From idea to a digital product by following 8 steps

If you're an entrepreneur who plans to build up an early-stage startup based on an idea, this post can assist you in organizing the process in a systematic, step-by-step manner: how to lead a digital product as a startup owner. Let's begin from idea to digital product!

1. Brainstorming and understanding the goals and needs

As an entrepreneur, you will need to brainstorm and rumble up your thoughts and ideas for developing the perfect digital product. You may have many ideas, but only the most impressive one should move forward to the product’s creation.

• Firstly, you will need to understand your goals thoroughly. Organize all your ideas and understand what should be the theme of the product. If any problems appear along your way, try to solve them first. When we mention problems, it can be business problems or legal ones; the idea is to solve it before any mockup is designed.
• The fastest and easiest way to get through this is to ask your teammates to support your ideas and present their own creative thoughts.
• You can conduct a brainstorming session among your teammates and come up with new ideas. Many people can generate more ideas and give you a wider option to choose from.
• Once these tasks have been completed, make sure to define business goals. Also, be certain to clarify what users' needs are and problems in the market along with the solutions to construct the next steps.

2. In-depth research - on our competitors, the market, our revenues

It is important to do some research on the competition and the market before launching a new product. It saves lots of time to do this early in the product's development.

• To develop a product, the product manager must include critical components to prove uniqueness to the business.
• The customer's specific requirements must be understood to develop an appropriate product that could meet the needs of the market.
• Any product must have the qualities that can help the product manager build, sell, and market the item effectively.
• You should thoroughly compare the product to competitors and look out for anything that comes as competition to better understand what requirement can be included to enhance its value further.
• The product manager can add those missing requirements, which can help the product meet the market needs.

It is not easy to successfully create a startup from an idea to a digital product. By answering all these steps, you will find the process a bit simplified.

3. Branding, brand content, and language

Any of your brand's products must include this one aspect: brand language. A brand language means that all products developed by your business must represent some similarity between each other that can make any customer recognize your brand from a distance. This recognition must be included in the product, even if your brand logo is taken off.

• A “cohesive product family” will increase brand value, and customers will prefer to buy that product. It will be easier to design products as you can use signature designing to add a hint for people to recognize the brand from afar.
• Your brand logo or mark can be a great way of brand language. You can use different strategies to differentiate your products from other brands and communicate with your customers. These strategies can be used to capture the attention of a, particularly larger audience.
• All the content aspects should be delivered at this stage to design the entire product well from scratch. By that, we mean: the slogan, micro-copy, and business atmosphere

4. Create a prototype

A prototype helps you to put your creativity into one place and organize all your ideas.

• It can help you to refine the workings of your original product and take out any mistakes. If there is any mistake in the design or any improvement could be added to the product, then the prototype will help you exclude or include necessary measurements.
• You can apply different materials for the product’s production to see which one best suits its working. These tests can also determine the cost of the business.
• The prototype will describe your product effectively and determine the productivity and performance of the developed item. Other than this, your product will be taken more seriously among the market and also other companies.

5. UX/UI to all the product screens

Both UX and UI are vital for the product's success. UX wireframes help define the layout for the product's screens as they provide a clearer version of the product. Other UX design methods define the interaction between the customer and the product or company.

• Start documenting all the product pages, like the homepage, catalog page, product page, my account pages, etc...
• Then, draw the user-flow and prepare the sitemap
• Based on what pages you defined, sketch each of them - include all their elements, for example - the homepage should include its main banner element, main menu element, and so on...
• Once all the pages were UX-designed and sketched, these pages should be delivered to an art director to be visually designed. The graphic design should be made per page with all the relevant modes that an end-user needs.

6. Product development

Once all your ideas have been compiled, you can make your way towards completing the product. The product will automatically be completed only if organized steps followed the idea of creation, and precise moves followed everything.

• Hire a product development team or a development agency to help you cover things up faster. Each and everyone has a responsibility towards the product completion with useful methods.
• A professional team will do things faster and check every detail so that nothing would go wrong.
• Write the technical documentation so that, as the administrator, you know how to insert banners, images, edit relevant sections, etc.
• All pages should be developed according to the design and technical document provided. It should be coded so that it is compatible with all browsers, all devices - iOS and Android, according to the design and matching all technological requirements.

7. Detailed QA

• Quality Assurance is important, so QA engineers should test the website from a design perspective and see that all of the functions are working in accordance with technical requirements, the product design, web pages, supported by all relevant browsers and devices.
• As a quality assurance manager, no person can judge the product for quality other than you.

8. Marketing and launch plan

• Your marketing strategies should reach all of the necessary points. Your customer and his experience should be the center point of all your marketing strategies.
• The customer is the sole reason you created this product, and so everything should be according to his liking. Marketing strategies should gain their interest.
• With the help of television, digital marketing, and print marketing, you can easily make your product recognizable, but is your product attractive enough to buy? Does the advertisement have catchy or admirable statements to lure customers? Most of your sales depend on how well you marketed your product.
• Before you bring your product into the market, it is first necessary to define your product fully. You won't need to put much effort into this if you are already a known brand. After this, you can start describing the quality, functions, and price of the product.

Give special attention to the marketing and launch plan. Whenever ready, you can launch your advertisement on social media and go out on Google and more digital marketing channels.

Q&A for the process of idea to product

The most common questions after product development usually are:

• What are the demographics of my targeted customer?

  It is necessary to check the market that your product launches into. Even if the product hasn’t been launched yet, this can be a good survey, and most products gain success due to this.

• How do my targeted customers currently use my products?

  If the launched product is marketed well and consumers are making more sales, it’s better not to add more additions as perhaps the customer likes it.

• What do my customers like or dislike about my product?

  It is necessary to determine if customers are enjoying your product or not. You can do this by putting out a survey and gaining customer feedback. You will know what needs to be added or reduced in your product that will help you increase sales.

Conclusions

Whether you want to improve a product or create something entirely new, it is necessary to organize your ideas and create a systematic approach towards its creation. Develop ideas by hiring a creative product development team that will help you determine the customer approach and help you make something that could prove to be a success in the market. The first thing that you need to do when creating a new product is to protect the idea that you have inside your mind. You should write it down and organize your thoughts by discussing them with people and having confidence in your product. Inventing can be challenging and requires a lot of effort and attention. The everyday products we use are all part of someone’s creation years ago that proved useful and thriving in the market. If you try hard enough to market it right, then that product will be fruitful for you. To sum it up in one line - love, persevere and do not give up your dream of turning an idea into a digital product.