Successful product innovation requires inventive insights and perceptive action from both engineering and marketing. It needs a resolute incorporation of customer perspectives and perfect timing to maximise financial returns and competitive advantage, says Wade Gabrielse, joint-CTO, DVT.
Understanding a customer's needs when developing software is an important factor driving value throughout the product development process.
Yet it is often overlooked because engineers are tucked away in development centres, with no client interface and little true understanding of the environments in which the products will be deployed.
Worse, according to a Standish Group survey, the average software project is typically 90% over budget, exceeds its schedule by 120%, and when projects are finally completed, many are a mere shadow of their original specification requirements. In fact, most completed projects have only 42% of the originally proposed features and functions, and they arrive late.
This can often be attributed to unmet and unmanaged expectations. Software project success depends as much on ensuring that customer expectations are met as it is on managing those expectations, something only achievable through vendor commitment to transparency and constant communication.
Unless specifications are met, functionality ensured and customers kept happy at exactly the right time, software development is doomed to failure.
Insightful value
Effectively incorporating user needs into the development of any product requires insights discovered through market research and user analysis prior to involving the engineer. Long gone are the days when it was the engineer's responsibility to perform these preparatory tasks. Software engineers cannot be expected to develop software while also having to undertake user analysis and research. Individually, both are full-time jobs and neither should ever be relegated to a subordinate position.
Appreciating this, the trend today is for software development houses to employ professionals who understand people, business and their joint and related needs. Market research and user analysis produce a list of the most common and primary concerns of the people being targeted by the software under development. This is used to create a chart of critical success factors. The research also reveals other concerns which can be prioritised in terms of potential impact on the market's acceptance of the software in question. Armed with this information, software engineers are empowered to write their code with a clear vision of the desired end result.
Three parallel disciplines are involved in the process:
* Market research and user analysis determine the current landscape and the wants and needs of the target market. In isolation, this is not sufficient to drive the actual development of a product;
* Business analysis determines the full set of features required to meet the needs of the target market in a comprehensive and consistent fashion; and
* Software engineering constructs the product according to the needs identified by the business analysis
Step by step
The value of the analysis and research is directly related to the quality of the methods used, the size of the sample involved and the quality of the feedback received. The best approach is to apply agile methodologies that enable the software engineer to deliver in increments, receive feedback and then apply that information into the project as it progresses.
This approach does restrict accurate budgeting capabilities, but launching new and innovative products is an inherently risky business and there are countless factors that could impact on the cost, time and success of the project.
The inherent risk is mitigated through an iterative approach that involves the end-user in a proactive way in the product development lifecycle.
Realising potential
The success of any product innovation relies on several factors: money, research and technology savvy to name the most obvious. However, there is an additional crucial factor: market fertility.
Numerous stories abound of organisations developing technology that they did not maximise; with the prize going to those that may not have invented the technology or product, but honed it and brought it to market at exactly the right time and in the right way.
Xerox is a prime example, being responsible for the invention of many of the tools and technology we now take for granted. These include the mouse, the graphical user interface, the laser printer and Ethernet. Another example is Nintendo's idea of creating a CD attachment for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Sony created a standalone integrated unit popularly known today as the PlayStation; an invention that when presented to the market at the right time, saw Sony suddenly outpace Nintendo in the gaming consol space.
Innovative products and technology are successfully commercialised when technology readiness meets market fertility; when developers have been empowered with a true understanding of what the market needs, and how best to address those needs; when they match their creative and technical genius perfectly to meet growing market demands.
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