Current Approach
Typically, a development team is employed to create the software product.
This team consists of developers, testers, team leader, a scrum master or project manager, and occasionally a business analyst or product owner.
The team’s workload (backlog) is based on input from primary stakeholders, who generally hold high-level positions and possess valuable market insights but with very limited time.
Experienced team members interpret the stakeholders’ input and integrate it into the sprints, focusing on technical solutions and swift deliverables.
The Issue at Hand
Team expectations:
- The team often lacks detailed specifications and solely relies on concepts presented by the stakeholders.
- They concentrate on the technical implementation for prompt delivery, striving to meet all requirements.
- The team expects the requirements and they ensure that all the requirements are met.
Reality check:
- The work required to prepare the requirements (sprint backlog) is most of the time sub estimated and the topics go unprepared in development. There is always space for interpretation on key functionality.
- When delivered, the stakeholders make statements like: “This is not exactly what we meant!”, “It is fine, but that part needs fixing”, “It is good, but for the customers doesn’t really work”.
From Concept to User Story
- Converting an idea into clear requirements is time-consuming and challenging.
- Overlooking key details may lead to user experience issues and illogical user flows.
- On complex concepts you might need to prototype, check the UX with the users before implementing.
Reality check:
- Quite often the work to get a concept ready for implementation takes more time than the actual development
Delivery Assurance
- While testers ensure bug identification and rectification, user experience aspects and overall integration may be neglected.
- End users might encounter basic issues, causing dissatisfaction.
- The testers focus is to check the delivery against the requirements.
Reality check:
- What if in the requirements is space for interpretation, who decides that is the right user experience when you have so many great options
- How about the user flows in regards to the integration with the previous functionality
- What if the requirements are complete but they are not correct? Points might have been totally missed.
- In some cases the stakeholders or the users identify basic user experience issues and as a result they are in shock, how come such basic things were missed.
Preventing Issues & Ensuring Customer Satisfaction
The development team excels in code quality, test automation, and project management.
- The developers are proud of the code that they have written, the various optimizations and algorithms that they have used. Their code is beautiful, and follows all the coding guidelines. The testers are proud of the automation tests, the complex scenarios they have tested, the reports showing how many bugs they discovered. The project manager is proud that the project achieved the scope, was within budget, and was able to deliver on time.
In the end, the development team does an extraordinary job, sometimes under pressure of delivery or management. They work as a team and achieve a milestone that some thought impossible.
However, product success remains uncertain… sometimes… the product didn’t make it to the market!
How many times have we been in such situations? We ask what went wrong? Whose fault was it? Was it the project manager’s fault? developers’ fault? testers’ fault? Or was it the Business Analyst who should’ve come up with better requirements or done a better research?
How can we prevent this?
No one asks the questions: Why is this feature valuable? Are we even building for the right people? Is this what our users expects in terms of experience?
Enhance your software development team with a Product Team!
To avoid these situations, a product team is essential.
It asks critical questions about the product’s necessity and the target audience’s expectations. The product team ensures the product’s market readiness, superior user experience, and timely adjustments.
A product team focuses on the product’s impact and user value, emphasizing adaptability and problem-solving skills. Integrating a product team, regardless of its size, can significantly enhance your software development process. The product team can be as small as 1 or 2 people and sized upon your project
The product team will not only sets the right ground for development but will also check the product before hitting the market
Don’t wait for users or stakeholders to highlight evident issues. Take the initiative and incorporate a proactive product team to address challenges and ensure a successful product launch.