Practical Product Development Practices

At our Seattle, WA. based design studio Pillar Product Design we use practical sensible product development practices when working with our clients. The rule of thumb has always been if your client does not need don’t do or offer it. Sometimes your client is not sure what they need, so it is very important to sit down with he, she or them and open up detailed dialog on how they plan to market and distribute their new idea. Based off of what they need will give you a perfect action plan on what they need. It is that simple. Of course if your client is not sure how they plan on doing the distribution, marketing and or selling of their product, then it is often good to come up with a list of unknowns versus known and what do a complete risk analysis of moving forward with resources in a given direction. At the end of the day it is clear communication and the action plan that you have pitched to your client that you believe is best for the development of their new product.

There are many steps and pieces to product development that can be critical and many that will have little of no impact to the launch or development of the of a specific product. It is essential that your client communicates as clearly as possible what the end game plan is to create a list of the deliverable they are specifically looking for and a time- line for completion.