Why specialist mobile teams outperform generalist digital teams

Mobile demands a different mindset, a different toolkit, and a different set of skills to other digital channels. The difference between a generalist team and a mobile-first team can be the difference between an app that delights users and becomes a part of their routine and one that gets swiftly deleted for storage space.

In this edition of Mobile Done Right, a series of articles where I explore how to do mobile well, we’ll dive into why mobile specialist teams outperform generalist digital teams - and why this matters for your product, end users, and business.

Mobile has its own rules

Whilst many approach mobile as “just another digital channel”, experienced mobile specialists understand the reality that it is actually more demanding, and more personal than web.

So what does this mean for a mobile team?

• Engineers: need to design around gesture thresholds, device fragmentation, OS-level APIs, and battery optimisation. They need to know how to make background tasks reliable, how to keep apps stable under poor connectivity, and how to appease the ever-shifting requirements of App Store and Play Store submissions.

• Designers: need to think about thumb zones, dynamic type, and accessibility features. They can’t just shrink down a desktop design; they need to build for natural, one-handed interactions in a constantly interruptible environment.

• QA testers: need to test for the real world situations such as offline states, patchy 4G, users switching between apps, or leaving something running in the background for hours.

When generalist teams do not account for these nuances, the end result can be disastrous.

Taking a retail app from bloated to brilliant

In recent years, Apadmi has worked with a major retail brand who had spent over a year with an in-house digital team on their flagship mobile product. On the surface, it looked OK and the demos ticked all the boxes.

But in the hands of real customers, it was a different story. The hybrid build was bloated, sluggish, and unstable. Crash rates were high, reviews were less than complimentary, and retention was low.

When we rebuilt the app using native components and mobile-first design principles, we stripped out 40% of the codebase. Performance doubled, crash rates dropped and ratings improved. The app finally felt like it belonged on a user’s phone, not like a website squeezed awkwardly into a smaller frame.

It’s a pattern we’ve seen time and again; cutting corners on mobile rarely saves money in the long run. It just defers the cost until customers start voting with their feet (or thumbs in this case).

Fast, lean, reliable mobile experiences

Mobile specialists know how to design for repeat engagement, how to build for moments of interruption, and how to use device-level capabilities (like biometrics, or push notifications) to add real value.

Research also shows that native apps convert at rates up to 3x higher than mobile web, largely thanks to smoother performance and better UX, with apps that load in under two seconds seeing retention rates 2x higher than slower counterparts.

Generalist teams often miss these nuances, or fail to deliver expected performance because mobile is just one of many things on their plate, meanwhile, specialist teams live and breathe them.

In truth, great mobile apps are the result of combining mobile-first thinking, the right tech stack, and the right people. When you put your app in the hands of experienced specialists across design, engineering, and testing, the difference is night and day. Performance is sharper, journeys are smoother and your customers are happier.

Mobile is the most personal channel your business has, and it deserves teams who know how to get it right - reach out to our specialists today to add true mobile expertise to your team.