The time required to introduce a new product plays a pivotal role in both the success of the launch and the rate of company growth. Typically, the company that is first to market a new product enjoys brand recognition and captures market share. A late entrant faces an uphill battle to overcome looking like a copycat.
Contents
- 1. Defining Time To Market
- 2. Proof Of Concept
- 3. Advantages Of POC
- 4. Cut Down On Simultaneous Projects
- 5. Reduce Wasteful Tasks
- 6. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- 7. QA Processes
- 8. Stay On Budget
- 9. Automating The Delivery Pipeline
- 10. Streamline Workflows
- 11. Flexibility
- 12. Buying From Third Parties
- 13. Companies Gain Competitiveness By Reducing Time To Market
1. Defining Time To Market
The period of time between the start of product development and its introduction to consumers is known as the “time to market.”
2. Proof Of Concept
Making a Proof of Concept (POC) is one of the most effective ways for businesses to evaluate the potential of their digital products. Proof of Concept is a quick yet extensive evaluation process that assesses a digital product’s viability.
The process often entails describing a proposed product’s features, identifying the target market, and doing all the work required to transform the initial concept into a product that is ready to ship to the market.
3. Advantages Of POC
By uncovering different ways to minimize superfluous costs and inefficient processes, companies can identify possible concerns early in the project and save precious resources. When businesses wish to use the third-party software, enhance current products, or add new features, Proof of Concept is commonly used.
4. Cut Down On Simultaneous Projects
Some businesses with numerous products allocate one team (or one team member) to numerous projects at once. Release your team from other duties until the project is finished if you wish to finish it more quickly.
5. Reduce Wasteful Tasks
Improving the time to market essentially boils down to means discarding bottlenecks and inefficiencies during the development phases. Software development teams frequently become slowed down by writing more code than is necessary or overly complex architecture. Because only seasoned software developers can alter the code, evaluating new concepts or functionalities results in bottlenecks.
As a result, the development process comes to a stop until the IT team can make time to update the code. To steer clear of these potentially calamitous delays, many organizations use rules engines in their digital products. These pluggable pieces of software empower non-technical subject-matter experts to make instant changes to the product without ever touching the code.
6. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Simply put. a minimum viable product is the first version. An MVP is typically used by companies in the digital space to introduce products as quickly as possible. It includes all the essential features that can entire early adopters while simultaneously proving the feasibility of the product in the early phases of development. Note, however, that a successful MVP needs to offer value to customers.
An MVP instantly gives the development team critically important customer feedback, which allows them to improve the offering. Even though going down this route can be risky (especially as it relates to customer satisfaction) it does introduce products to the market quickly while testing their viability before setting aside massive resources necessary for the product’s completion.
7. QA Processes
Uncovering problems with the product at an early stage plays a pivotal role in reducing time to market. Getting rid of even minor bugs after release is both costly and time-draining, which potentially delays projects for months. For this reason, at the very start of product development processes, companies implement both development QA, which includes code review and unit testing, and testing activities, such as regression and automation testing.
8. Stay On Budget
A set budget reduces the probability of overspending and reduces waste. It helps companies attain revenue targets, track finances, and cut down on expenses.
9. Automating The Delivery Pipeline
The software development cycle can be automated. For instance, automating processes using DevOps and CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery approach) spare software developers from manually performing repetitive and mundane tasks, which contributes to increased efficiency.
10. Streamline Workflows
Enhanced workflows help companies drastically reduce time to market. Properly configured automated workflows keep teams aware of their tasks and deadlines, while at the same time doing away with human error. For example, companies don’t have to worry about missed deadlines or critical data going stale.
Finally, by examining workflows, companies can identify bottlenecks while understanding which processes require more attention and resources.
11. Flexibility
Turning an idea into a product that can be shipped to market quickly is one thing. However, it’s quite another to be able to react to all of the unexpected changes in laws, regulations, market trends, and consumer preferences as the product go through development.
A business that is incapable of updating its product instantly in response to various extraneous factors will have to deal with a long time to market. Or maybe even worse, launch a product that isn’t competitive. To avoid these pitfalls, many companies deploy business rules engines that help them attain a high level of adaptability. They run powerful “when-then” conditional statements called business rules that enable users without technical expertise to make complex adjustments to digital products without any help from the IT department. By doing so, businesses can drastically shorten the time to market when designing new products or upgrading current ones.
12. Buying From Third Parties
There are cases when bringing a product to market can be performed entirely in-house. However, many times companies require third-party software tools to streamline the development process. A company that builds a product from scratch requires a lot more resources than would be needed with an off-the-shelf software tool.
For the majority of companies, however, it really doesn’t make much financial sense to make a completely new product from nothing and in-house. In other words, businesses that want to reduce their product development time should consider integrating third-party tools.
13. Companies Gain Competitiveness By Reducing Time To Market
A business that can shorten its development timeframes is able to provide value and meet customer expectations. Quick product launches make it easier to forge strong customer relationships, increase retention rates, and generate more sales and revenue.
Whichever way you look at it, a business rules engine plays a vital role in reducing time to market for software development companies by allowing business users to build and manage complex products with ease.
