Cut the Fat: How to Make Your Product Development Process More Efficient

[This article was written by Anita Ginsburg.]

Doesn’t it always seem like there’s a million things to do but never enough time to do them? Particularly when it comes to product development, no one wants to feel like they dropped the ball and didn’t reach their goal. If you’re struggling to meet your quarterly goals and aren’t sure how to improve production without sacrificing quality, here are five ways to make it happen.

Create Product Development Strategy

Successful product development begins and ends with your strategy. Before anything else, think about your strategy and how you plan on implementing it. Prior to production, think about how much time it’s going to take to create, test, and launch the product. You also need to choose a launch date for your product. This plays a huge role in the production timeline. Once set, you can then focus on each phase of development and decide how long it’s going to complete each one on time. You should also leave enough wiggle room for any possible roadblocks you could encounter in production.

Tackle the Backlog

If your to-do list seems to grow overnight, you need to tackle the most overdue projects first. While coming up with ideas is super easy, putting old ones into action is another story. Clear out the backlog by designating tasks to a variety of teams members with a set due date. If you work alone, put production on hold until you clear you out what’s overdue.

Monitor Progress

Things might appear to be moving in the right direction, but if you’re not 100 percent sure of it, you might hit a brick wall. When it comes to production development, it’s important to ensure every step of the development is complete. If not, determine the reason and act upon it. If you run a team that just can’t pull it together, you can get new product development training for your company.

Define Complete

As strange as it may sound, everyone has their own interpretation of what complete means. For some, it means basic testing and development is done. For others, it means that the product has gone through quality assurance and passed. Make sure everyone involved is on the same page when it comes to your definition of complete so that everyone keeps on task and is motivated to see the whole project through by your complete date.

When it comes to product development, staying on task is a must. Find ways to implement a sound production strategy that streamlines the process without slowing down production.

Author Bio:

Anita is a freelance writer from Denver, CO. She studied at Colorado State University, and now writes articles about health, business, family and finance. A mother of two, she enjoys traveling with her family whenever she isn’t writing. You can follow her on Twitter @anitaginsburg.