This one might sting a little. But I think a lot of us need to hear it (myself included).

The Uncomfortable Mirror

Building apps is fun. There's something satisfying about turning a blank canvas into working software. The sidebar collapses, the data flows from SharePoint, the colors match the brand.

I see it constantly. Someone spends 40 hours on an inventory tracker. Adding custom icons, animations or other fancy things. Then you ask who's using it and the answer is… 3 people. The Excel sheet it replaced? 20 users, worked fine.

CRM implementations have failure rates between 30% and 70%, mostly because of poor adoption. The app exists, but people just don't use it.

The "Does This Need an App?" Test

Before you open Power Apps Studio, run through these 5 questions. And be honest. If you can't say yes to at least 3, the process probably needs a better spreadsheet, not an app.

1. Is someone in actual pain? Not hypothetical pain. Real, measurable pain. Like hours lost, costly mistakes or missed deadlines. If the people doing the work shrug and say "it's fine," walk away

2. Does the current solution actually fail? An ugly Excel file used by 20 people daily isn't broken. A broken process is: data getting lost, conflicting versions or errors going unnoticed

3. Will more than 5 people use this regularly? Building an app for 2 users rarely makes sense. If the count is low, a Power Automate flow or a cleaner SharePoint list does the job

4. Is the process stable enough to digitize? If the workflow changes every two weeks, your app will be outdated before you finish building it. You should be able to describe every step on paper before you automate it

5. Can you define success in numbers? "Save the team 4 hours per week." "Reduce invoice errors from 12% to under 3%." If you can't put a number on it, you can't justify the build

The Gut Check

Think about the last app you built. If you deleted it tomorrow, would anyone notice within a week?

If the answer is no, that's okay. I mean, you might be building for practice, for your portfolio or for fun right? All valid. Just don't confuse it with solving a problem your team actually has.

Sometimes the highest-value move is cleaning up that Excel file, adding some validation, writing a quick how-to doc, and calling it done. My professor in Uni once said: the best app you can build might be no app at all. And it really makes sense now.

But when everything points to a real need? Build the hell out of it. And that's when Power Apps shines. And that's exactly why I built PowerLibs: so you can spend your time on the problem, not on rebuilding a sidebar for the 15th time.

Just make sure someone asked for it first.

Cheers,

Dennis