There is way more to building successful apps than just coding. In fact, coding is often the easiest part. There are many business considerations that are extremely important.

We just published an 8-hour course on the freeCodeCamp.org YouTube channel that will teach you the business of building apps.

Shad Sluiter created this course. He teaches computer science and programming classes at Grand Canyon University.  He has multiple degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics and Education, as well as a Masters degree in Computer Information Systems.

This project management course is for leaders, entrepreneurs, and software developers. You will learn everything from determining what type of app to build, effective app design, marketing and monetization strategies, choosing the right tools, hiring and managing development teams, and more.

Here are all the sections covered in this course:

Unit 1.1 What is the value proposition of your app?

  • Do you need a web app or just a better website?
  • Categories of Apps – which app category is easiest to compete in?

Unit 1.2 Identify the problem you are trying to solve with your app.

  • Candy, vitamins or addictive painkiller?
  • Fulfillment, recognition, security
  • The Five Whys

Unit 1.3 How to discover a niche in the marketplace

  • Follow popular trend
  • Add a twist
  • Your own expertise  
  • Problems in existing competition  
  • Unit 1.4 Listening to users
  • Users that exist in the market
  • Get user feedback
  • Idea 2.0
  • Homework 1.1 Airbnb and Lyft
  • Homework 1.2 App Annie and Sensor Tower
  • Homework 1.3 Write an application plan

Unit 2 UI, UX, MVP design

  • How to create user stories
  • Planning for an MVP

Unit 2.2 Designing an effective UI user interface

  • On boarding new users
  • The Google UI Case Study
  • The Photoshop Adobe UI negative Case Study
  • Effective UI elements
  • Don’t Make Me Thing Steve Krug
  • UI design templates
  • Design for your target audience
  • Unit 2.3 How to design an effective UX User Experience
  • UX is where Design strategy and Technology intersect
  • Application Flow
  • Measuring Conversion Rates
  • UX outside of the app
  • The User Empathy Map
  • Six principles for a positive UX

Unit 2.4 The MVP

  • The Lean Startup MVP concept by Eric Ries
  • Planning for future versions of your app
  • What is NOT an MVP
  • Zappos MVP Case Study
  • The MVP design pyramid
  • The purpose of an MVP
  • Keeping the cost of an MVP low
  • Homework 2.1 App Design Case Studies
  • Homework 2.2 Develop User Stories
  • Homework 2.3 Interactive UI prototype

Unit 3.1 Marketing and Monetization for an App

  • The BMC Case Study
  • Unit 3.2 Monetization Strategies of Apps
  • Apple App Store vs Google Play Store revenue
  • iOS vs Android user value per customer
  • iOS vs Android market share in various countries

Unit 3.3 Marketing Your App

  • How users discover your app

Unit 3.4 Dealing with Investors

  • Homework 3.1 Build a BMC for your app

Unit 4.1 Building Customer Loyalty

  • Why Customers Abandon Apps?
  • First-to-Mind solution
  • Compulsion
  • Morality of Addictive Apps
  • The HOOK app addictive model
  • Homework 4.1 Understanding Hook
  • Homework 4.2 Applying Hook

Unit 5.1 Choosing the Right Tools

  • Five Reasons Not to Build an App

Unit 5.2 Nine Companies Who Nailed their App

Unit 5.3 Development Languages and Cross Platform Tools

  • Homework 5.1 Compare Dev Tools
  • Homework 5.2 Recommend a Development Solution

Unit 6.1 Full Stack Considerations

  • Choosing a Database Backend
  • SQL
  • noSQL
  • SQL vs noSQL
  • Graph Database
  • Full Text Database
  • Vertical Scaling
  • Horizontal Scaling
  • Data Duplication in Distributed Databases
  • SQL Shards

Homework 6.1 Recommend Database Solutions

  • Homework 6.2 Explore API services

Unit 7.1 Hiring the Development Team

  • Four Roles of a Software Development Team
  • Product Manager
  • Product Designer
  • Front End Developer
  • Back End Developer

Unit 7.2 Mobile vs Web Development  

  • Skills Used in Mobile vs Web Development
  • Web vs Mobile Development Salaries

Unit 7.3 Agile Team Management

  • SDLC Agile vs Waterfall
  • What is Waterfall Development?
  • What is Agile Scrum Methodology?
  • The Product Backlog
  • Spring Planning
  • Sprint Backlog
  • What is a Sprint?
  • Product Increment
  • Daily Scrum
  • Sprint Review
  • Sprint Retrospective

Unit 7.4 How to Write a Job Requisition

  • Cross Field Expertise
  • Intangibles
  • Adjacent Skills
  • Portfolio
  • Homework 7.1 Team Roles
  • Homework 7.2 Internal Job Requisition
  • Homework 7.3 External Job Posting
  • Cloud Computing
  • 38 Artificial Intelligence
  • Cross Platform Dev
  • mCommerce
  • Virtual Reality
  • Augmented Reality
  • Higher Bandwidth
  • IOT
  • Wearables
  • Security
  • Blockchain
  • Beacon
  • Homework 8.1 Review Past Predictions
  • Homework 8.2 Current State of Development Tools
  • Homework 8.3 Future Mobile Tech

Watch the full course below or on the freeCodeCamp.org YouTube channel (8-hour watch).