A Framework to
Productize your Ideas
“A problem well-defined is a problem half-solved.”
The product you wish to build is a part of some solution. Requirements Engineering helps us cover the spectrum of this ‘well-defined problem’ and uncover its links with business goals as well as product goals.
Transforming an idea into a product is a complex process. With the right approach, even the complex transformation can be beautiful and the transformed idea will be a lovable valuable product.
Before we talk about, what the right approach is, we should talk about why the transformation is complex.
Stacey’s GRAPH
It’s Complex.
If there is high uncertainty in ‘What is needed?’ i.e. requirements and ‘How do we get there?’ i.e. implementation, the project is not simple.
As uncertainty about the implementation (technology and more), requirements, and team capability needed for a project or task increases, the nature of the project turn from simple to complicated to complex to chaotic.
Generally, Digital Product Engineering falls into Complex Projects and needs an Empirical Process to execute it.
(Original Stacey Matrix by Ralf D Stacey Adapted by Christian Verwijs)
Think of the difference between traveling to a destination and a treasure hunt. (Warning: Oversimplification!!!)
Traveling to a destination can be simplified into consecutive steps which will take you to your destination. It’s simple and can be achieved with the waterfall approach. But in the treasure hunt, at each step, you have to understand clues, analyze them, plan and execute the next step, validate if you are on the right path, and iterate again and again to find the treasure.
The treasure is not the valuables we find, but the value we co-create and deliver! Lean Experiments combined with Agile Development is a relatively safer way to find this treasure.
“People don’t know what they want until they see it.”
Steve Jobs
What if we end up building a very good product that nobody wants to use? Instead of creating the whole product at once, we should do it incrementally and take it to users frequently to gather feedback. That way, we can keep ourselves on track by almost continuous validation and verification.
Lean Experiments for iterative validation and Agile development for iterative verification combined together can help you build successful products that solve a real problem and appeals to real people.
“Over 30,000 new products introduced into market every year, and 95 percent fail.”
Professor Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School
Top Reasons the Products Fail
Failures along the journey are inevitable. Failing fast and at a low cost, consolidating the learnings acquired so that the same mistakes are not repeated is the key to success. Learning from others’ mistakes is more efficient whenever possible. Here are the top reasons for product failures-
Not choosing the right problem to solve or need to address.
42 % of start-ups fail due to misreading market demand (Source: CBInsights).
Running out of cash and resources at crucial juncture.
29% of start-ups fail due to running out of funding and personal money. (Source: CBInsights).
Delay in validation of key assumption about the product and market
19 % of start-ups fail due to flawed business model (Source: CBInsights).
Missing long term vision, strategy and roadmap for product.
42 % of start-ups fail due to misreading market demand (Source: CBInsights).
Good team
18 % of start-ups fail due to lack of technical knowledge, domain knowledge, marketing knowledge and business knowledge. (Source: Failory).
Poor product experiene.
8 % of start-ups fail due poor quality of product and user experience. (Source: CBInsights)
There are some more reasons for product failure and a few more ways of articulating it.
“You don’t have to be a genius or a visionary or even a college graduate to be successful. You just need a framework and a dream.”
Michael Dell
ProD5 your idea !!
ProD5 Framework brings together available tools, techniques, wisdom, and experience to ensure the best possible chance for the product to succeed in the competitive market.
Productize your idea with ProD5 Framework!
Discover
Discovering the ‘why’ for the product and finding the connections between market needs, business vision, growth strategy, user goals, and product features will help in creating relevant metrics for validation at every step.
Define
Defining ‘what’ needs of ‘which’ user group does the product features intend to solve along with the long-term clarity in vision and goals for verifications as well as the guidelines for pivot-or-persevere decisions
Design
Designing ‘how’ the product should look and function so that it can be used to strategically validate the assumptions about market needs, user behaviors, technological feasibility, system attributes, etc.
Develop
Developing the product incrementally as per the design by following the best practices and in sync with the feedback loop between various stages of ProD5 and also the stakeholders as well as the user groups.
Deploy
Deploying the product, gathering data for insights into the ways of moving towards the better product-market fit and applying the learnings at various stages in the next cycles to drive the product journey.
FINDING
Product-Market Fit.
According to Marc Andreessen, Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.
Achieving the Product-Market Fit.
Generally, Digital Product Engineering falls into Complex Projects.
(Image Credits: Dan Olsen)
ProD5 ToolKit
Determine your target customers >> Identify underserved customer needs >> Create a winning product strategy >> Decide on your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) >> Design your MVP prototype >> Test your MVP with customers >> Iterate rapidly to achieve product-market fit (From Dan Olsens Website. Need more working.)
- Lean Model Canvas
- Business Model Canvas
- Product Success Metrics
- Product Telemetry
- Value Proposition Canvas
- Process Flow Diagrams
- User Flow Diagrams
- LFD Wireframes/Clickable Prototype
- PoC Statements
- Product Goal Canvas
- Time and Cost Estimations
- PoC Statements
- Revenue Model
- Branding Strategy
- Go-to-Market Strategy
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
Stephen Covey (and every product too !!!)
Building a successful product while iteratively traversing a path through the complex landscape needs clear guidelines and thought-process to make quick decisions based on empirical data. ProD5 is the Framework that helps us have a holistic view of product and allied …. to help us make the right decisions to steer the product to Product-Market Fit and the ultimate success.
ProD5
your first decision in the series to convert your idea into a successful product