How to Refine Your Digital Product Development

Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash

The rise of digital products has been astronomical. What that means in real terms, though, is that the market is flooded with both excellent digital products and poor ones. 

Digital products help individuals and businesses become more efficient, automated, optimized, and communicate better. 

They are ideal to sell as a product since they are instant delivery, ideal for automated sales processes, have good margins, and are cost-effective and scalable. Companies that don’t currently have a digital product are exploring their options. 

Some of the digital products we have seen include:    

• eBooks
• Courses
• Music
• Software Programs 
• Apps
• Templates
• Games
• Research and Data

Software as a Service has completely changed how people work and is one of the most lucrative digital products. Typically, it is scalable, fast, and offers many benefits to the user. But even the best product can become better with some refinement. 

One of the biggest issues when it comes to building digital products is that sometimes, you may not see the gaps, adjustments, or opportunities you have. Further, sometimes it is too difficult to kill your darlings when you or a team have spent time building it. 

So, what can you do to get your digital product in the best possible shape?

Evaluation 

The problem with self-testing something you have built is that not many people will be able to look at it objectively. Instead, you will overlook and accept the bugs, and people around you who test it might lean into being supportive and not report bugs or issues. 

While it is great to have support, sometimes you need honesty and directness. Putting the product out before it is ready might mean it doesn’t recover from the reviews of the public, and uptake is low. 

When uptake remains low, and you’re sitting on what you believe to be a good product – it is time to seek an outside perspective, getting an outside perspective. A product assessment from https://txidigital.com/services/optimize will challenge your current thoughts and mean you can make the right decision going forward. 

Workflow 

The workflow on digital products has the ability to be more agile. The team working on the products works as individuals and as a team. The available data needs to be easy to access by all those involved, and the goals should be the same. 

To become more agile, here are some of the things you’ll need to adopt or improve: 

• Customer satisfaction is paramount
• Quality is non-negotiable
• Collaboration is essential
• Projects should be simplified – remove anything unnecessary
• Product backlog can be developed using feedback
• Working in sprints to tackle backlog
• Daily stand-ups for what was, what is, and what will be (plus accountability)

The workflow for software development will look more like this: 

• Conception – backlog development, sprint planning 
• Inception – which team does what and when
• Iteration – work time
• Release – the product is released, take feedback, then run the first four again
• Retirement – digital product is in its final form. 

Rinse repeat for all future digital products. 

Market Earlier 

Long before your product is available, start marketing it. Use social media, current trends, behind-the-scenes, and waiting lists to maximize your release date potential. Teaser content that is of a high standard will get people interested in what you are building. 

Ideally, you will have a run of about eight weeks minimum before your product goes out, but don’t be tempted to leave it for months. You’re looking for the sweet spot to remain top of mind. Within the eight weeks, you should look to build an early-release audience and give plenty of information. 

A receptive and engaged audience will want to hear more; they will want to read the newsletter and access extras. 

So, reward all of the early adopters with something like a discount, free account, limited bundles, and more. 

Don’t wait until your digital product is live to talk about it; generate a buzz as early as you can, and plan it so you have content on all of the major sharing platforms – plus your own website. 

Test, Feedback, Adjust (rinse and repeat)

There is a meme that goes very well with building digital products, and it goes, ”(99 little bugs in the code, 99 little bugs in the code. Take one down, patch it around 117 little bugs in the code. : r/Jokes)”. And that is pretty solid. What it does mean, though, is that rigorous testing is going to become part and parcel of everything you do with your digital product. Anything written by code is rarely a one-and-done scenario. 

The reason easy marketing and a batch of testers are valuable is that you will be able to collect meaningful feedback to make improvements. With the improvements made, it will go back out for testing (or in-house testing) and continue in the cycle. 

The need for testing and improvement will not be any lower at any point, even with the most highly skilled coding team. All of the major items like vulnerabilities and securities will be done before even the first batch of testers. 

Maintenance 

A downfall for many great digital products is that once it is released and has had some success, the company moves on to another product. Meaning all users are on limited time with the product they purchased. Since devices and technology move at speed, it won’t be long before the product doesn’t work and maybe isn’t compatible with certain operating systems. 

Continuous monitoring and maintenance of the digital product will mean that it doesn’t lose its standard of quality and usability. 

While there are many different digital products, and each one will have a unique life cycle, almost all will have some of the same issues. As well as the issues mentioned above, investment in your and your team’s training, as well as the best software and hardware, is essential. 

When it comes to marketing your digital product, you should be aware of the potential issues that you may face and plan a way to prevent or minimize the impact: 7 Ways Third Parties Can Kill Your Marketing.