At this point you have a design brief, draft specification, a plan, a proposal and acceptance.
Now the product development project needs a champion on both sides of the fence.
One person on your side and one person on the developer side must maintain an overview of the project and resources; what is being done, what is going well, what is not, what key decisions need to be made and when; what will need more effort than expected, or less, etc.
If you’re the founder of a small startup or scale-up, you may have to be the main contact, until your project or company grows and you can build your team.
If you have a larger business and multi-disciplinary projects, you can assign parallel resources and encourage them to communicate frequently and directly.
A large product development firm like Outerspace Design can usually fill any talent or skill gaps on the product development team.
harness successful product development in 10 steps
We’ve broken the process down in ten key steps.
1. start big picture, then go small
It’s important to start by answering some big picture questions before you launch into developing a product.
If you can’t clearly answer or articulate the problems that the product will solve, that’s a big red flag.
Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.
This principle also applies to the design of the product.
Make sure you get the product format right before defining and refining the details.
A good analogy is house design – the layout is the most important factor, and everything builds on that.
2. get the design brief right
The design brief sets the foundation of a good project. Take the time to get it right.
A good design brief leads naturally to a detailed product specification and proposal.
Don’t be afraid of ambiguity. You can’t be expected to have all the answers at the beginning, especially on a research and development project, but make sure both you and your team are clear on which questions are unanswered, and how you plan to answer them.
Talking to a product development firm like Outerspace Design can help here.
3. collaborate with a product development team
Establish a spirit of cooperation early on with a professional product development firm that empathises with your aspirations. This collaboration will be win-win. A good product development firm will –
Remember a trusted product development firm, like Outerspace Design, has walked this road before, and can provide you with wisdom and guidance.
4. plan it out
A product development firm will plan out all the stages and tasks for you. They formulate a strategy to achieve the project goals while managing costs and risks. The plan translates into a proposal by an experienced Project Manager or Estimator once each of the tasks are given a –
Your product development project plan should include –
Remember later stage estimates can be fuzzy. As the project proceeds, later stage plans get clearer during the project.
5. establish resourcing and responsibilities
At this point you have a design brief, draft specification, a plan, a proposal and acceptance.
Now the product development project needs a champion on both sides of the fence.
One person on your side and one person on the developer side must maintain an overview of the project and resources; what is being done, what is going well, what is not, what key decisions need to be made and when; what will need more effort than expected, or less, etc.
If you’re the founder of a small startup or scale-up, you may have to be the main contact, until your project or company grows and you can build your team.
If you have a larger business and multi-disciplinary projects, you can assign parallel resources and encourage them to communicate frequently and directly.
A large product development firm like Outerspace Design can usually fill any talent or skill gaps on the product development team.
6. feel surprise and delight
Ideally the champions on both sides do a deep dive and become subject matter experts to some degree.
Once some foundation research (market, user, competitors) is conducted, go wide with ideation, then pull back and narrow down to selected concept directions.
A good product development firm will make sure some of their concepts match exactly what you want, and meet your expectations.
This shows that they understand where you are coming from. They should also surprise you with some concepts that push the boundaries and show you what the product could be.
This doesn’t mean creating something impossible to manufacture. It’s about realistic concept design.
They should turn insights from their research into opportunities and features or formats that push the brief.
7. visualize and mockup early
A new product idea can be quite theoretical and difficult to imagine, early in the project.
Once you’ve seen good visualizations and mockups of a great product concept, something magical happens.
The product becomes so much more real and tangible and inspiring. Excitement levels increase. The quality and detail of discussion and feedback improve dramatically.
Visualizations and mockups help the project to gain momentum. Visual assets can be leveraged to –
8. iterate early and often
It’s never been easier, faster or cheaper to iterate. Define, design, prototype, test, evaluate, refine, repeat. Use it to your advantage.
You can launch with the sixth or seventh version of your product. Get unbiased feedback from your actual target segment. It can be difficult and expensive, but this is one of the most important and overlooked aspects of product development.
It’s more expensive to launch a product that’s not ready, than to conduct primary market research.
There are several marketing research techniques and tools available, and this function can be outsourced to a third party.
The discipline and insights are important for savvy investors.
9. be flexible, but beware the dynamic target
Any product development project should be flexible enough to adapt to new information, feedback or insights.
However, these should be deliberate adaptations to statistically significant real world data, not one person’s opinion.
Some exceptions can be made for subject matter experts!
Sometimes you get nervous about risk before launch, and think that increasing performance and adding new features will increase a product’s chance of success.
Beware – these moving goal posts increase the development cost, the time to market, and the product sale price, all of which contribute to the project’s risk.
A better approach tends to be to launch early with a solid value proposition, while immediately developing your Gen 2 offering.
Be your own competition.
10. communicate
Make sure you and your product development team have regular meetings and share progress.
Decisions made by each department have knock-on effects on others. Progress can be difficult and costly to rework. Ensure the champion or Project Manager is kept in the loop.
It’s also important to receive regular updates. However, too many updates can be an exhausting distraction for everyone involved.
You engage a firm, like Outerspace Design to handle the day-to-day product development decisions, and their wisdom and experience is knowing when to involve you in decisions.
Outerspace is a multidisciplinary product development powerhouse. From scale-ups to celebrated multinationals, we creatively design innovative products and services that transform customer experiences.
Contact us about your product development needs
authors
Sergei Plishka
Client Engagement Manager
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