In the software industry, the product development cycle is broken.
And too often, product teams fail to meet their customers needs.
And this is especially true in the business-to-business market.
Almost40 percenttake longer than estimated.
And 35 percent miss customers expectations.
Fortunately, theres a simple solution to this widespread problem.
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Both these problems result from flaws in the product development cycle, which often takes place in linear steps.
When utilizing this waterfall approach, developers complete one phase before moving onto the next.
First, they conduct market research and define a projects scope and requirements to the engineering team.
Then, they design the product and conduct extensive internal, or alpha, testing.
Only at the very end of the process do they release the software to customers for beta testing.
The end user the customer provides very little validation throughout most of the process.
This approach is predictable and orderly, since there are clear-cut deliverables at each stage.
But it also wastes time and money.
These delays create risk for enterprise brands.
Thisconventional waterfallapproach doesnt even guarantee the customer will be happy with the final product.
In fact, 98 percent of projects dont receive adequate amounts of customer feedback.
And once a product is released, rolling out even minor tweaks and updates can be extremely costly.
Some design flaws are serious enough to destroy projects entirely.
Consider Ford Motor Co.sfailed 2004 overhaulof its purchasing and procurement software.
After five years of development, Fords Everest system turned out glitchy and poorly designed.
Vendors didnt find it useful.
The automaker might have avoided such problems if it asked for vendor feedback earlier in the process.
Instead, the company was forced toabandonthe project altogether, at a cost of$400 million.
Firms in other industries routinely solicit customer input early in their product development process.
Car companies get experts to test drive their cars before releasing the final models.
Enterprise brands can do the same by inviting customers to sample unfinished products.
This way, software developers can work side-by-side with their customers to refine products before the big release.
The company launched Project KUDOS, which lets customers test out unfinished side projects.
Initiatives like this have helped the Stravagrow exponentiallyin recent years.
Inviting customers into the innovation process can also improve customer relationships.
It makes customers feel heard as they provide continuous feedback ensuring technical excellence and product value realization.
It can also work as amarketing toolby generating excitement and publicity around new products.
This so-called agile development approach offers clear advantages over the traditional waterfall approach.
The agile development approach is particularly well suited to products that utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The traditional development cycle is broken.
More than 40 percent of multi-year development projects fail.
In addition, he is responsible for applications of Blockchain Technology for the Adobe Experience Cloud.
