PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Crafting a digital product development process
DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING
Bringing together qualitative and quantitative data to inform product development decisions.
The opportunity.
Decisions made on digital advertising products predominantly were made based on intuition rather than data and process. If the department developed a new product, there wasn’t any criteria to determine if it was worthwhile to invest in, and then no process to pilot.
Without criteria, a development process or way to leverage data, most new digital products failed and other products hadn’t been improved in many years.
The approach to decision-making.
With a role tied to our emerging products, I had the ability to influence broader digital ad product strategy and process. I developed and launched a product feedback survey from our sales team to gather qualitative and quantitative feedback to inform our product set. I also developed a product lens with which to evaluate whether a product was viable.
Then as part of the annual product review process, I created product snapshots for every product bringing together seller survey data, product lens criteria, as well as product performance and revenue data to inform decisions on every existing product. Leveraging these snapshots, team leadership was able to evaluate every product and make strategic decisions about whether to invest, sunset or maintain current products.
New product development.
Simultaneously, we had a gap when building new products. I took the product lens criteria and developed a new product development process to pilot, alpha test, beta test and then rollout viable products with gate checks along the way. This process allowed us to take new products to market successfully after multiple failed product launches.
The result.
In launching a data-driven product evaluation period as well as product development process, we’ve brought new products to market with strong revenue potential and improved sales team confidence and adoption. I was also promoted into overseeing all digital ad products where I’ve been able to build a product roadmap and introduce monthly product release cycles.