your app's performance and user satisfaction. By optimizing and refining, you can find the optimal balance between updating your app and meeting your users' expectations.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?