Product Development Process

What is the Product Development Process?

Perhaps the most pivotal role in the entire product development process is the Product Manager or Product Development Manager (PDM). ´

With them being responsible for the success of a business’s products, they are normally the driving force in the development process.

Nevertheless, departmental cooperation encompassing design and development, marketing, finance and sales, and testing, is essential.

The role of the Product Manager nonetheless is overarching since it is they who will draw together the departments of the organization, use the product roadmap to promote strategic objectives and have oversight of the development team’s operations.

Phases of the process

There are a variety of specific ways by which the process of the product’s development can take place. Broader concepts that tend to appear in each case, and are widely accepted are:

• Ideas This is the phase where the business harvests ideas. The organization may even have an Idea Management System with specific channels in place to collect ideas from its workforce. The leadership team will want to encourage a constant stream of future concepts - both from staff and from any other source - and a management framework facilitates this. Brainstorming sessions and lateral thinking exercises can be conducted as well as market research through surveys and interviews.

• Research and evaluation In the first instance at this point, work starts on weeding out ideas that are wild, inappropriate, or even fanciful. Work can then begin with evaluating possibilities. Things like market research, further consumer feedback, identifying prospective customers, and assessing competition, are all components of attempting to determine the viability of the idea. Certainly, a key concept that is taken into consideration will be whether or not the concept aligns with the business's strategic objectives. If it does not, and it cannot be modified to meet those aims, the idea will be cast aside.

• Planning Once an idea has passed the viability test, planning for the project begins. Financing will be set in place with budget allocations for different product strands, staff resources and tasking designations worked out, product specifications set, and engineering methods described. This is where the product moves from being largely conceptual to being more tangible.

• Development This is the exclusive vicinity of the development team. Various aspects of the product’s realization will occur through operations such as framework development, dependency planning, sprints, project strand merging, quality assurance, etc. Beta testing might occur so that the product can be assessed in a real-world environment and feedback from consumers and the market is possible. This is where the minimum viable product is formalized. A prototype might also be made available to stakeholders. Technical documentation pertaining uniquely to the product will ideally have been written as the project progresses.

• Market preparation Sourcing materials, scaling, channels for distribution, pricing points for the product, and a product launch plan are all implemented in order to prepare the product to enter the marketplace. Financial, marketing, and sales documentation will be collated in this phase.

Finally, the product will then be launched into the marketplace. Depending on the product and the business, the stages of development may overlap. Although the phases tend to begin sequentially and are interdependent, it is often expedient to begin a phase before the previous one has finished. Market preparation, for example, can start before the product has been completely developed.

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Established practice in product development

• Choose a methodology There are a number of frameworks that have been evinced to develop products for business. Utilizing one of them is an astute place to start. Product Development grows in complexity as an idea travels through the development process from concept to reality. Following a framework is essential for retaining effective oversight and delivery of the project. Examples of concepts in existence are the IDEO approach, the BAH model, the Stage-gate model, the Lean Start-up approach, and the Exploratory Product Development approach.

• Consumer understanding and attitude The seed of an idea may have been spawned in any manner, from a moment of clarity of a single individual to the collaboration of many groups based on a gap in the market. In any case, having an understanding of the attitude and behavior of the product’s consumers is a major advantage. Integrating consumer intelligence throughout the development wherever possible will serve to keep the product relevant and market-fit, from early validation of the concept to real-world beta testing in later development.

• Idea generation Be open to entertaining ideas from anywhere within the organization’s workforce. A business relies on a steady stream of incoming ideas. Furthermore, any member of any team can hit upon an idea for a great product, and dismissing any individuals or groups can mean missing a successful commercial opportunity. By creating an initiative or a system to capture ideas across the whole organization, no opportunities go unchecked and the workforce will feel more fulfilled and motivated.

• Communication Keep avenues of communication within the organization robust. This is so expertise and knowledge can be readily transmitted from person to person, across teams, across departments, and throughout the business. This is a common failing of many organizations and things like missed opportunities, accumulated technical debt, failure to share innovation, poor mentoring, and deficient leadership, are among the issues that can arise.

• Timelines and deadlines

Be realistic and pragmatic when laying down development timelines. Using roadmaps to guide the progress of the product can help to create efficient working schedules. These can also aid in prioritizing the right initiatives in the right order as well as determining relationships between the project’s dependencies.

The product development process is driven by the Product Manager, who is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the product. That said, the product development process requires input from multiple departments. 

Product Managers act as the strategic directors of the development process to ensure each department is aligned with the product goals and can work as a cross-functional unit. 

Several popular systems have been created to aid the product development process, including:

• Design thinking - Design thinking is a framework designed to instill maximum value into a product by empathizing with the user’s wants, needs, and pain points. 

• The New Product Development (NPD) Framework - This framework is a typical composite approach used to develop physical products.

3 Pillars - This simplistic framework breaks the development process into three distinct areas — product discovery, product planning, and product development.

Product development stages

There are many product development systems that product teams can use, and many of these systems have similar stages.

Ideation

Before the team can develop a product, they first need to figure out what that product will be. This stage is an intensive process because it involves a wide range of research activities including:

• Identifying the target audience

• Competitive analysis to see if competitors already offer what you’re looking to create

• Identifying required functionality

• SWOT analysis

Product definition

The product definition stage allows teams to refine their product strategy. This stage is occasionally referred to as scoping or concept development.

The team will need to define specifics at this stage, including:

• Business analysis - Business analysis involves mapping out distribution strategy, ecommerce strategy, and deeper competitive analysis. This step will help build a clearly defined product roadmap.

• Success metrics - Success metrics help you gauge if the product was successful. Create these metrics early so you can evaluate and measure success once the product launches. 

• Value proposition - What problem is this product solving? How does it differ from existing products on the market? You can start shaping your marketing strategy by identifying the product’s main value.

• Marketing strategy - How do you plan to market this product? You can use everything you’ve discovered during this stage to shape your marketing strategy. These plans will likely change throughout the process, but it’s important to establish marketing intentions early to help shape the development process. 

Prototyping

Early-stage prototypes may just be scribbles on a napkin, but they’re an important part of the development process. Even the simplest wireframes can unearth potential problems early on, making it easier and cheaper to fix the issue. Early prototypes can also be used for market research and testing. 

Initial design

The product will likely go through many iterations. At the initial design stage, you simply want to connect with stakeholders and gain user feedback to help shape the development using actual, hands-on usage. 

Validation and testing

Before releasing your product, you need to make sure it functions as intended and offers real value to the user. To refine the product, you’ll need to go through multiple testing stages. Once validation and testing are complete, you’re ready to hit the market!

Product creation

Product creation is a tricky thing to master. No matter what market you’re looking to target, it’s a fast-moving and highly competitive environment. 

To create brand new products that perform well, you need to:

• Position yourself as a unique option - How does your product differ from existing products? 

• Consider charitable partnerships - Businesses that align with charitable causes will often gain more traction than those that don’t. 

• Focus on quality - Never rush your development process or skimp on quality. The higher your product's quality, the more likely consumers are to buy it.

• Refine your product early - If you rush a product to market, your potential customers will often wait to see how future refinements improve it. During that time, you may not have enough sales to warrant keeping the product on the market.

Get feedback - Involve your target audience in the development process! Find out what customers want and need directly, rather than only using market research.

Agile product development processes

Adopting Agile practices can elevate your team and product development process. It helps you tap into a range of benefits, including: 

• Continuous learning: Agile’s iterative nature allows teams to truly understand what works and what doesn’t when creating products. Each iteration provides a new opportunity to learn and improve their craft.

• Value-driven development: Every iteration allows the team to gather feedback to see how the product is stacking up and what level of value is available. 

• Adaptability: Agile product development processes enable teams to pivot quickly to ensure you pack as much value as possible into the product.

• Better collaboration: Breaking product development into manageable tasks enables better collaboration and makes assigning tasks to the right people simple.

• Improved stakeholder engagement: Agile workflows provide more opportunities to loop in stakeholders with progress updates.

The role of data in product development

We have access to more data than ever in product management. PMs have so much data that they can use to craft the product development process and ensure success.

Product managers can use data to help with essential tasks, including:

• Market analysis: Data is your best tool to keep on top of how your target market is doing. You can use it to predict trends, understand market dynamics, and forecast consumer demands. This will help you stay ahead of the curve and give you an edge against competitors. 

• User behavior analysis: Tracking user behavior is a great way to identify how your product is performing and influence future development decisions. Collecting data provides a highly accurate picture of how users interact with your product without disrupting their experience. 

• Performance metrics: Data will play a large part in how you measure performance and set targets for key metrics, such as conversion rates, customer satisfaction, and new users. 

Product development process risks

No matter what your product development process looks like, you will always face risks. Here are some tips to help navigate risk during development:

• Identify the potential risks early on: The sooner you identify any risk, the sooner you can take action to prevent any issues.

• Discuss and prioritize the risks: Which risks present the most danger for this development cycle? Understanding which risks could be more disruptive will help focus your efforts.

• Know the reason behind risks and their impact: It’s not enough to know the risks. You need to know how they’ll happen and how they’ll impact the project. Simply saying “there are risks” does nothing to mitigate them or prepare the team.

• Build a risk mitigation plan: Once you’ve identified the risks and their potential impact, you can start building a plan for mitigating them. Discuss as a team what you can do to reduce the possibility of each risk and what to do if the risk does occur.