I've already discussed plenty of times before about how important is to get online nowadays, especially if you have a business. Now in this blog post, I also want to show you how to do that in a few steps that are crucial to getting the product from an idea to an online functional digital product.
Be as concise and clear as possible. Don't get into too much detail, as this will happen later in the video.
Write it down, what it is. If it's too complicated try to simplify it and also try to imagine yourself using the product or the service.
Next, have a clear business plan. I know a lot of people say that you don't need a business plan anymore, you can use other tools online, but believe me, if you manage to complete this step and give it to some friends or colleagues and they understand it, then it's easier from here on.
There are a lot of things to be defined here, such as what is the purpose of your product or service, what is the goal, funding, how much money do you need to get the business up and running, when will you break even, what's the manufacturing cost or the labour cost, what are you selling the product or service for and so on.
It's quite a bit but it's important to define it earlier rather than later. If you are not the type of person that likes to do these kinds of stuff, like myself for example, then grab a piece of paper, preferably an A1 and google Business Model Canvas, draw those sections on your paper and complete them. It's more creative than your usual word doc plan.
Moving on, you need to define your Target customer. I've mentioned this in one of my previous videos, which I will link down below, that you need to understand who is buying your product or service and who is using it.
You can create a persona, for example, John who is 25 years old and likes football and goes to university and he needs good training shoes and so on.
Be as clear as you need and then do some research to double-check that this persona is your persona.
Next thing is to decide if you want a custom digital product or a template. Whether you are building an app, a website or a platform, you can find free or paid templates online. These need to be implemented or coded and also hosted, either on a website builder such as Wix, Webflow etc or coded from scratch and simply host them. Depending on the complexity of your digital product, you will either be able to do it yourself or hire an agency or freelancers.
The first option is paid with your time, the second with your money, so now you go back to your business plan and check if you have some money allocated for this, and if so how much.
An agency, such as UX NATIVE, we can offer guidance and provide a consultation for free to help you understand different budgets and scopes of works. Plenty of other agencies do this as well, but we are the best out there :)).
Next in line is to start with an MVP or minimal viable product. The simplest version for your digital product. Don't add too many fancy features that will cost time and money in the early stages. You need to test the product first before taking the next step.
How do you test it? Well, you simply track your MVP with tools such as Google Analytics or Hot Jar. Google even has free customer support that can give you a call and explain what you need to do. Every month you need to check the data and adjust accordingly.
At the end of the day nobody cares about you, but simply about how to get the product quicker and easier, and this will show on your reports.
And lastly consult with people about this product, about your vision. Again just like our agency (UX NATIVE), we offer free consultations for everyone, all businesses, where we discuss the product, we know the budget and we provide the best solution in that budget.
Other agencies do this. It will be great to discuss your with professionals for 15-30mins about your idea and get professional advice. Again, not everyone is a designer, or a developer or a project manager, so sometimes it's best to get another opinion from the digital and online industry.
That is all for today, hope this was useful. Waiting on some feedback down below. If you enjoyed it please hit the like button, smash that subscribe button and I will see you next time. Take care.
