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What does it take to create a new, competitive, and demanded tech product? While there’s no secret that the process of solution creation is a complex one and is always composed with respect to the individual needs and requirements of each project, in this post, we are going to share some of the established practices we apply at Emerline.
Learn about the product development process, design thinking methodology, as well as our approach to the delivery of solutions featuring innovative technologies, and create a clearer picture of how our development services contribute to business growth and success with adjustable practices we adhere to at Emerline.
Product Development Process in Brief
To start with, let’s briefly overview the main stages of a traditional product development process applied at software development companies, including your fellow Emerline. These steps are discovery, definition, design, and development.
Discovery
Having a goal of selecting a product’s concept, this stage starts with the collection of ideas for further determination of the most strategically successful ones. Also, it implies a comparison of the existing market solutions of the same type and having the same or correlated business goal for early risk assessment.
Definition
The purpose of this stage is strategic alignment. So after ensuring that the planned product will fit the market, such processes as team forming and creation of the business plan with milestones start. To get to the next, product design stage, approval of the developed business plans is required.
Design
The third pre-development stage is all about the preparation of the product for its first release. To build a minimum viable product (MVP), a provider creates a Proof of Concept (POC), comes up with the development plan, and develops the product’s design.
Development
The very last stage in this list (but the one that is followed with product enhancements and support in the future), is the development of MVP with the most essential features, its further quality assurance, and release.
After the MVP is released, it’s time for further enhancements that can be applied after the analysis of customer feedback. In this way, it is possible to ensure that the product features completely meet all the expectations of its users.
How Does Our Product Development Process Stand Out?
At Emerline, we strive to provide our clients with the best quality services while allowing them to cut costs by eliminating unneeded developments. For sure, we adhere to the traditional development model in cases when there’s a complete set of reasonable requirements provided. But more frequent cases are when some kind of idea on a napkin is given and to make it come true, we take advantage of practices that promote the delivery of products our clients really want and need.
Design Thinking Methodology
Design thinking is a framework that is focused on the identification of real users’ wants and needs. The distinctive feature of this framework is that it brings together different experts, including business representatives, IT specialists, marketing experts, and designers to find the best solution, whether through brainstorming, role play, game, or any other means that allows learning more about the idea behind the product and justifying whether it meets such criteria as technical feasibility, business viability, and desirability and needs of the people.
Here’s how design thinking works:
Explore
This stage is aimed at determination of the area the client wants to impact.
Discover
Is made up of end-user observations, interviews, questionnaires, etc. that allow the design thinking team to put themselves into the shoes of users who face some problem.
Design
By bringing together creative specialists and end users in one room, this stage allows finding the best ways to address all the previously discovered issues. The best thing about it is that the client does not have to invest in development until makes sure (through positive feedback on the product’s prototype) that all of the issues are solved.
Deliver
Here’s where the technical development process starts.
Run and Scale
The solution becomes available across different regions and markets.
Being a part of the LeverX, at Emerline, we hold design thinking sessions in a place that was initially created for this purpose — SAP AppHaus. This creative space is designed specifically for such workshops, having everything to promote the project’s success, including areas for collaborative work, a projection room, and relax zones.
If you are interested in learning more about the Design Thinking concept, you can do it here.
Delivery of Innovations
One more distinctive approach to product development we adhere to at Emerline is represented by the Research and Development (R&D) department that deals with innovative technologies like AR, IoT, blockchain, AI and ML, etc.
The main value of R&D lies in a much longer (compared to the traditional approach to development) stage of research that allows determining how this or that hi-tech can contribute to the business success of the client in the shortest time and in the best way possible. Also, the R&D service allows seeing future perspectives of a chosen tech.
Considering the fact that the existence of such a department in a company unlocks access to the latest developments in the world of IT, even before they are officially released, there are cases when we can recommend a client to optimize the solution to make it perfectly fit the upcoming changes in the market.
Furthermore, we take advantage of all the opportunities offered by R&D for the creation of our very own products. These include the GoDog app and 3D ColorBook that feature AR mode, and Scanner for Docs with AI technology for fast and accurate recognition of pages with text.
You can learn more about the R&D department and its value to IT companies and clients in our previous blog post.
One more thing that makes us stand out from other software development companies is that we are not just offering outsourcing services but serve as a technology partner to our clients. This means that in addition to the provision of product development services, we dig deep into the client’s business processes and analyze them to offer solutions that will really make a difference. Sometimes it means that some expensive development that was chosen by the client as the best option can be replaced with another, more cost-effective, and beneficial one.
You are always welcomed to ask us any questions on the development process and request a free consultation. Regardless of your desired product’s complexity and the amount of data you have to support its value, we can help you get the most out of your investments in technology.
