Digital Product Development

Digital Product Development. Everything You Need To Know

 

The differential between a product and a digital good.

All downloadable materials are considered digital products. These include ebooks and video and audio content, as well photos and graphics. These items fall under the umbrella of digital goods in eCommerce. It is more relevant to their value.

We encourage you, for all of this, to distinguish between these terms in the way that follows:

Web products

Programming code that delivers an interactive value proposition. These include mostly web, desktop, mobile apps, digital dashboards, and controller apps.

Digital goods

Intangible goods exist in digital format and are free of user-interactive components. Some of the digital products can be also implemented in physical forms. These include electronic books, ringtones (phone calls), wallpapers, video tutorials, and mockup images.

Digital products must meet the following requirements

It is a common misconception that web apps and websites can be used to create digital products. In essence, they are just product implementations. The Uber mobile application cannot be treated independently. This is the only way to add value to the lives of tablet and smartphone users. A digital product can also be implemented through a website or app, a mobile app for iOS and Android, and a desktop application for another operating system.. Let’s sum up the introduction to digital product terms by listing key requirements or facets.

• A value proposition designed to solve a specific problem
• Interactive UX or digital interaction points
• Capacity to generate revenue

Digital product development

Now that we have all the dots in our minds about what a digital product is, let us move to how it is made. Now let’s get to the point. We will answer the question about digital product development.

What’s the difference between product design & product development?

Opinion #1:

Product design is an integral part of product development. In this example, the design can be referred to as industrial or graphic. These are processes that help in creating an interface and visualization.

Opinion #2:

Product development is the final step in product designing. Now, the process of development is complete. This includes defining a problem, designing a solution, and sharing it with users.

Brisklogic opinion:

The process that you go through is more important than the term you choose. Both design or development can refer to a collection of activities used in the creation of digital products. The most important thing is the order of the stages in your development and design cycles.

Different approaches to digital product creation

 

We have created a high-level sequence of processes for building a digital products. But, each product owner is allowed to alter it according to the methodology or development approach that their project uses. Below are descriptions for the most popular.

Traditional development, or waterfall

This approach is the most reliable and longest-standing, offering a logical and linear life-cycle development model. The waterfall is a reference to the top-to–bottom progression that looks like water falling downs. These stages make up the basic approach.

• Conception
• Analysis
• Design
• Implementation
• Testing
• Deployment
• Maintenance

Waterfall development works well if there is sufficient budget and strict requirements for documentation, tech stack and timeframe. This is the most popular approach for large companies when it comes to in-house projects.

Agile development

Agile digital product development focuses on rapid and flexible change responses. Iterations, or short time slots, are used to divide the development cycle. These iterations can be used to develop each part or task of the digital product. This method allows for parallel development of different teams as well as a significant reduction in time costs. This is the common process life cycle for Agile development.

• Concept
• Inception
• Iteration
• Release
• Production
• Retirement

Agile development practices emphasize face-to-face communication. It reduces documentation by comparison to other approaches. This methodology is the basis of numerous derivatives, some which we’ll discuss below.

Scrum development

Scrum is a great way to create complex products with high-volatility requirements. The complete workflow is divided into sprints (2 to 4 week periods) where the complete life cycle is executed each sprint.

• Initiation
• Plan
• Implementation
• Retrospective
• Release

The scrum method is considered to be one of the most flexible. It encourages verbal communication and an empirical mindset. This implies that an agile approach to solving problems will outweigh an attempt to understand them completely.

Lean development

Lean Development is a digital transformation that transforms Toyota’s lean manufacturing techniques into a process for building software products and digital products. It usually involves fast product delivery, quality-centered progress, and high levels of customer satisfaction. These are the main components of the digital product lifecycle.

• Ideation
• Exploration
• Validation
• Growth
• Maintaining
• Retire

Feature-driven development

FDD, another Agile development offspring, is also available. FDD is ideal for companies who are transitioning from a phased to an iterative development approach. Digital products which are feature-driven and need to be regularly updated. This is a design-based approach. The whole project consists of small pieces or characteristics. Here’s how the FDD process works:

• Overall model development
• Features list
• Prioritization planning
• Design
• Implementation

This method fosters rapid product development, and allows for the rapid evolution of products. FDD is not recommended for small projects.

Rapid application development

Prototyping plays an integral part in RAD. Reducing the time required to deliver prototypes means reducing the planning activities. With user design testing, and many syncs of team communication acceleration pf pipeline can be achieved  Here’s how RAD’s life cycle looks like:

• Planning your requirements
• User design
• Development
• Cutover

A dedicated object-oriented program language is another option to speed up app development.

Hybrid approach

Today, agile development is the preferred choice for most startups. The hybrid of agile methods and waterfall is an alternative option. This approach allows for customization of the methodology to suit your needs. You can build independent teams, which then fusion into a single environment. Because agile teams prefer progressive planning at each stage, waterfall teams place emphasis on upfront planning.

Which approach do you prefer for your digital products?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to building any digital product. Startups do not use the same approach for every step of their product-development process. Our team uses a mixture of Agile, Scrum, and Lean. We also use some best practices from within the company. It is possible to take the best from certain development methods and apply them to your project. Brisklogic compiled the best digital product design approaches according to the industry.