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Kenny Chan is studying Information Engineering in The City University of Hong Kong who is interested in Data Management and Data Analysis.

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Developing balanced products is challenging. Many stages stand between brainstorming an original idea and releasing a product to the market, and at every stage, there's a high risk of making mistakes. Having a clear direction makes the development of balanced products significantly easier and reduces the risk of deviating from the intended purpose of the product.<blockquote>"Speed is irrelevant if you are going in the wrong direction." by Mahatma Gandhi</blockquote><h3>The three most important factors</h3>There are initial factors that need to be considered to establish a clear direction. Business, user satisfaction and implementation goals need to be factored in during the initial stages of product development. The existence of a project having had clear and correct direction appears obvious once the product fulfills its business goals, high user satisfaction, and efficient implementation. Here are some factors to look at:<figure class="table"><table><tbody><tr><td>Factors</td><td>&nbsp;Product Facts</td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;">Fulfilled business goals &nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;- Be irreplaceable&nbsp;- Profitable&nbsp;- Be recognizable&nbsp;- High customer lifetime value&nbsp;- High market penetration&nbsp;- High ads-to-user conversion rate</td></tr><tr><td>High user satisfaction</td><td>&nbsp;- Is useful to users&nbsp;- High user retention rate&nbsp;- Strong bonding between users&nbsp;- High rate of organic growth&nbsp;- High daily usage</td></tr><tr><td>Efficient implementation</td><td>&nbsp;- High profit margin&nbsp;- Feature modularization&nbsp;- Fast time-to-market&nbsp;- Maintenance-free infrastructure&nbsp;- Low user acquisition cost</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>&nbsp;<h3>The defects of the unbalanced product</h3><img src="https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/369be5af_878a3f7869.jpg" alt="369be5af.jpg" srcset="https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/thumbnail_369be5af_878a3f7869.jpg 245w,https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/small_369be5af_878a3f7869.jpg 500w,https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/medium_369be5af_878a3f7869.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw">Figure 1. The importance of the three factorsThere are certain drawbacks to not fulfilling the three mentioned factors. All those defects should be prevented in the development.1. Lack of efficiency (difficult to scale)<ul><li>Long time to market If it takes a long time to market, the collected data, analysis of customers’ needs by market research may not be updated suitable anymore. It wastes time and resources.</li><li>Low profit margin In general, the more the inefficiency of the product is, the lower the profit margin is.</li><li>High maintenance cost An inefficient product requires high maintenance costs because it may easily age or damage.</li></ul>2. Lack of business goal (difficult to sustain)<ul><li>Not recognizable A product should have a remarkable and impressive feature or store to impress the users in order to build the brand. Without the brand, it is difficult to make users remember the product.</li><li>Not profitable The product may not make a profit or even be in the red if there is no specific and measurable business model and plan.</li><li>Easy to be replaced If there is no strategy to prevent the product from being replaced by others, the product will lose its competitiveness and disappear in the market.</li></ul>3. Lack of user satisfaction (no one loves it)<ul><li>Low retention rate Users choose other products or services easily if the product can not fulfill users’ needs and expectations.</li><li>Low organic rate Users may not recommend the product to others.</li></ul><h3>The normal product development process</h3><img src="https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/1ba118c4_e4f1fff7a6.jpg" alt="1ba118c4.jpg" srcset="https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/thumbnail_1ba118c4_e4f1fff7a6.jpg 245w,https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/small_1ba118c4_e4f1fff7a6.jpg 500w,https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/medium_1ba118c4_e4f1fff7a6.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw">Figure 2. How people do product development normally. &nbsp;Step 1: Explore Doing marketing research to explore the needs and expectations of users.Step 2: Define business goal Setting specific and measurable business goals.Step 3: UX design Defining a user experience to make users find advantages of the product.Step 4: UI design &amp; implementation Designing the interface of the product and technical implementation.Step 5: Growth together Repeating step 1 to step 4.It is the normal method for developing a new product but there is a limitation in this method. Although there is a clear dividend of work in this method, the teams especially the UX team and implementation team may not have enough understanding of the business goals. Lack of understanding of the business goals may lead talents to not create the most suitable design or technical implementation to develop the balanced product.<h3>What is a better method for developing a product</h3><img src="https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/cd50419a_7ff90026fe.jpg" alt="cd50419a.jpg" srcset="https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/thumbnail_cd50419a_7ff90026fe.jpg 245w,https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/small_cd50419a_7ff90026fe.jpg 500w,https://gt-terraform-web-s3-prod.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/medium_cd50419a_7ff90026fe.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw">Figure 3. How to do balanced product development.In the development of a product, communication is the most important part.&nbsp; As communication can make sure the teams can know the business goals and client’s needs, defining business goals, UX design and UI design &amp; implementation should be carried out at the same time. Although this method requires effective teamwork, a balanced product is easier to be developed by this method.<h3>Conclusion</h3>This is just the beginning of developing a balanced product. More intricate factors or processes need to be contemplated in product development. No matter what you’re developing, having a clear direction is half done!

Developing a balanced product is a challenging job. As there are many stages involved from brainstorming the idea to releasing the product to the market, there's a high risk of making a mistake.

Gary is a professional full stack developer with passion for providing technical solutions specialized in early UX product design phrases as a lead solution architect. Gary is also a tech blogger who loves sharing insights and professional expertise regarding issues in the industry on his Facebook page (Gap撈Tech), blogs, and community events.

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