Use Process to create Progress and Success

Dismissing that failure as losing the “app store lottery” (meaning that success or failure is out of your control) dodges important questions.

Among pundits (and would-be pundits), luck seems to be the only route to success. All games and all apps are created equal. And the success of one over another is a mystery.

Except that it probably isn’t.

I remember reading an article about an approach to getting a job from the point of view of a ‘person of religion’. To get a job you must:

1. Perform religious ritual
2. Research the job and the company
3. Perform religious ritual
4. Prepare yourself for interview
5. Perform religious ritual
6. Present yourself for interview, in your best attire.

It doesn’t matter which religion was involved, the process was the same. The obvious logic is that there were probably a few steps that could be removed from this process to get the same result (considering that some atheists have jobs).

This is relevant because there are also points in the process which are not mumbo-jumbo. There are elements in the process which, if not carried out, will cause the process to fail. This is the same with the App Store process. To succeed there are steps you must carry out and there are steps which are entirely voluntary. The danger is when you mix them up.

Write your process for your software release. Use a tool like Planzai to document your process and make it repeatable. And make sure you peer review, make sure you adapt it to each new market and, out of all, make sure you follow it.

The religious rituals in this case are entirely optional.