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Product Development Loop

Every company approaches product development differently. Some companies are chaotic and don’t have a process at all. Other companies have a process with too many steps that slow down the pace of shipping.

My favorite process is the “understand, identify, and execute” loop. This loop has three phases:

1. Understand : What is the customer problem that we want to solve?
2. Identify : What product should we build to solve the problem?
3. Execute : What is the most efficient way to get the product shipped?

Figure 1. The “understand, identify, and execute” product development loop.

Let’s use an analogy to illustrate how this loop works. Suppose that you’re going on a fishing trip at a nearby lake. First, you need to understand if the lake has fish. Next, you need to identify the right gear to bring in order to catch the fish. Finally, you need to execute by casting your line, waiting for a fish to take the bait, and reeling in your catch. If you miss any step—such as fishing at a lake that doesn’t have fish or forgetting to bring your gear—you’ll be out of luck.

Developing products is like catching fish, with one key difference. As a product manager, you’re not building products alone. Instead, your job is to work through the “understand, identify, and execute” loop with your team.

Understand: What Is the Customer Problem That We Want to Solve?

Your goal in the understand phase is to craft a problem statement that answer three questions:

1. What is the customer problem?
2. How do we know that this problem exists?
3. Why is it critical that we solve this problem ?

This is the most critical phase of product development because many products fail by not solving a real customer problem. Start with a team brainstorm to understand everyone’s intuitions on the biggest problems that your customers face. Then, evaluate whether these problems exist by talking to customers, looking at user research, and analyzing metrics. Finally, prioritize the problems that will have the biggest impact on growing your team’s goal metric.

You want to get your team invested in the why (the problem and the goal) first before tackling the solution. We’ll discuss the understand phase more starting with the Customer Problem chapter.

Identify: What Product Should We Build to Solve the Problem?

Your goal in the identify phase is to define a product that will solve the customer problem that you’ve prioritized with your team.

The identify phase starts with defining an overall mission, vision, and strategy to give everyone on your team a shared purpose, an idea of what success looks like, and a plan to get there. After aligning on the strategy, you need to break it down into an actionable roadmap with objectives and key results. Finally, you need to define each product in your roadmap by writing product requirements and press releases.

We’ll dive into the identify phase starting with the Mission, Vision, and Strategy chapter.

Execute: What Is the Most Efficient Way to Get the Product Shipped?

Your goal in the execute phase is to help your team ship the product you've defined as efficiently as possible. Great execution requires excellent project management, communication, and decision-making skills.

We’ll dive into the execute phase starting with the Project Management chapter.

Why Is “Understand, Identify, and Execute” a Loop ?

“Understand, identify, and execute” is a loop because your job is never done. After shipping a product, you need to go back to the understand phase to determine if the product addressed the customer problem and moved the goal metric. Each pass through the loop is a chance for your team to get better at understanding the problem, identifying the solution, and executing to bring the product to market.

Now that we covered the loop at a high level, let’s dive into the first phase of product development—understanding the customer problem.