Product Discovery in Mobile App Development

What is Product Discovery in Mobile App Development?

 

What is a Product Discovery phase? What is the actual role Product Discovery play in Android and iOS App development? And what exactly does it look like? Product Discovery process look like? What is the reason I need to perform it? These are some of the queries we receive from clients. Check out this article to understand why the discovery stage is crucial to developing mobile apps and how it can help you reduce time and costs while making your mobile app ready for the major launch.

What is the purpose of the discovery phase in development?

Product Discovery for app project development is the first step in the development process. This step is vital to ensure that you know the people who are your customers’ primary targets and also to ensure that your app is able to meet the needs of customers on the market. This will also aid in determining the key characteristics of the app that you’re planning to create.

The purpose of this Product Discovery process is to prepare the development phase in the most efficient way by constantly testing concepts and ideas to gain knowledge about the requirements of your customer.

Some might wonder why you don’t just begin developing now. The reality is Product Discovery is an optional procedure, but it is essential for projects that require large-budget, expensive development. Without it, the project is likely to become more costly and long due to repeated variations and iterations.

 

 One thing we’ve learned from our years in the field is that prevention can be less expensive than correction, and correcting is less expensive than failing. The practice of preventing constant changes and adjustments that result in additional costs and frustration. It is important to understand that the Product Discovery process will eventually cost you a fraction in comparison to the risks of releasing an ineffective, non-popular program.

To summarize the point, in Product Discovery our team focuses on ensuring we’re creating something that is popular and beginning development with confidence.

 

 

 

What do you envision the Product Discovery process looking like?

Every company has a unique Product Discovery procedure. It will need to be specifically tailored to the needs of the customer. Some clients require one week, and others need a month to establish the strategy for business.

 

Let’s look at the key areas that we will be focusing on when we conduct Product Discovery:

 

• Establishing goals
•  What’s my purpose? What do I hope to attain?
• Research
•  Who will be the user? Define possible users and their challenges. What kinds of issues are they facing? What can I do to help them?
• Solutions for brainstorming
•  How do I resolve the issue? What are the outcomes? What is the best way to solve the problem?
• Prototyping
•  What’s my user’s experience? Does the solution I am using practical?
• Ideas for review
•  Are my ideas convincing enough? What are my users’ opinions about them? Do I have the ability to solve their issues?
• Finalizing
•  What ideas do we have to put into practice?
• Prioritization
•  What are the key features that must be first implemented?
• Planning for development
•  What is the purpose for The What is the scope of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)?

 

Product Discovery Steps

Let’s look at each step more in-depth. Be aware that the entire process follows an outline, and it’s important to move from one stage to the next without going back.

Establishing goals

Product discovery requires many stakeholders, and establishing goals at all levels in this early phase is vital. In this phase, stakeholders must focus on delineating the problem of the user and providing enough background for the team to look into the issue.

It is crucial to be focused on the issue instead of finding solutions. Therefore, the job of an executive in charge of product management is to develop a system to ensure that all parties can talk about the problems they encounter, rather than interpret the issues and suggest solutions (for instance, if you suggest adding particular features, utilize specific tools, etc.).

Research

The most important job at this point is to investigate the potential of the Product. We must know what issues our users could face and determine the issues the Product can help solve. To define the issue, it is better to develop an easy description of the problem to pin down the problem.

 

Thinking of solutions

When the problem is identified Once the issues are identified, the team can begin thinking about ways to tackle these issues. There are many forms of brainstorming that include traditional thinking, brain mapping, and storyboarding. The more ideas you can propose more ideas are suggested, the more effective. Individuals can work on their own before gathering to discuss and decide on the top ideas. The final step is when all team members are able to vote.

 

Reviewing, Finalizing & Prioritization

This is the validation stage in which stakeholders make their own decisions on ideas to be put into practice. Should we proceed to spend time and money to develop the idea? This is the moment to ensure that our solution will effectively address the most pressing user issues. Remember that when you are able to validate your idea, however, you may not be able to test it on many users. Therefore, the final results need to be carefully examined, and only those results that provide the most insights should be used.

 

Planning for development

Once you’ve validated your concepts, you are able to begin making them the MVP (Minimum Viable Product). At this point, you’ve got everything you need to go from the research phase to the actual delivery of the Product. Now is the time to finish filling the backlog of tasks, prioritize, and establish deadlines for release.

How Does Product Discovery Relate to Product Delivery?

It is crucial to realize the fact that Product Discovery is a continuous process that is carried out by companies with an existing product team or that plan to create their own product teams. If you are looking to build an organization that is customer-centric and you want to grow your business, you must always seek feedback from users and gain information.

The Product Discovery and Product Delivery teams can use Agile principles, and most often, they apply them. The tasks that comprise Delivery and Discovery typically co-exist since both are ongoing activities that require iterations.

[Guest Post]