What is Product Development?

Product development, if I will put it into easier words, is a series of steps that you take including conceptualizing, designing, development, and marketing a new or rebranded product. Throughout my career as a product owner, I have been part of many product development projects and have led them too. I often get queries from new product owners who are just starting about how to plan the product development process, what the steps included, and how we can make the process seamless.  

Here is the basic outline that I follow for developing a product in any typical scrum environment: 

●  Identification of design

●  Idea analysis

●  Idea Formation

●  Designing samples

●  Product development

“Top-performing companies are 3X more likely to prioritize investments in product development” I cannot put enough emphasis on “getting the product development right” for your company’s growth and good ROI. Therefore, it is important as a product owner you understand your contribution to make the process right and attain profitability from the same.

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Who is involved in the product development process?

Product development is a cohesive process inclusive of many smaller units. Unlike project management, it is not led by anyone but overviewed by Product owners or project managers. The process comes to a success if teams are cross-functional and help each other to achieve the goal. Here are the members who are usually involved in the product development process: 

• Product Managers- 

• Project Managers 

• Engineers/ Developers

• Designers 

• Marketing team 

• Sales team

• QA testers

• User researchers 

• Customer support 

• Stakeholders 

• Regulatory and compliance experts 

What are the stages of product development?

Ideation: Any product development starts with an idea where in you work on ideas and how they can help your users. It is a brainstorming process, which I feel should be done by all teams because you never know where a new idea is emerging. In this stage, you should only focus on “What if we did this” and counter with “But why”. This is the most important stage of product development as it defines the direction where the development will go. 

Research: Once you have finalised your idea, it is now important to do your research. It can be two ways- one is target audience research and another is competitor research. Both will help you to understand how you should develop your product and what you can do differently from the competitors to get traction. Here is the stage where in you can conduct surveys, go to your audience, and ask them questions about your idea. Before moving my product to the third stage, I always circulate a Google form with my target audience to know their opinion about the product. 

Planning: This stage is where your product will get a final shape based on the idea and research you have done. You need to plan what resources you will require to execute your product. For instance, if you are making a physical product you must know where to source the raw materials, transit details, etc. 

Prototyping and Testing: Creating a prototype product that is a mockup of what will be produced as a whole is known as the prototyping phase. This prototype, also known as a minimal viable product (MVP), is an easy but functionally equal version of your tool that will assist you in knowing any areas that require improvement. You should test your product before releasing it to make sure it will function as claimed and successfully meet the needs of your target market. Thus, you will show your prototypes to your target markets at this point and get useful input on how the product functions.

Testing: Before launching your product, it is quintessential to check if your product will work as advertised and solve your customer requirements. You will be required to use your product in real-life scenarios to see how your audience is reacting. 

If you are developing an app, you must check the user interface, any bugs if they arise, or how the user is finding it useful. All these parameters will make your product a success after launch. 

Product development: It is about producing the finished goods in the market.  After your MVP has been tested, you will use the feedback to refine your prototype and start production. Your company will probably have a separate method for developing new products. For example, you can produce goods to take feedback from the consumer and then find the loopholes that need to be filled, and that’s how you can improve your product by refining your prototype.

Commercialisation: Commercialization is the last phase of the new product development process, during which you launch your goods onto the market. This is the point at which your audiences can finally utilize the ideas, research, and iterations you've produced. To inform your audiences about your new product and to run campaigns that will persuade them to buy it, you'll carry out your marketing strategies. Even though this is the last phase, many companies release their products at this point and then later on, in response to customer input and market developments, go back and tweak them to make sure they're continually offering the greatest possible customer experience.

Also Read: Product Development Process

Why Product Development is Important

Refining current products: When I am working on any project, I always think if I were the user, would I invest my money in this? This simplifies any complication that I face during the dilemma of “Should we enhance the product”. Enhancing current products in the current market situation is essentially important and needs quick solutions for the products because it drives growth and competitiveness in the market.

To meet consumer and market demands: It is important to continuously develop and broaden the range. This will increase customer loyalty and ultimately profitability.

Stay relevant in the industry: As a business, it is extremely important for you to stay relevant in the market, therefore developing your product will help you achieve the same. 

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How to Create a Product Development Plan?

With all the experience I have gathered throughout the years, I have come up with a flow that has worked for me in almost all my projects. I am sharing the same flow with you for the product development plan that will not only help you make the process easier but also improve the quality of your product: 

1. Identify Market Need: Understanding the market is a crucial precondition for developing new products. I always find pain points that my solution can solve after knowing more about my target market and conducting research and analysis. As a result, this step creates a solid foundation for customers to discover the necessary level of utility in the new product. For example: When you take the time to really understand your target audience by dividing them into their psychographics, needs, goals, and shared interests, then you can shape a product in a better way.

2. Quantify the Opportunity: After defining the type of market requirement, I calculate the opportunity's volume size. This involves evaluating the target market's size, chances of huge earnings, and the level of competition. To set my priorities, I must first qualify the opportunity in a way that makes it clear that my effort must provide the greatest possible return on investment.

3. Conceptualise the Product: For this step, I start by precisely defining the market niche, and determining its needs and opportunities for product conceptualization. During this phase of the product development process, concepts are generated, the product's specifications and features are defined, and the user's perspective is taken into account.

4. Validate the Solution: Validating a solution ensures that the product meets market demands and user wants. It is an important step in product development. Companies may create unique products that are also highly valued and relevant to their target audience by involving users early on and iterating depending on their feedback. This procedure reduces risks, makes the best use of available resources, and eventually produces profitable products.

5. Build a Product Roadmap: There are various approaches to creating roadmaps, based on the working style of your team. Target release dates, milestones, and information about the priority customer value to be delivered are some frequent versions. Development teams should generally use a product roadmap to comprehend the product strategy, how it relates to objectives, and the rationale for the prioritization of initiatives. Development teams should produce a different delivery plan for the actual work that links to the product roadmap.

6. Develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP): It is a systematic approach and is a version of your product, it helps to validate the product and with feedback from the consumer of your product you can easily make changes that your product needs.

7. Release MVP to Test Users:  This helps in getting insightful opinions of the early adopters or target consumers who might use your product, this process helps in developing your product more uniquely.

8. Ongoing Assessment and Development: After MVP your product is tested and assessed based on consumer parameters, and user feedback, and then modify the product as per the analysis. Reviewing and improving the product is important so that it covers the market demands.

Who Benefits from Product Development?

Through the establishment of new revenue streams, product development also opens up new economic prospects, extending the lifespan and total profitability of the product. 

The benefits to the company and the development of the product extend beyond the specific development team. Customers gain immediate advantages from new technologies as they experience their positive impact on their lives through enhanced functionality, simplicity of use, and optimization. Product Development projects bring significant value increases to business management.

How Do Product Roadmaps Fit Into Product Development?

A roadmap's content may vary according to different target audiences. A roadmap acts as a powerful tool to understand everything in detail underlying the goals and to rationalize the things about the product properly. Some major benefits that you can avail from a roadmap are:

• You can evaluate things according to the market trends, consumer insight and feedback, and the goal of the organization.

• The content for the roadmap should be tailored according to the needs of the audience.

• The vision of the roadmap should be cleared so that everything in product development can work accordingly.

• You need to incorporate consumer insights and feedback on a regular basis to keep your product updated and effective.

Conclusion

Following the above-given stages, you can generate an effective product. This is particularly true for goods that are original and creative, but it also applies to fewer circumstances, like when a tech company searches for modern technologies to provide to its consumers. If you want to enhance your skills in product development or want to work as a product owner, you can enroll in our CSPO Certification Course.  

FAQs

1. What role does customer feedback play in product development?

Feedback from clients is of significant importance as it is used in changes and improvements in a given product.

2. How can companies balance innovation with risk in product development?

Innovation is part of any organisation who are producing goods and one should always opt for changes according to the surroundings and audience’s needs. The potential threats can be managed through careful market research and development, constructing models, and experimenting with protective intellectual shields while cultivating a company’s culture that supports the willingness to learn from mistakes.

3. What are some common challenges faced during the product development process?

Some common challenges faced during the product development process could possibly be:

• Time constraints and fluctuating market trends

• Product technicalities

• Allocation of resources

• Risk management

• Adapting to changes

4. How does market research contribute to successful product development?

Market research is useful for identifying profitable areas and for monitoring customer behaviour, industry trends, and competitors’ strategies. Market research is employed in the definition of certain product attributes, the best possible feature priority, and the choice of suitable price models to guarantee market success.

5. What strategies can companies use to accelerate the product development timeline?

By using the AGILE methodology, businesses can improve interdependent teamwork, shorten project completion times, and improve product development. Taking calculated risks, adopting the fast prototyping approach, doing iterative tests, and outsourcing non-core operations can all contribute to cutting down on time without sacrificing software quality. By choosing Certified Scrum Product Owner Certification you can learn everything from scratch.