product development in business plan

• Integrations
• Learning Center

What is Product Development?

Product development typically refers to all stages involved in bringing a product from concept or idea through market release and beyond. In other words, product development incorporates a product’s entire journey.

Standard Stages of Progress in Product Development

There are many steps to this process, and it’s not the same path for every organization, but these are the most common stages through which products typically progress:

Identifying a market need.

Products solve problems. So identifying a problem that needs solving (or a better way of being solved) is where this journey should begin. Conversations with potential customers, surveys, and other user research activities can inform this step.

Quantifying the opportunity.

Not every problem is problematic enough to warrant a product-based solution. However, the pain it causes and the number of people or organizations it impacts can determine whether it’s a worthy problem to solve and if people are willing to pay for a solution (be it with money or their data).

Conceptualizing the product.

Some solutions may be obvious, while others may be less intuitive. Here’s where the team puts in the effort and applies their creativity to devising how a product might serve its needs.

Validating the solution.

Before too much time is spent prototyping and design, whether the proposed solution is viable should be tested. Of course, this can still happen at the conceptual level. Still, it is an early test to see whether the particular product idea is worth pursuing further or if it will be rejected or only lightly adopted by the target user.

Building the product roadmap.

With a legitimate product concept in hand, product management can build out the product roadmap , identifying which themes and goals are central to develop first to solve the most significant pain points and spark adoption.

Developing a minimum viable product (MVP).

This initial version of the product needs just enough functionality to be used by customers.

Releasing the MVP to users.

Experiments can gauge interest, prioritize marketing channels and messages, and begin testing the waters around price sensitivity and packaging. It also kicks off the feedback loop to bring ideas, complaints, and suggestions into the prioritization process and populate the product backlog.

Ongoing iteration based on user feedback and strategic goals.

Product Development is Not Product Management

When you understand product development this way, you can see that it is not synonymous with product management , although many people mistakenly use the terms interchangeably. Indeed, product development does not refer to a single role at all.

In some organizations, “product development” may be shorthand for the implementation team, comprised primarily of developers, engineers, and possibly quality assurance.

But, when it comes to the house’s personnel side, it should instead view it as more of an overall process or method for bringing products to market, which involves many teams across a company, including:

• Product management
• Product marketing
• Project management
• Agile management (Scrum masters, product owners, etc.)
• Architecture
• Development/Engineering
• Manufacturing
• Testing or QA
• Shipping/Distribution

Essentially, it encompasses everyone involved, from idea generation through to customer delivery. Each of these groups plays an essential role in the process, defining, designing, building, testing, or delivering the product.

How to Create a Product Development Plan in 3 Steps

Not to be confused with a project plan, a product development plan encompasses the overarching journey from idea to market. It should include and engage as many stakeholders as possible to ensure all of their specific needs, requirements, and concerns are being considered (if not addressed).

1. Start with a product vision.

It begins with a product vision, which aligns everyone around the shared objective for this product. This is followed by a product mission—the ultimate purpose of the product, who it is for, and what it does for them. Finally, it establishes some guiding principles for the work to come.

With product vision and mission statements in hand, primary goals for the product can be established. These may be a little fuzzier in the early stages, such as finding product-market fit, but they can rapidly evolve into measurable KPIs or OKRs. These measurable targets help shape which features, enhancements, and capabilities the product needs to achieve them.

2. Craft a roadmap.

3. Implement the roadmap for maximum impact.

Once the product roadmap is agreed upon, it’s time to make things happen. Implementation teams can create schedules, break down significant themes into sprints, and generate iterations of the product. This creates a feedback loop from customers, the sales team, and support, identifying new opportunities, pointing out shortcomings, and shining a light on areas to hone, improve, and expand.

From here, it’s a cycle of reviewing data, synthesizing feedback, and continually updating the product roadmap while grooming the product backlog to ensure every development cycle is utilized for maximum impact.

How Do Product Roadmaps Fit Into Product Development?

Whether you start at the conceptualization stage or first try to identify and validate a market need—you will want to have a system in place for prioritizing, summarizing, and capturing your product’s key objectives and significant themes.

The ideal tool for this early-stage planning is a product roadmap designed to strategically and visually convey your high-level product. So why is it essential to build your roadmap visually? There are several reasons to do so, but here are the two primary benefits:

1. With a visual product roadmap, you and your team can more easily refer back to the product strategy you agreed on and quickly reacquaint yourself with those high-level objectives to make sure you’re still on track.

Contrast this visual, easy-to-review roadmap with a typical spreadsheet-based roadmap loaded with features and to-do items arranged in no particular order, and you can understand why dedicated roadmapping software makes all the difference.

A visually appealing roadmap can also help a product manager present its strategic goals and plans more compellingly to the company’s executives and other key stakeholders.

Earning this buy-in is often necessary to secure organizational approval to move ahead with new product development. Therefore, it makes sense to give your product roadmap every advantage you can before presenting it to your stakeholders.

What is Agile Product Development?

Agile product development is another term you might hear often. This refers to the familiar product development concept we described in the introduction—all steps involved in delivering a product to the market—including agile software development principles, such as rapid iteration based on user feedback.

The benefit of the agile framework is that it allows an organization to shorten the cycle from brainstorming through actually launching a product—because the product team intentionally pushes out versions of the product (starting with its early-stage MVP) much more quickly and with much fewer updates and improvements in each release. In addition, this allows the team to enlist the feedback of actual users to make the product better incrementally.

A More Literal Definition of Product Development

Finally, you might also encounter a far more narrow definition of product development, describing the product’s actual development: This would be the coding stage in software or manufacturing in a physical product).

When it comes to software, development teams can create and maintain their product development roadmaps to prioritize, summarize, and communicate their plans to build and ultimately release the product. For example, below is a product development roadmap template that your team can use to stay on track during the development process.

Takeaways: Where the Magic Happens in Agile

Product development is the hard part. It’s where bright ideas collide with reality and where utopian visions of the future crash into the limitations of technology and headcount that separates dreamers from doers.

To avoid a promising product vision from faltering in the face of challenging work and difficult hurdles, roadmap strategies should be tightly coupled with Agile planning to optimize the work being done. To learn more about how rapid iteration can stay true to long-term objectives, check out this webinar .

A Product Manager’s Role in SAFe®

Agile started with software development. Although many organizations have found the principles beneficial. The ability to quickly assess, adjust, and...

4 Key Responsibilities of Outstanding Scrum Masters

A scrum master's responsibilities extend far beyond serving as a bridge between product management and development.

Missed Details That Can Cause Huge Product Reputation Ramifications

Product managers are all about prioritization. The items that deliver the most value to a product’s reputation, help the product...

Continue exploring

You can search or explore specific categories.

Product Updates

Company news and updates, templates and workbooks, remote product management, product metrics and analytics, product strategy example, product managers, prioritization and backlog, tools and resources, customer-centricity, product leadership, product management, roadmap and roadmap management, product strategy, agile & product development, career and interviews, try productplan free for 14 days, share on mastodon.

.css-s5s6ko{margin-right:42px;color:#F5F4F3;}@media (max-width: 1120px){.css-s5s6ko{margin-right:12px;}} AI that works. Coming June 5, Asana redefines work management—again. .css-1ixh9fn{display:inline-block;}@media (max-width: 480px){.css-1ixh9fn{display:block;margin-top:12px;}} .css-1uaoevr-heading-6{font-size:14px;line-height:24px;font-weight:500;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#F5F4F3;}.css-1uaoevr-heading-6:hover{color:#F5F4F3;} .css-ora5nu-heading-6{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:flex-start;justify-content:flex-start;color:#0D0E10;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s;transition:all 0.3s;position:relative;font-size:16px;line-height:28px;padding:0;font-size:14px;line-height:24px;font-weight:500;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#F5F4F3;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover{border-bottom:0;color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover path{fill:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover div{border-color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover div:before{border-left-color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active{border-bottom:0;background-color:#EBE8E8;color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active path{fill:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active div{border-color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active div:before{border-left-color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover{color:#F5F4F3;} Get early access .css-1k6cidy{width:11px;height:11px;margin-left:8px;}.css-1k6cidy path{fill:currentColor;}

• Product overview
• All features
• App integrations

CAPABILITIES

• project icon Project management
• Project views
• Custom fields
• Status updates
• goal icon Goals and reporting
• Reporting dashboards
• workflow icon Workflows and automation
• portfolio icon Resource management
• Time tracking
• my-task icon Admin and security
• Admin console
• asana-intelligence icon Asana Intelligence
• list icon Personal
• premium icon Starter
• briefcase icon Advanced
• Goal management
• Organizational planning
• Campaign management
• Creative production
• Marketing strategic planning
• Request tracking
• Resource planning
• Project intake
• View all uses arrow-right icon
• Project plans
• Team goals & objectives
• Team continuity
• Meeting agenda
• View all templates arrow-right icon
• Work management resources Discover best practices, watch webinars, get insights
• What's new Learn about the latest and greatest from Asana
• Help Center Get lots of tips, tricks, and advice to get the most from Asana
• Asana Academy Sign up for interactive courses and webinars to learn Asana
• Events Find out about upcoming events near you
• Community programs Connect with and learn from Asana customers around the world
• Support Need help? Contact the Asana support team
• Partners Learn more about our partner programs
• Developers Learn more about building apps on the Asana platform
• Asana for nonprofits Get more information on our nonprofit discount program, and apply.

Featured Reads

• Product development process: The 6 stag ...

Product development process: The 6 stages (with examples)

The product development process is a six-stage plan that involves taking a product from initial concept to final market launch. This process helps break down tasks and organize cross-departmental collaboration. Find out how to implement a process of your own.

Product development is both an exciting and difficult endeavor. From initial ideation to research and prototyping, no two product launches are the same. However, there’s a general process that can help you get started with the product development process. 

The product development process describes the six steps needed to take a product from initial concept to final market launch. This includes identifying a market need, researching the competition, ideating a solution, developing a product roadmap, and building a minimum viable product (MVP).

The product development process has evolved in recent years and is now commonly used by dividing each step into six separate phases. This helps better organize the process and break individual deliverables into smaller tasks.  

What is product development?

Is product development the same as product management.

Though they sound almost identical, there's an important difference between product development and product management. Product development describes the process of building a product, where product management is the overseeing of that work. It's a slight difference, but an important distinction. A product manager, who often oversees a team that is in the product development process, will lead product management.

The 6 stages of product development

Not only does the product development process help simplify a launch, but it also encourages cross-team collaboration with teamwork and communication at the forefront of the process. 

Let’s dive into the product life cycle and define the six product phases. All of which can help you successfully launch your next product. 

1. Idea generation (Ideation)

The initial stage of the product development process begins by generating new product ideas. This is the product innovation stage, where you brainstorm product concepts based on customer needs, concept testing, and market research. 

It’s a good idea to consider the following factors when initiating a new product concept:

Target market: Your target market is the consumer profile you’re building your product for. These are your potential customers. This is important to identify in the beginning so you can build your product concept around your target market from the start.  

Existing products: When you have a new product concept, it’s a good idea to evaluate your existing product portfolio. Are there existing products that solve a similar problem? Or does a competitor offer a product that doesn’t allow for market share? And if yes, is your new concept different enough to be viable? Answering these questions can ensure the success of your new concept.

Functionality: While you don’t need a detailed report of the product functionality just yet, you should have a general idea of what functions it will serve. Consider the look and feel of your product and why someone would be interested in purchasing it.

SWOT analysis : Analyzing your product strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats early in the process can help you build the best version of your new concept. This will ensure your product is different from competitors and solves a market gap. 

SCAMPER method : To refine your idea, use brainstorming methods like SCAMPER , which involves substituting, combining, adapting, modifying, putting to another use, eliminating, or rearranging your product concept.   

To validate a product concept, consider documenting ideas in the form of a business case . This will allow all team members to have a clear understanding of the initial product features and the objectives of the new product launch. 

2. Product definition

Once you’ve completed the business case and discussed your target market and product functionality, it’s time to define the product. This is also referred to as scoping or concept development, and focuses on refining the product strategy. 

During this stage, it’s important to define specifics including:

Business analysis: A business analysis consists of mapping out distribution strategy, ecommerce strategy, and a more in-depth competitor analysis. The purpose of this step is to begin building a clearly defined product roadmap.

Value proposition: The value proposition is what problem the product is solving. Consider how it differs from other products in the market. This value can be useful for market research and for developing your marketing strategy.

Success metrics: It’s essential to clarify success metrics early so you can evaluate and measure success once the product is launched. Are there key metrics you want to look out for? These could be basic KPIs like average order value, or something more specific like custom set goals relevant to your organization. 

Marketing strategy: Once you’ve identified your value proposition and success metrics, begin brainstorming a marketing strategy that fits your needs. Consider which channels you want to promote your product on—such as social media or a blog post. While this strategy may need to be revised depending on the finished product, it’s a good idea to think about this when defining your product to begin planning ahead of time. 

Once these ideas have been defined, it’s time to begin building your minimum viable product (MVP) with initial prototyping.

3. Prototyping

During the prototyping stage, your team will intensively research and document the product by creating a more detailed business plan and constructing the product.

These early-stage prototypes might be as simple as a drawing or a more complex computer render of the initial design. These prototypes help you identify areas of risk before you create the product.

During the prototyping phase, you will work on specifics like:

Feasibility analysis: The next step in the process is to evaluate your product strategy based on feasibility. Determine if the workload and estimated timeline are possible to achieve. If not, adjust your dates accordingly and request help from additional stakeholders.

Market risk research: It’s important to analyze any potential risks associated with the production of your product before it’s physically created. This will prevent the product launch from being derailed later on. It will also ensure you communicate risks to the team by documenting them in a risk register . 

Development strategy: Next, you can begin working through your development plan. In other words, know how you’ll be assigning tasks and the timeline of these tasks. One way you can plan tasks and estimate timeline is by using the critical path method . 

MVP: The final outcome of the prototyping stage is a minimum viable product. Think of your MVP as a product that has the features necessary to go to launch with and nothing above what’s necessary for it to function. For example, an MVP bike would include a frame, wheels, and a seat, but wouldn’t contain a basket or bell. Creating an MVP can help your team execute the product launch quicker than building all the desired features, which can drag launch timelines out. Desired features can be added down the road when bandwidth is available.

Now it’s time to begin designing the product for market launch. 

4. Initial design

During the initial design phase, project stakeholders work together to produce a mockup of the product based on the MVP prototype. The design should be created with the target audience in mind and complement the key functions of your product. 

A successful product design may take several iterations to get just right, and may involve communicating with distributors in order to source necessary materials. 

To produce the initial design, you will: 

Source materials: Sourcing materials plays an important role in designing the initial mockup. This may entail working with various vendors and ordering materials or creating your own. Since materials can come from various places, you should document material use in a shared space to reference later if needed.  

Connect with stakeholders: It’s important to keep tight communication during the design phase to verify your initial design is on the right track. Share weekly or daily progress reports to share updates and get approvals as needed. 

Receive initial feedback: When the design is complete, ask senior management and project stakeholders for initial feedback. You can then revise the product design as needed until the final design is ready to be developed and implemented. 

Once the design is approved and ready to be handed off, move onto the validation phase for final testing before launching the product. 

5. Validation and testing

To go live with a new product, you first need to validate and test it. This ensures that every part of the product—from development to marketing—is working effectively before it’s released to the public.

To ensure the quality of your product, complete the following:

Concept development and testing: You may have successfully designed your prototype, but you’ll still need to work through any issues that arise while developing the concept. This could involve software development or the physical production of the initial prototype. Test functionality by enlisting the help of team members and beta testers to quality assure the development. 

Front-end testing: During this stage, test the front-end functionality for risks with development code or consumer-facing errors. This includes checking the ecommerce functionality and ensuring it’s stable for launch.

Test marketing: Before you begin producing your final product, test your marketing plan for functionality and errors. This is also a time to ensure that all campaigns are set up correctly and ready to launch. 

Once your initial testing is complete, you’re ready to begin producing the final product concept and launch it to your customer base. 

6. Commercialization

Now it’s time to commercialize your concept, which involves launching your product and implementing it on your website. 

By now, you’ve finalized the design and quality tested your development and marketing strategy. You should feel confident in your final iteration and be ready to produce your final product. 

In this stage you should be working on:

Product development: This is the physical creation of your product that will be released to your customers. This may require production or additional development for software concepts. Give your team the final prototype and MVP iterations to produce the product to the correct specifications. 

Ecommerce implementation: Once the product has been developed and you’re ready to launch, your development team will transition your ecommerce materials to a live state. This may require additional testing to ensure your live product is functioning as it was intended during the previous front-end testing phase. 

Your final product is now launched. All that’s left is to measure success with the initial success metrics you landed on. 

Product development process examples

Now that you understand the six stages of the product life cycle, let’s look at real world examples of some of the most successful product development strategies of iconic startups to inspire your own.

Example 1: How Figma expanded their product features

Originally started in 2012, Figma was the first professional-grade UI design tool built entirely in the browser. Today, Figma has grown into the leading competitor for design web applications.

Their mission is to make design accessible to more people and help them bring their creativity to life. They’ve shown this by continuously adding new product features—like multiple flow capabilities, a brainstorming timer, and an interactive whiteboard—coordinating successful software releases, and building trust through transparency.

Read our case study to learn how Figma uses Asana to manage development backlogs. 

Example 2: How Uber solved a market gap

While today we think of Uber as the biggest ride-sharing service, that wasn’t always the case. They too started with a compelling product strategy that made them into the innovative company they are today. 

Uber’s strategy began by solving a gap in the existing taxi industry: creating an easier ride-hailing process with simplified payment processing. But they didn’t stop there: they continued to innovate their product portfolio by developing ride tiers ranging from luxury to budget-friendly. 

While each situation varies slightly, with the right product strategy, you too can create an innovative portfolio. 

Who is part of the product development team?

There are many stakeholders and various teams that assist with the product development process. The main leader is the product manager, who oversees all product tasks related to ideation, research, development, and product launch. 

Additional important stakeholders include:

Product management: A product manager oversees all areas of the product life cycle and works to bridge communication gaps between various internal and external teams. The product manager works to initiate new product launches and initiates product ideation and market research.

Project management: A project manager may be involved in the product development process to assist with cross-departmental communication. They might also assist with task delegation and goal tracking.

Design: The design team helps during the prototyping and designing phase to support the visual product concept. It’s important to connect product designs with brand guidelines and UX best practices. 

Development: The development team helps with the implementation of the product on your website. Most commonly, a team of developers will work together to build the new product offering depending on the complexity of the concept.

Marketing: The marketing team will assist with developing the marketing strategy and testing it before the product goes live. They will also measure the success of the marketing initiatives.

Sales: The product manager works with the sales team to come up with an effective strategy and report on success metrics after the product has been implemented. 

Senior management: Senior stakeholders may need to give final approval before the product can go to launch. 

In addition to these important roles, other teams that may be involved are finance, engineering, and any other related stakeholders. All of which can play a role in the process depending on the complexity of the concept. 

The process that simplifies product development

The right product development process can help you streamline each step with organized tasks and team collaboration. The six stages outlined above will get your team through all steps of the process, from initial idea screening to the development phase. 

But you might need help along the way. Coordinate tasks and organize your product development process with Asana for product management . Asana can help get your products to market faster by tracking workload and simplifying planning.

Related resources

Smooth product launches are simpler than you think

How Asana uses work management to streamline project intake processes

6 ways to develop adaptability in the workplace and embrace change

How to run more effective stand-up meetings

• Product Management
• Product development strategy

Product development strategy: How to create a winning strategy

Browse topics.

Bringing a new product to market—or updating an existing product—is always a challenge. Is there a perceived need for the product? More importantly, are people willing to pay for it? This is why creating a product development strategy is a crucial step toward presenting your product to the public. 

A product development strategy is the planning and development process that results in new or improved products. It involves conducting continuous market research, performing product tests, and redefining the product concept to fit shifting customer needs. This article will define what a product development strategy is, why it is essential to the process of launching a new product, and how to build a product development strategy from scratch.

What is a product development strategy?

A product development strategy is a plan that lays out how a company builds and launches new products or updates existing ones. Without a product development strategy in place, there is no clear path for a company to develop new products or new features. 

With a plan in place, you can put an organized effort into motion — one that consistently rolls up to the company's overall business goals and takes into account factors such as market trends, customer needs, and competitor offerings.

Advantages of a product development strategy

Why bother with a product development strategy? Success in the marketplace is no longer about having the best ideas—it’s about doing the necessary research to find the right product-market fit, then planning and testing so your product becomes profitable. 

With the right product development strategy, you can meet revenue goals, open up new markets, persuade your competitors’ customers to switch over to your product, and improve the performance of your existing products.

Stages of product development

While the product development cycle is hardly ever a linear process, it does tend to follow seven stages: 

• Idea generation : The team comes up with new product ideas via market research on current trends and competition, focus group discussions with actual customers, and internal brainstorming from across the company.
• Idea screening : The team then prunes the initial list of ideas to be more realistic. At this stage, the product team screens ideas using criteria such as marketing potential, risks involved, the technical feasibility of the new product, and how it fits into the overall business strategy.
• Concept development and testing : The next stage is where the team turns ideas with the most potential into actual concepts by defining the product's target market, price, features, and benefits. After that, the team tests those concepts on potential customers to get feedback.
• Business analysis and market strategy : At this stage, a business analysis helps figure out possible profit, expected costs, and sales forecasts. Alongside this, you need to develop the market strategy to nail down how the company will promote, price, and position the new product. 
• Product development : Here is where you actually build the product or new feature. Depending on the project management methodology used, this could involve developing a prototype or minimum viable product and doing continuous testing to get the product ready for launch.
• Test marketing : Once the team develops the product, it tests the product on a small market to get feedback from potential customers and identify any problems.

Product launch : Here the company launches the final product to the full market — that process includes making it available for purchase, promoting it to the public, and providing support.

How to create a product development strategy

To create a product development strategy, there are four simple steps to follow: conduct market research, leverage user research, start testing, and launch your product. These steps are critical to creating a successful product development strategy and ensuring your final products are of the highest quality before taking them to the market. 

Step 1: Conduct market research

The first step to creating an effective product development strategy is conducting market research. This is the process of collecting information about your target audience, the general market, and your competitive landscape. 

The point here is to use the data to assess whether the product you’re developing has any chance at success. By doing comprehensive research and combing through existing resources, such as industry reports, statistics, or news articles, you can find where the demand lies and where your product can fit. 

A large part of this process is aggregating and grouping market research in a centralized location so your entire team can access the data. Using a prioritization and roadmapping tool like Jira Product Discovery makes it easy for teams to capture and prioritize product ideas in the “All Ideas” section, and align them with product roadmaps .

Step 2: Leverage user research

While market research gives you data from existing sources to form a general picture of the larger market, user research is all about gathering first-hand information from customers and stakeholders. You can do this with a variety of tools, including feedback surveys, customer interviews, focus groups, analytics, and remote user tests.

Gaining first-hand feedback is vital to your product development strategy because it helps validate your idea with potential customers before you spend time or money on development. 

Ensure you capture and analyze all user requests and comments in one place so your development team is on the same page—the “All Ideas” view within Jira Product Discovery is the perfect place for aggregating this data.

Step 3: Start testing

The third step of product strategy development involves testing your product’s concept or features to see how potential customers use it. At this stage, it’s also vital to test for errors and ensure functionality before launching the product.

Some points to take note of during the product testing phase: 

• Source early feedback via mock-ups : Rather than waiting for a minimum viable product (MVP) to be available, begin testing for customer feedback with simple design mock-ups or wireframes. 
• Test continuously : As the product goes through iterations, continually test it and capture user feedback within Jira Product Discovery. 
• Don’t build for scale yet : Conserve resources and funds by focusing on the MVP and making it work before thinking about scaling up. 

Measure using the product-market fit survey : Use the product-market fit survey to ask customers how disappointed they would be if you retired your product. If more than 40% answer “very disappointed,” then you’ve attained a good product-market fit.

Step 4: Launch the product

The final phase of product development is the launch. This is where you release your product or its latest feature to the market. It involves a coordinated effort between various teams to build excitement and awareness for it. 

In addition to the product development and product marketing teams, bring in sales, customer support, and event management teams to build a dynamic event around this phase.

Jira Product Discovery helps teams create great product development strategies

Each product development strategy is unique and is the result of combining ideas and user feedback with rigorous testing and continuous development . Managing all those moving parts becomes easier with Jira Product Discovery as the central system that your team can depend on for bringing ideas to life.

Distributed Teams: Strategies for Success

Do you work on a distributed team, maybe remote or virtual? Learn how to manage, structure and build culture with a distributed agile team.

• Product management
• Foundational concepts
• Product management concepts
• What is product development?

What is product development? Essential guide for product managers

Last updated: March 2024

Product development is the process of strategizing, brainstorming, planning, building, and releasing a product to market and then measuring its success. It encompasses taking a product idea from concept to delivery and beyond — so you can grow your business and make customers happy.

Whether you are delivering a brand-new offering or enhancing an existing product, the product development cycle begins long before anything gets built. Traditionally, product development was equated with the build phase of the product lifecycle. Teams following strict waterfall processes defined requirements upfront and implemented them in sequential phases. Most product teams now embrace a more iterative approach based on agile methodologies . They incorporate customer feedback early and often, release work incrementally, and welcome and expect change.

Methodologies aside, today's product development is about much more than "how" a product is built. It also involves the "why," "what," and "when" — encompassing cross-functional work from product management and engineering all the way to product marketing. Your goal is to work together to build, launch, and refine a product that customers love .

Streamline product development with Aha! software — sign up for a trial .

In this guide, you will learn the fundamentals of product development.

Who is involved in the product development process?

The nine stages of product development

Early-stage product development frameworks

Product development best practices

As a product manager , you guide the product's success. You set product strategy, build the roadmap, and define product features. And you sit at the center of the cross-functional product team: folks from across the organization who contribute to planning , building, and delivering the product. This typically includes representatives from product, engineering, innovation, product marketing, and operations.

Every organization defines its product development team differently depending on its product, customers, and industry. But the product team is often made up of people actively involved in one or more stages of product development . This team also collaborates with people from other teams that participate in the product's success as well — think customer success, sales, finance, and legal. Everyone in a product-led organization plays an important role in understanding customers and delivering a Complete Product Experience .

A product team typically includes representatives from the following groups:

• How do product managers work with other teams?
• What is product operations?

How product managers collaborate with engineers

Product management vs. product development

• What are the stages of product development?

Although the details of the product development process will look different at each organization, there are standard stages that nearly all teams cycle through — from setting strategy to analyzing success. You typically complete one stage before moving to the next, but you can refine decisions and solutions throughout the entire process .

These are the nine stages of the product development process:

Strategize: Define goals and initiatives .

Capture: Streamline customer feedback and collect promising ideas .

Explore: Brainstorm and refine ideas on a whiteboard .

Plan: Prioritize ideas based on strategic goals , estimated product value , and team capacity .

Showcase: Share roadmaps and go-to-market plans with stakeholders .

Build: Deliver new functionality via agile development .

Document: Centralize product knowledge for internal teams and customers.

Launch: Bring those exciting new capabilities to market .

Analyze: Assess realized product value by tracking customer usage and love.

9 essential stages of product development

• Common product development methodologies

Product development process templates

What are some common early-stage product development frameworks?

Let's back up for a moment and imagine that your organization is just embarking on the product development process. There are a number of different frameworks that the product team can follow to get started. Most approaches advocate understanding customer needs, market research, prototyping, and testing ideas before fully investing in product development. The specifics will vary based on what you are actually building, but below are some common early-stage product development frameworks you might consider.

Design thinking

Design thinking is a framework for design and innovation . It includes cognitive, strategic, and functional processes for developing new concepts. The table below shows the fundamental steps behind design thinking.

• Product design basics
• What is user experience design?

Product management templates

Front-end innovation

Front-end innovation represents the beginning stages of the product development process. It should not be confused with the user interface , which is often referred to as the "front end" as well. Front-end innovation is used to scope out a product concept and determine whether or not to invest further time and resources in it. There is no universally accepted definition or dominant framework, but you can see common components below.

New product development

New product development, also shortened to NPD, is the process of taking a product from concept to market availability. It can apply to developing a new product as well as improving an established product.

What are product development best practices?

Product development is complex — an introductory guide surely cannot capture all of its intricacies. At a high level, however, there are some best practices to keep in mind as you chart your course:

Keep a clear focus on business and customer value.

Facilitate deep cross-functional alignment .

Promote a shared understanding of plans and priorities.

Enhance visibility and transparency throughout the process.

Remain focused on meeting real customer needs .

Track and measure value through each phase of development.

Invest in tools that support an agile approach .

Product innovation is integral to a company’s continued success. It comes down to creating value — for your customers and for your business. It sounds simple enough, but this is difficult work. An integrated product development suite is vital to staying aligned, tracking work, and transforming ideas from concept to launch.

• What is a business model?
• What is customer experience?
• What is the Complete Product Experience (CPE)?
• What is a customer journey map?
• What is product-led growth?
• What are the types of business transformation?
• What is enterprise transformation?
• What is digital transformation?
• What is the role of product management in enterprise transformation?
• What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?
• What is a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP)?
• What is product vision?
• How to set product strategy
• What is product-market fit?
• What is product differentiation?
• How to position your product
• How to price your product
• What are product goals and initiatives?
• How to set product goals
• How to set product initiatives
• What is product value?
• What is value-based product development?
• Introduction to marketing strategy
• Introduction to marketing templates
• What is a marketing strategy?
• How to set marketing goals
• Marketing vs. advertising
• What is a creative brief?
• How to define buyer personas
• Understanding the buyer's journey
• What is competitive differentiation?
• 10Ps marketing matrix
• 2x2 prioritization matrix
• Business model
• Customer journey map
• Decision log
• Decision tree
• Fit gap analysis
• Gap analysis
• Lean canvas
• Marketing strategy
• MoSCoW model
• Opportunity canvas
• Porter's 5 forces
• Pricing and packaging research
• Pricing plan chart
• Pricing strategies (Kotler)
• Product positioning
• Product vision
• Segment profile
• SMART goals
• Strategic roadmap
• Strategy mountain
• SWOT analysis
• Value proposition
• VMOST analysis
• Working backwards
• Collections: Business model
• Collections: SWOT
• Collections: Objectives and key results (OKR)
• Collections: Product positioning
• Collections: Market positioning
• Collections: Marketing strategy
• Collections: Marketing messaging
• What is product discovery?
• How to do market research
• How to define customer personas
• How to research competitors
• How to gather customer feedback
• Asking the right questions to drive innovation
• Approaches table
• Competitive analysis
• Customer empathy map
• Customer interview
• Customer research plan
• PESTLE analysis
• Problem framing
• Product comparison chart
• Pros and cons
• Target audience
• Collections: Customer research
• Collections: Competitor analysis
• Collections: Marketing competitor analysis
• How to brainstorm product ideas
• Brainstorming techniques for product builders
• Why product teams need an internal knowledge hub
• Why product teams need virtual whiteboarding software
• What is idea management?
• 4 steps for product ideation
• How to estimate the value of new product ideas
• How to prioritize product ideas
• What is idea management software?
• Introduction to marketing idea management
• How to gather marketing feedback from teammates
• Brainstorming new marketing ideas
• How to estimate the value of new marketing ideas
• Brainstorming meeting
• Brainstorming session
• Concept map
• Data flow diagram
• Fishbone diagram
• Ideas portal guide
• Jobs to be done
• Process flow diagram
• Proof of concept
• Sticky note pack
• User story map
• Workflow diagram
• Roadmapping: Your starter guide
• Agile roadmap
• Business roadmap
• Features roadmap
• Innovation roadmap
• Marketing roadmap
• Product roadmap
• Product portfolio roadmap
• Project roadmap
• Strategy roadmap
• Technology roadmap
• How to choose a product roadmap tool
• How to build a brilliant roadmap
• What to include on your product roadmap
• How to visualize data on your product roadmap
• What milestones should be included on a roadmap?
• How often should roadmap planning happen?
• How to build a roadmap for a new product
• How to build an annual product roadmap
• How to customize the right roadmap for your audience
• Product roadmap examples
• How to report on progress against your roadmap
• How to communicate your product roadmap to customers
• What is a content marketing roadmap?
• What is a digital marketing roadmap?
• What is an integrated marketing roadmap?
• What is a go-to-market roadmap?
• What is a portfolio marketing roadmap?
• How to choose a marketing roadmap tool
• Epics roadmap
• Now, Next, Later roadmap
• Portfolio roadmap
• Release roadmap
• Collections: Product roadmap
• Collections: Product roadmap presentation
• Collections: Marketing roadmap
• What is product planning?
• How to diagram product use cases
• How product managers use Gantt charts
• How to use a digital whiteboard for product planning
• Introduction to release management
• How to plan product releases across teams
• What is a product backlog?
• Product backlog vs. release backlog vs. sprint backlog
• How to refine the product backlog
• Capacity planning for product managers
• What is requirements management?
• What is a market requirements document (MRD)?
• How to manage your product requirements document (PRD)
• What is a product feature?
• What is user story mapping?
• How to prioritize product features
• Common product prioritization frameworks
• JTBD prioritization framework
• Introduction to marketing plans
• What is a marketing plan?
• How to create a marketing plan
• What is a digital marketing plan?
• What is a content marketing plan?
• Why is content marketing important?
• What is a social media plan?
• How to create a marketing budget
• 2023 monthly calendar
• 2024 monthly calendar
• Feature requirement
• Kanban board
• Market requirements document
• Problem statement
• Product requirements document
• SAFe® Program board
• Stakeholder analysis
• Stakeholder map
• Timeline diagram
• Collections: Product development process
• Collections: MRD
• Collections: PRD
• Collections: Gantt chart
• Collections: User story
• Collections: User story mapping
• Collections: Feature definition checklist
• Collections: Feature prioritization templates
• Collections: Marketing plan templates
• Collections: Marketing calendar templates
• What is the role of a UX designer?
• What is the role of a UX manager?
• How to use a wireframe in product management
• Wireframe vs. mockup vs. prototype
• 18 expert tips for wireframing
• Analytics dashboard wireframe
• Product homepage wireframe
• Signup wireframe
• Collections: Creative brief
• Common agile development methodologies
• What is agile product management?
• What is agile software development?
• What is agile project management?
• What is the role of a software engineer?
• What is waterfall product management?
• What is agile transformation?
• Agile vs. lean
• Agile vs. waterfall
• What is an agile roadmap?
• What is an agile retrospective?
• Best practices of agile development teams
• What is a burndown chart?
• What is issue tracking?
• What is unit testing?
• Introduction to agile metrics
• Agile glossary
• What is kanban?
• How development teams implement kanban
• How is kanban used by product managers?
• How to set up a kanban board
• Kanban vs. scrum
• What is scrum?
• What are scrum roles?
• What is a scrum master?
• What is the role of a product manager in scrum?
• What is a sprint?
• What is a sprint planning meeting?
• What is a daily standup?
• What is a sprint review?
• Product release vs. sprint in scrum
• Themes, epics, stories, and tasks
• How to implement scrum
• How to choose a scrum certification
• What is the Scaled Agile Framework®?
• What is the role of a product manager in SAFe®?
• SAFe® PI planning
• SAFe® PI retrospective
• SAFe® Sprint planning
• Sprint planning
• Sprint retrospective
• Sprint retrospective meeting
• UML class diagram
• Collections: Sprint retrospective
• How to test your product before launch
• What is a go-to-market strategy?
• How to write excellent release notes
• How to plan a marketing launch
• Knowledge base article
• Product launch plan
• Product updates
• Release notes
• Collections: Product launch checklist
• Collections: Marketing launch checklist
• How to make data-driven product decisions
• How to measure product value
• What is product analytics?
• What are product metrics?
• What is a product?
• What is a product portfolio?
• What is product management?
• What is the role of a product manager?
• What is portfolio product management?
• What is program management?
• What is the product lifecycle?
• What is a product management maturity model?
• What is product development software?
• How to create internal product documentation
• What to include in an internal product documentation hub
• Internal vs. external product documentation
• How to build a product knowledge base
• Introduction to marketing methods
• What is agile marketing?
• What is digital marketing?
• What is product marketing?
• What is social media marketing?
• What is B2B marketing?
• Collections: Product management
• How to structure your product team meeting
• 15 tips for running effective product team meetings
• Daily standup meeting
• Meeting agenda
• Meeting notes
• Product backlog refinement meeting
• Product feature kickoff meeting
• Product operations meeting
• Product strategy meeting
• Sprint planning meeting
• What are the types of product managers?
• 10 skills to succeed as a product manager
• Common product management job titles
• What does a product manager do each day?
• What is the role of a product operations manager?
• What is the role of a program manager?
• Templates for program and portfolio management
• How to become a product manager
• How to prepare for a product manager interview
• Interview questions for product managers
• Typical salary for product managers
• Tips for new product managers
• How to choose a product management certification
• Introduction to marketing
• What are some marketing job titles?
• What is the role of a marketing manager?
• What is the role of a product marketing manager?
• How are marketing teams organized?
• Which tools do marketers use?
• Interview questions for marketing managers
• Typical salary for marketing managers
• How to make a career switch into marketing
• Job interview
• Negotiating an offer
• Product manager resume
• Collections: Product manager resume
• How to structure your product development team
• Best practices for managing a product development team
• Which tools do product managers use?
• How to streamline your product management tools
• Tips for effective collaboration between product managers and engineers
• How product managers achieve stakeholder alignment
• Aha! record map
• Creative brief
• Marketing calendar
• Organizational chart
• Presentation slides
• Process improvement
• Collections: Product management meeting
• Collections: Diagrams, flowcharts for product teams
• Collections: Whiteboarding
• Collections: Templates to run product meetings
• Product development definitions
• Marketing definitions

What is roadmap software?

Understand what your team needs in a roadmapping tool.

Product roadmap template

Use this template to showcase how planned work aligns with strategy.

Latest functionality in Aha! Roadmaps

See what's new in Aha! Roadmaps — the complete product management solution.

• Privacy policy
• Terms of service

Integrations

What's new?

Prototype Testing

Live Website Testing

Feedback Surveys

Interview Studies

Card Sorting

Tree Testing

In-Product Prompts

Participant Management

Automated Reports

Templates Gallery

Choose from our library of pre-built mazes to copy, customize, and share with your own users

Browse all templates

Financial Services

Tech & Software

Product Designers

Product Managers

User Researchers

By use case

Concept & Idea Validation

Wireframe & Usability Test

Content & Copy Testing

Feedback & Satisfaction

Content Hub

Educational resources for product, research and design teams

Explore all resources

Question Bank

Research Maturity Model

Guides & Reports

Help Center

Future of User Research Report

The Optimal Path Podcast

Sep 6, 2021

Product development strategy: How to define the direction of your new product

Let's explore what a product development strategy is, why it matters, types of strategies and examples, and how you can create one for your product.

Giada Gastaldello

Content Marketing Manager at Maze

Scroll Down

To stay competitive, companies need to find new ways to innovate and deliver continuous value to their customers. Yet creating winning products requires more than an innovative idea. Careful planning and strategy are a must for success. You'll need a clear direction to follow to optimize resources, identify priorities, and ensure a smooth product development process.

In this article, we’ll look at what a product development strategy is and how you can develop a great one for your product. For expert insights and best practices, we spoke to Vicky Volvovski , Senior Director & Head of Product Management at Postlight and former Head of Product at Zapier; Enzo Avigo , Co-founder & CEO at June and former Product Manager at Intercom, Zalando, and N26; and Ian Booth , Senior Product Manager at EduMe.

What is a product development strategy?

A product development strategy is a fundamental part of the new product development process (NPD) . It’s a high-level plan that describes the actions needed to develop new products or upgrade existing ones and introduce them to current or new markets.

New product development strategies link together the product vision and the strategic steps to realize that vision. In other words, a product development strategy guides a company's product development efforts—from concept to testing to launch—and aligns the new product's features and functionalities with the business strategy and target market needs.

The benefits of defining an effective product development strategy

Defining a product development strategy before you begin development is crucial. It will set the direction of your product and help you set clear goals. Let’s dive into the top three benefits of developing a strategy for your new product.

1. It gives you clarity

There are a million things that could get prioritized and a million directions that the product could go in. A product strategy allows you to say “yes” to the things that are aligned with your direction and say “no” to the rest.

Vicky Volvovski , Senior Director and Head of Product Management at Postlight

When you’re building a new product, deciding what to do, and most importantly, what not to do, is challenging. A product development strategy gives you a clear direction to follow. It helps you set priorities and make decisions that align with the company's overall strategy. "Sometimes the things you say 'no' to might be good ideas, but they don't align," explains Vicky. "That’s where product strategy gives you clarity."

2. It improves decision-making

The more your team can understand the strategy, the more they can make decisions in their day-to-day that help you reach that goal rather than having people pulling in different directions because they don’t understand what you're working towards.

When goals and priorities are well understood, product teams can make better decisions throughout the development process. They will know what ideas are worth pursuing, what features they should prioritize, or how to adjust the plan if challenges arise. This brings us to the third benefit.

3. It maximizes product development efficiency

I think a clear strategy is really what differentiates the companies that move fast from the others. If you know what you want to achieve and communicate it clearly to your teams, they will be able to find the best way to reach the goal. It maximizes the time and energy of all the people who work in your company.

Enzo Avigo , Co-founder and CEO at June

When product teams have a well-defined strategy to follow, they can better manage resources, estimate timeframes and costs, and make quick, confident decisions. Enzo points out that a product development strategy not only is a way to optimize resources but it also keeps your teams motivated and your organization healthy.

Product development strategies and examples

Now that you know how a product development strategy can benefit your organization, let's look at three different types of strategies you can adopt and some real-life examples of product development strategies.

Data-driven product strategies

Being data-driven means making decisions based on data and key metrics. Data-driven companies break down the product development strategy into quantitative objectives to measure progress and success. What to measure and why usually depends on the company's high-level strategy. Product teams translate the high-level strategy into key metrics and generate initiatives to achieve the desired goals.

N26 is a company that adopts a data-driven approach to product development strategy. The company was founded with this vision: A global digital bank to transform the way we manage money .

“One of the ways to achieve our vision was to reach as many people as possible and increase our user base,” says Enzo Avigo, Co-founder of June and former Product Manager at N26. He and his team identified the metrics they wanted to move, such as the conversion rate and the number of active users, and worked on the main product initiatives to unlock those metrics.

While data-driven companies use data to lead the decision-making process, data-informed companies acknowledge the limitations of data and use them to inform their decisions. Learn more about the difference between data-informed and data-driven .

Vision-driven product strategies

A vision-driven strategy starts with a view of the future—a clear picture of what the company wants to build. Innovation is driven by intuitive vision and personal goals rather than market research data. Founders of such companies rely on this type of strategy when they want to create truly innovative products and explore a market where users don’t know much about the new product and what features they’d like.

Yet “vision-driven” doesn’t mean that product teams won't use data. Insights and data are still needed to understand user behavior, test assumptions, or understand how to upgrade the product in the future.

Apple is one of the best examples of a company executing a vision-driven product strategy. Historically, Apple was known to build the products first and then find the market for them. In an interview , Steve Jobs explained: "We do no market research. We just want to make great products. When we created the iTunes Music Store, we did that because we thought it would be great to be able to buy music electronically, not because we had plans to redefine the music industry."

Research-driven product strategy

This third type of product strategy is based on market and user research . Product teams start the new product development process with product discovery and use research to inform their decision-making at all stages of the process. They reach out to users to understand their needs and expectations and based on data and user feedback, they determine how to build a product that satisfies those needs and delivers value to customers.

One example of a research-driven product strategy is Intercom. During his time as Product Manager at Intercom, Enzo Avigo worked in the platform group. The team was developing the Intercom App Store , where users can browse and install third-party apps and integrations. User research was crucial to figure out what to build. “We knew that the more integrations our users had, the better retention they had,” says Enzo. “We created the platform group to make sure that all the users could find the right app, for the right use case, at the right moment.”

While this is a "formal" distinction between different types of strategies, the most successful products employ a mix of these strategies: they are driven by data, do research, and have a clear vision of where they want to get to.

Bring your customers' voice to product decisions

Create and share dynamic surveys with your customers, and track results in real-time to validate ideas and fuel product decisions.

How to create a winning product development strategy

As we saw, there are different approaches to product development . But whatever strategy you choose, here are some simple steps to develop and execute a successful new product development strategy.

1. Define your vision

Your product development strategy is the bridge between your product vision and the actions needed to realize that vision. So, as a first step, you’ll need to clearly define where you want your product to go and what you want to achieve. In simple words, your vision communicates the intent behind your product and the high-level goal driving your product development.

Sometimes, companies use mission and vision statements interchangeably, but they have different purposes. A mission statement focuses on the here and now and what the company is doing to achieve its goals. A vision statement focuses on the future and where the company wants to be in the long run.

One example of a successful vision statement would be Google's: To provide access to the world’s information in one click .

2. Do your research

A successful product development strategy has to be rooted in real user problems and goals and a real market opportunity.

The second step is to conduct in-depth research of your target audience, existing market, and competitors . In this way, you and your team can mitigate risks, use accurate data to inform your decision-making and increase your chances of building a successful product.

First, define and understand your ideal audience. Who are your target customers, and what problems are they facing? How will your product solve their problems? Interviews, surveys , or product analytics are just a few methods to get to know your users and identify their wants and needs.

Ian Booth, Senior Product Manager at EduMe, explains: "We have fantastic customer support and user research teams who constantly communicate with the customers and understand what they’re looking for from a strategy perspective. They’re so focused on being the champion for the user within the conversations that we’re having."

As a product manager, you're trying to balance the commercial side and the user side. You want to make sure that you’re not missing any information. Leaning on internal teams such as Customer Support and Research to champion the user's voice for me is the best route to go.

Ian Booth , Senior Product Manager at EduMe

Second, conduct market research and competitor analysis to learn what other products are available in the market, understand how users perceive your product compared to your competitors' offers, and identify what makes you unique. This is a fundamental step to decide how you will position and differentiate yourself in the market.

Learn more about how market validation justifies product investment by assessing how viable your product idea would be in the market.

3. Set product goals

When you have a deep understanding of your target market, you should use the data gathered to establish a series of goals you want your product to achieve to deliver value to customers and gain a competitive advantage. Set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. They will help you decide what to build next and give you a tool to measure the success of your product.

We always have a really good objective to focus on and good key results to track success. If you’re able to set them early, track, and understand them, you can determine if your product launch is successful because you can see the actual progression.

As part of our product development process at Maze, we always include a summary of our goals in the product development strategy document and regularly track our progress on every goal. This allows our product team to make decisions and align on the next steps.

4. Plan the product roadmap

It’s now time to define the initiatives, features, and releases that will help transform your goals into action. A product roadmap is a high-level visual that allows you and your team to execute the strategy. Product managers use roadmaps to plan tasks, communicate priorities, allocate resources, and see the evolution of a product over time.

A product development strategy ensures that all the initiatives in the roadmap are linked to the product’s vision and goals so that you can start development with a detailed and solid plan.

Product discovery plays a crucial role in helping product teams understand their customers and decide which products or features to prioritize and build.

Looking for a comprehensive list of product management tools? Check out our list of the best 13 product management tools to streamline your workflow.

Final thoughts

We’d like to conclude with a piece of advice from Enzo Avigo, Co-founder and CEO at June:

Strategy is like chess. You can think for hours before you start the game, but nothing ever happens until you play. The same occurs with product strategy. The best thing to do is not to think about the perfect strategy but move a piece, build something, and see what it yields. So usually, building the easiest prototype or finding a way to validate your assumptions.

Rapid prototyping can help you explore and validate ideas early in the product development process. With tools like Maze, you can test prototypes with users and get actionable results that help you make informed product decisions.

We hope this article has provided an insight into what a product development strategy should include. Now it's your turn. Start testing things out and get ready to launch a successful product.

Frequently asked questions

A product development strategy is a strategic plan that guides the new product development process. It aligns product teams around the product vision and outlines the actions needed to bring new products to market or upgrade the performance of existing products.

What are the main product development strategies?

Companies can consider three main types of product development strategies: data-driven strategies rely on data and analytics, vision-driven strategies are based on intuition and personal experience, and research-driven strategies depend on market and user research.

Product Development Process: The Seven Stages Explained

10 min read

The product development process is part art, part science, and all important to the success of your SaaS.

In this article, we’ve got a comprehensive review of the entire product development process. We’ll take you through idea generation, market research, defining a minimum viable product, building new features, managing the launch, and beyond.

Ready to get started?

• The new product development process is the method of building new products or services and bringing them to market: everything from generating ideas for a product concept to prototyping to identifying a target market, to launch, and beyond.
• While product development describes the process of creating the product itself (i.e. designing screens, writing code, running tests), product management is a broader concept that encompasses strategy , vision, and product-market fit.
• You need a range of disciplines working together in a cross-functional team to make sure various product development processes go to plan, including product managers , developers, marketers , sales, designers , senior leaders , and more.

The product development process has seven key phases:

• First up is coming up with an idea . Product managers generate these by looking at key metrics and trends in the market or gathering user feedback from existing products.
• Next up, you need to validate the idea before you start writing code. You can do that with innovations like ‘fake door tests’.
• Once you know you’ve got something valuable, you need to test your concept and plan your roadmap so you and your team have a clear strategic plan.
• Step four is building a minimum viable product . This could be a relatively low-fidelity prototype or a fully working MVP with just enough functionality to add some value to your users.
• The next phase is to gather feedback on your MVP . Use insight gathered from your first batch of users to make targeted improvements to your product before a wider launch.
• Once you’ve made enough tweaks and enhancements, you can start building your actual product . Remember that without working code – and a secure, scalable system – you don’t have a product.
• The final step is to launch your product . Your marketing and sales teams have a big part to play in making sure you roll out to your target market smoothly and drive interest on day one. Your job isn’t over – you need to evolve continually and iterate based on user behavior and feedback.
• Regardless of the context, there are some fundamental principles guaranteed to improve your workflow: align your priorities with business goals, ensure you collaborate across your cross-functional team, adopt an Agile mindset, and don’t lose focus on the importance of onboarding.
• Userpilot is a powerful user onboarding platform: leverage it to maximize the chances of product success.

What is product development?

Product development is the method of bringing a new product or service to market.

It involves all the steps right the way through, from initial ideation and research to concept development, prototyping, mass production, distribution strategy, and ultimately market launch .

The development phase of the product lifecycle is a critical one: you can get everything else right, but if the development process is flawed, your SaaS will never be a success.

Product development vs. product management

So what’s the difference between product management and the product development process itself?

In a nutshell:

• Product development describes the process of creating the product itself (i.e. designing screens, writing code, running tests).
• Product management is a broad term covering the overall strategy , vision, market fit, and all involved in ‘building the thing right’.

It’s clear where the product development process sits: it’s a part of product management as a discipline.

Who is involved in the new product development process?

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson

One of the most important things to understand about the product development cycle is that it’s a team sport .

You need a range of disciplines to bring a new product to life:

• Product development team: Your software engineers play an important role. They’ll choose the development framework you use, conduct software development activities (i.e. writing code and unit tests), and use their expertise to guide the rest of the team on technical feasibility).
• Product management team: Product managers set the vision, define a strategy, and build a roadmap that helps focus the team’s efforts. Without those artifacts, the product development lifecycle might lack direction.
• Project management team: The project managers’ job is to make sure development processes run smoothly: organizing resources, keeping track of work, effective process management, and resolving blockers.
• Product design team: Your user-centered design experts will gather early feedback about product concepts and help solve an existing customer problem. They also test the product concept and identify areas for improvement while collaborating with your development teams to bring designs into reality.
• Product marketing team: Communication is key in the marketing team as it will define your marketing strategy, help get messaging right for your target audience, and work with product managers to understand the competitive landscape before launch.
• Product sales team: Your sales team can help you articulate a clear value proposition, and identify your unique selling point.
• Senior management . Connect the work your team is doing with the wider business plan, set the direction, and sign off on key decisions.

What are the seven stages of the product development process?

Next up, we’re going to break down the entire process of bringing an entirely new product idea into reality.

Step 1: Carry out idea generation

“Everything begins with an idea.” – Earl Nightingale

Product managers need something they can bring to the team to start with. There are many ways to generate ideas:

Market research

Competitor analysis can help you quickly figure out if there’s a market need and start to figure out product market fit.

Tools like Google Trends and other industry publications can help point you in the right direction.

Customer requests

There’s no better way of generating ideas than gaining insight into a user’s perspective. Building outlets into your product so existing customers can provide relevant product and feature ideas to you and your development team

Collaboration with cross-functional teams

Customer-facing teams like the sales or customer success teams can share product ideas they’ve picked up from interacting with users.

They’ll be able to make suggestions aligned with your product strategy and serve as a useful ‘idea screening’ stage.

The product marketing team can also help as they continuously conduct market research, so they might know what competitors are focusing on and are well positioned to identify if there’s any market gap.

Having great distribution is a fantastic way to gain a competitive advantage.

Step 2: Perform product validation before the product development process begins

Before your product definition is set in stone, you should stress test it and figure out whether it’s viable . It’s key to the product’s success and helps you avoid the risk of catastrophe (i.e. users hate a concept – or it’s not technically feasible).

There are lots of ways to validate a product idea in this stage of the development process:

• Ask for initial feedback from your target audience via surveys and interviews.
• Generate interest and capture engagement with a fake door test (monitoring clicks on a link to a feature that’s not yet built to gauge demand).

Step 3: Conduct concept development and plan the product roadmap

Once you’ve validated your idea, you should work on concept development .

This stage is all about concept testing to refine your product idea and building a product roadmap .

Alongside a roadmap (which sets out what you’ll focus on now, next, and later – a strategic plan for future iterations of the product) you need a detailed business plan outlining your financial constraints, resources, and other risks.

Planning is an often overlooked part of the production process: without it, your product features won’t be anything more than ideas.

Step 4: Build the minimum viable product (MVP)

Next up is the prototyping phase. You might want to go into a ‘lighter touch’ prototyping stage (i.e. low fidelity mockup) or you could even build a working MVP with basic features.

Put simply, a minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product with just enough core functionality to be usable by early customers, who can then provide feedback for future product development.

Your MVP should tackle your user’s main pain points.

This approach means product developers potentially avoid lengthy and (possibly) unnecessary work.

Step 5: Collect customer feedback on MVP and iterate

Next up, you should conduct prototyping/MVP testing to identify potential issues that need to be rectified fast.

User feedback is vital to your product development strategy.

You can test the MVP with a sample of your target market. Alternatively, if you have an existing customer base, you can recruit beta testers in-app. Talking to power users is also a good idea since they regularly use your product.

Testing will answer an important question: how are your product’s unique features performing? Have they landed with potential customers in a new market the way you’d expected they would?

You can then collect customer feedback via interviews/focus groups or a series of in-app surveys.

Remember, the more closely you listen to your target customers, the sharper your competitive edge.

Step 6: Develop the final product

In this step, you write the code to develop the final product.

Remember to analyze the feedback received from beta testing and incorporate it when developing the product – into the manufacturing process of physical products, it’s a chance to refine and avoid defects.

In reality, this is the most crucial element of the development part of the product life cycle: without a working code, you don’t have a product.

Step 7: Launch the product and continuously improve it

You’ve done all the hard work: now it’s about nailing a successful product launch.

Alongside your developers, it’s key for product managers to collaborate with the marketing team to create the go-to-market strategy.

You should be mindful of market conditions and prevailing market trends: if your competitive analysis shows a particular time of year is sensible to launch in, then tailor your launch accordingly.

Once you’ve got your launch over the line, you should continuously gather feedback and monitor product usage data . That’ll give you valuable insight into where to focus your efforts during the next new product development stage.

What are some product development examples?

Of course, how the product development process looks in practice might differ depending on the context.

Let’s explore a couple of examples.

Developing a new CRM software

CRM tools are vital in the world of modern business: managing customer relationships shouldn’t rely on a spreadsheet!

A team looking at developing a CRM might follow the stages above like this:

• Generate ideas based on observations from the sales team on their pain points, frustrations, and requirements.
• Stress test the concepts you’ve come up with by interviewing a few of the sales team and walking through your proposal.
• Prioritize and plan a roadmap of features.
• Build an MVP with the first key bits of functionality (i.e. customer information, document upload, and integration with email, for example).
• Gather feedback from beta users on the MVP.
• Use that insight to define your final MVP (i.e. a user might have issues or suggest changes to a feature you hadn’t considered).
• Launch your CRM, monitor usage, and focus on the highest value improvements (i.e. integrating with sales and marketing integrations).

Building an AI writing assistant feature for a product growth tool

AI is a rapidly growing area: what might the software development process look like for an AI writing assistant:

• Generate ideas for your tool: market research can help you pick a niche.
• A fake door test will give you an indication of whether there’s demand (i.e. people wanting to try your assistive tech out).
• Plan your roadmap: what are you going to focus on now, next, and later?
• Build an MVP of your writing tool – maybe you focus first on one specific range of edits.
• Use that insight to make targeted improvements (i.e. tweaking the language options to make sure they help drive growth).
• Launch your writing assistant, monitor usage , and check performance against KPIs.

Best practices to follow for developing a successful product

The product development process has several underlying principles. Here are some best practices.

Prioritize product ideas that align with business goals

Prioritization is a fundamental skill for PMs: without it, you’ll have to treat everything as a priority.

Choose product ideas based on optimizing for value realized to the business and your users.

There are many frameworks to choose from that can help you make better decisions:

• Value vs effort
• SWOT analysis

Foster cross-functional team collaboration and communication

The beauty of cross-functional teams is that each discipline brings a unique skill set to the table.

Getting developers involved in ideation, designers in planning the launch , and sales input to the roadmap can only improve collaborative outcomes.

Ensure all product development refers to different team members. For example, if you were to involve engineers in your strategic planning, they can provide accurate technical estimates and help set stakeholder expectations.

Follow an agile mindset

Agile teams have a proven track record of delivering valuable outcomes, faster. Teams that build in a ‘waterfall’ style where all requirements are defined up front run the risk of getting off track.

An agile, highly adaptive , user-centric approach will set you and your team up for success.

“Agile is an attitude, not a technique with boundaries.”

Don’t compromise on the quality of the product onboarding

Onboarding is critically important . If you can’t get users to experience value fast from your existing product, the hard work you and the team put into the development process might go to waste.

Product managers should work with the marketing team to orchestrate an effective comms strategy that highlights the unique value proposition, key features, and how users can make the best use of them.

The new product development process is notoriously tricky.

Hopefully, you now feel much better equipped with a firm understanding of the key steps, principles of successful development, and some examples you can draw inspiration from.

Want to build product experiences code-free and deliver more effective software to your users? Book a demo call with our team and get started! Check out the banner below for more information.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Get The Insights!

The fastest way to learn about Product Growth,Management & Trends.

The coolest way to learn about Product Growth, Management & Trends. Delivered fresh to your inbox, weekly.

The fastest way to learn about Product Growth, Management & Trends.

You might also be interested in ...

What is product experience management [+use cases], what are saas products + 22 successful saas companies to follow.

Saffa Faisal

Marketing Growth Strategy: Definition, Process, Examples, and More

Forming a new product development business plan

Table of Contents

Creating a product idea 

Outline the concept and idea, do market research , create a pitch, business planning for your new product development , creating the product, consider the finances, determine a price point , research profitability, marketing your new product  , product launch , create incentives , keep your finances in good shape.

Introducing new products can be a good way to grow your small business. In fact, a survey with Neilson found that 63% of those surveyed liked when businesses offered new products. These products can bring awareness to your brand and fit a consumer’s needs. They’re also a good way to earn more income. 

But product development can be time-consuming and lead to profits if it’s not well-planned. 

This guide will discuss how to create a new product development business plan, including: 

• Marketing your new product 

If you’re wondering how to create a new product development business plan, you may want to start with brainstorming.  

The idea for your new product is the first step in developing new things to sell for your business. These ideas should keep your target customer and market in mind. Try to consider what your customer wants from your product . For example, if you have a baking business, you may think of ideas for baked goods or baking tools. 

The idea will be the actual product you may develop, whereas the concept is its purpose and plan. You may want to create a list of ideas to narrow down to a final concept. 

When considering your ideas, outline a few key factors for its development. Ask yourself about the functionality of the product. Is it solving a problem or answering a question? Would your customers be interested in buying it? Is it realistic to create and sell? 

Once you narrow down your idea and concept, do market research to understand the product’s marketability. You might look at similar product listings, prices, and reviews to get an idea of demand. 

Compile some information on your target audience . Determine how stable this market is and how long it may last. If the trend doesn’t last long, you may not be able to profit from the interest before it goes away.  

Also, outline potential competitors to see how difficult it may be to convince buyers to pick your product. Then, determine what you can do to stand out. 

With your idea and concept, put together a pitch. This pitch can be the beginning of your new product development business plan. The pitch will include a product description , a development plan, and potential customer benefits. You could also put together a sample.

Then, give this pitch to a few people you trust. If they agree that it could be a beneficial and successful product, you can get started on a more detailed business plan for the product development. 

The development plan will outline how you’ll create the product and sell it to customers to earn money from it. We’ll cover a few things you may want to consider in this business plan. 

First, determine what you’ll need and how you’ll put the finished product together. You may want to get quotes from vendors to get materials for your new product. If it’s more of a service than a product, outline what it will offer and how you’ll successfully achieve the service for customers. 

To develop your product, you’ll need to determine the money you’ll need. Start by deciding how much it will cost to make the new product. Then, decide how many you might make for a release. 

Use your vendor quotes to estimate the cost of production. When putting together a budget for your development plan, look at startup costs and ongoing expenses for the new product. Then, determine if your business’s cash flow can support these. If not, you may need to consider funding options or start saving for the product development. 

Once you outline the cost of production, use that information to determine how much you’ll charge for your new product. You may want to establish a competitive price so buyers may choose yours over competitor’s. 

Your pricing will need to promote profitability. To do this, establish a profit margin, or markup, which is the product’s price divided by the cost of the production. This might be about 10-20% or more, depending on the industry and the demand.   

After deciding on your product price, project how much you could earn from it. Consider how many products you might sell in the first few months. Plus, decide how many you’ll need to sell to cover your startup costs and begin earning revenue from that new product.

You may also want to consult your current customers to see if they’re interested in the product. In addition, consider putting together a focus group to see what a sample of people thinks of the new product. With this new information, you can set sales goals and create a timeline towards profitability.   

The last part of your new product development business plan will be to decide how you’ll market that product to earn sales. You’ll need to create buzz around it’s release. 

To build awareness and promote sales, you can create a product launch event that celebrates the product and demonstrates its usefulness. Consider sending out a newsletter that announces it’s release or posting on social media with a launch countdown. 

Since it’s a new product, you may want to incentivise it to potential customers to try it. You could offer existing customers a discount or free trial of the new product. A trial can help you understand the product’s effectiveness and see if it needs any tweaking. Then, consider asking these customers to review the product for others to see how well it works. 

As you plan for new product development, you’ll need to manage your finances to support your business growth. Financial management can be stressful and time-consuming when you’re self-employed. That’s why thousands of business owners use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 

Find out more here .

• Counting Up on Facebook
• Counting Up on Twitter
• Counting Up on LinkedIn

Related Resources

What insurance does a self-employed hairdresser need.

As a self-employed hairdresser, you’re open to risks in your everyday work. Whether

What are assets and liabilities in a business?

Anyone going into business needs to be familiar with assets and liabilities. They

Personal car for business use: How does it work?

Access to a car is a must for most businesses, meaning that travel

Advantages and disadvantages of using personal savings in business

Have you got a new business idea? And are you considering using your

How to pay Corporation Tax

Corporation Tax is the main tax your limited company has to pay every

How long do CHAPS & BACS payments take?

If you are making transfers frequently between banks in the UK, you have

11 common costs of running a business

When running a business, the various costs can quickly add up. If you

How to buy a vehicle through a limited company

Buying a vehicle through a limited company works similarly to how you may

What is a sales strategy? (with example)

When you run a small business, it’s important to consider how you’ll optimise

Preparing business packages for distribution

You may think shipping your product is as easy as popping it in

How to use cloud services for a business

The development of cloud computing is a game changer for businesses big and

How do EU imports and exports work?

In January 2022, the UK introduced new EU imports and exports regulations. If

500+ business plans and financial models

Products & Services Section in a Business Plan (+ Examples)

• March 21, 2024
• Business Plan , How to Write

In this blog post, we’ll guide you through writing the products and services section of your business plan. We’ll cover how to describe what you’re selling and why it’s important in your business plan.

Whether you’re launching a new startup or creating a business plan for an existing business, this section is crucial for showing the value you bring to customers. Let’s get started!

Why do we include them in a business plan?

The products and services section of a business plan is more than just a list of what a company sells; it’s a vital narrative that tells the story of the business’s core offerings and their significance to the market.

This section is paramount for readers (especially potential investors) to grasp the essence of what the business is about, the unique problems it solves, or the specific needs it addresses.

A meticulously crafted products and services segment does much more than describe offerings. Indeed, it lays the groundwork for comprehensive marketing strategies , informs operational planning, and financial projections.

Moreover, understanding the business’s offerings in depth enables stakeholders to envision the company’s value proposition and competitive edge.

Where should you include them?

In a business plan, the Products and Services section is typically included within the business overview section.

This allows you to first introduce the business model and what it offers to customers. Only after this you can provide more details of the products and services.

The Products and Services section should clearly detail what you are selling, highlight the unique value proposition . It should also ideally explain how it meets the needs of your target market if it isn’t obvious. T

What to include: 2 Examples

Begin with a clear, engaging description of each product or service you offer. For services, describe the process, customer experience, and outcome. For products, discuss the materials, technology, and any unique features.

Services example: a Cryotherapy business plan

Products example: a Brewery business plan

Privacy Overview

Advisory boards aren’t only for executives. Join the LogRocket Content Advisory Board today →

• Product Management
• Solve User-Reported Issues
• Find Issues Faster
• Optimize Conversion and Adoption

What is a product plan and how to create one in 6 steps

Whenever I read about the next hot, new start-up with unicorn potential, I can’t help but think of Pinky and the Brain .

Both titular characters in the mid-90s animated TV series are genetically modified laboratory mice. Brain is hyper-intelligent; Pinky, not so much.

Brain’s primary objective? World domination:

Pinky : Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight? Brain : The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world.

In each episode, Brain devises a diabolical yet half-baked plan — for example, manipulating the world’s biggest magnet to form discarded satellites to spell “Brain is your ruler” — that invariably ends up foiled.

What does this have to do with product management?

Devise a product plan to take over the world

If you want to make an impact with your product and solve all your customers’ problems, don’t be like Brain; take the time to devise a product plan before you make your first move on your quest for market domination.

Creating roadmaps and backlogs is a great start, but product planning covers a much wider scope.

In this guide, we’ll define what product planning means, why it’s important, and the components and steps involved in creating a product plan.

What is a product plan?

Product planning covers all the steps, activities, and decisions a company must perform and make to develop a successful product.

A product can be defined as an input-outcome device. The input is the customer value proposition and the outcome is the company’s profit. Product planning includes everything you need to do internally to get from input to outcome.

It starts with a recognized customer need — after all, customers don’t just buy a product, they buy what the product will do for them to solve a problem they are having. It ends when the product has reached the end of its usefulness from a business perspective.

What is the purpose of product planning?

Product planning encompasses the actions and components that contribute to achieving a specific outcome. Product management is all about realizing outcomes.

Before jumping into the how and what, let’s first understand why product planning is important by outlining its six objectives:

• Company survival
• Meet customer needs
• Increase sales
• Understand and manage strengths and weaknesses
• Better manage capacity
• Plan effectively

1. Company survival

The eye of the tiger, survival of the fittest — or as P. Diddy said, it’s all about the Benjamins .

Product planning allows you to focus, remain viable, and understand your ability to innovate. It also helps you clarify how to introduce, grow, and sunset products in highly competitive markets.

2. Meet customer needs

The customer is at the heart of any product. Thorough product planning will set you up to understand and meet your customers’ needs. This, in turn, helps you quickly move customers from evaluators to champions through the product-led growth flywheel .

3. Increase sales

Your product can be lightyears ahead with brilliant solutions to customer problems, yet if they are not interested in the solution and don’t buy the product, your product fails.

For example, virtual reality seems to have finally found product-market fit . VR technology though, is not new.

In the 90s, VR was on the rise and forecasted sales potential was off the charts. Unfortunately, VR systems such as the Virtual Boy failed to deliver; its poor ergonomics and underwhelming stereoscopic effect gave users terrible headaches.

With better product planning, Nintendo might’ve been able to craft a more sophisticated product that satisfied customer expectations and, as a result, increased sales.

Over 200k developers and product managers use LogRocket to create better digital experiences

4. Understand and manage strengths and weaknesses

Product planning allows you to look introspectively and analyze your strengths and weaknesses in light of market requirements. What does your product do really well? What qualities distinguish it from competitors? What does your product lack and what do competitors do better?

By asking and answering questions like these, you’ll gain a better understanding of what you can take advantage of and what you need to improve in your product.

5. Better manage capacity

What’s one thing every company has in common? Limited resources in terms of capital, material, and human resources. Product planning enables you to plan these optimally and get the most out of them.

6. Plan effectively

When you’re building products, you have many competing priorities . Will you invest in new features, enhance and improve existing ones, reduce technical debt , or spend more time on improving discovery and delivery processes ? Product planning allows you to meet your long-term strategic plans.

6 considerations for product planning

Now that we understand why product planning is essential, how do you go about doing it?

Creating a successful product plan involves the following considerations:

• Research before development
• Choose a delivery method
• Coordinate activities
• Set a price
• Commercialize the product
• Abandon unprofitable products

1. Research before development

Energy to get going: Check. Confidence it will work out: Check.

Validation that the idea will deliver what customers need? [Buzzer sounds].

Before jumping into the deep end of product development, start with extendive market and user research. The insights gathered therein will help you establish what characteristics and requirements your product must fulfil to meet customers’ needs.

2. Choose a delivery method

All roads lead to Rome. The question is, which is the most efficient?

This is even more applicable when it comes to product delivery. Which delivery method will enable you to develop your product or feature exact how the customer needs it to be?

3. Coordinate activities

Product planning aims to coordinate all the initiatives and activities around the product and its investments. Doing so allows you to improve your competitive position and strive for market leadership. It also helps you quickly respond to changing market conditions.

4. Set a price

Product planning helps you determine the ideal price point for your product.

More great articles from LogRocket:

• How to implement issue management to improve your product
• 8 ways to reduce cycle time and build a better product
• What is a PERT chart and how to make one
• Discover how to use behavioral analytics to create a great product experience
• Explore six tried and true product management frameworks you should know
• Advisory boards aren’t just for executives. Join LogRocket’s Content Advisory Board. You’ll help inform the type of content we create and get access to exclusive meetups, social accreditation, and swag.

The insights gathered during product planning can help you determine the best pricing strategy. For example, is your product most suitable for value-based, competitive, price skimming, cust-plus, penetration, economy, or dynamic pricing?

5. Commercialize the product

Product planning helps you uncover and validate the viability, feasibility, and desirability of your product.

Desirability speaks to satisfaction of customer needs and the commercialization of the product. This measure helps you ensure viability and, hopefully, rake in profits.

Product planning also considers how to best introduce the product to the market and continuously measure success post-launch .

6. Abandon unprofitable products

All good things eventually come to an end. Every decision in a product is a business decision, and there will come a time that further investment in a product or product feature becomes unprofitable.

At that point, a decision has to be made whether or not to sunset the product or feature.

Good product planning throughout the product lifecycle helps you recognize when it is time to abandon the product and sunset it in a structured way with minimal impact on customers.

How to create a product plan in 6 steps

OK, enough small talk. It’s time to deep-dive into the product planning process.

Product planning involves six steps:

• Market and user research
• Concept ideation
• Screening and testing
• Introduction and launch
• Product lifecycle

1. Market and user research

Before you start to build, it’s crucial to understand the problem you’re trying to solve, the market drivers, competitors, and customer needs. You can generate insights on all of the above through market research.

Competitive analysis , a subset of market research, is a structured approach to identifying and analyzing competitors.

Both are conducted to identify markets, investigate market positioning , and analyze the business’s success.

Through customer segmentation research, which is especially important to new businesses, larger customer groups are divided into different groups with personas.

The personas form the basis of user research, which is aimed at understanding potential customers’ problems, habits, interests, motivations, and more.

2. Concept ideation

A great product starts with a great concept and initial validation of that concept. This step is arguably the most fun and creative step.

During the concept development stage, you define what you are trying to build by figuring out how well it solves the identified problem, how easy it is to use, what it will cost the customer, the look and feel of the application, and so on.

A key step in this process step is product discovery and a continuation of user research, which enables you to uncover the problems the persona faces and the solution to aim for.

Concept ideation sources can be both external and internal. Externally, market and user research influence concept ideation. Internally, concept ideas originate from sales, customer support, marketing, engineering, designers, user research, executives, and investors.

3. Screening and testing

During screening and testing, the ideas generated during the concept ideation phase are critically evaluated.

The goal is to groom out ideas that are either inconsistent with the product vision , undesirable, and/or impractical.

After evaluation, the next step is to rigorously prioritize ideas . As the Highlander said, “ There can only be one .” This is not to say you should only test one idea; it just means you should pursue the most promising tests first.

There are plenty of prioritization frameworks to choose from with some of the most commonly used include:

• Value vs. effort
• MoSCoW method
• Opportunity scoring

Once you have a prioritized list, you should devise a hypothesis and experiment to verify or disprove it.

In product testing, customers are given an opportunity to try a prototype. This helps you understand whether customers understand the product idea, what they like or dislike about it, and whether they would ultimately buy and use it.

The concept ideation, screening, and testing as a whole are often covered in the Double Diamond approach, which is a design process to help you discover, define, develop and deliver solutions.

4. Introduction and launch

After a few iterations of screening and testing, the new features and usability improvements deemed ready to pursue and develop trickle through and are ready for development and launch.

In this step, the idea is converted into a product. It’s the PM’s job to schedule activities to ensure a successful product launch with a high adoption rate .

When ready, the product is launched and commercialized. If your product planning is sound, it should be poised to compete with existing products and maximize market share and profits.

5. Product lifecycle

After the product is launched, the real fun begins. Now it’s time to measure and analyze usage to gather new insights about whether or not your product launch was successful.

Using these insights, you can modify and enhance the product, introduce new features, improve usability, and help the product move from introduction to growth.

At a certain point, you’ll reach product maturity. The number of customers and sales will stabilize. Eventually, new investments in the product will have a harder time generating additional revenue. It will become increasingly challenging to compete.

Eventually, the product will decline, and the number of customers and sales along with it. This might be due to existing competition or the introduction of new products that are more advanced and better serve the customer’s needs.

Think about how the Walkman was surpassed by the Discman, which was overtaken by the mp3 player, and, eventually, an app on your phone.

6. Sunsetting

When a product is in decline, it’s time to sunset it. Sunsetting is also known as the end of life and usually involves deprecating the product.

Though it might feel difficult to say goodbye to a product that you birthed, nurtured, and watched grow, sunsetting a product is a perfectly natural part of the product lifecycle.

During the sunsetting phase, it is important to be diligent. You should devise a playbook or checklist to ensure all activities, such as communication, code clean-ups, and so on are covered during the end-of-life period.

Featured image source: IconScout

LogRocket generates product insights that lead to meaningful action

Get your teams on the same page — try LogRocket today.

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• #product strategy

Stop guessing about your digital experience with LogRocket

Recent posts:.

Leader Spotlight: Taking a human-centric approach to fintech, with Suhas Reddy

Suhas Reddy discusses the principles of human-centric design and its emphasis on delivering products in the context of the customer.

Leader Spotlight: Focusing on quality and engagement in tech plus services, with Liz Li

Liz Li, CPO of Velocity Global, discusses the importance of meaningful interactions in tech plus services that contribute to company goals.

Brand equity: Building and measuring brand value

By prioritizing brand equity as a key driver of success, you can build enduring relationships with your customers.

Leader Spotlight: The invaluable role of EQ in product, with Priyankka Mani

Priyankka Mani talks about how emotional intelligence ties closely to outcomes and how empathy and curiosity are key to enhancing learning.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Creating Project Plans to Focus Product Development

• Steven C. Wheelwright
• Kim B. Clark

With an “aggregate project plan,” companies map out and manage a set of strategic development projects.

The Idea in Brief

Could anything else go wrong with your company’s product development efforts? You’re running out of money. Products are late. Panicked team leaders are cutting corners. Most alarming, people are squandering scarce resources on “the squeakiest wheels” rather than tackling strategically important products.

How to halt the chaos? Approach product development more systematically—with an aggregate project plan . No single project can define your firm’s future; rather, the set of projects does. An aggregate project plan helps you manage your company’s project mix and allocate scarce resources shrewdly. It categorizes projects based on their contribution to your firm’s competitive strategy and the resources they consume. And it highlights gaps in your development pipeline.

After building an aggregate project plan, most companies eliminate the lion’s share of their existing projects—freeing up resources for their most strategically valuable efforts.

The Idea in Practice

To build your aggregate project plan:

Classify existing projects according to five categories. Each category entails different degrees of product and manufacturing change. The greater the degree of change, the more resources the project consumes.

• needed incremental changes to existing products such as cheaper, no-frills versions, new packaging, or more efficient manufacturing. Relatively few resources .
• needed major changes that create entirely new product categories and markets. Significant resources .
• plan fundamental improvements in cost, quality, and performance over previous generations of products. Though these projects entail more extensive changes than derivatives—and less than breakthroughs—they require considerable upfront effort from numerous functions. Offering significant competitive leverage and the potential to increase market penetration, they should form the core of your aggregate project .

Example: 

Sony dominated the personal audio system market with 200+ Walkman models based on three platforms. The models offered something tailored to every niche, distribution channel, and competitor’s product.

• products creation of new materials and technologies that eventually translate into commercial developments. These projects compete with commercial efforts for resources. However, a close relationship between R&D and commercial projects is essential for a balanced project mix and smooth conversion of ideas into .
• resources relationships formed with other companies to pursue any type of project. Many companies fail to include them in their project planning or to provide them with enough .

Estimate the average time and resources needed for each project type based on past experiences. For example, how many engineering months does each project type typically require?

Identify your existing resource capacity.

Determine the desired mix of projects. Include some from every category needed to support your overall corporate strategy, paying special attention to platforms. Example: 

Scientific-instrument maker PreQuip strategically allocated 50% of its resources to platform, 20% to derivative, and 10% each to R&D and partnership projects.

Estimate the number of projects your existing resources can support. Allocate available resources according to your strategic product mix.

Decide which projects to pursue. Example: 

PreQuip reduced its number of development projects from 30 to 11 (3 derivatives, 1 breakthrough, 3 platforms, 3 R&D, and 1 partnership). Fewer projects meant more work got done; more work meant more products. The company’s commercial development productivity improved threefold.

The long-term competitiveness of any manufacturing company depends ultimately on the success of its product development capabilities. New product development holds hope for improving market position and financial performance, creating new industry standards and new niche markets, and even renewing the organization. Yet few development projects fully deliver on their early promises. The fact is, much can and does go wrong during development. In some instances, poor leadership or the absence of essential skills is to blame. But often problems arise from the way companies approach the development process. They lack what we call an “aggregate project plan.”

• SW Steven C. Wheelwright is the Class of 1949 Professor at the Harvard Business School, where he specializes in product development. His most recent book, coauthored by Kim B. Clark, is Leading Product Development (The Free Press, 1995).
• KC Kim B. Clark is the Harry E. Figgie, Jr., Professor of Business Administration and Dean of the Faculty of Harvard Business School. They are coauthors of Design Rules: The Power of Modularity (the first of two volumes), to be published by the MIT Press in 1998.

Partner Center

Innovation in product development

The latest data on how successful product development teams collaborate to build the future

Disconnected and inefficient processes lead to lower productivity and greatly limit a company’s ability to innovate. A unified product development platform allows cross-department collaborate collaboration across teams within an organization.  

Successful product teams know that the race is on. With the right strategies and tools, they can build better products faster, plan smooth workflows, and tackle complex challenges.

This whitepaper shares insight from a survey that interviewed 100 product professionals across industries and company sizes about the current state of product development.

 Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• What the product development landscape looks like
• Current challenges and opportunities in product development
• An outlook on the future of product development

Guide your product team with the latest data available.

Learn more about Miro's Product Development findings in an upcoming webinar. Information on how to register can be found  here .

Download now

Provided by Miro 

Get the ITPro. daily newsletter

Receive our latest news, industry updates, featured resources and more. Sign up today to receive our FREE report on AI cyber crime & security - newly updated for 2024.

ITPro is a global business technology website providing the latest news, analysis, and business insight for IT decision-makers. Whether it's cyber security, cloud computing, IT infrastructure, or business strategy, we aim to equip leaders with the data they need to make informed IT investments.

For regular updates delivered to your inbox and social feeds, be sure to sign up to our daily newsletter and follow on us LinkedIn and Twitter .

CIO frustration grows as firms prioritize AI investment over digital transformation projects

Westcon-Comstor hits 100% renewable electricity target in the UK

Percona appoints new chief technology officer

Most Popular

Serious about sustainability?

Onward: How security drives business opportunity

The language of innovation

• 2 Percona appoints new chief technology officer
• 3 Why responsible AI development relies on female leadership input
• 4 Qnap TS-h3077AFU review: An expandable all-flash array with a price that's right for SMBs
• 5 The pros and cons of chatbots for customer service

Thank you for checking us out! It looks like the job you were searching for has been filled. ​​​​​​​

But, there’s more – keep scrolling to see if any of these opportunities might be a fit.

Futureshaper Careers

Whether you are a supply chain expert, software engineer, engineer, customer service agent, salesperson or a finance professional, we have your dream job.  .