The market is flooded with amazing products. Whether you are hungry, planning to travel somewhere, or need medical information, there is a 100% chance that you will find a popular and working solution. 20 years later Stages in Product Design meant how cars and consumer goods were being researched, built, and marketed. Then software developers started having the same look at newly developed software solutions too.
Product design steps
There are countless numbers of apps, software, and solutions that ‘never make it. So you have to make sure that the vision that you have in your head is needed by the market. Then the concept and the design are aligned with potential customer needs.
This is where the Product Design Process comes into play. It is a combination of many different aspects, starting from the initial idea, through data-driven and careful decision-making, prototyping, and constant testing.
The 7 main steps User-Centered Product Design Process are the following:
1. Defining the product vision and the strategy
It should give all stakeholders a clear aim and define how success should look like.
2. Product Research
This is where careful data-gathering plays a role. You need to see how your product can fit the market. You also need to gather data from customers to see their perception of your concept product.
3. User Research
To create a user-centered experience it is vital to create personas (the type of customers you would like to cater to)
By setting up a real-life data based empathy map you can create such personas with different needs and feels.
4. Ideation Stage
With all the data in your hands, you may start slowly sketching up the product. Creating User Stories – at least in Agile Methodology
This is also when you decide the user flow. This is how your customers will interact with your product.
5. Design
This is where you start wireframing the product. How it should work and what the user journey would look like. It is also known as low-fidelity prototyping.
6. Testing and Validation
During this stage, you present your product to your target audience and ask for feedback. It is vital to make note of their responses, and wanted features and of course to act upon them.
7. Post-Launch activities
The ‘last’ stage in the Product Design Process… That never ends.
You constantly have to monitor your product and its real-life response. You can change certain elements (AB Testing), change the user flow if a needed update or add new features.
