How We Think Product Development Strategy: Part 1

A full guide by the Untile team on our tried and true strategies for development of a new product

Hello there, friends! 👋

Are you looking to enhance your product development strategy and ensure your product's success in the market? We’ve been building digital products for the better part of a decade at Untile, and we’ve been through many of the ups and downs, we’ve faced the intricacies of the market and made it through to the other side.

We have always made building community a centerpiece of our culture, and that means sharing our knowledge. Whatever we’ve learnt throughout this period, we are putting at your service in a five-part series that will be as comprehensive as we can possibly make it.

Here’s an outline of the series:

Part 2: Identifying Your Target Market

A. Identifying customer needs

B. Identifying gaps in the market

C. Understanding customer buying habits

Part 3: Researching the Competition

A. Identifying strengths and weaknesses of competitors

B. Examining their product development process

C. Exploring their pricing tactics

Part 4: Designing and Development

A. Identifying and generating product ideas

B. Developing product features in an efficient and iterative way

C. Testing

Step 5: How to Figure out a Go-to-Market Strategy

A. Setting pricing

B. Outlining product launch timeline

C. Developing marketing and promotional plans

Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to develop a product that meets market needs and exceeds customer expectations. You will learn insider tips and tricks that will help you navigate the complex landscape of product development and create products that stand out from the crowd.

So what do we mean by product development strategy?

Put simply, Product Development Strategy is the process of creating and launching a new product or service.

The reason why it’s important to strategise well and early is that this is a more multifaceted endeavor than it can seem. It doesn’t solely include the actual building of the product, it includes all the steps that lead to it and from it. It includes research, product design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and customer service. If these things aren’t adequately roadmapped, budgeted, synchronized and timed, chaos will ensue.

A successful product development strategy should focus on four core aspects, the same ones that we will develop in the following chapters. Here is a quick overview of each with a strong focus on understanding the customer needs, researching, and developing the product.

An overview of the rest of the series

The primary objectives of the product development strategy should include providing the customer with a unique and high quality product and launching the product successfully in the market.

The first step to creating a product development strategy is to conduct through market research.

Before anything gets done, and any outlines are created for development, it is key to understand the existing needs for the market. Analyze customer buying trends and/or customer needs. In the second article in the series, we will detail how to ask the right questions to identify your customers’ needs, the competition, and the potential market size. This in turn will provide you with a better understanding of the potential market opportunities and solutions your company can provide in order to tap into these opportunities.

Part of this (but not exactly the same) is learning as much as you possibly can about your competition.

In the second article of this series, we will help you create a plan to analyse what other players are doing, and how they are approaching the same market you’ve already studied extensively. Remember: you are not throwing your product into an empty vessel. If you’ve identified a market need, odds are someone else has to, and you have to be ready to compete.

The third key step is to analyze the feasibility of the project and the associated risks before starting with the actual development. This is part three. Consider the cost of developing the product and the estimated returns. Only once the project is analyzed and approved, can the product design and development process begin.

You then move on to designing a prototype of the product, and test it in the market. If necessary, refine the design and develop better versions. Multiple iterations of a product ensure a better alignment with client expectations because the company gets more feedback.

The last step is to finalize the production process. This is a very complex and multi-pronged process that we will look into in part four. You must choose the right manufacturing techniques, and create a production plan to meet the market demand. You will also create a timeline for product launch and set the prices based on your objectives and various market dynamics. You then have to monitor the performance of the product after it is launched and work on improving it over time. This requires an entirely different set of skills, with marketing playing a huge role.