2022/10/18

⏱ 3mins 

Developing a product is a wonderful thing to create something from nothing, and it is a difficult job that requires a lot of people's efforts. Through this content, I would like to share insights that can help people who are struggling with the same problem as me, based on the product development plan that I experienced firsthand in the business development team of an AI startup.

Looking back on the initial product development planning process at a startup, the “vacation plan” that plagued our precious vacations as a child comes to mind. It was because my heart was heavy just because I had to make a plan.

However, the vacation plan I made when I was young is not really difficult. Because it's a 'alone' plan. Of course, the stakeholders, teachers and parents, tend to be closely supervised, but in the end I am the only one carrying out the plan. On the other hand, the more people doing the planning, the more difficult the planning becomes. There are three main reasons why a startup's initial product development plan is more difficult than you think.

Why it is difficult to establish an initial product development plan

1. Each individual has a different understanding of the product shape.

When a startup is in the first stage of developing a product, it means that the product has not yet appeared. Since we are creating something that does not exist, everyone's understanding of what will be created is inevitably different. Moreover, even if the same word is used, the understanding of the word is different for each individual. Let's take one of the opposite concepts, SI and SaaS, as an example.

• 💡 SI (System Integrator): A business that receives a subcontract from a place that needs a computerized system and takes over the planning, development, maintenance, and operation of the system

• 💡 Software as a Service (SaaS): Any infrastructure, platform, software or technology accessed by users over the Internet without downloading any software.

IN FACT, BOTH CONCEPTS ARE INCLUSIVE AND LARGE-SCALE WORDS. HOWEVER, AS THE TWO WORDS ARE OPPOSITES, WHEN SI IS USUALLY USED, THE SERVICE PROVIDER DIRECTLY ENTERS THE CUSTOMER'S INTERNAL SYSTEM AND PROVIDES A SOLUTION, AND THE CLOUD IS A CONCEPT THAT ALLOWS THE CUSTOMER TO ACCESS AND USE THE DESIRED SOLUTION THROUGH THE INTERNET. .

The problem is that these two are hard to distinguish just like radish. Especially, even if the product our company made in the early days is SaaS-oriented, it is difficult to be free from bugs and errors from the beginning. Then, like SI, you may need to access the customer's internal system.

If a company is in this situation, which way should the product be made, SaaS or SI? It may seem trivial, but it is a very important task as it aligns the goals the team is aiming for.

2. We use more abstract words than we think.

🤣 “Minsung, when is the release date of our demo?”
“?? What demo?”

Whether the demo in the above conversation refers to the demo website or the demo of the V1 product.. Whether it is an outlink from the website or the company website.. I don't know. These words are more common than you think. Pipeline, prototype, content, etc.. Traffic management for abstract words is essential.

To do this, it is necessary to determine the results that will be released together when a product is released and to give each unified name. Assuming that the V1 product will be released in June, the prototype of the product to be released before the June release is called 'v1 prototype' or 'v0.5'. can be reduced. If you number v0.1, v0.2, etc., it will be necessary to determine the principle of when the version name is changed when and what function is added.

3. Multiple teams must move organically

It's not just a development team to develop a product. Marketing for product launch, customer (or customer company) contact point creation, product design, website design, content creation, etc. The work of many teams must be carried out in a timely manner. In the process, different teams are created but work related. For example, it is necessary to understand the work-related relationship such as 'before the development team develops, the design team must have a screen plan, and before there is a screen plan, there must be a definition of the minimum product function'. If the planning is not done properly, the work order will be twisted and the plan will be delayed (actually, even with a good plan, it may be delayed due to force majeure...😭). In order to prevent this, in the end, the relationship between tasks must be properly shared.

Product development planning process

• Share on What and Why

Meetings with many people are essential for initial product development. As with all meetings, it is necessary to share why you are doing this meeting and what the outcome you are trying to achieve through this meeting. There should be a single meeting goal such as 'to make one sentence that can make our products understandable through today's meeting', and there should also be a broad goal of 'Identify the work relevance of each team through the product launch roadmap'. do.

• Confirm the number of participants

Make sure each team has members who make important decisions. In fact, the number of participants is likely to increase further during the planning process. This is because, if you are coordinating tasks, unexpected tasks may appear in some process. Coordination is also important to avoid overcrowding.

• Matching understanding of technology and product shape

Because each team has different background knowledge, a lot of unfamiliar terms pop up and you face a new way of working. During this process, it is important to ask questions without delay if you do not know or are confused. In the process of explaining what you don't know, you can further discuss concepts that are not well established by each other. By analyzing the customer personas we target, or by sharing our competitor analysis, we can increase the overall understanding of our team members.

• Determine the output and milestones to be produced in the product launch process

Determining when the product will be released, what other deliverables must be released until the product is released, and when it should be released is an important task to frame the plan . If we aim to release the v1 product by June, we need to discuss what the outcome should be before then and agree on when it is ideal. Detailed tasks for each team will be attached based on the corresponding milestone.

• Decide on a collaboration tool that makes project management easier

As mentioned earlier, if the goal of product development planning is to identify work relevance for each team, you will need a table or chart that can be viewed at a glance. Many collaboration tools are available these days to make project management easier. You can take output and milestones within the collaboration tool and write down the corresponding tasks. You need to designate a team, designate a Person in Charge (PIC), and designate a start and end date for the task, as well as the team that needs help with the task. Most collaboration tools show list format, board format, and timeline in an interactive format, so it's easy to understand the project management status at a glance when tasks are organized.

However, there are difficulties in this process as well.

⚠️ Q. How much detailed work should I share?

In the overall project management page, only the function development added by version is reflected in the work, and the detailed work that requires planning/development discussion is coordinated separately by the planning/development team.

We have multiple features to launch our product, and how much detail should the development team work on? If the development team writes all the detailed work, it will be difficult for other teams to understand it, and in fact, it is impossible for other teams to understand the detailed technical work. For example, if developing v0.1, v0.5, and v1 is a milestone, v0.1 development itself is bundled, and the v0.5 development task is a large-scale function (or development task) that was not done at the time of v0.1 development. It would be appropriate to write only When doing actual development work, the development team will come up with a more detailed workplan. Even in this process, the size of the particles in each task is inevitably different. Rather than trying to fit all the particles together, you should focus on planning in the big picture.

⚠️ Q. HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE TASKS THAT ARE NOT RELATED TO THE RESULTS?

Establish a plan for outcomes based on milestones.

In the case of planning or development, most of the tasks are directly related to product launch, but in the case of marketing or legal affairs, it may not be directly related to product launch. For example, let's say you have a job such as filing a patent application. This task is so important that it should be shown on the project management page, but it is not a task that is linked to deliverables. In this case, you can set the start date and end date based on the milestone date and indicate the relationship between the tasks .

⚠️ Q. TO WHAT EXTENT DO TASKS NEED TO BE CONNECTED?

Only the work relevance with other teams is displayed, not the work relevance within the team.

If you think about it, all tasks are actually related. You have to analyze personas, do user analysis, and then do user tests. If you try to create associations, they are created endlessly, and if you think that there is no association, you may think that nothing is relevant.

However , the goal of project management is to ascertain 'work relevance to other teams' . If you approach it from that perspective, it is better to establish the principle of only checking work relevance with other teams rather than trying to draw work relevance within the team.

concluding

In practice, plans are difficult to follow due to many unforeseen circumstances. It's exhausting, but having a good plan and identifying collaboration points for each team will definitely help you work efficiently. For startups that need a fast product release cycle, good planning will certainly play a role in shortening this cycle. I will end this post with a stinging tip to remind us of those who have trouble making plans.😂

When you don't always plan, you always plan to fail. - Hyrum Smith

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