What is the most effective way to manage the product R&D lifecycle?

Following the SMART strategy the ideation and prototyping are very crucial. The idea of the new feature or feature identification should be not far away from the product road map. Or in other terms it should match the overall theme of the product. Sometimes we want to scale the product horizontally to capture a different segment of the market and end up having a feature which looks simpler on prima facie but requires a dramatic change at development front. And here the ideation validated by prototyping helps in managing the overall development strategy and time to market. The changes are supposed to be incremental and should have the same impact on end users as well. It helps them to adapt quickly rather having to start over again.

At Interwood, setting a visionary yet attainable roadmap is foundational in our R&D process. We anchor our aspirations in strategic alignment with market needs and emerging trends, ensuring our objectives are SMART. This clarity propels us forward, optimizing our focus, resource allocation, and benchmarking mechanisms, thereby nurturing innovation that resonates with our customers and fortifies our market position.

It requires a well-defined process that includes clear objectives, collaborative teamwork, iterative development, and regular evaluations (Establish a robust process from ideation to launch, foster collaboration among cross-functional teams, and prioritize feedback loops for continuous improvement) Communication and flexibility are key to navigating the complexities of product research and development successfully.

I think in addition to ‘what we want a product to do’. I think early in the R&D process we also need to manage the list of things that we ‘don’t want the product to do’. For example failure modes, safety considerations, boundary conditions. Such practice pays off in the later stages of product development and qualification.

Understand what your client needs. Pick a flexible road map. Hire a domain expert. Define proper terminology. Give flexibility to the development team. Provide proper tools. Define clear use cases that cover the client needs. Differentiate the needs and wants.

The vision and objectives of Product R&D are linked to the identification of direct and indirect customer target groups, understanding their pain points and areas of gain. This alignment is crucial in determining the why and what of your achievements, ensuring harmony with customer needs, business strategy, and value. Once goals are established, product features should be outlined. It involves impact-effort mapping, bandwidth estimation, & customer-feature mapping, prioritised based on the value proposition rating. This rating categories features into primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Validation of the vision is paramount. Effective communication & compelling value proposition is vital to convey the significance of the vision.

That being said, your business strategy should be flexible enough to accommodate the reality you will find out after the R&D. This would also mean that you now have a different understanding of your customer needs and this makes R&D a learning and evolutionary process for your organisation.

Product R&D life cycle should be continuous process through new feature addition and development of new features to perform intended function differently and innovatively and fulfill the need of customer when required and one more point i would like to add here, if old design is not in use discard it so next time by mistake also people should not use it or refer to it.

Integrating agile development into this framework allows for iterative reassessments and pivots in alignment with the set vision and goals. Agile encourages regular check-ins at key milestones. This ensures that the product remains aligned with the initially defined vision while being adaptable to unforeseen challenges or changes in the market landscape. Such a dynamic approach ensures that the end product is not only in tune with the business strategy but is also a true reflection of customer needs as they evolve. Having SMART goals in place, coupled with agile flexibility, is a winning combination for successful product development.

Be sure to validate assumptions, but also dig deeper. Beyond confirming the demand for your product, consider scalability, cost-effectiveness, and potential long-term impacts. Assess market trends and evolving customer needs. Moreover, validate not only the 'what' but also the 'how' – can your team deliver this product efficiently and sustainably? True success lies in comprehensive validation that encompasses the entire product journey, from ideation to execution. Gather feedback from potential customers and stakeholders. Monitor your progress and adjust your strategies as needed. Finally, never forget to celebrate your successes. #ProductValidation #BusinessStrategy

The step "validate your assumptions" is the most critical and frequently missed step in Product developement and lifecycle. Once you have frozen the value proposition and the product requirement document, you need to step back and check if target and assumptions are solid and validate them. best way is the MVP sample to let stakeholders analyise, check and confirm assumptions and specs.

This also gives a product more than 50% chance of success after launch in the market. Fact-based assumptions are important, instead of individual-inspired assumptions.

It is a good idea to have initial concepts tested against the customer requirements by different people than those that came up with the various solutions. That process will generate discussion, deeper understanding within the team, and often results in better end solution combining advantages of several initial concepts. Moreover this will also create team cohesion and buy in into the final concept.

- In my experience, a good practice would be to keep a buffer for unexpected developments and bug fixes that might come up (they usually do). - When the product is complex and involves multiple teams such as Data Science, Data engineering, and infrastructure, it is worth taking the time to plan the dependency between the teams and making sure it is aligned and planned in each team's roadmap.

Product owners play a key role in defining the road map. At the same time they need to understand their scope of control. While understand the technical jargon and suggest technical solutions, don't step on technical aspects. Allocate time & resources for tech debt. Poor planning will impact the quality & productivity.

Traditional roadmap planning of controlling timings, scope, and schedules has its uses but can go against the nature of R&D. To assume "validated product concept" is binary and not a continuous activity is dangerous - you are always in the process of learning, validating ideas, and pivoting to maximise value and the way you visualise your progress and intentions should respect this. An Opportunity Solution Tree is a good way to frame & focus on the opportunities and outcomes you are pursuing rather than a list of features and their schedules (danger of feature factory). Or the simple Now - Next - Later style with outcomes and user needs/problems clearly articulated.

You should also consider the deployment model that the product will support. Based on the risks involved you might consider using zero downtime deployments. In my experience, it is usually very effective as it reduces the effort of planning and coordinating each release, but good QA and QC processes should be in place to mitigate the risk of faulty releases.

While measuring may be the final step in the product lifecycle, it should not be an afterthought left to the end. Product or feature measurement and success should be defined at the very beginning as the opportunity is being fleshed out. Knowing what will make it succeed is crucial in developing a proper understanding of what you're building, why, and how you know it has done the job. If you visualise your workflow on, say, a Kanban board, Measuring should always be a step to encourage the right behaviours and minimise the 'fire and forget' mentality.

Be bold, before scoping, planning, scheduling…you should understand your clients and/or customers problems and pain points to draft a vison, a strategic roadmap to solve these problems or pain points in your future offering (product or service)

A better way to describe requirement is by User Story, than split the User Story into product design, UI, frontend, backend and testing tasks, make every task as small as you can for easy tracking, review in progress tasks during daily standup meeting day by day, after these the R&D process can be smoothly as you want.