Process Overview
A good design process can help realize the vision of a product but also change and evolve it. Building a successful product requires a continual process of toggling between future product visioning and practical product designing.
Key Steps
1. Mapping the Product Eco-system:
This is about understanding and visualizing the product as it stands today. In an exercise of working up and down the product levels, participants work to make educated assumptions about various stakeholders, touchpoints, and feature engagements.
- Brainstorm and visualize the product
- Mapping interconnections within the product
- Mapping stakeholder groups
2. Vetting & Research:
Research can vary in length depending on a variety of needs, resources, requirements, and timeline. The purpose is to work through the speculation made in the first step in order to ground or refute the product map.
- Qualitative research
- Quantitative research
- Stakeholder interviews
- Internal analysis
3. Mapping Stakeholder Relations:
Working from the results of the research, it is key to articulate and map stakeholder’s feedback. If possible, stakeholders will be encouraged to participate in this step. This results in a baseline for conceiving product solutions that respond to concerns and meet aspirations and objectives.
- Identify stakeholder concerns & paint-points
- Identify stakeholder wants/needs
- Map conflicting and/or symbiotic relations
4. Future Product Vision:
A collaborative creative process to develop rich pictures and concepts of the future product. Helping to expand stakeholder’s senes of what the future product could be, this future will act as the ever-changing destination to begin building relevant projects in the present day.
- High-level vision of the product
- Shifting goals of the product
- How the product performs in the future
5. Product Ideation
Focusing on developing present day solutions and innovations that can act as a first step in the product’s transition toward the future. In some cases, these solutions can be new or iterations of existing work.
- Multiple project proposals
- Technology implications
- Timelines & budget implications
6. Product Development:
Quickly expand on approved projects through an agile process of sketching, developing, and acquiring feedback. This will help further the discussion on how new product features can live in the product eco-system.
- Wireframing & design
- Prototype development
- Stakeholder feedback
7. Stable Release
Working collaboratively across all levels of an organization to test and release a stable version of the product or feature.
- Design & development
- User-testing & feedback
- Product improvements
8. Product Review & Maintenance
Measure the performance of the product or feature while in and out of context of the product eco-system to determine current or future viability.
- Ongoing user-feedback
- Product/feature performance
- Future planning or retirement