The 3 Phases of a Technology Product Implementation — Phase 1: Engagement
by Steve Yatson
The purpose of this blog series is to walk through our product development process from the perspective of a manager on the product/design team. As we’ve refined and developed it over the years it has become known to us internally as the productOps Way.
The example referenced is the set-up of a Sales Order Management System for Ithaka, an education technology company, but our approach is similar for all the projects we work on. Using this example, I hope to show the way various departments of our organization work with each other, and the client, to guide a successful outcome using a three phased methodology.
The Engagement Phase
In the first phase of any project the executive team will travel to a potential client and get travel points and five star meals. On their return, the product and design team will get notes, a debrief, and image like this:
Do I sound bitter? In seriousness, this phase is an important and necessary step to understand the core needs and build a relationship with the client. The latter is usually achieved more readily after this first visit because most times neither the client nor ourselves have a firm grasp yet on what’s needed, the devilish details involved and the business or technical problem at hand.
Establishing a Statement of Work (SOW)
To get closer to the goal, the whiteboard sketches are cleaned up and simplified so the project managers and designers can begin to understand the scope of work and build a SOW for the discovery phase.
We then move from the whiteboard to a popular diagramming and digital illustration application, OmniGraffle, for a clearer vision of the project details.
Before launching into the discovery phase we want to make sure we’ve engaged with every stakeholder in the project and get as many of the requirements down up front as possible. Reflecting the project back to the client visually is a key strategy in making that happen.
Once we’ve established the needs of the client, we move onto to Part 2, The Discovery Phase to be published next.
Steve Yatson joined productOps in 2015 as a Sr. Product Designer. He now commands a senior management position in the company, guiding his staff and productOps customers to mutual success.
