Technology firms today have a great challenge to stay fresh and relevant to their target audience. In some particular sub-niches of this industry, you blink and the product you have been promoting has become mainstream or obsolete even. Product development teams are there to help the company stay in tune with the needs of their target market. Here are some tips to help your company scale up properly even in the highly competitive industry of technology:
1. Establish clear goals that translate into products
What is the one metric that matters to your company? Is it sales? Is it sign-ups to your service? Is it referral growth rates from your partners? Getting to know this in advance will help steer your product and services in the right direction. Having a single growth star metric that powers up your entire basis for developing products keeps you from getting lured by shiny objects.
2. Learn what the customers want and are ready to buy
The customer’s pain points and motivations are what should power up the engine of your product factory. What are the things that they cannot do without? What are the things that, when they see as a bargain, they will not hesitate to click and buy? Knowing the specific types of services that appeal to your audience will help you identify the types of products that you should be developing in your business.
3. Hire a good designer
Appearance and its usability are important. Don’t give your customers a hard time. Have a good designer and usability expert to allow to improve user experience of the customers. You may also want to open up the platform to test on actual target customers so that they can give generous feedback on your product, which will help you improve your sales in the future. A good designer will have the empathy to really assimilate your target customers and design something that will fit their needs like a glove.
4. Have a way to measure quality in each iteration or version
There is always something that remains constant in a product that you are developing. A certain key performance indicator or measurement of this will serve as your quality control in every version of the product that you send out to the market. For a software as a service (SaaS) company, time and cost savings to the customer compared to not having the service may be a good way to measure quality improvements. For the product itself, long-term metrics, such as durability or ability to handle growth, may also be something that you can consider.
5. Leave room for upgrading the products
Never fall into hubris. All products have room for improvement. Always be in the position where you are innovating. Surely, for certain aspects, don’t fix what is not broken. However, if you can turn a good product into an excellent one, the money will follow.
Always involve and surround yourself with a team that is positive and is engaged with your ultimate goal of bringing the best to your customers with your new products.