The Roadmap to Digital Product Development: 6 Stages You Need to Master

8 min readJan 6, 2024

The digital process of roadmap to digital product development involves conducting market research to verify the concept of the product and then creating, prototyping and evaluating the product. Additionally, it involves the processes that go into creating the product in the first place and keeping it there.

Every stage of the roadmap to digital product development process requires a certain skill set and different resources. It’s an investment of a large amount and businesses must think about it carefully.

Why do you require the roadmap to digital product development?

A PWC study estimates an increase of 19% in efficiency of operations in the company, and a reduction of 13% in the cost of production after constructing digital products that are suited to internal and external customers.

These numbers highlight the importance of a roadmap to digital product development essential for companies that want to improve productivity, cut costs in addition to better meet the needs of their consumers.

This article will discuss the roadmap to digital product development along with its stages and the needs for each stage. We will begin by defining the definition of what digital product development is.

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What exactly is digital product development?

Roadmap to digital product development are digital assets that are developed by programming codes, providing particular benefits or value for the user whom they interact with. These include desktop, mobile applications for web digital dashboards, digital tools, and control apps, in addition to many more.

Offers a solution or a service for a particular user’s issue or need
It is developed using a customer-centric method, which means the software was designed and created in accordance with the needs of the user and their preferences in mind.
It is backed by a clear value-for-money and a revenue system that is justified by its creation and maintenance costs

A few advantages of developing digital products:

Improved efficiency and productivity
Cost-effective when compared to traditional development
Customization and personalization are possible.
Accessibility and reach to an even larger market
Ability to analyze and collect useful data information
Better customer experience and greater satisfaction
Capability to expand the company to meet the growing demands
More flexibility to adjust to market trends that change and user requirements

A quick glance over the lifecycle of digital products

Before we begin to explore the topic of developing digital products we’ll briefly discuss the idea of the life cycle of the digital product. Each product has its own journey through the market called the life cycle of a product.

The lifecycle of a product typically comprises four phases beginning, development maturation, decline and.

Introduction is the process of debut is the moment when a product is introduced to the market.
The expansion period is the time when popularity of a product has picked up.
The maturation phase occurs when sales growth decreases and the product reaches its saturation point in the market.
The period of decline is defined by a decrease in sales and a replacement for the product in the market that offers more appealing alternatives.

An understanding and planning of the lifecycle of digital products

Companies can conduct more precise and accurate market research
Provides guidance to product designers on how to design their product in a manner that can be adapted to the evolving demands of the market
Engineers assist teams in identifying possible issues that could arise at various stages of the life cycle, so that they can keep these considerations in the process of creating the product

In the end, knowing the lifecycle of digital products can aid in optimizing the process of development, ensuring that you develop appropriate and profitable products over their entire life cycle.

Six phases of digital product development

1. Analysis and research

The first step of developing a digital product is to research your market, and then identifying a need to resolve. It is also necessary to conduct user research to identify the needs of your intended audience.

Do market research

There are a variety of methods of conducting research on the market but a flexible approach is the best. The fact that it is continuous distinguishes market research from traditional methods. The entire process of conducting research is a series of iterations continually improving the quality of the data.

Know the audience you want to reach

Understanding the traits of your audience’s behavior will help your development and design teams to develop products that are resonant with the user and offer the best user experience. Here are some methods to get a better understanding of your audience’s characteristics:

Conduct market research and gather data on your potential customer’s demographics, habits, desires, needs, and interests.
Create buyer personas with characteristics, demographics and goals as well as issues.
Examine competitors

Before you start to think about an idea for your product on the internet, do thorough analysis of competitors to determine the gaps in your market and identify the needs of customers. Here are some guidelines to consider when looking at your competition:

Determine your direct and indirect competitors. Identify your direct and indirect.
Review your competitor’s offerings in terms of capabilities, features and prices.
Learn about your competitors’ marketing strategies, including their marketing channels, messages and strategies.
Examine the user experience of your competition such as their websites or app, as well as other digital touchpoints.
Find the gaps in the market that your competitors miss out on.

Do user studies

A thorough user study helps to make sure that the digital product can fulfill the expectations and requirements of potential customers. Additionally, it helps confirm the assumptions of your product and enhance accessibility.

Here’s how to do user-based research

Set out your research’s goals as well as the research objectives.
Select the best method for your research, such as interviews or surveys.
You can recruit participants that are in alignment with your intended group of people.
Develop a questionnaire to gather data.
Utilize recording and observation tools to record user actions.
Examine the research findings to find patterns.

2. Concept development and idea generation

Before you begin the ideation process before starting the ideation process, it is important to be aware of what the landscape of digital is. Knowing your intended audience along with market trends and industry standards are crucial in the creation of an effective digital product.

Mind maps

Mind maps are an excellent way to stimulate thinking about and brainstorming ideas. It also helps to generate innovative digital products ideas. Mind mapping helps in the visualization of complex concepts and also helps to organize them into a clearly defined strategy for the product.

The best method to accomplish it is to begin with a basic idea, then extend to concepts that are related. Let’s take an example: you’re looking to create an eCommerce site to sell printed t-shirts.

Mind maps can assist you to keep the primary concept of the application in the center and then branch out into other tasks such as catalog, order customizing as well as operations administration.

Develop ideas and refine them into the concept for the product

Following the process of ideation then comes the development of concepts, which starts by the refinement of concepts. The mind map are arranged in a particular order of priority.

But, you need to make sure that these ideas are aligned to your organization’s goals. Here’s how you can do that:

Make a list of possible ideas and then prioritize the ideas based on factors like potential feasibility, user demand potential revenue and market competition.
Make sure your ideas are in line with the target people’s characteristics, behaviors and tastes.
Explore ideas with surveys, focus groups and prototyping.
Learn from potential customers, industry experts and other the other stakeholders

When initial ideas are formulated, the concept creation becomes simple. Concept development involves several key steps:

Determine the issue that this digital item is attempting to address. This will help you understand the expectations and scope of the project.
Create user personas that assist teams in understanding the needs of users, their goals and behavior to create products that meet the needs of their users.
Develop user flow Maps Visualize your user’s experiences when using your digital products. This involves constructing the timeline of user interaction and identifying the areas of pain for improvement of the user experience.

A design is not only about appearances and how it appears at the surface. It must be a reflection of the essence of a product.

3. Designing and prototyping the digital product

The design phase starts with a few basic questions that will help to define the goals for the product

What are the reasons you should need this digital solution?
What is the goal of the product?
How can you realize the goal of digital products?
Who will benefit from the product?
What is the solution to the problem of the user?

You should have found the answers to some of your questions including who would benefit from the product and what issues it solves at the end of the initial two phases of market research and conceptualization.

But, you’ll need additional information to aid in the process to achieve the desired outcomes.

An ideal product design process involves:

Design specifications which include a digital-based overview of the product, a target customers, requirements for users as well as branding styles, among other requirements specific to the product.
Wireframes can be created based on design specifications to bring the product’s vision to reality. Wireframes are also a way to visualize the functionality of a digital product and layout prior to when actual design work occurs.
Making UIs and designing prototypes with high-quality that include several wireframe adjustments, which ultimately improve the design’s quality.

Finally, a digital product development process needs usability testing to make sure that high-quality prototypes meet the specifications you are looking to achieve.

Conduct usability tests

Usability testing is the process of watching, observing, recording notes, and listening when the user interacts with the prototype in order to discover issues in the design. These tests require participants to take on specific tasks using the prototype.

There are many kinds of usability tests

Testing usability in a formal way helps in helping “form” the layout of an online product. It lets you know how a person likes or dislikes a product and if they actually need it.
Tests that summatively assessed the product’s design and provides a summary of the efficiency, effectiveness and level of satisfaction users experience. It assists in proving or proving how repeatable and effective processes are.
Qualitative and. Quantitative testing helps you study the behavior of users in interaction with the product as well as the complex data. It helps you understand the factors that hinder users from finishing an assignment and the percentage of them can complete certain tasks.
Moderated vs. unmoderated tests are two types of usability testing: one requires a moderator/facilitator, while the other is an automated process.

4. Stage of development

Digital product development starts with clarifying the processes and technologies you will need to implement the design. Determining the process will require clarity about the method of development you’ll use.

There are two important digital methods of product development that can be utilized,

Waterfall approach
Agile development