Product development overview

A structured product development process is crucial for teams to avoid costly mistakes and ensure that the products they create are desirable, feasible, and profitable. While some products arise from chance discoveries, having a defined process helps teams avoid building products that do not meet customer needs, are unprofitable, or underperform against competitors. Models like IDEO's design thinking and the CIRCLES Method™ provide frameworks for teams to construct their processes, which help in identifying customer needs, generating ideas, developing products, and eventually commercializing them. A robust process encourages cross-departmental communication and collaboration, ensuring all teams contribute effectively at every stage. Additionally, diverse teams, with varied backgrounds and experiences, are shown to produce more innovative solutions and better understand user perspectives, leading to more successful product launches. The process also includes building a business case for product development, creating a minimum viable product (MVP) for testing, and continuously iterating based on real customer feedback after commercialization. This cycle of innovation is ongoing, as demonstrated by companies like Salesforce, and is key to staying competitive in the market.