Why understanding a company’s business and revenue model is essential for designing and developing a successful web application

We know that a company’s business and revenue model are the foundation of their success. They outline how a company generates revenue and makes a profit. They are also essential for understanding the target market and the needs of potential customers. With this understanding, we can design a web application that aligns with its overall business strategy and generates the desired revenue. Tip: If you’re not sure about your revenue model, we highly recommend stepping back and conducting some market and user research. Ultimately, this can help guide your pro forma financial statement and allow you to feel more confident knowing that some of your assumptions are backed by research and data. 

Without understanding a company’s business and revenue model, we may create a web application that looks great but does not align with the needs of its target market.

If we don’t consider business and revenue models when designing a digital experience, the result could be catastrophic. The usability could be great, meaning people can find the application experience intuitive and simple, but if it doesn’t sustain and help your business grow then it’s not providing true value to your business’s overall success. In contrast, when we clearly understand a company’s business and revenue model, we can design a web application tailored to their unique needs. We’ll have stronger recommendations on where to place information about your subscription model and/or in-app upsells and cross-sells opportunities. Example: Let’s pretend that a SaaS product needs to support a subscription model, but you as the business are not confident in how much to charge. Rather than focusing just on the cost, our agency, VisualBoston, could help you gain valuable insights to help get you to that answer. We’d help focus on finding more information from prospective and/or existing customers in areas such as:

• Which features do users think provide the most value and why?

• What kinds of questions would users need to be answered before pulling out their wallets?

• What pricing structure would they prefer? On-demand, monthly vs. annual, something similar to AfterPay? Why?

• How quickly would a prospect want to make a purchase? This information is crucial because it helps you gain more empathy for what they will do outside of your platform or website. Examples could include: Google searching your business, looking for reviews (social proof), asking friends/family, comparing you to competitors, etc.

All of this information is not only helpful for your sales and marketing initiative but the website and product design can be optimized and backed by user research.

Great design can help uncover additional revenue streams

Additionally, by understanding a company’s business model revenue model, we can provide valuable input and suggestions for new revenue streams or ways to improve existing ones. 

You can find some great templates from Strategyzer here: Business canvas model https://www.strategyzer.com/canvas/business-model-canvas Value prop canvas model https://www.strategyzer.com/canvas/value-proposition-canvas

Service Blueprint https://www.nngroup.com/articles/service-blueprints-definition/

In conclusion, we believe that understanding a company’s business and revenue model is essential for creating a successful web application. We make it a priority to fully understand a potential client’s unique needs and goals before diving into the design process. By using exercises such as the business canvas model, value prop canvas, and service blueprints, we can create web applications that align with its overall business strategy and generate the desired revenue.