I'm Michael Suodenjoki - a software engineer living in Kgs. Lyngby, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. This is my personal site containing my blog, photos, articles and main interests.

Start > News Archive 2008 > Phases of Product Development | 

Updated 2011.01.23 15:37 +0100 | 

 

Phases of Product Development

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Found the following (via) at Jacob Nielsens's useit.blog.

  1. STRATEGIZE: In the beginning phase of the product development, you are typically considering new ideas and opportunities for the future. Research methods in this phase can vary greatly.
  2. OPTIMIZE: Eventually, you will reach a "go/no-go" decision point, when you transition into a period when you are continually improving the design direction you have chosen. Research in this phase is mainly formative and helps you reduce the risk of execution.
  3. ASSESS: At some point, the website or product will be available for use by enough users where you can begin measuring how well you are doing.

The table below summarizes these goals and lists typical research approaches and methods associated with each:

Product Development Phase
Strategize Optimize Assess
Goal: Inspire, explore and choose new directions and opportunities Inform and optimize designs in order to reduce risk and improve usability Measure product performance against itself or its competition
Approach: Qualitative and Quantitative Mainly Qualitative (formative) Mainly Quantitative (summative)
Typical methods (for research): Ethnographic field studies, focus groups, diary studies, surveys, data mining or analytics Cardsorting, field studies, participatory design, paper prototype and usability studies, desirability studies, customer emails Usability benchmarking, online assessments, surveys, A/B testing