Digital Product Development Process for Resilient Products

To build a digital product that can resolve customer’s pain would require a flawless digital product development process. But what is the development process which works as a Mantra to build a successful digital product?

The internet is filled with digital product development processes, but we believe resilience is the key to a successful digital product, so Fibonalabs brings to you a product development process that will allow you to reinvent your business in a smarter way. Here, we build digital products that are robust, user-friendly, and provide personalized answers to the challenges of the consumers.

Below are the product development phases that we follow at Fibonalabs to bring digital products to life.

Phase I - Discover & Define

We research to outline the problem. In our research, we validate and iterate the ideas to solve the problem. Through various interactions with the stakeholders, leaders, and audience, we come with a refined solution that can be converted into a digital product. It is an important step to create an informed user experience.

Discover and Research

After the complete research, analysis is done of the data to draw the best conclusions. It’s the audience of the product on which the foundation of a product is built. A rock-solid product can be built with the help of its audience need. Here, we build personas of a specific user category based on research and observation. So, in this step, we empathize with the users and define their pain points.

During the analysis phase, use cases and story boards are created to give a polished view of the sequence of events to the stakeholders. A customer journey map is created to validate the research and analysis.

Key deliverables: By the end of this step, we will be prepared with product concepts, market research report, user persona, user-behavior diagram, customer analysis report, and competitor analysis report, etc.

Phase II - Design

• Sketching & Wire-framing

Now that we know what to build, in this step, we decide how a digital product should look like. It is an iterative process. Here, the workflow diagram is created is which is a graphical representation of activities and actions conducted by users of a system. After the workflow diagram, our team works on the sitemap, it helps to shape the wireframes. To ensure the correct direction of the product, wireframes are created.

Your thoughts and ideas should reflect on your brand. Therefore, we merge the latest designing trends with your ideas to bring ease to your customers. In this step, the goal is to create a working prototype with complete logic and main interface elements (buttons, dialogs, screens, data/time pickers, etc).

Key deliverables: A working prototype.

• Visual Designing

In this stage, the application gains visual individuality. Here, the style guide is created which includes unique elements, colors, conditions of the interface elements, spaces, and typeface sizes present in the final product. This style guide helps to maintain the consistency of a brand. Through our experience design services, we create visually appealing and functional designs that can be used by the audience perfectly.

Key deliverables: Full product design to implement.

• Prototyping

Prototyping gives us a fair idea about the product in the initial stage of development. Running the prototypes gives us a lot of inputs that can be undertaken which improves the overall workflow of the process. The feedbacks and improvements are analyzed and put to use in the further development process.

Key deliverables: By the end of this step, we have a clear portrayal of the look & feel and functionalities of the product for users.

Phase III - Development

With the help of visual designs, at this stage, we start front-end development, also known as client-side development. Developers produce HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for a digital product or web application. Using the latest frameworks ensures that the digital product works in different browsers (cross-browser), different operating systems (cross-platform), and different devices (cross-device).

In the back-end development stage, developers write code to interact with a database, create libraries, work on business processes, design the data architecture, prepare APIs with documentations etc. To provide a reliable end-user experience, we use the latest programming languages like Node, Python, Spring Boot, and C sharp, etc.

• Development

For shortening a development cycle and speedy delivery of the high-quality digital product, we use CI/CD. These practices help us to build, test, and release the digital product securely in lesser time.

Monitoring the application is key to get the full visibility into the live applications. We set up the monitoring solutions in the web application, Infrastructure to identify and troubleshoot any issues arises in the application, storage, network or server.

• Agile Software development

To fulfill stakeholder's evolving needs during the project, we use agile methodology to produce a high-quality digital product. It's an iterative approach that is done in scrums.

• Quality Assurance (QA)

In order to provide incredible and predetermined quality customer experiences, this step is vital in the development process. Software and quality assurance testing unravel the opportunities to give consumers the best possible product. This step includes build installation, system testing, bug fixing, user acceptance testing (UAT), and test report generation. We establish quality standards, implement the checks to ensure the end-product meets the earlier quality matrix.

Key deliverables: This step gives us an optimized digital product to provide a satisfying consumer experience.

• Product Testing

To get a real picture of how the product will be used by the real-time users, we use alpha and beta testing.

Alpha testing is performed by internal software QA and testing teams at the development site. In Beta testing the product is pushed to external user groups to validate and use the product. This phase ensures that the bugs are resolved before launching to the real-time users. In this phase functionality, usability, reliability, and security are tested.

Key deliverables: At the end of this step, the usability and reliability of the product would be confirmed.

• Product Launch

Once the working product is ready, this is pushed to the launch and review phase. In this, the product goes live. The product is launched according to the marketing plans.

Key deliverables: Digital product will be ready by the end of this step.

Phase IV - Support and Maintenance

The process doesn’t end with the launch. After the product hits the market, we assess the financial data, customer satisfaction, and other available information. The information will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the product on which again the product is improved.

Key deliverables: Resolved bugs and maintain the quality with recent updates for the product.

With the continuous upgrades in customer needs, there are significant changes in the product development process.