{"id":15991,"date":"2022-06-27T14:00:57","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revuze.it\/?p=15991"},"modified":"2022-06-27T14:00:57","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T14:00:57","slug":"how-to-improve-your-product","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revuze.it\/blog\/how-to-improve-your-product\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Improve Your Product"},"content":{"rendered":"

How To Improve Your Product<\/span><\/h1>\n

\"Infographic<\/p>\n

Product improvement is a data-driven process that should not be taken lightly. With the digital revolution well underway and companies seeming to come up with new product modifications on a regular basis, you need to keep on top of features and design preferences if you want to stay competitive.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, there\u2019s such a thing as overdoing it or missing the point. A good example of this is the recent release of Windows 11, which brought many new features, but prevented users from moving the taskbar. This led to a whole host of <\/span>complaints<\/span><\/a> and caused Microsoft to have to revert the change in late 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

Microsoft\u2019s main mistake was to think about features, not usability. It doesn\u2019t matter how brilliant or innovative your designs are if they\u2019re laid out in a way that the users don\u2019t like. <\/span>People don\u2019t like large amounts of change, and product improvement is no exception to that rule<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

What should you do when envisioning new features and upgrades? Think about your customer base and what they use your products for. If you\u2019re dealing with the general population, your products need to be easy to use and understand, at least on the surface level. If you\u2019re looking at a more specialized or niche target audience, you might get away with a less straightforward product that has more available features.<\/span><\/p>\n

With all this in mind, let\u2019s dive into what happens when you improve your product, and how to go about doing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to get started on improving your product<\/span><\/h2>\n

When you\u2019re starting out, the task of product improvement can seem like a daunting one. Fortunately, there are a few categories of product modifications that you might find yourself looking into, and there are some general rules for each that can be followed in order to get the most out of your alterations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Exploring new opportunities and avenues<\/b>
\n<\/span>If you want to expand, you\u2019ve got to grow. One of the best ways to do this is by tapping into markets that you haven\u2019t explored before. This kind of product improvement can come in two ways, adding new features to attract new customers, or expanding existing ones so that they reach a wider audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

New opportunities (the \u201cO\u201d in a SWOT analysis) can be assessed by looking into usage cases of your product that you might have underestimated in the past. That is why completing a thorough <\/span>SWOT analysis <\/span>is key when starting to look into product improvement. Let\u2019s say you discover that a consumer-base that does not belong to your go-to audience has been using your product\u2014you would definitely want to tap into it.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also possible to expand into new markets by creating new products specialized for them, but since that isn\u2019t classed as product improvement we won\u2019t talk about it here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Addressing customer concerns<\/b><\/p>\n

As evidenced by the Windows 11 example above, upgrades to features aren\u2019t always what your customers want. You need to keep their needs and desires in mind when you implement changes, especially with more specialized products.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is where listening to the <\/span>Voice of the Customer<\/span><\/a> comes into play. Only if you monitor your customers\u2019 opinions in online reviews and social media you\u2019ll be able to know their concerns and address them in your product updates.<\/span><\/p>\n

Changes that address customer concerns are by their nature reactive rather than proactive, happening after you\u2019ve received feedback on your product modifications. For this reason it can be helpful to keep receiving consumer feedback in the testing stages, rather than coming up with a finished design and hoping it goes down well. The term \u201cbeta testing\u201d covers this idea, and while it\u2019s mostly synonymous with the software industry it has applications elsewhere too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keeping up with the times<\/b>
\n<\/span>All products, but technology especially, can become stale and behind the times. Upgrading your products to match current expectations will keep your customer base interested, as well as have the potential to produce new features.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Or course this doesn\u2019t just apply to technology. Environmental impact and ease of disposal or replacement is a great customer concern in current times, and older, less green products are being rejected over time by more and more of the population.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Keeping up with the times is about knowing what\u2019s expected by consumers, which is distinct from what\u2019s desired. If something is taken as an absolute necessity and you fail to provide it, you\u2019re in for a bad time and bad publicity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Depending on which of these categories your planned improvements fall into, you can adjust your approach to best suit it.<\/span><\/p>\n

What can be improved in a product<\/span><\/h2>\n

Once you\u2019ve figured out <\/span>how<\/span><\/i> you want to improve your product, you need to examine it and figure out what <\/span>can<\/span><\/i> be improved. You need to keep things practical after all, and whether it\u2019s technological limits or manufacturing constraints there will always be something limiting your ability to improve your product to the \u201cideal\u201d level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cost is another crucial factor in product improvements, as improving revenue and profits are almost always the ultimate aim of any business. There is no clear line that can be drawn at what would be considered worth the cost or not, it\u2019s up to you to decide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As success of new features won\u2019t be visible in advance some organizations have adopted what\u2019s called the \u201c<\/span>minimum viable product<\/span><\/a>\u201d approach, creating the most basic form of a product or feature for release in order to get feedback before committing their full budget to any one idea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You should also prioritize features based on customer use, as these ones will see the most return on investment. Customer feedback will tell you which features are the most used, which are problem points and could do with some tweaks, etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What works and what doesn\u2019t<\/span><\/h2>\n

You\u2019re never going to be able to do everything exactly right. There\u2019s always going to be things that have been missed in the ideas stage, unforeseen factors that cause complications and so on. That\u2019s okay, everyone is only human and some mistakes are bound to crop up somewhere along the line. There are several key indicators that your modifications will prove successful, and some that indicate the opposite.<\/span><\/p>\n

Signs of a great product modification plan:<\/span><\/p>\n