The process of building an IoT product is very similar to building a traditional software product. It involves the same core steps like defining your product, conducting customer research, building a roadmap, and developing features.
However, since an IoT product is physical in nature and unlike any other type of software or service, its lifecycle has some critical differences that must be accounted for at each stage. Let’s walk through all the necessary steps from start to finish:
Step 1: Define your product.
An IoT product is a physical device that interacts with the environment and/or people through sensors, actuators and other devices. It’s not just any connected device; it must be able to interact with its environment in order to qualify as an Internet of Things (IoT) product. For example, a thermostat can monitor temperature but it doesn’t sense anything about its surroundings; therefore it’s not considered an IoT product.
Step 2: Conduct customer research.
The second step in product management is to conduct customer research. There are a lot of different tools and techniques that you can use for this step, so it’s important to identify which ones will be most helpful for your organization.
For example, if you have an existing customer base and want to understand their pain points or preferences, surveys can be extremely useful. If your customers aren’t already familiar with IoT products (or they don’t have any), focus groups may be better suited for gathering feedback from them. You could also try conducting interviews with key stakeholders such as salespeople or engineers who interact directly with end users often on behalf of your company but who may not always be able to give valuable insights into user needs because they don’t spend enough time talking directly with customers themselves!
You should make sure whatever approach(es) you choose aligns well with both current state-of-the-art practices within the industry as well as what makes sense given what’s available today (i.e., features vs . benefits).
Step 3: Identify your product features.
Identify the features that will make your product stand out. List the features that will make the product more valuable to customers, more competitive, more profitable and/or more sustainable.
- Value-added features: These are features that add value to your customers’ lives and increase their loyalty. For example, Apple’s Siri feature on iPhones can answer simple questions like “What’s the weather in New York City?”
- Competitive advantages: Features that allow you to compete better against competitors in terms of price or quality are known as competitive advantages; these include patents, copyrights and trade secrets such as proprietary ingredients or manufacturing processes (for example PepsiCo’s formula for cola).
Step 4: Build your product roadmap.
- Build your product roadmap
The next step is to build your product roadmap, which will be a visual representation of the plan for the product. The product roadmap is a high-level overview of the development plan for an IoT device and is used by stakeholders from all areas of an organization. It helps them understand how their specific activities relate to one another and what needs to be done in order for this great idea to become reality. This document serves as a tool for communication between teams so that everyone knows what’s happening next with their part in this new venture. As you can see here, our team has created a prototype that has already been tested and approved! We’re excited about what lies ahead!
Step 5: Validate your product – Pre-Launch Validation Phase.
The pre-launch validation phase is where you test your product with users to ensure that it is ready for launch. This final stage of the product development process involves testing your prototype with real-world users, and then collecting feedback from them about what you have built.
Step 6: Build Features and Launch.
Once you have a roadmap, you can build features, launch your product and iterate until it’s perfect. To do this effectively, you’ll need to use agile development techniques. Your goal should be to build the minimum viable product (MVP) that meets all of your customer’s needs and wants with as few resources as possible.
To get started on your MVP:
- Create a prototype of what you want to create using simple materials or software programs like PowerPoint or Excel. This will give your team an idea of how difficult it is going to be to actually develop the feature set that customers want. If it turns out there are too many technical challenges involved in making this feature work well and efficiently, then perhaps it should just remain at the idea stage for now instead of being created as part of an actual product feature set.
- Beta test with a small group of users who provide feedback about what works well in their environments vs what doesn’t work at all so that these issues can be fixed before release into production environments where they might cause problems down the road such as lost revenue due poor performance or security breaches due lackadaisical security policies.’
Step 7: Maintain the IoT Product post-launch.
After you’ve launched your IoT product, it’s time to maintain it.
Update the product to keep up with the market. If you’re seeing a lot of competitors enter the space, or if there are new technologies that could make your product obsolete, it’s important to stay in touch with emerging trends and incorporate them into your offering.
- Add new features:- If you see an opportunity for innovation, go ahead and give it a shot! You never know where inspiration will come from—that could be someone else’s idea or even just a niche need that hasn’t been addressed yet by other offerings on the market (like this one).
- Update the product to add more value:- Do some research into what customers have said about their experiences so far, particularly on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook; if there are common problems with using your device/software/service then take steps toward resolving these issues as soon as possible so that future users won’t experience them either!
There are important steps you need to complete before you can launch an IoT product.
- Design
- Code (if applicable)
- Test
Conclusion
Launching an IoT product can be a complex process and you need to be well prepared to have a successful product launch. By following the steps above and making sure your team is on the same page about what IoT Product Management entails for your product, you will be in a good place to start building your IoT Product!
