Fundamental Steps of Product Development

Udemy course by Gurmit Singh, former VP of Yahoo India!

Being very curious about learning more about Product Management, I took up this free course from Udemy. I am writing this blog to let you know what this course contains and what is my perspective on this learning journey. So let's dive right in!!!

So the first question is “What is Product Management !?” It is the end-to-end management of the product right from the shipping to managing the entire life cycle of the product. It sits at the interaction of user experience, business, and technology.

Next comes “What is User Experience (UX) !?” It is what the user feels in his journey with the product that he experiences while using the product.

UX = User Experience is the set of tasks that enable effective and enjoyable use of the product.

UI = User Interface Design is the look and feel, presentation, and interactivity of a product. For eg: the look and feel of Gmail Inbox is the UI of Gmail.

Mostly the terms UI and UX are used interchangeably, so let us understand by looking at the differences between them below.

Next is “What is Tech Stack !?”

A tech stack comprises of Frontend (what you see) = Literally the UI, Backend (the brain) = Programming Language, storage, and database.

Front-end examples: HTML (which is the structure of what you see), CSS (for styling), JS (for interactivity)

Back-end examples: Programming languages like Python, Ruby, etc., Servers like Amazon S3, and the use of databases according to the required needs of the product.

“How to choose the stack for your product !?”

The purpose of the application determines the tech stack to be used :

Web Development: JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP, Ruby

Mobile Development: Swift, Java, C#

Game Development : C++ , C#

Desktop Application: Java, C++, Python

System Programming: C, Rust

Now comes the question “What are the elements of business !?” It includes subscriptions such as Hotstar, advertising such as YouTube, e-commerce such as Flipkart, Amazon, etc., licensing such as Hindustan Times, partnerships such as CNN News 18 on FB, commissions, etc.

The 8 steps to Product Management are as follows. We will be understanding each of these using an example.

1. Questions, Hypotheses, and Research that includes internal feedback, user research, market/competition analysis, identifying the problem/opportunities, etc.

Taking Yahoo Cricket as a product let us understand the first step of product management. The four steps were taken to carry on the research.

The four steps were taken to carry on the research.

The internal feedback taken by the company is stated above.

The user feedback shows the most preferred features for the product which the users demand.

On the basis of research, it was concluded that these topics needed to be included too.

All the features of the cricket products were mapped together.

With all the above research it was clear and concluded that Yahoo Cricket needed the following features.

2. Interpretation, User Stories

As a user what features do you want?

The features conceived in the product

3. Wireframes

What exactly is a wireframe?

Drawing a wireframe for Yahoo Cricket using Balsamiq

4. Design — UI and UX

What UX means

Now, these features will be designed up!

Live score feature

Differentiator feature

Live scores feature

Fan shouts feature

What is UI?

5. Tech Stack

What is a tech stack?

The front-end and the back-end

Tech Stack

Yahoo Cricket Tech stack

6. Business Vision or Needs

Business components

7. MVP or the Minimum Viable Product

A minimum viable product is a version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development.

MVP for Yahoo Cricket before launch

MVP for Yahoo Cricket after launch

8. Measurement Tools

It is a way of monitoring and tracking the progress of strategic objectives.

WAU — Weekly Active Users, DAU — Daily Active Users

Advertising metrics

Metrics for apps

Customer retention metrics are factors, or variables, used to measure the likelihood of retaining and attracting customers to your business.

I am sure this blog was insightful and you were able to grasp the fundamentals of Product Management. The next that comes in this course is a 1hr assignment that will you help apply all the basic fundamentals that you learn throughout the course.

On this note, I wish you all the best on your journey to dive deeper into Product Management. Good luck! 🙌🙌

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