Turning ideas into action

The product development roadmap

Turning a spark of creativity into a market-ready product is an exhilarating journey for any entrepreneur. But there are quite a few steps between having a product idea and bringing it to market.

Stage 1: Ideation

Every great product begins with an idea. Ideation is the process of generating a broad set of ideas without judgment or restraint. Here, creativity reigns supreme. Use tools like brainstorming, mind mapping or a business model canvas to organize your ideas.

The beauty of this stage of product development is that no idea is a bad idea. In fact, it’s an opportunity to lean into the ideas that excite you most. The goal is to collect a list of potential product ideas that can be further refined in later stages.

Stage 2: Validation

Once you have your product idea, you’ll want to validate it based on a few key factors. Does your product actually solve a problem for your potential customer? Does it fill a gap in your industry or niche? Is there demand for a product like yours, and will your idea satisfy that market demand?

Try conducting interviews or surveys to collect feedback on your product idea. Here are some questions you can consider.

• What is the hardest part about [problem area] you're facing?
• Can you tell me about the last time you encountered this problem?
• What have you tried to solve this problem?
• Why was that solution not satisfactory for you?
• How are you dealing with it now?
• If you could have an ideal solution, what would it look like?
• What would make you switch to a new solution?

This book by Rob Fitzpatrick on how to talk to customers to learn whether your business is actually a good idea is also a good resource for validating your ideas.

Stage 3: Analyze

With the data you collect from validating your idea, identify common themes or points of friction in the feedback to understand whether your idea meets your ideal customers’ needs and expectations. This will help you determine the product's market viability—whether to pivot, proceed with developing the product, or, in some cases, abandon the idea if there’s no clear market interest.

Stage 4: Build a Minimum Loveable Product

You’ve likely heard of a minimum viable product (MVP), but we’ve adopted the term minimum loveable product (MLP) from our friends at BlumWellens BV (BW1). An MLP includes essential features that solve the core problem for your customer, as well as a few you personally find interesting or beneficial to the customer.

Still, when building your MLP, keep it simple, and focus on the end goal of getting it in front of customers quickly. The goal is to test and gather feedback early, so you can better understand any changes that need to be made before your official launch.

Stage 5: Launch

Launching a product is where many entrepreneurs get stuck because their idea of a finished product varies greatly from what’s actually needed for launch. Having a product roadmap helps to overcome this decision paralysis, but there may still be a wide gap between releasing your MLP and bringing your product to market. Investor, founder and mentor Ingrid Polini recommends testing, building and iterating product features as you go.

You can’t truly know if your product will address the customer’s needs until you put it in their hands. You may expect one specific part of your product to resonate with customers but find that it’s another side of your offering that drives people to purchase.

Ingrid Polini

As long as the product you release meets your customers’ needs and is fully functional (or not, but released with that disclosure), you’re ready to launch. Shift your focus from perfecting product features to building out your go-to-market strategy.

And keep in mind that product development doesn’t stop at launch. Once you’ve got your first customers, prepare yourself for the inevitable rounds of feedback and improvements to come.

Watching a product go from an innovative idea to a product that addresses a real-world problem is a rewarding journey. With Uizard’s framework for product design and the roadmap outlined here, you’re one step closer to turning your business idea into a reality.