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Successful product development is the main objective of every business that is trying to expand and grow. In order to build products like this, you have to possess a specific mindset that guarantees success. This mindset includes creativity, innovativeness, open-mindedness, persistence, and discipline.
Even the most experienced product developers know that the journey to a new, successful product is not a small sail.
There will be many obstacles and challenges on this road, but with a good plan, you will be able to overcome these issues.
Smooth communication, ability to share ideas in the right way, identifying limitations, timely testing – these are some of the things that can help you with a product development process. It’s obvious that a process like this requires a lot of resources, but even if you have all those resources this doesn’t vouch for success.
After extensive research on this subject, we were able to determine the five principles of successful product development. We hope that these principles will help you achieve your goal.
Learn the process that has helped more than 500+ startups to launch successfully to the market.
5 principles of successful product development
Practicality
This is one of the most important principles that refers to the process of identifying problems that your future product will address. It would be perfect if you are able to identify a problem that was not treated in the past or at least not in a way in which you are treating it. With a product like this, you will definitely grab the attention of your target audience.
Of course, if you want to come up with a product like this, you’ll have to know your audience/customers. Take some time to analyze your customer base and learn what they need. The principle of practicality doesn’t end here because you will also have to design a system for customer care. Additionally, you’ll have to ensure that customers are willing to pay more for a product like this.
Having a vision
When you are in the process of selecting a problem, you must visualize its potential impact in the future. Surely, people have to solve their problems today, but what if this problem is just temporary? Is it worth investing in product development that will become useless in a year? Your new product must be able to provide help to customers with their future needs too.
One of the ways to avoid situations like this is to stop relying only on current technologies. Try to be a visionary and predict in which way modern technology is evolving. For instance, the vast majority of mobile users have access to 3G and 4G cellular network technology.
However, starting in 2019, 5G technology has become available to individuals and businesses. So, making apps or devices that are limited only to 3G or 4G technology in 2019 will bring many limitations for the end-users. To put it simply, a product like this can’t be very successful in the near future.
Simplicity
Here’s another important principle that is worth considering if you want to build a successful product. Regardless of the type of product, you are planning to launch and the size of the problem you are trying to resolve with the product, this product must be simple.
Modern people are looking for simple solutions to their problems. They don’t want to spend countless hours learning how to use products successfully.
Advanced testing
In order to come up with products that include simplicity as one of their principles, you will have to test these products. We are not talking about simple testing because this is not just one test. You must test the product after every stage of the development process from the design phase to the beta version of the product.
Advanced testing will help you identify issues which can be resolved early in the life cycle. Without proper testing, the product development timeline will be affected in a negative way.
How to test products is a common question among businesses that are trying to introduce new products on the market. There are many ways to test products while they are still in their development phase.
The best idea is to test them on your existing customer base. Select a group of customers that will become your testers. What you will try to get here is their feedback. Thanks to their reactions, the development team will get a chance to adjust, modify and further develop the concept.
For example, most automotive manufacturers are making concept cars based on clay and showcase these cars on automotive shows. Their basic goal is to get feedback from their potential customers.
Scalability
Finally, the product that you are trying to develop must have a certain level of scalability if you want it to be truly successful. As we have mentioned before, modern consumers have demands that are constantly changing. This is the main reason why you have to create products that are future-ready.
If you want to create a product like this, the development team must use technologies that are able to provide such changes and modifications in the future. Rely on a user-centric approach when you are developing a new product and a future upgrade and change will be easier.
