Essentials of Software Product Development Strategy with Right Partner

For any IT inclined growing organization, the right product strategy is a must to fast track their go-to-market. It refers to the methods and actions utilized to bring new products to a market or modify existing product offerings to create a new business. And, while the development of such a solution involves several steps, from idea incubation to finally taking it to the customers. Each stage requires a strategy to be successful and ultimately support the business to achieve the common goal.

To ensure you get through all of them with ease you need a development partner who understands the business and can help develop the right strategy roadmap to achieve phenomenal success. And, while product development is a much broader process – it involves the coordinated effort of many teams. It includes – product management, design (UX/UI), development, marketing, testing & QA with maintenance & support. And, a development partner plays an important role as part of the product management team.

Read on to uncover how a reliable software development partner can enable the creation & execution of a seamless strategy for positive outcomes, their business benefits & more.

The post will walk you through:

• What is a Software Product Development Strategy?
• Benefits of Software Product Development Strategy
• Why do Companies Need a Software Development Partner?
• Importance of Design Thinking to Build a Product Development Strategy

A methodical and steady process that aims to bring in action a certain personal or business purpose, technique, or goal. It comprises a step-by-step plan that allows the teams to swiftly proceed with product creation across each stage along its journey from requirement gathering to market release. This would include development phases or procedures that culminate in the construction of a working software product. It is in line with business strategy and depends on whether it’s about creating a new product, additional iterations of an existing one, or something else & for that the product development process would differ.

Having a sound strategy in place offers several business benefits. Some of them include:

• Seamless collaboration between cross-functional teams
  Creating a roadmap makes it much easier for cross-functional teams to work in sync when managing, developing, and executing development projects. It keeps everyone on the same page and eliminates any possibility of discrepancies and delays.
• Prompt Feedback
  Feedback is crucial for project success and so, you need to have a swift and seamless feedback mechanism to move the product forward.
• High Performance
  A roadmap allocates everything from resources to deadlines to budget with proper planning and documentation.
• Risk Mitigation
  Proper guidelines and robust project management practices help align different goals and priorities. This is with proper task prioritization by mapping resource allocation and a timeline to avoid any delays in product delivery.
• Reduced Cost & Maximizes ROI
  A development process that’s driven by a tried-and-tested strategy helps with task prioritization, averts unwanted delays, and facilitates cost reduction, thereby enabling you to maximize ROI.

To enjoy these benefits, your company needs to have a skilled pool of talent, smart approaches, a comprehensive tech stack, and adequate resources. Plus, if you can’t accurately estimate the amount of time and effort needed to build the software solution, it can lead to project overruns. Due to this, you may need to re-adjust your timelines and resources while covering unexpected expenses of development. In such cases, even a smartly planned strategy of reaching out to your target market may not garner the desired results and reach its full profit potential. This is where having a reliable software development partner makes perfect sense!

The reasons for companies across industries would vary though based on our experience listed below are a few.

• The company’s in-house team may not have software professionals with sufficient technology & business experience needed to complete the project
• A software development partner based on their exposure can guarantee results on time and budget
• Not enough resources to augment the staff in their company set-up
• For short-term projects, the company does not want to hire permanent, full-time technical resources

Here are a few important parameters to check about a partner;

• Conduct Thorough Research: Dig deeper into their leadership (technical, QA, business & processes), nature of current, past & new client relationships, investment trends, relative company size vs client scope. You can learn more about this through 1st episode of R-tech Talks knowledge series focused on sustainable tech partnerships.
• Check Testimonials: Try to check out what people have to say about them. It is essential to check their reviews for services, expertise, experience, and reputation. Just like reviews, testimonials offer a clearer picture of how a particular company operates and serves its customers. Platforms like, Clutch offer a better insight into what people are talking about the company. It is data-driven and contains reviews and ratings of the leading IT outsourcing companies.
• Assess Expertise: The company you choose for a long-term partnership must have the right expertise on people & processes to develop required software that will meet the needs of your target users. And, if you’re seeking a long-term partner, they must have proper business skills and experience in your industry.
• Explore Case Studies: It is one of the best ways to check your potential partner’s experience and expertise. And, case studies help showcase how a particular software development company has solved various challenges that they previously encountered. They will reflect upon what solutions and features they implemented, what tests they used to make sure everything ran smoothly, and how they managed to create great user experiences.

Additional benefits of having an experienced technology partner include:

1. Aligned with your business needs & goals, they dive deep into business processes to address pressing challenges and build a holistic software solution. They are fully equipped to translate your objectives into technology architectures that are in sync with the specifics of your niche.
2. Having experience in your specific niche would enable the tech partner to exponentially improve the value of software solutions with a myriad of add-on features and useful integrations.
3. Their next-gen tech stack coupled with the right methodology ensures quick yet quality product development.
4. You get access to an experienced team of specialists including UI/UX designers, developers, business analysts, architects, and database experts across stages of software product development.
5. Bugs that are not debugged on time can increase costs and decelerate development timelines. Having experienced QA & testing teams has a positive impact on the development process.

Teaming up with a custom software development company, like Accostsoft that already has the right people, processes, competencies, and technical know-how can help achieve great outcomes. We bring two decades of diverse software product development service delivery experience while catering to the varied needs of clients worldwide. We are the experts that care by implementing a good mix of technology know-how & heart for relationship management. Our team implements the best industry practices to deliver user-focused products across industries.

Product development strategies usually differ by companies, industry vertical, target market & audience along with other factors. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach that works under all circumstances, a software development partner can help.

A company can co-create a product development strategy with the design thinking approach—a framework for creating products based on looking at the world from your user’s perspective.

Salient features of this approach include:

• Empathize with users
• Define the problem
• Brainstorm potential solutions
• Build a prototype
• Test your solution

 This approach limits the risk of developing a product/solution that nobody wants – an unintended consequence of a longer, more costly development that targets a broader market with extensive features and greater corporate investment. As part of the engagement with us, we can discuss in detail how to achieve customer satisfaction through the continuous delivery of valued features during a product’s lifecycle.