Every new product, whether it’s an app or a physical object, follows a specific set of steps that take it from the first spark of an idea to the release of the final product. This is called the product develpment life cycle, and it has five stages: brainstorm, define, design, test, and launch. Depending on where you work, the exact names of each stage might be a little different, but the overall process is generally the same.

In this reading, you’ll explore about the product development cycle and how UX fits into each stage of the cycle. You might guess that UX designer might only involve during the design stage, but they work closely with team members like reseracher, engineer, and product manager through out the cycle.

As a product moves through the development life cycle, the team might need to spend longer working in one stage than in others, or repeat certain stages based on feedback. The success of each stage depends on the previous stage’s completion, so it’s important to do them in order.

Next, let’s check out eac of the five stages of the product development life cycle!

Brainstorm

The first stage in the product development cycle is brainstorm stage, when team starts thinking about an idea for the product. This when team comes together to think about user problems, if they didn’t have one.

It is important to pay attention to the team diversity of your team at this stage. Teams that have meaningful diversity across identifiers like race, gender, abilities, family structure, age, and ethnicity are generally more effective at brainstorming because they bring togther a lot of different lived experiences.

Consider this example: If you’re designing a new app to help working parents and guardians, your team might start the brainstorming stage by listing common problems that working parents and guardians face, like a lack of reliable childcare, transportation concerns, or trouble managing schedules. Your team might review user feedback about other similar products or results of user surveys to help guide your ideas. After you’ve brainstormed a lot of user problems, your team chooses one and starts coming up with ideas for solutions to that problem.

At this stage, it is an ideal time to check out competitor’s product to identify if the similar product is already on the market. You want your product to fill a gap in the market or solve a problem better than exisiting products. Completing research into both your competitors and your users helps determine what problems need to be addressed by the product’s design.

Tip: UX design at big companies might not be very involved in the brainstorm stage. But a UX designer at a startup or small business could have a big role to play!

Define

The second stage the product development life cycle brigns together UX designers, UX researchers, program managers, and product leads to define the product. The goal is to figure out the specifications for the product by answering questions like: Who is the product for? What will the product do? And, what features need to be included for the produt to be successful?

At this stage is when your team narrow down the focus of your idea. One product can’t solve every user problem. For instance, the app that helps working parents and guardians, your idea should focu on helping parents and guardians find reliable childcare or manage their schedules, not both. In this stage, a UX designer might help the team pin down the focus of the idea, but a product lead will probably be the one to define the scope of the project.

The research you completed in the brainstorm stage comes in handy now. Using what you’ve learned, you will pinpoint your potential users’ problems. Your team can’t assume they know what problems users are experiencing without asking the users directly.

Design

The third stage is the design stage. This is when the UX designer really get to shine! At this stage, UX designers develop the ideas for the product. Generally, UX designers start by drawing wireframes, which are outlines or sketches of the product, then move on to creating prototypes, which are early models of a product that convey its functionality.

UX writers are also involved in the design stage and might do things like write button labels or other copy within the product’s wireframes and prototypes.

During this stage, UX designers make sure to include all of the product specifications that were outlined in the define stage. Designers also need to make sure that everything fits together in an intuitive way. For example, designers might check that the screens of an app flow in a way that makes sense to the user. Or that each interaction, like tapping a button, has a correlating action, like an item getting added to a cart. On the other hand, with a physical product, UX designers might check that one piece of a physical object matches up to the connecting piece. Finally, UX designers also make sure that each task a user needs to complete is clear and easy to understand, like navigating from the homepage to the checkout confirmation page in an app.

Testing

Next, your designs move into the test stage. UX designers work with engineers to develop functional prototypes that match the original designs, including details and features that fit the company’s brand, like font and color choices. This also means writing the code and finanlizing the overall structure of the product.

Or, if you want to test your designs earlier, another option is to test a functioning prototype of the product, using a design tool like Figma or Adobe XD.

At this stage, the designs go through at least three phases of testing: internal tests within your company, reviews with stakeholders, and external tests with potential users. A stakeholder is a person need to work with to complete the project or anyone who has some interest in the project, either within or outside of the company.

UX researcher on your team is the one who run the test, if you have one.

Gathering and implementing feedback at this stage is absolutely critical. If users are frustrated or confused by your product, UX designers make adjustments or even create new versions of the design. Then, the designs are tested again, until there’s little or no friction between the product and the user.

The product development life cycle isn’t a completely linear process. Your team might cycle between designing and testing a few times before you’re ready to launch the product!

Launch

Finally, the final stage of the product development cycle: the launch stage, when the product is released into the world! This might involve listing an app in the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store, making a website go live, or putting a physical product on the store shelves.

The launch stage is a time to celebrate your work and start promoting the product. Marketing professionals on your team might post about the new product on social media or publish a press release. The customer support team might get ready to help new users learn how the product works.

Program managers also meet with the cross-functional team to reflect on the entire product development life cycle and ask questions like: What worked and what could be improved? Were goals achieved? Were timelines met? Making time for this reflection is super important, since it can help improve the process going forward.

The launch stage might be the end stage for physical product. On the other hand, digital products like apps and websites have a chance for improvement after the launch on the user experience. Team often cycles back to the product develpment lifecycle once there are new problems in the product functionality or features for the next version of a digital product. This is why we normally have update the apps periodically.

The launch stage might be the end stage for physical product. On the other hand, digital products like apps and websites have a chance for improvement after the launch on the user experience. Team often cycles back to the product develpment lifecycle once there are new problems in the product functionality or features for the next version of a digital product. This is why we normally have update the apps periodically.

Beyond the product development life cycle

This illustrates how products are developed and the role UX designers play in the life cycle. Everywhere you look, you’ll find products of all kinds – big, small, physical, or digital – that have been through this very process. The more you see the intention and thought put into everyday objects, the closer you’ll get to becoming a UX designer!

To learn more about the product development in related fields.