Product Development: Why it’s important to continuously update your product after release

As a new product developer, it might be easy to assume your product is done once it’s released. However, it’s important to consumers and users that that product is continuously updated, for a few reasons.

The simplest reason for updating your product is to keep that product working well. That means fixing bugs and improving operational flow. Without those updates, users would most likely stop using the product because it stopped meeting their needs in favor of a competitor’s product that does the job better.

It also means providing new value to the customer. According to Electronic Component News, this is the most important reason for new development and a key reason for people to buy a product. An update can mean that the product feels totally new to the customer. It can help that product meet the user needs even better. And it helps the company gain ground on their competitors as the value of their product increases on the market.

Updating your product also means a continued relationship with the customer. Sourcing feedback from the customers help to fix minor or major bugs and promote their continued use of the product. This is why it’s key to include customers in the New Product Development process, by either including them in the product development team or by providing mockups to them before official release. This almost means that if your product still has some minor operational problems when released, it has a second chance at success once the updates are installed.

The pacing of the updates is an important element to consider, then. Planning for regular updates should occur at regular intervals. “If the firm adopts a fast pace, it prematurely cannibalizes its old generation, incurring high development costs, while if it has a slow pace, it fails to capitalize on customer willingness-to-pay for improved technology.”(Druehla, 2011) Releasing products at an intermediate pace makes the most of the updates while also being cost effective.

Through continuous updates, the product will continue to work well, provide new value to the customer, and continue that valuable relationship.

Druehla, Cheryl T., Glen M. Schmidt, and Gilvan C. Souzac. “The Optimal Pace of Product Updates.” European Journal of Operational Research. North-Holland, January 13, 2011. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377221707009897.

Ringer, Doug. “3 Reasons Why Product Development Is Important.” Electronic Component News, August 19, 2018. https://www.ecnmag.com/blog/2015/09/3-reasons-why-product-development-important.

Schilling, Melissa A; Hill, Charles W L. The Academy of Management Executive; Briarcliff Manor Vol. 12, Iss. 3, (Aug 1998): 67–81. DOI:10.5465/ame.1998.1109051