In our mega-competitive landscape, a generic approach to Product Development isn't enough!
Businesses now realize that their success lies in catering to customer expectations.
That's why this article delves into customer-driven Product Development, which can give you a competitive edge.
Let's discover why prioritizing your customers can drive sustainable growth for your business.
What is Custom Product Development?
Custom Product Development (CPD) focuses on designing and building unique products to meet your target market's needs.
Examples include a tailored CRM system for a business or developing a mobile app for a specific user base.
You can also think of an accounting software for an ecommerce platform.
Different from the one-size-fits-all approach, CPD’s user-centric strategy prioritizes fostering a loyal customer base and building positive experiences.
Larger companies (51% with over 10,000 employees) tend to prioritize business goals when shaping their product strategy.
Conversely, smaller businesses (36% with under 20 employees) often emphasize direct customer feedback.
Nonetheless, the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Custom Software Development Services underscores the increasing demand for these solutions.
How Does Custom Product Development Work?
1. Understand
Understanding is about setting the initial concepts. You should answer these questions before starting the Product Development process:
- Business goals: What is your overarching goal with this custom product? Increase sales, improve efficiency or expand into new markets?
- Target audience: Who will be using this product? What are their needs and expectations?
- Pain points: What are the challenges you're facing? What problems are you trying to solve?
- Existing systems: What technologies are you currently using? How will you integrate this new product?
Imagine that you're a retail company that wants to build a custom mobile app.
Before jumping to work, your Product Development team should have valuable insights on:
- What kind of shopping experience do you want to create for your customers?
- What are your most popular products?
- How do you want to handle things like payments and shipping?
- Do you have an existing loyalty program?
2. Design
The next phase is designing. Here, you can start making informed decisions like:
- Features and Functionality: What specific features will the product have? How will they function?
- User Experience (UX): How will users interact with the product? What will the User Interface (UI) look like?
- Technical Architecture: What technologies (e.g., Python, JavaScript, or Swift) and frameworks (e.g., React or Ruby on Rails) will you use?
Once you have chosen the design fundamentals, you can start creating wireframes or a rough product prototype.
You can also set the navigation flow and how users will interact with the product.
3. Build
In the development stage, the team builds according to design specifications. This phase typically involves:
- Front-End Development: Builds the User Interface and User Experience (what the users see and interact with).
- Back-End Development: Builds the server-side logic and database (what handles data processing, authentication, and application functionality behind the scenes).
- Quality Assurance: Tests the product to ensure it works as intended.
4. Testing and Refining
Testing is an integral part, and you should conduct comprehensive testing to identify and resolve any issues.
You should also seek feedback from the actual users to make continuous improvements to the product.
5. Launching and Maintaining
Once the product is thoroughly tested and refined, it's launch time!
Here, teams make their product available to their target audiences.
This step can involve app stores, websites or other channels.
But the product's journey doesn't end there! You need to offer continuous support and maintenance to keep the product running well.
A retail company might update the app to include AI personalized recommendations or Augmented Reality (AR) shopping experiences.
Why Choose Custom Product Development?
CPD allows you to create products that align with user expectations and market conditions.
A custom-designed product is created to improve your processes and understanding of user needs. As a result, it can lead to better efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Further, CPD fosters innovation, which can attract new users, build customer loyalty and stand out from the competition.
A customer-centric approach must be at the heart of CPD to deliver high-quality products.
What is Customer Driven Product Development?
Forrester highlights that customer-centric organizations reported 41% faster revenue growth, 49% faster profit growth and 51% better customer retention!
By incorporating direct feedback and analyzing journeys, businesses can tailor their products for long-term success.
For instance, Amazon and Apple are businesses that highlight that customer-driven strategies can enhance UX, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
Therefore, this demonstrates how prioritizing customer needs and preferences can significantly impact a company's success.
Product Centric vs Customer-Centric Product Development
In a product-centric approach, the emphasis is on the product itself—its features, innovations and potential market disruptions.
While this can lead to groundbreaking products, it might not necessarily align with customer needs or expectations.
On the other hand, a customer-centric approach prioritizes understanding customer interaction. It designs product roadmaps around those insights as a key differentiator.
Conclusion
The shift towards Custom Product Development is not just a trend; it's a need.
If you're looking to build an exceptional customer experience but don't know how to start, reach out!
We're a UX-driven Product Development agency with over a decade of experience.
Our team knows how to build product ideas that align with your business goals and your users' needs.
