10 Insanely Creative Ways To Improve Your Product Development Process
What Is the Product Development Process?
It refers to the entire range of campaigns where an organization or a company forms a concept and realizes a new product offering. A product concept might develop in the marketplace, or in a lab or workspace but also, ideas can often come from customer requirements, as well.
Product development is a process that can be improved upon in many ways. You start brainstorming and throwing out ideas, but you know you’ve got to come up with something really good. The key is creativity. So how do you make sure that your idea makes it to market?
Here are 10 creative strategies to get you out of a rut and into a creative flow.
1. Brainstorm
We all get ideas at weird times, even though they are often just fluff that floats around in our minds until we are ready to act on them. Start brainstorming and think outside the box. It’s easy to fall into the “all or nothing” mentality when it comes to product development. Yes, your idea needs to be extraordinary. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be your only option. You might be able to make a better version of something by flipping a few things around.
“Brainstorming needs to be done by reaching out and analyzing the marketplace. This is done by getting feedback from social media, reading comments on [industry] articles and talking to people who interact in that channel.” — Mark Dohnalek, president, Pivot International
2. Turn an idea into a project
A ‘why’ question can change your entire perspective on something. That’s the first step in turning an idea into something tangible and usable. Start by asking yourself the question: Why would anyone want to buy this product? You can also add your idea to a whiteboard and use it to plan your project and think of solutions to the problems you’ve already encountered. You may find solutions when you’re answering the question “why.”
You’ll need to think about how users will actually interact with your product. It could be a furniture item or maybe you’re creating an app. Keep in mind that the product you’re creating will have a different purpose and user. So you need to see and consider every kind of scenario a user would experience.
You’ll hear people describe the process of prototype development as prototyping: make something, test it, improve it.
3. Work on prototypes
Making prototypes helps you avoid risk. Many people are reluctant to start a product development project, but it’s a great way to assess market response and learn the best way to market your idea. Test your idea to get feedback, before moving on to a full-scale production plan.
4. Make a list
This one’s a no-brainer. Whether you’re trying to improve your marketing or you’re looking for a new business idea, make a list of the top ideas or concerns. The key here is to zero in on the thing that keeps coming to mind first. You can do this exercise with employees, too, to get everyone’s input and perspectives.
5. Draw a mind map
Now that you’ve gotten all the products and features that you need to your mind, take a step back and outline the process that your product must go through to get to market. Go through your production process by breaking it down into smaller pieces and adding more details, such as customer testimonials and user-generated content. You should now have a mind map that gives you all the details you need to make your idea a reality. Eliminate the “editing” step in your product development process.
7. Turn a problem into an opportunity
It happens all the time. You think of an idea to help with a pain point in your market, but it’s not quite there. So you’ll come up with 10 more ideas to try and analyze the ones that have the best potential for a positive impact.
8. Stand out in a crowded space
In this world of all things mobile and connected, the smartphone is king. But what about your other devices? You might be out of the game if you don’t have a strong app platform. So what if you make your next marketing campaign stand out?
9. Listen
You need to be open to all feedback that you get. How many times have you worked out in your head that something should be easy and it isn’t? It happens to the best of us. As you are all about your customers, listening to their feedback is really important. That said, you should only consider customer feedback if you have spent enough time with your product, and not to the extent of what you call it: knowing your product backward and forwards. Customer feedback is great for testing ideas. You need to test things constantly!
10. Life after launch
After launching a new product or service, the only people interacting with customers are the sales team. Not only should there be a detailed plan as to how this new product will be supported by the product development team, but you should also have extensive training and education available to staff.
Conclusion
Designers and developers always have different ways of thinking. They use different tools and processes. But you have to remember that you can get creative with the tools and processes you already have. Get stuck on a workflow problem? Try out a couple of ideas and see which one works best for your workflow. And remember to stay creative in all of the different stages of the design process. It will improve your overall product development process and help you avoid the deadly ‘workflow hell’ traps.
Do you have other crazy creative tools or techniques you use when you develop your projects? Let us know in the comments.
