Recently we had an opportunity to speak with Pushpinder Johal, the Founder at Skygenapp Ltd about MyNotifiApp

Please share with us the backstory of what motivated you to create this app.

Before we start, can we say that we were thrilled to have won an award, to then be featured and now to being selected for an interview so THANK YOU!

I used to spend time searching emails, calendars, messages & notes for updates on the extra-curricular activities my family were engaged in. All this for a handful of clubs that we regularly used. I talked to the owners about consolidating their updates and in doing so I discovered an array of constraints they operated in. There was definitely a gap in the market for small to medium sized businesses to easily communicate updates so we embarked on the journey that led to MyNotifiApp!

What features do you hope to roll out to your app in the future?

The team is currently adapting the app to cater for educational and charity institutions. This will cover off scalability around member uploads and volume purchase of notices plus the contractual and operational processes involved.

We are also investigating how we can meet the needs of corporation and service industries that are expressing an interest in the app. The challenges here are around distribution and authorising the app to an organisation and their customers.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of the creation of this app?

The people I've met along the journey and the support I've received not only from family & friends but from colleagues & contacts all of whom pass on encouragement, ideas and further opportunities. Also, it has been so rewarding to work with www.the-app-developers.co.uk the agency behind the app. They're vibrant, geeky and down to earth. MyNotifiApp is amazing because of them, I feel lucky to work with them.

What is the coolest or most innovative feature of your app?

The app subscribes all users to a Welcome Group, we did this so that they would arrive to content. What started as a simple 'hello' has become a powerful way to engage with our user base. It's cool that we use the very features our users utilise to engage with their clients! Also, the simplicity in design disguises a multitude of complexities, this in my mind makes it quietly innovative - it looks simple, trust me it's not!

What surprised you most in your journey to create this app?

There have been many surprise along the way from the difference in platforms and user base to the challenges posed by growth BUT the greatest surprise has been the power of Social Media! I'll never forget how Twitter users identified an issue with the app that had gone undetected for months. This was a pivotal moment for the app and made me realise the power and importance of Social Media PLUS its free!

Which other mobile apps or technology have inspired you?

From a business perspective, I'm a fan of the Natwest banking app, Albert an invoicing app and the British Airways app. All of these are intuitive, simple to use and serve a single purpose. They do one thing and they do it well.

Personally, I'm quite interested in VR, I can't wait for it to revolutionise the health care and education sectors though I'm one of the few people who puts on a headset & gets disoriented, doh! Also, I hope technology advancements in the hands of smart thinkers will fix the ongoing global issues we face.

Do you have any recommendations or advice for others wanting to create a mobile app?

I could write 10,000 words here! Luckily for you I have these 10 tips instead:

1. Have a Vision.

2. Have a Plan.

3. See that Plan through.

4. Keep it simple and only address the core principles of your Vision.

5. Don't get distracted by other ideas or opinions, focus on your Vision.

6. Drop non-core or expensive features, you can collect these later.

7. Don't ever give up, many hard moments will come before and after any good ones.

8. And when you have a good moment, enjoy it BUT don't take your eye off the Vision.

9. Learn to cope with being outside your comfort zone.

10. The most important tip, don't aim for perfection. Aim to get to market at the earliest opportunity. LAUNCH then "Relearn. Release. Repeat!"

How did you decide which platforms to release your app on and do you plan on releasing your app to other platforms?

The nature of MyNotifiApp is such that it needed to be platform agnostic; groups owners invite members and those members can be on any platform. However, it didn't make financial sense to target all platforms especially for an MVP yet we needed to cover as much as we could so we selected the two largest, Android & iOS.

I'm currently investigating Microsoft Windows as the next platform. The App is gathering interest in the corporate and services sector many of whom are Microsoft users so it's a space we need to watch.

How is your app different than the rest of the market? Which unique need does it fill?

MyNotifiApp allows businesses to post updates to closed groups whilst protecting member data, only the group owner and the member can see each other. A user does not need to think about who & how to contact their group, they simply send an update and the app manages the rest.

Also, by making it a one-way post it ensures updates are in one place and don't get lost in translation. The idea is that important messages are on the private noticeboard and conversations happen outside of the app. This reduces friction for users having to manage conversations whilst ensuring their updates are heard!

You can view MyNotifiApp here