This strategy will make your digital product successful

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

There is no magic formula that could turn your product into absolute success. There are, however, some good practices that can bring you closer to that goal. We’ve gathered them to get you inspired and a little more prepared for the product development!

The product has to pass a winding path before it arrives at the market. The version that customers get to try out is usually a result of numerous iterations. During these, the original idea evolves as the product team gains a better understanding of the user needs and market challenges. 

You can, of course, keep the whole product development process flexible and organic if you are not limited with time and budget. However, the first stage is still crucial for the entire project’s future. It’s like in sports – running without the warm-up is risky, whether it’s a marathon or sprint. 

In product development, the rule is the same. Regardless of the timeframes, the execution of the project should be preceded by thorough preparation – it’s actually half the success. And in order to carry it out the most effective way possible, we recommend starting with a discovery workshop.

What is a discovery workshop?

As its name implies, the discovery workshops have exploratory specifics. It’s a perfect moment for a deep dive into all the ideas related to the project. During the discovery product design workshop, the product team gathers together to brainstorm and come to conclusions that will later serve for creating a comprehensive product strategy. Among the participants, there should be specialists such as developers, UX/UI designers, market researchers, and those responsible for final decisions regarding product development.

You can structure the product workshop agenda in different ways. For example, remote discovery workshops require a different approach than presential ones. So do those which engage an external software house rather than just the internal product team. Nevertheless, the agenda usually involves these steps:

1. Defining the project: goals, challenges, the main idea
2. Defining the competition + market analysis
3. Defining a target audience
4. Creating personas
5. Preparing use cases

The discovery workshop is usually followed by the feature definition workshop during which requirements for the MVP are formed. But before heading to that point and completing a product strategy, you should fully discover your product, answering all the “why’s” and “who’s”. 

To dive deeper into the topic of product development, we recommend this source:
https://inwedo.com/product-workshop-agenda-to-create-the-right-product-in-the-efficient-way/ 
And the articles there about the discovery workshops.

What should a product strategy include?

The product strategy addresses the equally crucial questions:

1. What are we going to create?
2. How are we going to create it?
3. When do we expect to deliver MVP?
4. When do we expect to introduce the product to the market?

These questions should be extended into smaller ones that define the team structure, the project methodology, the communication model, budget, and so on. 

After the product discovery workshop, everyone should have a good understanding of goals – and in this step, it’s time to translate them into KPIs. These will serve as success metrics throughout the project. 

How to make your product strategy successful?

By starting with discovery workshops, you will get a solid foundation for the further steps, but it doesn’t guarantee success. To maximize the chances of your product, make sure:

#1 Your product strategy is as detailed as possible

When everyone is excited to launch the design, these first steps may feel tedious. That often makes the teams only scratch the topic on the surface. We recommend spending even more time than it seems necessary on defining the roadmap to the smallest detail. Everyone should be on the same page in terms of deadlines, tools, channels, communication, and goals to avoid any future misunderstandings, so it’s worth sacrificing at least two days to polish it.

#2 Your KPIs are realistic

The nineties are long gone, and no one believes that stress favors productive work anymore. Don’t get carried away with KPIs – both in terms of numbers and content. Choose the most essential measures for your project so that the team can release their creative power instead of worrying about fulfilling goals.