There's an app for that

I have thought obsessively about my imagined web service lately. I called my friend Cherry to ask for her insight unto my endeavor. She is a former employee of Morningstar; while employed there she led the development of their Morningstar app.


These are the ideas I was able to glean from our conversation:

• To develop the app they began by examining user data from the Morningstar website
• Users often view their portfolios and market indices
• They then considered ways to make that experience mobile-friendly
• She organized focus groups to learn more about the ways in which customers use apps: What apps do you use and why do you use them? Do you use them frequently? What would make them better?
• Used Craigslist to find participants; inexpensive, however, inaccurate -- wrong demographic
• Posed question: Should we use app to maintain old customers or attain new customers?

Our discussion was interesting and I hope it proves to be useful, but it was not immediately actionable.