What differentiates a product studio from a software development company?
So you have an idea for a digital product and now you need to build it. Who do you ask? And how can you be sure they are the right people?
If it is a simple and uncomplicated project then most software companies will be able to help. Simple means automating an individual workflow or a very basic website or app that has a few pages and processes. You may even be able to do it in-house with the help of a low-code platform like Bubble.io.
But if it is a more complex solution that needs a custom approach, will be required to integrate, and you want to continually update to suit changing user needs — you’ll need a multi-functional product team working closely alongside you from beginning to end.
So here are the 7 questions you need to ask before hiring or partnering with a software development company or product studio.
1. Do you specialise in my industry?
This is a bit of a trick question because the answer here should almost always be no. There is nothing wrong with choosing a niche and having experience in a particular industry can be an advantage. But the company you’re working with should specialise in only one thing — building products. By restricting themselves to one industry they become not only biased (and the last thing you want is your product team telling you how to run your own company) but they will develop a blind spot to what is happening in other markets and industries. This means they lose the competitive and creative edge that is the biggest benefit of hiring an external team.
2. Can you tell me the cost upfront?
For simple software, it’s easier to quote. But for most products, this should also be a no too. As a product studio, we need to know the details so we can work out how many people and how much time the project will need. We’re not asking you for a blank cheque, but you do need to be realistic about the high standard of product management and the quality of the code you need to make a great digital product. The rate of non-adoption or abandonment of software, apps and platforms is so high, you absolutely cannot afford to scrimp on quality in digital.
3. What will the team structure look like?
For simple software, you might just need one decent developer. For a digital product, you need a bit more than just a coder. On the client-side, you should have at least a product owner and better still, an initiative lead and domain expert. On our side, we bring in product strategy, UX and UI design, solution architecture, full-stack development, DevOps, test engineering, and quality assurance. Basically, all of the bases are covered and you have immediate, personal access to every member of the team.
4. What will the project timeline look like?
Agile and Scrum methodologies have helped to make development much faster and more efficient. However, quality should not be sacrificed. Be wary of any company that quotes a timeline very quickly or does not have time for proper testing, iteration and quality assurance built-in. To ideate and validate takes about a week. The MVP should not take more than 8 weeks. The first version of a product should be built in 12 weeks. From there, you should be working to improve, iterate and update with new features in 2-week Sprints.
5. How much of my time will you need?
At the same time as saying don’t expect everything to be insanely fast, be wary of any company that doesn’t hand over a first version to test after a few months. We’ve heard of too many large consultancies taking a brief and delivering the finished product a year later only to find out it’s not what the market is interested in. Any good product development studio will want to spend as much time with you and the end-users as possible — that is the only way to ensure we are building you something amazing.
6. What is your overall vision?
A software development company will build your software. A product studio will build you the right solution for a problem users actually care about. It’s a full-stack approach covering more than software development and some user interface design. We want to know about your existing business and understand the problem that needs to be solved, your plans for the future and how to grow and scale the product, and we want to know who your users are and how to be flexible to their changing needs and desires.
7. Has your code been tested by an independent intermediary?
The answer has to be yes. Not all code is built the same, quality varies massively and if you want to ensure your product not only works seamlessly and integrates with all the right systems, but can also be grown and scaled up in the future the work has to be done to a high standard. At Eli5 in-house, we have well-prepared and well-tested proprietary code that acts as the foundation for almost any product that ensures all prototypes and tests are completed as fast as possible. Then when it comes to the custom coding we have the tech stack, skill and testing to ensure the custom layer we prepare on top matches that quality (and yes, it has passed independent testing with flying colours).
