How to jumpstart your product development cycle

Every great startup begins with a great idea. But ideas are just ideas. Startups need to turn them into products that users will love for the first step to success. That’s why the product development cycle is the most exciting stage of your startup’s life. When it’s done right.

Here’s a quick A-Z on starting up your product development cycle properly:

1) Build the dream team

Every captain needs a crew. Even if you have the best idea, you’ll still need a kickass team to help turn that into reality. How do you find the right people, though?

Start with a question: what and who do you really need? From this one question, you can determine the people you want to have on your team. Building your dream team isn’t like an open call for volunteers. You’ll need a stringent screening process to ensure aligned goals and visions. Look out for the qualities you need – skillsets, experience, passion and attitude.

In addition, the structure of the team is important to your product development success. For starters, here’s a good guide on how you can structure a consumer-driven product team.

2) Determine your metrics

Not every product is created the same. A food delivery startup is wholly different from an SaaS provider. Each startup’s KPIs vary from one another. Like building your dream team, creating the perfect set of KPIs for your startup starts with asking the right question: how do you want your product to succeed?

At the earlier stages of your product development, creating the best metrics is crucial. Attaching the wrong metrics to your young product may influence how it grows, for better or for worse.

Luckily, thought leaders in the startup scene have developed trustworthy frameworks that help teams assess their product. Notable examples of these are the HEART framework and PULSE metrics.

3) Keeping clean codes

With startups coming out left and right, you might be tempted to push your product out as fast as possible. Besides the obvious quality issues, rushing your product can have consequences deeper into its heart—its code. Keeping code clean is a tougher challenge that all developers face. It takes time, effort, and a whole lot of coffee.

But it’s not just about poring over lines and lines of code to check for errors. Keeping code clean means keeping it easily readable and accessible for both the original developer and any succeeding developers who will handle the code in the future. In this state, software can be easily patched should any bugs pop up in the future. Having a clean code will ensure that your product is always up-to-speed and up-to-par for your customers.

4) Protecting your users

Crafting an enjoyable user experience is one thing; creating a safe one is another. With controversies on user privacy rising to the fore across the software industry, the race to secure software is on. More and more users are realizing the value of security. Creating secure software no longer plays second fiddle to the actual product experience itself – and integrating information security is best done during the development process.

Want to know more?

These are just the tip of the iceberg – there’s so much more to learn about the various facets of product development.

If you’re a product manager or developer wanting to learn more about the topic and how to create a product users will love, head on over to Tech in Asia Jakarta 2017’s Developer & Product Stage where speakers from Grab, Go-Jek, UrbanIndo, KODEFOX, Ematic Solutions, and Blackstorm will share their expertise and insights.

Also, don’t miss out on your final chance to save 10 percent off your tickets! The code is tiajkt10 and will only be valid for one more day until October 13, 11:59PM (GMT +7). Or if you’re not yet ready to commit, drop your details below to get our latest conference updates via email.

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