Do you know or do you assume?

Did your latest digital product become a success? Why did it… or didn’t it? In the second episode of our miniseries we zoom in on the customer and dive into the mindset we need to adopt to create successful digital products.

When you embark on a journey to strengthen your digital offering you are walking into the unknown. The level of uncertainty might vary, but one thing is for sure; this line of business is far too complex for anyone to be completely certain about anything. The topic of this article is do you know or do you assume? 

Everyone who has worked with product development for a while will have participated in creating successful products. But the stories less frequently told are that most have also participated in creating products that missed the target, partially or completely. For complex customer-facing products, the risk that is often overlooked is that of creating a product that nobody wants. The way that products are developed must allow for exploration and validation through tests. Companies that manage to do so will maximize the chances of succeeding in creating digital products and will obtain an increasingly important competitive advantage.

Work with the right focus

The most important component of creating a successful digital product is the value that is offered to the customer. Success is more likely achieved by implementing an outside-in focus, that is based on the idea that customer value will drive long term growth and revenue for the business. A lot of approaches to creating an outside-in focus exist such as design sprints, design thinking and it is one of the cornerstones of the agile principles. All are tools in the toolbox that can be used to reduce the risk of creating something that nobody wants.

In the very early stages of the product life cycle the explorative work is important for defining the right problems to solve – and the right way to solve them. Jayway has an engagement model that is a structured approach to the early stages of digital product development that we apply to make sure that:

• your resources are invested in solving the right problems in the right way

• you test your assumptions to minimize risk, save cost and build the best possible digital solutions

Below is a simplified version of our engagement model. It shows some of the models, processes and activities we frequently apply when developing new products for our customers.

Test your assumptions 

The concept written on the back of a napkin represents a larger degree of uncertainty than a product that has been through a structured process. Though you can give yourself the best possible chances of succeeding a new product can only really be validated by getting into the hands of actual customers. When getting the product into the market it will start to provide answers. Is the value proposition strong enough so that the customer will cross the barrier of creating an account? Do the customers love the product enough to actually pay for it when the trial version expires? Will the customers continue to use the product after the first romance settles? Those are some questions that can only truly be answered when the product is released.

Make data driven decisions

The best way to test your assumptions are through data captured from actual use of your products. The earlier that data driven decisions can be applied the better conditions the teams have for driving the product development in the right direction. This helps refine the overall product strategy, it provides clarity on the features that should be prioritised and it gives designers the possibility to create the best possible customer experience. Ultimately data can help prevent investing resources in developing products that does not strengthen your business. In order to break the barrier of becoming more data driven a clear strategy on what data should be captured needs to be defined and the necessary tools, infrastructure and visualisation needs to be in place. Our advice is to start small by identifying the most important metrics required for testing the most critical assumptions on which you build your product. As the product proves its value the complexity and coverage can be increased.

Embrace uncertainty – it’s present either way

It is impossible to adopt a new mindset and change the drivers of product development without addressing some of the necessary changes in how the company is organised, its processes and its culture. We look more into this in later episodes, but in order to successfully make the transformation it is crucial that the uncertainty is accepted as an inevitable aspect of working with complex products in a changing digital landscape. The path to a successful product is not linear and at the earliest stages of the product life cycle it is  better to apply the thinking; What is the smallest thing we can do to learn the most? Alternatively you might end up investing in products that are based on assumptions that are not correct.

Key takeaways:

• The most important element of creating a successful digital product is creating a product that your customers love

• When developing new digital products it is crucial to acknowledge that product development is largely based on assumptions and that your products can only really be validated when they are put in the hands of your customers

• The earlier that data can be captured from actual product use and funnelled back into the decision making process the better the chances are for maximising the return on your investment

Are your digital products not creating the desired value? Do you have more digital products in your pipeline than you can realize? Are you struggling to get your digital products out to your clients? You are not alone. To develop digital product is highly complex and the ability to execute and create value for clients represent a huge competitive advantage.

Would you like to know more about how you can succeed with your digital products? Our consultant Nikolaj Grarup is giving a free webinar on Devotalks, December 16th. Sign up for the webinar right here. Note: the webinar is held in Danish.

About Jayway by Devoteam. We are a Scandinavian based design driven software studio with more than 20 years of experience in developing digital products for an international client base. We have a proud history of being early adopters and we assist our clients in converting their strategic goals to digital solutions. We have hundreds of apps and web solutions under our belt and have delivered more backend services than we can count.

This is the second article in a series of five, where we share some of our experience in making successful digital products. The first article was an introduction into the increasing importance of digital products and can be found in the panel to the right.