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The risks of taking shortcuts in product development
Taking a long-term approach to balance speed and quality
Imagine a spectrum with speed on one end and quality on the other.
On one side of the spectrum, a focus on speed may result in a product that is delivered quickly but may not be as high quality. On the other side, a focus on quality may result in a high standard product but may take longer to deliver.
Speed to market
A startup that is trying to get a product to market as quickly as possible may prioritize speed over quality, while a company that is launching a product with a long shelf life may prioritize quality over speed.
In product development, the length of time it takes to design and develop a new product can significantly impact a company’s speed to market.
Companies that are able to get their products to market faster are better able to respond to changing market conditions and customer needs.
After working in an enterprise tech giant and a mid-sized software company as a UX designer, here’s what I noticed in their different approaches to product development.
1. Linear delivery (Waterfall)
Before I left my job this year, I worked at a tech giant designing enterprise software. Some of my teammates had been around the industry almost as long as I’ve been alive.
Our team followed a Waterfall approach to product development, which is a linear process. The Waterfall method includes stages such as:
- Requirements
- Design
- Implementation
- Verification or testing
- Deployment and maintenance
This process front-loads research and requirements gathering to fully understand the factors that could affect project completion, such as costs, assumptions, risk, dependencies, success metrics, and timelines.
