6 indicators of product development success
What Drives Successful Product Development and Innovation in the Software Development Process?
Many companies face the challenge of successfully developing software products that drive their core business, leverage “big data,” and capture new revenue streams. The functions of an organization that lead the development process for these products may measure success according to a wide range of non-standard criteria, including:
- Ability to meet the needs of internal and external customers
- Revenue creation
- Market share
- Timing
- Leverage of radical new technologies
- Competitiveness of new products in the marketplace
There are many other measures of success depending on the business model and the experience of the people involved in the effort. However, there is no consistent measure of product development success. Better yet, there are currently no consistent indicators of what drives product development success. It involves a lot of money, guess work and blind trust.
In collaboration with the Robert H. Smith School of Business, Center for Excellence in Services, at the University of Maryland and Rockbridge Associates, 3Pillar Global commissioned a comprehensive study of product development success drivers to benchmark product development and innovation success. The study was intended to explore what drives success, failure and challenge for businesses doing software product development. The exploration resulted in not just powerful insights, but the creation of a diagnostic index that benchmarks product development and innovation success.
The analysis identified six critical indices of product development success:
- Culture
- Feedback
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Staffing
- Time/Budget
The research gathered information on a range of correlates and outcomes related to software product development and innovation success, including:
- Industry trends
- Corporate demographics
- Product development function traits
- Adherence to methodologies
- And, macro factors such as competition
We will soon be releasing an executive summary of the relevant insights, as well as an online self-assessment that business leaders will be able to utilize to benchmark their own company’s product development success index. I’ll additionally be sharing many of the insights on each of the indices, as well as the overall research results, in future posts. If you’d like to learn more prior to that time, please contact me directly at Tony.Orlando@3PillarGlobal.com.
About the study:
The study was a collaborative effort commissioned by 3Pillar Global, a product development lifecycle management company that focuses on building innovative, revenue generating software products, and the Center for Excellence in Service, at the Robert H. School of Business, University of Maryland. Rockbridge Associates, Inc. a research firm specializing in technology and services issues, participated as a primary research provider.
The target population for the study consisted of software product development professionals in mid-sized and large corporations across a wide set of industries including: business services, education, financial services, healthcare, hospitality, information services, media and entertainment, technology and telecommunications.