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A product vision board is a powerful tool for visualizing your product management strategy and all team communications. This instrument describes the purpose of a product, the motive behind its creation, and its goals for clients and users. A practical vision board helps you define your target group and develop a convincing value proposition and measurable business objectives. 

This post explains how to create an effective product vision board. You will learn its benefits, use cases, essential elements, and valuable tips for making this visioning tool. Finally, we will provide a product vision board template and share the expertise of Artkai in <a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-discovery-phase">product discovery</a>, <a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-prototype-poc">PoC development</a>, and <a href="https://artkai.io/services/end-to-end-product-delivery">end-to-end product delivery</a> of winning software solutions, such as <a href="https://artkai.io/works/dna-payments-an-intelligent-payment-ecosystem">DNA Payments</a> and <a href="https://artkai.io/works/nezha-blockchain-prediction-market-protocol">Nezha</a>.

A product vision board is a tool designed by product management expert Roman Pichler. It captures the idea behind a product while keeping the target market in mind. The board is helpful for product managers, the product development team, product stakeholders, and business owners. With this tool, product teams move forward swiftly and confidently, setting clear goals and objectives for product management. 

A strong vision board justifies the creation of the product and defines customer demographics. It is a foundation for your product strategy and planning. However, distinguish between your product strategy and vision. While the former may change, the latter should remain valid. 

Use a product vision board to your advantage in many ways. The most beneficial aspects of this instrument are listed below. 

Regaining the Focus on Achieving Your Business Goals

Vision boards work because they serve as a visual reminder of your business goals and help direct your product management. This concise and high-level document keeps you focused on key business objectives. Track and assess your progress toward your goals by constantly returning to a product vision board.

The vision board identifies the most significant risks associated with developing your product. It also shows the opportunities that you can grasp through its release. As long as the bottom areas of your product vision board have clear statements, it will be easy to identify all leap-of-faith assumptions and significant hazards. Testing your vision board will reduce the chances that the product strategy has flaws. As a result, you will pursue a clever-sounding, tested strategy that produces a successful product.

The board aids teams in maintaining a shared understanding, enhances teamwork, and serves as a roadmap for everyone involved in the product's development. This tool benefits all parties involved in product management, development, marketing, sales, support, and other stakeholders involved in the process.

The vision board is also practical for helping teams facilitate product and idea pitches and preserving transparency throughout the product management process. It also enables team members to coordinate their duties and goals with those of others efficiently.

A product vision board is helpful for more than just coming up with ideas and describing your product's goal. It can also assist you and your team in shaping a big picture of the finished project.  

Test your assumptions using the vision board and record fresh ideas for your offering. Reviewing your finalized board can pinpoint your strategies' most considerable risks or ambiguities. It lets you check what functions rapidly and what does not and determine whether presumptions are accurate. 

Before going on to feature development and product deployment, research can verify your hypotheses. At Artkai, we use the product vision board to conduct competitors and market research during the <a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-discovery-phase">product discovery phase</a>. It is beneficial to recognize the project's current analogs and rivals and make the deployment of the new project's entire business context clear.

Your vision board serves as a compass throughout the planning phase of your product, pointing in its proper direction. Referring to it frequently ensures that your product plans are on the right track. With Artkai’s <a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-prototype-poc">Proof of Concept  Development Services</a>, you can test your product idea and move forward with confidence.

Your vision board is the basis for your product strategy and a tool to align the team, the product, and the company. Learn more about the <a href="https://artkai.io/blog/best-product-development-methodologies">best product development methodologies</a> that increase a cross-functional team's productivity in our blog.

Elements of an Effective Product Vision Board

Product owners can answer essential questions concerning the product vision using the vision board. 

Describe your purpose, mission, and overarching objective in the Vision field. It is the driving force behind the creation of your products. It explains the beneficial change you aim to see in the world. Therefore, the vision is a concise statement. One of Ikea's statement examples is: “Our vision is to create a better everyday life for many people.” 

This section states the market or segment you intend to target. List the groups of people the product is likely to help, such as users and clients. Make sure to select a homogenous, precise target market for your product. Building a product with a narrow focus that does a few things well is better than making a complex product that does a lot on a mediocre level.

Discuss the value proposition of the product in this part. The Needs section outlines the critical issue that the product solves and the main advantages it offers. This paragraph explains why customers want to purchase your products. Additionally, describe what success looks like for users and clients. If you've identified a variety of demands, rank them by importance.

The Product section outlines up to five vital characteristics of your product. This is not a comprehensive list of everything your product is capable of. Instead, it lists your top unique selling points (USP). These distinguishing characteristics correlate to the needs you listed in the Needs section and are related to its USP. Keep this list brief and eventually write down more extensive information about your goods or services in lower-level documents, such as a Product Canvas or the Product Backlog.

List the desired business benefits for your organization in the Business Goals area. You can aim to boost sales, break into a new market, cut costs, build your brand, or learn something important. If you have a lot of business objectives, rank them similarly to the product section and try to limit yourself to 3–5 goals. It will be much harder to evaluate the performance of the products and use the proper measurements if you don't apply <a href="https://artkai.io/blog/product-development-kpi">the right metrics</a>.

Seven Valuable Tips for Creating a Product Vision Board

Developing and maintaining a successful product takes a lot of time and effort. This section provides seven guidelines to assist you in creating a compelling product vision that motivates the development team and stakeholders. 

Describe the Product Purpose

Best product vision board examples guide product management, development, marketing, sales, and support to ensure the product's success. The vision outlines your main objective and the basis for developing the product. The vision board encourages product teams and enables successful collaboration. Knowing why you are motivated to work on a project, why you care about it, and how it will influence the future will help you choose the proper vision. 

Look Beyond Your Product

Make sure to distinguish the product and the product vision. The vision is the inspiration for creating the product, while the product is a way of achieving the main objective. A compelling product vision encompasses the transformation the product should bring about in addition to the actual product. "Help children enjoy learning while playing" can be a persuasive coding game's product vision example.

Establish a Shared Vision

You can create the most glorious vision for your products. But it's pointless if the teams working on the product's success don't believe in it. Everyone must have the same idea for the product to achieve alignment and promote practical cooperation. Without a shared vision, individuals pursue their objectives, which makes it far more challenging to succeed with a product. A collaborative visioning workshop is a terrific way to develop a shared product vision. 

Pick an Inspiring Vision

You don't have to push yourself if you are working on something interesting that you genuinely care about. The vision pulls you. People should be inspired, connected to the product, and motivated by your vision. If it centers on generating a benefit for others, it triggers a potent drive and enduring inspiration. It helps product teams navigate when they feel uncertain more than a self or money-centered vision can. People perform better when they feel as though they are contributing something worthwhile. 

Make your product's vision expansive and aspirational to facilitate a strategy change and engage individuals. For instance, "Help children enjoy learning while playing" is a broad and ambitious concept for the coding game. It doesn't mention the actual product concept or a particular target market, and it's not content with making entertaining games. It has higher goals. 

Your vision is the main driver behind the creation of the product. Therefore, it should be simple to explain and understand. You can specify additional information about your product in other documents, such as a product strategy, business model, product backlog, and marketing plan. Product vision should be simple to memorize and recite. To express the vision, use a short slogan. Reaching such a vision may take several iterations, but the effort is worthwhile. 

Make Vision-Based Decisions

Use your vision to direct your product decisions and keep everyone focused on the main product goal. It acts as an initial screening for new recommendations and requests for changes. Whether it's a new feature, a shift in tactics, or a new technology, you should consider everything that moves you closer to your vision and discard anything that is not helpful. 

Product owners can find the answers to essential questions about the product vision with the product vision board template designed by Roman Pichler. The board outlines five main categories described above: vision, target group, needs, product, and business goals.

Artkai is a customer-centric digital product development agency. We use a product vision board as a powerful tool in the <a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-discovery-phase">product discovery phase </a>and <a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-prototype-poc">PoC development</a>. Our team assists you in developing a precise project scope and refining goals to get a clearer vision of your product's features, function, customer value, and target market.

We assess your proposal's market potential, viability, and originality and develop quantitative measures for your further decision-making. With expert proof of concept application services from Artkai, you will see the potential and practicality of your business idea. As a result, you will profit from our in-depth market research and professional perspective. Let’s examine how our clients benefited from Artkai’s <a href="https://artkai.io/services/end-to-end-product-delivery">end-to-end product delivery</a> of winning software solutions.

DNA Payments: An Intelligent Payment Ecosystem

The Artkai team received a request to redesign the current portal from DNA Payments Group, an omnichannel payment provider serving the EU and the UK. Our experts completely redesigned significant parts of the portal, which produced noteworthy outcomes. 

By the end of 2022, DNA Payments was on track to rank as the fourth-largest payment service in the UK, serving over 65,000 merchants. Now the portal offers a perfect selection of payment solutions for corporate clients and processes £900,000,000 each month.

Nezha: A Blockchain Prediction Market Protocol

Nezha is the liquidity engine that enables market participants to avoid putting their principal investment at risk. The client challenged the Artkai team to create a web-based Blockchain prediction market protocol that would intrigue investors, innovators, and gamblers alike. 

Product Discovery aided in outlining the goals of the project's stakeholders and optimizing company operations to keep clients by enhancing services. The final result is a sophisticated solution with user-friendly navigation that boosts conversions and platform usage.

Accelerate Your Product Development with Artkai

A vision statement explains a product's purpose, target market, and unique selling proposition. It is the overarching motivation for teams to create the product and unites their efforts. A product vision board is a helpful tool for visualizing the idea behind a product while keeping in mind the target market. 

Artkai is an award-winning full-cycle product development company that will help you to maximize your end-to-end product delivery. With our <a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-discovery-phase">product discovery phase</a> and <a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-prototype-poc">PoC development services</a>, you can confidently test your idea and marketability and take the next steps of product development.

<a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-strategy-consulting">Contact us</a> to discuss your digital product idea and get an estimate.

Technology adoption has experienced positive growth rates across all technologies, as <a href="https://www.wipo.int/global_innovation_index/en/2022/" rel="nofollow">the 2022 Global Innovation Tracker</a> indicates. However, organizations need to prioritize and focus on the right innovation investments. The three horizons model, representing core business, emerging technologies, and long-term objectives, can guide your company's growth and innovations.

As your company matures, you may encounter a decline in growth rate because innovation gives way to inertia. To maintain consistent growth throughout your organization's lifespan, it is essential to concentrate on current operations while exploring potential future development areas. The three horizons approach, discussed in <a href="https://books.google.com.ua/books/about/The_Alchemy_Of_Growth.html" rel="nofollow">"The Alchemy of Growth,"</a> offers a framework for assessing growth opportunities without compromising current performance.

This article will explain the 3 horizons model, its practical applications, and its benefits for your business. We will showcase Artkai's experience in product design and strategy, highlighting how our innovative solutions have influenced our clients' growth and digital transformation based on success stories such as <a href="https://artkai.io/works/dtek">DTEK</a>, <a href="https://artkai.io/works/procredit">ProCredit Georgia</a>, and <a href="https://artkai.io/works/marketplace-for-new-and-used-cars">a marketplace for new and used cars</a>.

The three horizons model was first introduced by McKinsey consultants Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley, and David White in their book "The Alchemy of Growth." This growth strategy framework is designed to help businesses of all sizes focus on innovation and long-term growth.

The structured approach allows for the evaluation of potential growth opportunities without jeopardizing current operations. For instance, when Microsoft launched the Microsoft Box, which was quite distinct from their core business, they employed this model to identify new niches for success in horizon three.

McKinsey horizons represent the following:

the short-term development and maintenance of the current core business;

medium-term expansion and investigation into new opportunities, 

research and ideas for future growth and new opportunities to manage business and development. 

Each horizon has a specific focus and demands a unique management approach. While horizon one involves evaluating your current assets, horizon three requires strategic planning for your company's growth. Horizon two represents the tactical decisions necessary to transition from horizon one (where your company is now) to horizon three (where you aim to be in 5-12 years).

The McKinsey three horizons of growth model has a "Time" axis and a "Value" (sometimes also referred to as "Profit") axis. Each horizon is represented by a series of three S-curves, one after another. The duration of each horizon may vary depending on whether your sector moves quickly or slowly, but this explanation offers a general idea.

As seen in the corresponding graph, Horizon 1 represents your core business as it currently stands. It focuses on maintaining your existing assets and supporting short-term growth (1-3 years), with the lowest value. Horizon 2 is where you explore and identify emerging opportunities that help develop your company in the next 2-5 years. Horizon 3 has the highest value and illustrates your long-term goals (5-12 years), which involve creating entirely new possibilities for your business growth.

Using the McKinsey Horizon Model In Practice

The primary advantage of the three horizons model is that it provides a common language for discussing and understanding various types of growth. Anyone in a C-level position within a large corporation knows that each board member has a unique perspective on the organization's future development.

The 3 horizons model presents your team with the overall innovation plan and the objectives for that plan across time, including when they can anticipate a return on investment, outcomes, or profit. It assists in managing diverse views and directing conversations by establishing long-term goals. Consequently, the horizon model is excellent for portfolio management and growth strategy, as it enables clear and straightforward communication of your future intentions for the organization.

The first horizon often receives considerable attention as it reflects the current business. Here, you assess your strengths and weaknesses, identify what is working and what may have peaked, and determine any areas you need to relinquish. This short-term horizon spans six months to three years and aims to defend the core business and understand its present value. For instance, Microsoft's core business includes software, computing devices, and cloud services.

As a company owner, you might sometimes overlook current operations when seeking growth opportunities. Horizon one helps you focus on satisfying existing customers while making tactical adjustments to reach new clients. Actions that provide a competitive edge in this horizon are short-term.

While maintaining and defending the core business on horizon one requires significant effort, it is crucial to allocate resources to horizons two and three as well.

In horizon two, you should evaluate your core business and identify opportunities for the next two to five years. It is now up to you to decide which innovations to incorporate into your company's portfolio to ensure success. Continuing with Microsoft's example, its emerging opportunities include launching a line of computer games, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator and Age of Empires.

Consider options that complement or build upon your current business model. Explore possibilities that enable company growth, entry into new markets, or the achievement of new goals.

Next, determine how to support these ventures—what resources you will need, what skill sets to seek when hiring new employees, what new technologies to acquire, and how to integrate corporate resources. Horizon two may require a substantial initial investment, but launching a new product line or expanding your company's geographic reach should yield a strong return on investment.

Once your company's value has increased, it's time to consider planning for the next five to twelve years. The third horizon is where you think about developing entirely new opportunities. This stage may involve focusing on new markets, launching new businesses, undertaking long-term research initiatives, and piloting programs. For instance, Microsoft's horizon three involved launching Xbox after conducting thorough market research and identifying new areas for success.

You might create new divisions within your company or even establish brand-new business units through mergers and acquisitions. This kind of expansion may require a significant amount of money. Additionally, some of your ideas might be untested and not yield success for an extended period. However, when long-term planning on horizon three is executed correctly, these expenses are offset by additional sources of income.

What Does McKinsey's Three Horizons of Growth Help You to Achieve?

Most businesses aim to grow, recognizing that innovation is crucial for achieving this growth. However, innovation is often perceived as a one-time event, such as a large project or a creative program. The apparent gap between future innovation and the current realities of business operations is one of the most frequently cited reasons for using the three horizons model. Let's examine the achievements you can gain using this model:

The 3 horizons framework helps connect your business's daily operations and innovations by building a bridge between operating your company profitably today and expanding it for the future.

This strategic framework aids in continually striking a balance between focusing on the present requirements in horizon one, the future state of your company in horizon three, and the steps necessary to reach it in horizon two.

The three horizons model is a highly adaptable strategy framework that assists you in overcoming challenges on your path to growth and innovation.

This framework also helps you stay on course in your core operations, ensuring business continuity and stability.

How Do You Apply the Three Horizons Model to Your Business?

If you have decided that your company needs to develop and innovate, you are willing to see if McKinsey's three horizons model can help you get there. Below are the steps you can apply to your organization to test the three horizons framework. 

Begin by Gaining a Comprehensive Grasp of Your Horizon 1

Firstly, determine the most critical assets that currently drive your company's success. Recognize the factors that contribute to your business's achievements. Envision a scenario where you lose these factors altogether, and all your customers are no longer interested in purchasing your products or services.

Your Horizon 3 Describes What You Would Do If That Happened

After assessing your Horizon 1, jump to Horizon 3. Here, envision launching a product or service that is far from your core competencies because your customers are no longer interested in your current offerings. Identify a niche where you believe you can succeed. While working on Horizon 3, you still need the core business that will allow you to thrive. However, in Horizon 3, you don't rely on the factors that contributed to your previous success.

The value of Horizon 2 lies in bridging the gap between your strong core business in Horizon 1 and the new competitive market you identified in Horizon 3. Create a plan of action to close the gaps, which may involve introducing a new line of products or services.

This step will provide you with the necessary experience and additional income in both your current primary and new industries. For example, Microsoft's launch of its line of games allowed it to introduce Xbox in the future. 

Horizon 2 may not solely be a revenue generator, but it should include enough of your critical assets from Horizon 1 to give you a chance of making money. This horizon aids in bridging the gap between your current situation and your ideal future situation in Horizon 3.

This simple rule helps you determine the appropriate allocation of time and resources for each growth horizon in your strategic plan.

Make sure that about 70% of your activities focus on your horizon one. Remember, to thrive in the future, you must first survive and prosper in the present.

Allocate approximately 20% of your efforts to the "bridging" opportunities in horizon two. Horizon two will have its share of setbacks and false starts, so it's essential to have enough projects in progress to transition to horizon three.

Finally, dedicate 10% of your overall effort to horizon three. This 10% is crucial, ensuring you don't lose sight of your long-term goals. Thus, you won’t get stuck in a never-ending cycle of horizon two activities.

If you are a startup owner, read about <a href="https://artkai.io/blog/initial-steps-to-grow-your-startup-express-discovery-workshop">the initial steps to grow your business</a> in our blog.

The three horizons of growth were initially designed to highlight the need for an ambidextrous organization. Previously, organizations assigned relative delivery times to each horizon, such as new features being ready within 3-12 months or business model extensions being prepared within 24-36 months. However, in today's landscape, disruptive innovations happen at breakneck speed. Every industry faces risks due to rapid market changes.

Avoid relying on traditional strategic planning cycles that take too long to identify core and supplementary product areas. Focus on shorter, more agile processes allowing quick pivots when necessary. Identify opportunities swiftly and out-innovate the disruptors in your industry. You can partner with startups, bring in external innovators, or rapidly replicate the latest disruptive innovations. Success hinges on your agility, adaptability, and ability to act quickly.

Artkai is a customer-centric digital product development company specializing in offering unique Artkai Consulting Sessions™, UX Design, and End-to-End development services. These services enable clients to create apps with faster time-to-market, enhanced customer satisfaction, and remarkable financial success. Our team possesses extensive expertise in product design and <a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-discovery-phase">development strategy</a>, which has been instrumental in helping our clients achieve growth and innovation. Let's explore some of our success stories.

DTEK: Digital Transformation for Energy Sector Enterprise

DTEK, a Ukrainian power grid operator, aimed to simplify the management and payment of electricity bills. Artkai partnered with DTEK to implement an agile, digital-first, and design-focused solution. As a result, DTEK now empowers customers to take control of their energy consumption, save costs, and easily access essential information.

The Artkai team developed <a href="https://artkai.io/works/dtek">a solution architecture</a> based on the client-provided parameters. We conducted on-site workshops with the DTEK team and interviewed various target audience members. We then compiled the results as guidelines for platform development moving forward.

Due to our collaborative efforts, DTEK achieved the following outcomes:

A threefold decrease in queries to the customer service center;

A 1.5 times increase in client satisfaction scores.

ProCredit Bank sought to go entirely digital, aiming to create an app that would alleviate the workload on contact center staff and employees of physical branches. Collaborating with the ProCredit team, Artkai experts developed a plan that minimized and eliminated downtimes during all project phases.

We established project goals based on research, interview findings from the research phase, and product discovery results. Besides redesigning the mobile banking app, our team also built <a href="https://artkai.io/works/procredit">web banking</a> with a dashboard and quick access navigation.

Online access to banking services reached 99%;

Money transfers via the online platform became twice as fast;

Blocking a card through the mobile banking app now occurs 60% faster;

The mobile app logs events twice as quickly as the previous version.

The clients approached the Artkai team to create a cutting-edge online marketplace for buying and selling European cars. Although several markets already existed, they mostly faced the same issues: challenging and time-consuming searches, confusing information structures, and complicated interactions between buyers and sellers.

We developed <a href="https://artkai.io/works/marketplace-for-new-and-used-cars">a marketplace with distinct roles for buyers and sellers</a>, ensuring a smooth user experience. Our team designed a user experience that addresses customer pain points and reduces the time needed to purchase a car. Additionally, we created a visual identity for the online product, which also extends to its offline presence.

Upon launch, the marketplace quickly attracted both merchants and buyers. Our clients signed agreements with significant auto vendors through advertising efforts, filling the platform with attractive deals. As we analyzed customer interactions with the platform, we found substantial time spent on the website. The project outcomes include:

1 million monthly payments made on the marketplace;

The McKinsey 3 horizons model highlights short-term maintenance of the current core business, medium-term expansion and exploration of new opportunities, and research and ideation for future growth. This model is an excellent choice for business owners who face challenges in identifying emerging opportunities and implementing innovations for further growth.

However, since the three horizons framework was developed in the 1990s, it might not account for the rapid pace of disruptive innovations in today's constantly evolving markets. To succeed, you need to identify new opportunities and innovate faster than your competitors.

Artkai stays at the forefront of innovations and emerging technologies. Our experts will help you <a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-design">design your product </a>and strategize its development. From the product discovery phase to the product launch, Artkai experts will assess the viability of your idea and create cutting-edge software products that will make a significant impact on your market.

<a href="https://artkai.io/services/product-discovery-phase">Get in touch</a> with us to discuss your innovative product ideas and receive an estimate.

When team members are 95 percent committed to an agile methodology, <a href="https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/the-impact-of-agile-quantified" rel="nofollow">their productivity doubles</a> compared to those with 50 percent, says research by CA Technologies spanning 160,000 projects and 50,000 agile teams. Although the improvements were not as pronounced as those in productivity, quality, predictability, and responsiveness were also better with more dedication.

It is only one example of how beneficial a product development methodology can be for a business. Although frequently associated with software development methodologies, they also work in a broader context. The development team's product development methodology involves the entire product planning process and all functions. 

This article explains why product development methodologies matter, lists the most common ones, compares agile and waterfall methodologies, and provides necessary forms of program development techniques. We will also introduce you to Artkai, an award-winning full-cycle product development company, and our expertise in product development methods based on the following case studies: <a href="https://artkai.io/works/procredit">Procredit</a>, <a href="https://artkai.io/works/coin-loan">Coinloan</a>, <a href="https://artkai.io/works/cruitment">Cruitment</a>, <a href="https://artkai.io/works/huobi-mobile-trading-platform">Huobi</a>, <a href="https://artkai.io/works/nezha-blockchain-prediction-market-protocol">Nezha</a>, and <a href="https://artkai.io/works/dtek">DTEK</a>.

Creating products is a collaborative effort comprising numerous functional groups. Cross-functional teams must interact methodically to generate value quickly and effectively by offering precise instructions for accomplishing work. Using a shared product development methodology aids in driving success.

Typically, an organization determines which method its team will employ. Every organization that creates and delivers goods, including engineering, IT, and product and project management, should adopt it. The methodology your business picks impact how you make the product development roadmap. Below we will describe some of the most popular methodologies and how they relate to product management.

Common Product Development Methodologies 

The methodologies listed below have a strong foundation in software development because businesses that produce technological products frequently employ product managers. They might work on a sold external product or a business-supporting internal product. Yet companies that produce actual goods also use many of these methodologies. 

Agile is a group of software development methodologies that encourages delivering products incrementally and iteratively. Agile evolved to assist development teams in responding more quickly to customer requirements. Many businesses integrate agile concepts across the organization to enhance cooperation, adapt to change, and deliver working results more quickly.

Instead of being linear in progress ( one stage is finished and only considered again once the product is ready), agile product development emphasizes continuous and iterative product development. That is, each sprint cycle represents a complete iteration and is repeated again.

At Artkai, we adhere to the Agile method of organizing the <a href="https://artkai.io/services/mobile-app-development">mobile app development</a> process to guarantee that the client is constantly on track and receives timely progress reports from the team. At the same time, the time for expensive revisions and errors is minimal.

Kanban emphasizes continual value delivery in workflow management. It is a lean methodology that focuses on visualizing work to improve collaboration, limiting the amount of work in progress, and continuously optimizing flow to shorten lead times. 

The Kanban process justifies steadily reducing the work in progress by determining the maximum level of5 stress the pipeline can withstand while operating efficiently and avoiding bottlenecks. The Kanban process is frequently combined with agile techniques for greater productivity. 

The Artkai development team has robust experience with the Kanban delivery process. For instance, we have used a Kanban board in the development process of <a href="https://artkai.io/works/cruitment">Cruitment</a>, a SaaS platform for the HR/recruitment teams in small & medium companies, to provide an overview of the recruitment progress in one single-board view.

Scrum is an agile method that emphasizes completing work in time-limited work periods, known as sprints. The team decides on the scope of work, chooses items from the product backlog, and establishes a sprint target before beginning each sprint. The team presents the finished product to business stakeholders for review at the end of the sprint. 

In the scrum methodology, the team identifies new updates and prioritizes them jointly, manages backlogs, and shares feedback on the learned lessons, achievements, and gaps. This method enables teams to regularly produce working software while allowing for change integration throughout the project's lifetime.

Artkai implements Scrum to conduct <a href="https://artkai.io/blog/what-to-expect-require-demand-from-a-remote-digital-product-design-team-at-every-stage-of-a-project">scrum follow-up meetings</a> when essential project milestones are reached. These meetings promote effective problem-solving and facilitate productive collaboration between teams. Web and mobile app production for <a href="https://artkai.io/works/procredit">Procredit Georgia</a> is an example of how we use Scrum sprints in product development.

In the Waterfall method, projects are delivered in phases using a sequential approach. This methodology works effectively for projects where requirements can be precisely defined upfront, and modification is rare. Waterfall has its roots in sectors like manufacturing and construction, where goods are developed linearly. Delivering a set scope of work by the project's completion is paramount.

In contrast to Agile, which emphasizes sprint-based documentation, waterfall foresees intense documentation for each stage of the work. Fewer businesses use waterfall than fifteen years ago because of the rise of customer-centric product development, which relies on shifting consumer preferences and opinions to drive product improvements. Let’s grasp the comparison of the Agile and Waterfall methods in detail.

Agile and Waterfall Methods: Similarities and Differences

While Agile-based product development methodologies and the waterfall development method share certain similarities, Kanban and Scrum's differences are becoming more obvious. Let's examine the primary distinctions between these two strategies and their remaining parallels.

The final version of a product, when it requires very few updates and is already well-established, requires roughly the same number of development hours for both Agile and Waterfall approaches. However, the launch time for Agile is substantially shorter. What may take weeks or months in Agile, typically require years in Waterfall. 

Agile development leads to substantially quicker product launches and the beginning of revenue generation. Even in the early iterations, where the product is usable and might even be entirely free to use, it collects much customer feedback both during the beta period and after the product has been released. The product's utility grows exponentially, and the Agile method allows it to be responsive to any modifications in user behavior and preferences.

The rigorous nature of Waterfall development leaves very little flexibility for gathering and incorporating feature-based feedback while a feature is still being developed. It means the product does not generate revenue or expand its user base over development. Therefore, it may miss out on emerging trends and competitively introduced new features.

Role of User Surveys and Customer Feedback

Both Waterfall and Agile methodologies include feasibility studies that call for customer input. A development project can proceed only by passing customer feedback evaluations that ensure the intended product will have a particular level of adoption-based utility. Conjoint analysis is a vital component of both approaches used for market viability tests now.

Agile approaches consider the limitations of feasibility surveys and research and put a lot of effort into gathering user test input before launch and consumer feedback after launch. It makes Agile product teams more responsive to shifting user preferences and helps them outperform established market competitors.

Waterfall prioritizes user interface testing and product usage input before beginning development work. It does not carry out end-user research for each produced feature. For this reason, the final product may lack crucial functionality based on new user behaviors since development time is significantly longer for the Waterfall method.

The stages of Waterfall still apply to each iteration of an Agile project, even if it is intended to work in multiple iterations. These include ideation, planning, development, testing, and release. 

Agile iteration planning is much more feedback-centric, while in Waterfall, each iteration is contained by the set work-in-progress limits. The entire developmental deck is planned at once. Moreover, user testing in Waterfall is focused mainly on UI/UX rather than feature utility.

Human Resource and Investment Requirements 

Lead teams can use Agile methodologies to produce a product ready for launch, and they can dynamically scale based on requirements and successes with each iteration. Because of this, an Agile team can start small and expand as the product succeeds.

Waterfall demands a more significant initial capital outlay since it engages teams based on the overall strength required to produce the finished product at a time when ROI and revenue possibilities are simply projections.

Important Forms of Product Development Techniques

Regardless of your business's size, goals, values, or market share, managing the workflow can be tricky. How can we deal with change, adjust, and take advantage of it? What happens when the workflow we believed we had under complete control changes unexpectedly? Here are the top 4 product development techniques to have you covered.

Lean Hypothesis divides the process into testable segments. It minimizes risk, speeds up development, and fosters product trust. It is a highly alluring and helpful product development technique. Lean hypothesis works best when you need to fix a problem that you found with a particular step in the process. It is also beneficial when you have a product idea and need to be concise and organized.

With this technique, you can individually intervene in each stage of the product's development as soon as a problem is found and rebalance it. As a result, you will have a smoother experience for the customer and flawless operation of the product.

Due to the complexity of the marketing process, it should be handled in segments, giving each stage the consideration and research it requires. Because of this, the Full Marketing Funnel technique is quite effective. It emphasizes conversion between stages rather than just the final conversion.

Essentially, it focuses on the 360-degree customer journey, always cultivating relationships and creating better brand experiences along the way rather than just at the end, from the awareness stage through consideration and conversion. Businesses should invest in this technique to succeed in a highly competitive climate and gain a deeper understanding of their customers' journeys.

Rapid prototyping model aids in understanding the entire development process, prompt detection of any possible problems, and recognition and adaptation of the market's response. Early-stage feedback reduces the risks of failure, speeds up the adoption of the specific product or service, and facilitates development.

The two critical words "test" and "validate" will assist you in continuously discovering what works and what doesn't, ensuring you're on the proper track to executing the product.

Knowing your user is one of the essential components of product development. It is vital and customizes the whole development process. Developing and using a user journey tool is critical if you want to know your people better and provide better services to them. 

Additionally, it aids in creating a more robust, durable product that meets specific needs and demands and even foresees them. Considering how customer preferences and needs continuously change and evolve will directly affect how you develop your software solutions.

Artkai is an award-winning full-cycle product development company. We organize the development process according to the Agile product development processes and methodologies to ensure that the client is always on track, receives timely updates from the team, and that the amount of time for expensive revisions and errors is minimal. 

We make an effort to involve customers in the <a href="https://artkai.io/services/web-app-development">web</a> and <a href="https://artkai.io/services/mobile-app-development">mobile app development</a> process to create products that maximize your company's performance and are as closely in line with your company's values, objectives, and strategy as is practical. Let’s look at some of the successful case studies delivered by the Artkai team.

Internet Banking App for ProCredit Georgia

Our client, ProCredit Georgia, wanted the bank to go completely digital to relieve the burden on contact center staff, enable bank customers to sign up for and use new services online, and improve the usability and accessibility of current functions. The Artkai team has followed the best practices of Scrum methodology to optimize the product development process. 

Our team redesigned the mobile banking app, <a href="https://artkai.io/works/procredit">built an online banking platform</a> with a dashboard and quick access navigation, and added video identification features for onboarding, smart login, and the My Finances and bank account registration sections. Our efforts had an impressive effect:

99 percent of banking services became available online

Money transfers through the mobile banking app and the web became two times faster.

Blocking a card via a mobile banking app now happens 60 percent more quickly.

Mobile app logs became twice faster in comparison to the previous version.

CoinLoan: A Web-based P2P Lending Platform and Marketing Website

In order to attract financial experts and enthusiasts, the first marketplace-based crypto-to-fiat lending platform, Coinloan, set out to develop a web-based P2P lending platform with a contemporary crypto-related design. Additionally, the customer wanted to create an attractive marketing website to promote the platform. 

The Artkai team has followed the best practices of Agile development, designing and developing the product in parallel after the research and discovery phase. We <a href="https://artkai.io/works/coin-loan">improved the platform's usability and simplicity by building platform features</a> on the knowledge gained throughout the research process. With the omnichannel experience in mind, Artkai created a customer journey map that considers marketing interactions, web, mobile, and physical branches.

As a result of Artkai's collaborative efforts, the client received:

An engaging, practical, and informational website

An easy and rewarding experience of using a comprehensive, secure, and straightforward platform.

More than 100,000 active users on the platform.

Cruitment: SaaS Platform for the HR and Recruitment Teams in SME

Our client, Cruitment, sought to develop a new corporate identity and a SaaS with separate user flows for recruiters and job seekers. To provide a single-board perspective of the recruiting progress, the Artkai team employed a Kanban board while <a href="https://artkai.io/works/cruitment">developing a SaaS platform for SMEs' HR/recruitment teams</a>.

The following are the results of the new recruitment platform and brand identity developed by the Artkai team:

The number of applicants rose by three times.

The number of accepted offers has doubled.

Average cost per application dropped by 1.5 times.

The world's largest blockchain business, Huobi Group, aimed to research the European industry and identify notable UX trends and customer pain concerns. The Artkai team was tasked with modifying the mobile application for a new European market and building a marketing website specifically for Europe. 

We have used the best practices of Agile development to conduct face-to-face interviews with traders to learn more about how European audiences make decisions. After reviewing the data, our team generated a list of insights for the platform.

The Artkai specialists <a href="https://artkai.io/works/huobi-mobile-trading-platform">created a mobile platform and a marketing website</a> for the European market to enable customers to conduct business operations anywhere and at any time. The client entered the European market due to our user-centered UX design, achieving the following outcomes when the project was finished:

50 percent of all digital assets globally.

Nezha: Blockchain Prediction Market Protocol

Nezha's mission was to develop a web-based blockchain prediction market system that would benefit investors, entrepreneurs, and gamblers. The idea was to allow participants to risk losing money on trades rather than putting their initial investment at risk. After the research and discovery phase, the Artkai team incorporated the best practices of Agile development to simultaneously carry out design and development.

The Artkai designers <a href="https://artkai.io/works/nezha-blockchain-prediction-market-protocol">managed to gamify the platform.</a> We found a middle ground between the manufacturing potential of the finance market and the gaming industry. We employed vivid neon highlights to create an instantly recognizable visual identity.

Several astounding outcomes have come from these discoveries:

Product Discovery helped to clarify the project stakeholders' objectives and streamline the business process to retain clients by offering superior services.

As a result, a challenging solution with simple navigation boosts platform usage and conversions.

DTEK, the power grid operator in Ukraine, aimed to simplify the processes for processing and paying electricity bills. Artkai assisted DTEK in implementing an agile, digitally informed, and design-focused solution. Customers of DTEK now have better access to comprehensive information, and DTEK aids them in taking charge of their energy usage to cut expenditures.

We created a <a href="https://artkai.io/works/dtek">solution architecture that converted a paper-based reporting system into an online system</a> for monitoring consumption and making payments in compliance with the client's requirements. Here are the findings that DTEK obtained:

An increase in the number of contracts for power consumption.

There were three times fewer inquiries made to customer service.

Resources that make sense

How To Create An Effective Product Vision Board

What Is The 3 Horizons Model & How Can You Use It?

Best Product Development Methodologies

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The 20 Essential SaaS Trends You Should Watch Out For In 2023

Product Strategy Frameworks: Definition and Benefits

Trends That Fuel Fintech Digital Transformation In 2023

Hot Mobile Application Development Trends For Your Business In 2023

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