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Nick LeFort

Jan 30 2024

“Product Development Begins When Product Development Ends“

Enterprise level support

Product development is cyclical. When one project ends, another begins. Though no two projects are exactly the same, using information and feedback from past projects, as well as applying the basic steps of Product Development will lead you to a successful product launch. This is how you stay relevant in the marketplace and grow as a business.

The Product Development Process

The Product Development process generally has six steps:

  • Ideation
  • Research
  • Design
  • Planning
  • Pre-Launch Product Testing
  • Launch & Feedback

Each phase of the Product Development process serves an important purpose. They are designed to inform you along the way. Skipping a step could delay your project and put you back to square one. Additionally, sticking to one phase for too long can have the same outcome.

Take for instance the market climate your product could launch into. Commonly identified during the research phase, you could be launching your product in a saturated market. Without working through the research phase, you would never know if it was going to get lost in the mix.

There’s no singular answer to how much time you should dedicate to each phase. With timelines forever shrinking and demand forever growing, we recommend that you make the best of that time in each phase.

Navigating Through The Phases of Product Development

Think about product development in terms of navigation. The process itself is your map on this journey. At the beginning of the project, you have a start and finish. Your timeline is your clock and you want to get to that finish line before time runs out. As you go through the steps of Product Development, gathering information and feedback, you carve your path to the finish – or, in more relative terms – a successful product launch.

Since the Product Development process can differ from company to company, brand to brand, it’s important to understand each phase so that you can extract its benefits; to your benefit.

Even though the process is cyclical, it’s important to remember that it should always be evolving to fit the needs of your brand. The steps in the process may remain the same, how you apply them is greatly influenced by the information you collect and the feedback you receive.

What’s that about Pre-Launch Testing?

Though it’s not part of everyone’s Product Development process, pre-launch product testing can be critical to the success of your product. Here at MESH01, we pride ourselves in providing a platform that can get that crucial information to you on time.

We understand how important it is for you to get feedback from your core customer base before you put your new product to market. Pre-launch testing allows you to tap into our massive tester community and interact with those core customers. Through hands-on testing, they will provide you with the feedback you need.

Each one of these steps relies on you bringing in your expertise and any past information you’ve collected to help you pass each milestone. Additionally, to launch a product that is destined to do well in the market, you need to consider the feedback you receive.

At MESH01, our platform is deeply rooted in Product Development. It gives you the ability to collect information in the form of pre-market feedback as well as post-launch feedback. This feedback is where ideas like new products come from, how to decide the lifecycle of your current products, and so on.

In Detail: The Phases of the Product Development Process

To kick off 2024, we wanted to share with both our brand community and tester community the facets of each step in the Product Development process.

Pulling together years of experience from a multitude of industries, we will focus on each phase in the process by sharing a new post with you throughout the first half of the year.

With all of this, we intend to inform you, guide you, and remind you that we’re here for you, each step of the way.