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Start

Step 1 Initialize idea;

Step 2 Screen idea & complete market research;

If (idea is good) & (market exists) then goto Step 3;

Else return to Step 1;

Step 3 Build business strategy;

Step 4 Build feature specs & design product;

Step 5 Develop your process & create product;

While developing

Do continuous customer verification;

Step 6 Test & verify;

Repeat testing & verification until acceptable;

Step 7 Launch;

Step 8 While product is alive

Do support & maintenance;

End while

End

VisionaryProduct Manager

Analyst Designer

Programmer / Engineer

Quality Assurance

Sales & Marketing

Support & Maintenance

• Visionary

• Customers, market, product manager, employee, suppliers, business partners, etc.

Who

• Discuss and write out customer needs

• Brainstorm product issues• Use R&D

• Review customer complaints

• Know what’s out there – read, read and read some more

• Don’t limit the possibilities at this stage

• Continues through the product development process

What / How

• Visionary• Customers

• Analyst

Who

• Talk to your customers and truly understand their needs

• Develop and evaluate screening criteria

• Market factors• Production factors

• Development factors

• Financial factors

• Perform risk and cost benefit analysis

• Continue this throughout development - LEAN

What / How

• Visionary• Analyst

• Product Manager• understands the market

• creates relevant documents

• bridge between all team roles

Who

• Write a business plan• Profitability and market potential

• Resources required for development• Competitor analysis

• Assess fit with your overall business profile

What / How

• Visionary

• Customer

• Product Manager

• Designer

• Programmer / Engineer

Who

• Customer and market requirements

• Functional requirements

• Technical designs and specs

• UX / UI Design

• Testing and verification specs

What / How

• Product Manager

• Programmer / Engineer

Who

• Build the product to meet the defined specs

• Adjust as necessary to meet reality - pivot, agile, and other buzzwords

• Develop and document procedures that produce your best results

• This may sound obvious but… follow them and train people on them

• Use tools to help manage and track the process and the work

• Continually refine and improve

What / How

•Product Manager•Quality Assurance•Customers (Alpha and Beta Testers)

Who

• Confirm that the product meets all requirements from testing and verification specs• Software product specific testing levels

• Unit testing

• Integration testing• Component interface testing

• System testing• Operational Acceptance testing

What / How

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• Product Manager• Customers

• Sales and Marketing

Who

• Advertising

• Marketing

• Communications and Media plan• Elevator pitch and sales collateral

• Re-sellers, distribution channels

• Get your product into the customers’ hands

What / How

•Customers

•Product Manager

•Quality Assurance

•Analyst

•Engineer / Programmer

Who

•Provide avenues for feedback

•Address customer issues

• Inform customers about those issues

• Identify opportunities for product improvement

• Issue updates and new features

What / How

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The past

• Ideas weren’t always fully vetted with the audience• Ideas were not fully explored in terms of possibilities• Result – re-design of a product to make it work for a global client base vs. a single client, and

the legacy of inefficiencies that came with that

The lessons learned

•Do your research and understand your market•Talk to as many people as you can about your idea – while keeping it safe•Think big – bigger than the initial problem so that you are aware of where things can go

The present

• Early vetting of ideas through meetings at tradeshows and by reaching out to customers• Forming an advisory board to help further verify ideas and analyse them fully• Following a more agile model so that our ideas are designed and prototyped rapidly to get

proper feedback

Step 2 Screen idea &

complete market

research;

If (idea is good) &

(market exists) then

goto Step 3;

Else return to Step

1;

The past

• No formal business plans• Lack of profitability projections• Lack of competitive research

• Diversion into products that didn’t really make it or fit

The lessons learned

• Inability to take advantage of grants for development• Lack of proper focus on products that were winners• Wasted time, money and efforts

• Relying on luck doesn’t always work – especially in a downturn

The present

• We started with a written business plan• It has helped us to obtain grants toward product development and marketing efforts• It has focused the product requirements and exposed competitive advantages

• It has prepared us for partnership talks

The past

• Lack of formality in specs and totally lacked “design”• Moved toward fully documented requirements and technical designs – still lacked UX/UI

design

• Left a lot of decisions up to a single developer

The lessons learned

• Initially we were putting out product that didn’t meet the needs of customers• The software wasn’t cohesive or intuitive• Lots of effort was going into writing documents that couldn’t explain what a picture could

The present

• Meet to discuss and document the requirements – all levels• Whiteboard a design and quickly wireframe it• Apply a pixel perfect UX/UI design that follows our design guide

• Prototype the design and test its end-user functionality• Approve for development

The past

• Carrying on the them of informality…• No defined processes, checkpoints, release plans, etc.• Got better by formalizing some procedures, however they weren’t incredibly efficient

The lessons learned

• We were releasing software almost daily to fix bugs and change functionality• We were supporting a huge number of versions, some of which only had a single user• We couldn’t tell a customer what was going into our product and when it would be available

The present

• Following an agile methodology with intent of scheduled releases• Allowing the team to contribute to the process to find one that works• Meeting regularly to discuss what’s working and what’s not

• Using the right tools to facilitate and track the process

The past

•No structured test plans• No unit testing, no automated testing at all• Developers handling all testing

The lessons learned

•Lack of testing = unhappy customers = loss of money and reputation•Testing must be formalized – processes and documentation required• It is not ok to leave testing to your developers or your clients

The present

•Formalized testing procedures and documentation, staging servers•Testing at all levels – unit, integration, component interface, system, operational acceptance•Testing by various people – automated, developer, QA person, designer, product manager,

visionary, customers (alpha and beta) •All issues logged into a system and properly routed

The past

• Um…what is a launch? You mean I don’t just start telling people that I have something new when I bump into them

The lessons learned

•Building products that nobody knows about doesn’t yield the best returns•Not having proper marketing materials and messaging makes it hard to sell something

The present

• Working with a communications and media expert to prepare a communication and media strategy

• Working toward an initial release with key features for launch

• Building a website that reflects the product and our brand• Talking to potential distribution partners•Designing the product for a faceless sale

The past

• You guessed it…• Release, release, release, release, uh oh• Instinct based support, completely untracked

• Built an in-house “crm” to deal with it and standardized our releases

The lessons learned

• It is really important to inform your customers of problems and fixes• Getting these fixes and new features into your clients hands is essential• Giving your clients an avenue to communicate with you other than through email is critical

The present

• Integrating a 3rd party support platform directly into our product• After product launch, following a SCRUM methodology with a regular release pattern• Keeping a proper development and release roadmap