Part 1/5

Designing a digital product: the product definition phase

Introduction

I guess it’s safe to say that most people when they hear the word “Product” , immediately think about a physical object; like a phone or a piece of furniture. And rightfully so, due to the fact that not too long ago digital products didn’t even exist. It will take a while for people to automatically think of apps or software when they hear the word “Product”

But that is exactly what we are going to talk about in this article; Digital Products. More precisely, the process of designing one from start to finish.

And even though there is no one-size-fits-all way of doing things due to so many variables such as size, stage, company goals, bandwidth, etc., it’s important to at least have a starting blueprint that you can tailor moving forward.

So without further ado, let’s dive right into it.

If we were to analyze & outline the base structure of any product design process, we will notice that it is usually split into five main steps. Five steps that will help you design a successful product from start to finish (from concept idea to production).

1. Product definition

2. Research

3. Analysis

4. Design

5. Validation

At their core, these steps can be applied to both physical objects and digital products, in this series we will focus only on the process of designing digital products. In other words, the UI / UX design process.

Product Definition

The first step in the overall process is defining the product. Think of it as the foundation on top of which you can start building. This represents a crucial step for many reasons, but mainly it’s because you can not build a product without understanding its context & its reason for existence.

This phase usually starts with a few meetings and discussions between the product designer/s and the stakeholder/s of the project, in…