January 25th, 2019

Product development is a massive undertaking. Numerous factors must fall into place at the right time, in the right order to achieve success. By taking the challenge and dealing with it in a more step-wise fashion however, it is possible to get there in a slightly less painful way!

​Let’s look at each of them in turn.

• Problem definition
  • What are you trying to achieve? What does success really look like, and importantly, how will you know when you have achieved it?
  • It is ok to not have a fully defined problem at the start, but if that is the case, the next step should be resolving it into something that is more defined before trying to solve it
• ‘Hack’
  • One of the many buzz-words bandied around nowadays. We’re basically talking about a brainstorm, or an ideation workshop
  • A hack is intended to rapidly get you to a point where you have ideas and approaches to move you forward. It could be a mixture of ideas that could be rapidly tested and those for which additional exploration may be needed to clarify further
  • How might you approach solutions to the now defined problem (or, if you are still defining the problem, what needs to be done to better define the problem)
  • Depending on the length of the hack, some initial exploration may be done during the session, or it may be that the output is several well-articulated approaches, solutions or ideas that can be moved forward and explored subsequently
• Road map
  • You know the end objective, you now have your ideas that form your starting point. How to get from A to B?
  • It is vitally important that the ideas, post-its and discussions from the hack are written up, and that the most compelling ideas are then expanded upon
  • What are the steps needed to now make that solution happen? Consumer testing? Market research? Partner identification?
  • What are the points on that map that will enable decision making on whether to continue or change direction?
  • A road map need not (and probably shouldn’t) be written in stone as the nature of innovation is that things will change, but an initial plan for direction is invaluable in getting off on the right footing
• Sprint
  • Go for it! Now you have a plan, execute it as efficiently as possible
  • Address the killer questions to rapidly rule in or rule out approaches, allowing yourself enough time to get enough information to make decisions, but not so much time that you never make a decision and just end up drowning in data. It’s a sprint, not a marathon, and so inevitably will be crude but should give you enough to go on
  • The sprint should enable you to decide on next steps. Do you continue as planned, or is it time to divert resources in a different direction?

As the figure indicates, this is an iterative process. What new problems have been raised, and what approaches may address those issues. As you go around the cycle again, what is still relevant and what needs to be reconsidered to enable you to get continue to the next stepping stone?