How To Accelerate Your Invention Development
Learn why short development cycles are the best way to help you build the right consumer product for your users.
The development of physical products is a long process and it requires a lot of commitment to make it all the way through.
That is the reason why developing consumer products has been almost exclusive to companies with big budgets or investment, or to a few brave inventors that persisted with their idea.
Unfortunately, most people with ideas get overwhelmed by the process and some even have to give up before they start.
The good news is that in recent years a few emerging technologies and platforms are offering tools and services that make the development of products more accessible to all sorts of innovators.
Some examples are 3D printers, prototyping on-demand, freelancer sites, crowdfunding and agile methods among others.
I’d like to introduce you to the development in short cycles as part of the agile methods which is revolutionizing the development process in terms of speed, agility to change and continuous validation.
Traditional process
Before that, let me explain briefly the traditional development process. The traditional process relies on the accurate definition of the product features and technical requirements at the beginning of the project.
The product is developed based on that initial input and it goes through different development stages until the product is ready for mass-production (briefly, Concept Design, Technical Design, Product Validation testing, and Production).
The process sequence per se is not the problem, the issue is the time it takes for the product to go from the initial concept to mass production.
Since most of this development is done internally within the company (confidentially being one major reason), it basically becomes a “black box” until something finished comes out.
There are 2 different scenarios that usually occur in the traditional development process:
In the first scenario, the features and requirements are properly defined at the beginning. Assuming there are no major technical problems, the process develops without much disruption and can deliver a product based on that input.
The issue in this scenario is that when the product is delivered, months or years later, the data used initially might have become obsolete or the users’ needs could have changed, delivering a product that does not meet market needs anymore.
In the second scenario (which is probably the most common one), the product develops following the initial requirements, however, new requirements or technical problems along the process require major changes that force the project to go back to the initial stages on several occasions.
Delays are common in those projects, usually months worth, which apart from losing time-to-market opportunities, causes the project to go quickly over budget with unforeseen costs.
Short cycles
Short cycles instead, work with a predefined length which is commonly a few weeks. On each cycle we aim to deliver a finished version of the product.
A finished version means a working product that can be shown to users and tested internally as a whole product. It might not incorporate all of the features that the final product is intended to, but it is a functional version on its own.
In essence, each cycle still follows the same stages as in the traditional development process but it is compressing them into much shorter cycles. Obviously, that requires a different mindset and development strategy.
The earlier you can show a version of your product the quicker you will get to the right product.
This doesn’t mean that the project plan using short cycles will not require adjustments. In fact, the idea is that it can easily accommodate additional iterations when required which can be developed in just a few weeks.
However, since at each iteration the product features and requirements are assessed and validated, the changes can be quickly implemented before wasting months in the wrong direction.
Let’s learn in which way these short cycles bring more value to your product and can accelerate the development.
Continuous Assessment
One of the most effective ways to know if you are building the right product is to watch how users use your product and let them tell you where you should focus.
With the traditional process, you only get this information at the end of the development process (after months or years) which is when you have a complete product ready to show.
Yes, in the traditional process, it is common to see prototypes in the early stages. The difference is that they are partially functional and rarely used for testing purposes with real users. And it is intentional.
This causes them to learn about important information about the product late in the process, which translates into late design changes or the launch of a poor product.
What short cycles allow you to do, is to change direction faster and earlier. You would be able to test your assumptions and validate with users earlier so you know you are heading in the right direction.
In turn, this will ensure that you build the right product taking into account user needs at each iteration.
An added bonus is that you can show progress regularly which brings motivation up for the team, helps to keep stakeholders updated and also helps to attract potential investors.
Development Costs
By assessing the product at each cycle, it becomes easier to discover issues and allows for the implementation of changes earlier when costs of changes are much lower.
Short cycles can save a significant amount of the overall development costs of your product.
Another great advantage of using short cycles is that it allows you to better control the development costs. Instead of investing a big sum lump for the whole process in advance, you can more accurately estimate the cost for each cycle and invest in each cycle as you progress.
Development Time
As mentioned before, short cycles can save time during development and reduce the overall development time. This is so, by building the product incrementally through the process.
Do not wait until the end of the development to learn that something in your product has to be changed.
By compressing the technical development activities within each cycle, you can evaluate the product’s feasibility and viability earlier which means you can implement changes quickly.
Put It Into Practice
In order to implement short cycles in your product development you need to start by understanding the unique value of your product and the highest priority features that your product should have.
That will let you reduce the scope of development for each cycle. It is essential that you can define a fixed duration for each cycle, I’d suggest somewhere between 4 to 8 weeks (depending on the complexity of the product).
Define what exactly can be developed in that timeframe that will deliver a working product with just the most important feature(s). It is crucial not to extend the duration of the cycles so be realistic with what can be done at that time.
At the end of the development cycle, you will evaluate the product based on certain (success) criteria that you would have defined initially. This will let you know if you are on the right track.
Assess the results and incorporate any changes or new findings in the next iteration. With each iteration, you will gain new insights and the confidence that you are building the right product.
Mind Shift
It is easy to write or talk about building products in short cycles. The benefits are quite obvious when you think about it. The reality is that is not that obvious to implement.
It requires a mind shift from the traditional mindset that leads companies and individuals to focus on developing fully-featured products right from the start. That process keeps products in the dark until they are ready to be produced and sold, which is not ideal.
For today’s innovators with limited resources, this is especially concerning since they cannot bet everything they have in a long and uncertain process that might not deliver the vision they have.
In order to shift that mentality, innovators need to think in a structured way to build their ideas in which they can gradually deliver and invest in the right features for the product.
Moving in small steps makes changes in the right direction easier. At some point, when the right confidence builds up, those small steps will lead to bigger leaps.
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Abilista guides innovators to develop their product ideas from concept, prototyping and all the way to manufacturing following our own step by step framework. We are already helping many entrepreneurs and startups to build their ideas by giving them access to simple and agile tools and expertise on-demand.
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