Product Development’s life cycle is a never-ending improvement for the product. This improvement will be determined from five stages which brainstorm, define, design, test, and launch.
Also Read: First Step into Product Management Field
In this article, we will explore the product development’s which we need to keep improving the product for user needs. let’s check it out
Brainstorming
The first stage of product development is Brainstorming, which is when the team starts thinking of a new idea for the product we already launching. The important part of Brainstorming is to keep open-minded and pay attention to the diversity of the user who uses the product.
An example of brainstorming is to listing common problems that working as parents face or the roots of the problem we need to solve. Gathering the review from the user, or looking into a similar product will help us to guide the idea to solve the problem.
After having many ideas to solve the problem we will move to the next stage of the Product life cycle which is Define.
Define.
The second stage of the Product Development Life Cycle is Define. and in this stage, we will start to pick the idea by focusing the idea on answering the problem. Remember one thing which every idea to solve the problem not just to answer all the problems the user has.
The key in this stage will be researched by narrowing the idea which answering questions like, who is the product for? what will the product do? and what features need to be included for the product? will help you to gain insight into which idea to pick. With that simple question we can pinpoint the potential user problems, and the idea we can use to developing into our product.
Design
After we know what idea we need to use to develop the product we can start to design the product. and this is where UI/UX starts to shine. As UI/UX Designer we will build out the idea into a product. This stage will start with designing the user’s journey which is what the user will do if they wanted to use our product to solve some problems that occur.
As UI/UX Designer we will make sure to include all the specifications that have already been defined from the previous stage. We also might check to ensure that each part of the design will surely help the user to solve the problem they have. From the interaction, like tapping an icon, reading the content, and clear path from start to finish.
Test
After we finish with the design we will move to the next stage which is testing the product. In this stage, UI/UX Designer will hand the wireframing to the Developer, and guide the developer team to match the prototype into the original design.
The testing stage will at least have two phases which,
- Team Testing
It happens for looking at technical glitches or bug and usability problems, often called beta testing. - Review Stakeholder
For the product alight with company vision we need to give review to stakeholder. - External Test
For answering whatever the product answering the problem the user have.
Gathering data or feedback in this stage will help us as UI/UX Designer to make adjustments or even create a new version of the design.
Is also important to understand if the Product Development life cycle isn’t a completely linear process. So after the Testing stage maybe we will back to brainstorming or even back to designing the new process to adjust the user need.
Launch
The last part of the Product Development’s life cycle is Launch. It happens when the product we design is released into the world. In this stage also to celebrate our work and start promoting the product. But it’s still not the end of the product, after the product lunch UX researcher will keep gathering feedback to help the product improve even more, or even come out with the new problem we need to solve to help the user keep using the product we have.
Note:
Remember, the Product Development life cycle is not a linear process.
