7 top tips for software product development

The software product market is rapidly growing and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

After reaching a value of $1.6 trillion in 2024, it’s expected to grow even more to an incredible $2.5 trillion by 2028.

So, getting into software product development sounds like a great choice, right?

And it is – but, you need to do it right.

That’s why we’ll discuss 7 top tips for software product development that will help you do just that.

Let’s dive in!

What is software product development?

Software product development is the process of building software that’s intended to be sold and marketed to customers.

It includes everything you usually do when building software, from requirements gathering to deployment, testing, and maintenance.

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But, it’s not the same exact thing as software development.

To develop a software product, you also need to do:

• Marketing
• Customer support
• Market research
• Product strategy and planning

So, it’s not just building working software – it’s building a product that can be successful in the market.

Top tips for software product development

Now, let’s discuss some top tips that will help you develop a successful software product.

Research your target audience first

If you want to develop a successful software product, it’s essential you research your target audience first.

In other words, if you want to know what to build, you need to know who you’re building it for.

Researching your target audience and finding out their needs is the most important step in market research.

Without it, you won’t get a product-market fit.

And that’s essential if you want your product to be successful like investor Marc Andreessen said:

So, what’s the best way to research your target audience?

There’s a simple answer – you should do product discovery.

Product discovery is the process of researching your market and validating your product idea before developing it.

Doing discovery will help you get a clear understanding of your users’ needs and pain points.

Just make sure you use a variety of research methods, like:

• User interviews
• Questionnaires
• Surveys
• A/B testing
• Focus groups
• Social media listening

This way, you’ll get a deep understanding of your target audience and how your product can meet their needs.

And that’s how you build a software product that lasts.

Why researching your target audience first is important

Prioritize user experience (UX)

Your users’ experience should be the main focus of your software product’s development.

And for a good reason, too.

A Forrester study showed that a good UX design can increase conversion rates by up to 400%.

So, it’s no surprise that for every $1 invested in UX you get a $100 in return – that’s an incredible ROI of 9,900%.

source: Adam Fard

So, how can you make sure your software product has good UX?

Steve Jobs summed it up like this:

The key to that is understanding your users’ needs – we’ve already covered how you can do that.

Another good way to improve your product’s UX is by designing it with accessibility in mind.

You should follow established guidelines like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG):

source: Sonix

If you do, you’ll be building a user-friendly product with good UX from the start.

And that’s key to a successful product.

Why prioritizing UX is important

Build an MVP

The best way to make sure your software product can succeed in the market is by building a minimum viable product (MVP).

An MVP is a bare-bones version of your product with only the essential features.

It’s the ultimate idea validation tool that will show you if your product actually resonates with your users.

So, how do you build an MVP?

MVP development isn’t just building working software and calling it a day – you need to build a usable product.

Here’s how you should approach it:

source: Voypost

Your first step should be prioritizing which features you’ll include in your MVP.

You should use feature prioritization frameworks like:

• MoSCoW (Must have/Should have/Could have/Won’t have)
• RICE (Reach/Impact/Confidence/Effort)
• Value vs. effort
• Kano

Once you’ve done that, you can start developing your product – we’ve written a step-by-step guide showing you how to do it.

Then comes the most important step – getting feedback on your MVP.

You’ll get a lot of valuable feedback you can use to iterate on your product and improve it.

And that’s how you can set it up for success.

Why building an MVP is important

Use Agile methodologies

Using Agile methodologies when developing your software product is one of the best ways to build a quality product.

Implementing them allows you to be flexible during development and respond quickly to changing requirements.

And that flexibility is key to successful development.

So, what should your Agile teams look like? And which methodologies should you use?

Agile teams are cross-functional by design.

So, your team should include:

• Software engineers
• QA engineers
• Designers
• Product managers

And they’ll work better together with Agile methodologies like:

• Scrum
• Kanban
• Extreme Programming (XP)
• Lean Software Development

You should pick the one that best suits your team and your product’s requirements.

But, Scrum is the most popular methodology, with 81% of Agile teams using Scrum or Scrum hybrids.

Here’s DECODE co-founder and CEO, Marko Strizic, breaking down how Scrum works in detail:

In short, Scrum divides your software product’s development cycle into smaller (2-4 week) iterations called sprints.

Each sprint is like a mini development cycle – this approach enables your team to work quickly and efficiently.

That means your product will get to market faster, which can mean the difference between its failure and success.

And that’s exactly what you should be aiming for.

Why using Agile methodologies is important

Optimize your product for performance

Jeff Atwood, co-founder of Stack Overflow, once said: “Performance is a feature.”

And he was right – optimizing your software product for performance can make your product stand out from the competition.

Your users want good performance, too.

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According to Google’s research, 53% of users will leave a website or app if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

So, how can you optimize your product’s performance?

A good place to start is by using cloud computing services like:

• AWS
• Google Cloud
• Microsoft Azure
• IBM Cloud
• Oracle Cloud

They will help make your product scalable while also delivering good, consistent performance.

But, there’s a number of ways you can directly improve your software product’s performance, like:

• Optimizing your product’s code
• Updating third-party plugins
• Limiting background processes
• Compressing images and reducing file sizes

You should also invest in monitoring tools like Splunk or Nagios – they’ll help you quickly  respond to any drops in performance.

And that’s key to delivering a consistently good experience to your users.

Why optimizing your product for performance is important

Implement continuous product discovery

We’ve already talked about how important researching your users is if you want to develop a successful software product.

But, it shouldn’t be just a one-time thing – you should consistently engage with your users.

And the best way to do that is by implementing continuous product discovery.

But, what is continuous product discovery? And how should you do it?

Teresa Torres, author of Discovery Habits, defines it like this:

In other words, it’s the process of regularly researching your users to improve your product.

Here’s how it works:

With continuous discovery, you’ll be able to stay on top of your users’ needs and market trends.

What you’re looking to create is a feedback loop.

Just make sure you use a mix of qualitative and quantitative user research methods for the best results.

A feedback loop will help you continuously collect, analyze, and act on your users’ feedback to improve your software product.

And that’s the secret behind building a successful product.

Why continuous product discovery is important

Rigorously test your product

When you’re developing your software product, excellent quality should be non-negotiable.

Poor software quality costs U.S. companies at least $2.42 trillion every year.

Rigorous testing will help you avoid being caught up in that statistic – that’s why strict QA and testing protocols are an absolute must.

And you’ll get other benefits from testing, like:

So, how do you make sure your software product is thoroughly tested?

To start, you need to create a detailed testing strategy.

A detailed strategy will help your QA team work more efficiently and plan tests more efficiently.

Also, it’s a good idea to start testing early in your product’s development cycle.

Fixing bugs later in the cycle will cost you a lot more money:

source: Functionize

Also, make sure your team uses a variety of testing methods like:

• Unit testing
• Integration testing
• Load testing
• Regression testing

This way, you’ll make sure your software product works properly before you launch it.

And that’s the best way to earn your users’ trust.

Why rigorously testing your product is important

Top tips for software product development: FAQs

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