Ready to create a digital product? Awesome. Got questions? Of course, you have! But be warned: at icapps, our experience tells us that certain beliefs are clear signs you don’t have a digital product strategy in place. In this series of blog articles, we explore these signs and explain how the right strategy can set you on the path to success.
In the previous blog we talked about why you would need Digital Product Strategy next to your already existing business strategies. Today we'll take a deep-dive into Stakeholder Management.
6. You’re concerned your digital product will annoy your stakeholders.
Worrying your digital product will annoy stakeholders is a strong sign that you need to really think about what you’re doing. And what you’re doing should be based on a strategy. After all, one of the most important benefits of a well-thought-out digital product strategy is that it helps you avoid annoying your stakeholders. Instead, it shows you how to make them happy.
Build a product that your stakeholders dislike and it’s unlikely your dreams for your product will come true. An annoying product will send customers to your competition. Investors will lose faith in you and your product. And if your staff dislike a product, it’s going to be difficult to excite them and have them commit to it. Think of how difficult it is to make a quality product when people agree with your vision. Now think how much more difficult it is when they don’t. When stakeholders disagree with your digital product, you’re far less likely to succeed.
Gain their trust
But suppose you look at how to optimize your product and make sure it responds to your stakeholders’ expectations. Discuss what you aim to do with your stakeholders. You’ll end up acknowledging their needs and expectations while avoiding anything that is annoying. You might even make them happy!
Use your digital product strategy to examine the perspectives and opinions of your stakeholders. In doing so, you’ll address any reasons they might be put off by your product. The costs might be too high. Maybe it doesn’t meet their needs. Perhaps they’re worried it will lead to staff layoffs. These are all genuine concerns, and we discuss them all in other blog posts. If you’ve not read them, we suggest you do. Then you’ll know just how a digital product strategy helps you respond to this kind of issue.
There are other potential problems too. However, a digital product strategy shows you what path to take to meet the needs, hopes, and expectations of your stakeholders and your target group. Your digital product strategy tells you how to gain their trust and give your digital product a strong future. You might also notice that meeting needs, hopes, and expectations, gaining trust, and making a future-proof product all appear on the to-do list for your business strategy.
A shared vision
There’s another benefit in having a digital product strategy. It helps you identify and then discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. As such, you’re able to decide on the best path forward and avoid the paths that lead to mistakes, failure, professional embarrassment, and annoyed stakeholders. You learn to listen to each other and work together. You develop a shared vision and build support for the digital product you’re going to make. You set down your plans and the steps you’ll take in a clear roadmap. And with the understanding and knowledge of why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’re properly equipped to work together as a team.
A large part of your digital strategy is going to be based on the effect you want your digital product to have on your target audience. Your digital product strategy shows you how to deliver this value from the very start. It also lays out, step by step, the way you’ll need to evolve to continue delivering value and impressing your audience over time. Instead of just annoying them. That means you’ll be keeping your clients happy for years to come. Who doesn’t want that?
Would you like to know more about digital product strategy? Or to gain insights into your target group? Wondering what tomorrow will bring for you? Get in touch with icapps. We don’t have a crystal ball to tell you what the future will bring. But we have top-notch coffee. More importantly, we have the experience and insight into digital product strategy that will make a world of difference to your business.
