Good business ideas can end up being difficult to turn into scaleable products or services. Sometimes products that look good in business plans are introduced to the market prematurely without adequate testing. Let’s face it, not every idea that makes a product may be of interest to customers. So ideas should be tested early enough, no matter how good the plans look in theory. Well, we have good news. In DigiReactor, developing one’s product development competencies is done easy. You can start learning more about user testing as part of your own digital product development.
In the product development phase, testing plays a major role in the success of products. Testing is a process by which a product is evaluated by researching and experimenting. The main goal of testing is to find out whether the product meets the set requirements including usability, quality, safety and accessibility. Testing helps to take into account the needs of users already in the development phase and to make the final product as user-friendly as possible. Because product testing is performed as part of product development, potential product issues and usability errors can be considered and removed prior to the launch of the final product. Testing can be implemented using a variety of methods such as prototyping, heuristics, usability testing, observation, interviews, various queries, and contextual design.
Prototyping is an integral part of product development and can be done at all stages of development. Prototyping is used to describe and test elements related to a product or service quickly and inexpensively. For example it is a common method to make a cardboard prototype. In general it is good practice to build a prototype in the beginning of product development anyway. Product prototyping can be used to test whether the developed concepts work as they are supposed to work, whether the product is interesting from the customer’s point of view and whether the product is easy to use. And let’s not forget that prototyping is also one way to reduce the risk of failure.
One of the most critical steps in product development is to increase customer understanding. Products should be designed to meet the needs and desires of users, so it is important to identify the true goals and motives of end users as early as possible. Strong customer insight aims to ensure that the products and services we offer meet customer needs, so that customers are satisfied with them, reuse them and share their positive user experiences with others. Well-analyzed and structured knowledge of user behavior and things that add value to customers will support the development of products and services that customers are willing to pay for.
The DigiReactor event series starts this Thursday (4.11.) with an interesting topic: designing and building user-friendly and accessible digital services. Read more from DigiReactor’s social media and remember to sign up for future events. We’ll see you in the breakfast sessions every Thursday morning and if you have a project idea of your own already, you are most welcome to join our hands-on coaching set later next year to get boost to your digital product development and testing skills!
Tero Vahanne
Project Engineer
Turku University of Applied Sciences