Skip to product menu
close
  • Sales
    Press Space or Enter to display list of options
EXPLORE ALL PRODUCTS

Sales

 
CRM

Comprehensive CRM platform for customer-facing teams.

CRM
 
Bigin

Simple CRM for small businesses moving from spreadsheets.

Bigin
 
Forms

Build online forms for every business need.

Forms
 
SalesIQ

Live chat app to engage and convert website visitors.

SalesIQ
 
Bookings

Appointment scheduling app for consultations with customers.

Bookings
 
Sign

Digital signature app for businesses.

Sign
 
RouteIQ

Comprehensive sales map visualization and optimal route planning solution.

RouteIQ
 
Thrive

Complete loyalty and affiliate management platform.

Thrive
 
Voice

Cloud Contact Center Software for businesses.

Voice
 
Suites
CRM Plus

Unified platform to deliver top-notch customer experience.

CRM Plus

Marketing

 
Social

All-in-one social media management software.

Social
 
Campaigns

Create, send, and track targeted email campaigns that drive sales.

Campaigns
 
Forms

Build online forms for every business need.

Forms
 
Survey

Design surveys to reach and interact with your audience.

Survey
 
Sites

Online website builder with extensive customisation options.

Sites
 
PageSense

Website conversion optimization and personalisation platform.

PageSense
 
Backstage

End-to-end event management software.

Backstage
 
Webinar

Webinar platform for webcasting online webinars.

Webinar
 
Marketing Automation

All-in-one marketing automation software.

Marketing Automation
 
LandingPage

Smart landing page builder to increase conversion rates

LandingPage
 
Publish

Manage all your local business listings on a single platform.

Publish
 
SalesIQ

Live chat app to engage and convert website visitors.

SalesIQ
 
Sign

Digital signature app for businesses.

Sign
 
Thrive

Complete loyalty and affiliate management platform.

Thrive
 
Voice

Cloud Contact Center Software for businesses.

Voice
 
NEW
LeadChain

Sync, manage, and convert leads across channels seamlessly.

LeadChain
 
NEW
CommunitySpaces

Online community platform for individuals and businesses to grow their network and brand.

CommunitySpaces
 
Suites
Marketing Plus

Unified marketing platform for marketing teams.

Marketing Plus

Commerce and POS

 
Commerce

eCommerce platform to manage and market your online store.

Commerce

Service

 
Desk

Helpdesk software to deliver great customer support.

Desk
 
Assist

Remote support and unattended remote access software.

Assist
 
Lens

Interactive remote assistance software with augmented reality.

Lens
 
FSM

End-to-end field service management platform for service businesses.

FSM
 
SalesIQ

Live chat app to engage and convert website visitors.

SalesIQ
 
Voice

Cloud Contact Center Software for businesses.

Voice
 
Solo

The all-in-one toolkit for solopreneurs.

Solo
 
Bookings

Appointment scheduling app for consultations with customers.

Bookings
 
Suites
Service Plus

Unified platform for customer service and support teams.

Service Plus

Finance

 
Books

Powerful accounting platform for growing businesses.

Books
 
FREE
Invoice

100% Free invoicing solution.

Invoice
 
Expense

Effortless expense reporting platform.

Expense
 
Inventory

Powerful stock management and inventory control software.

Inventory
 
Billing

End-to-end billing solution for your business.

Billing
 
Checkout

Collect payments online with custom branded pages.

Checkout
 
NEW
Payroll

Payroll software with automated tax payments and filing.

Payroll
 
Solo

The all-in-one toolkit for solopreneurs.

Solo
 
Practice

Practice management software for accounting firms.

Practice
 
Sign

Digital signature app for businesses.

Sign
 
Commerce

eCommerce platform to manage and market your online store.

Commerce
 
Suites
Finance Plus

All-in-one suite to manage your operations and finances.

Finance Plus

Email and Collaboration

 
Mail

Secure email service for teams of all sizes.

Mail
 
Meeting

Online meeting software for all your video conferencing & webinar needs.

Meeting
 
Writer

Word processor for focused writing and discussions.

Writer
 
Sheet

Spreadsheet software for collaborative teams.

Sheet
 
Show

Create, edit, and share slides with a sleek presentation app.

Show
 
Notebook

Beautiful home for all your notes.

Notebook
 
Cliq

Stay in touch with teams no matter where you are.

Cliq
 
Connect

Employee experience platform to communicate, engage, and build positive employee relations.

Connect
 
Bookings

Appointment scheduling app for consultations with customers.

Bookings
 
TeamInbox

Shared inboxes for teams.

TeamInbox
 
WorkDrive

Online file management for teams.

WorkDrive
 
Sign

Digital signature app for businesses.

Sign
 
Office Suite

Powerful collaborative work platform for teams.

Office Suite
 
Office Integrator

Built in document editors for web apps.

Office Integrator
 
ZeptoMail

Secure and reliable transactional email sending service.

ZeptoMail
 
Calendar

Online business calendar to manage events and schedule appointments.

Calendar
 
Learn

Knowledge and learning management platform.

Learn
 
Voice

Cloud Contact Center Software for businesses.

Voice
 
ToDo

Collaborative task management for individuals and teams.

ToDo
 
Tables

Work management tool to connect people, processes, and information.

Tables
 
FREE
PDF Editor

Collaborative online PDF editing tool.

PDF Editor
 
Suites
Workplace

Application suite built to improve team productivity and collaboration.

Workplace

Human Resources

 
People

Organize, automate, and simplify your HR processes.

People
 
Recruit

Intuitive recruiting platform built to provide hiring solutions.

Recruit
 
Expense

Effortless expense reporting platform.

Expense
 
Workerly

Manage temporary staffing with an employee scheduling solution.

Workerly
 
NEW
Payroll

Payroll software with automated tax payments and filing.

Payroll
 
Shifts

Employee scheduling and time tracking app.

Shifts
 
Sign

Digital signature app for businesses.

Sign
 
Suites
People Plus

Comprehensive HR platform for seamless employee experiences.

People Plus

Security and IT Management

 
Creator

Build custom apps to simplify business processes.

Creator
 
Directory

Workforce identity and access management solution for cloud businesses.

Directory
 
FREE
OneAuth

Secure multi-factor authenticator (MFA) for all your online accounts.

OneAuth
 
Vault

Online password manager for teams.

Vault
 
Catalyst

Pro-code platform to build and deploy your apps.

Catalyst
 
Toolkit

Complete resource for any admin-related lookup queries.

Toolkit
 
Lens

Interactive remote assistance software with augmented reality.

Lens
 
Assist

Remote support and unattended remote access software.

Assist
 
QEngine

Test automation software to build, manage, execute, and report testcases.

QEngine
 
NEW
RPA

Automate manual, tedious, and repetitive tasks easily.

RPA

BI and Analytics

 
Analytics

Modern self-service BI and analytics platform.

Analytics
 
Embedded BI

Embedded analytics and white label BI solutions, tailored for your needs.

Embedded BI
 
DataPrep

AI-powered data preparation service for your data-driven organization.

DataPrep
 
NEW
IoT

Harnessing IoT analytics for real-time operational intelligence.

IoT

Project Management

 
Projects

Manage, track, and collaborate on projects with teams.

Projects
 
Sprints

Planning and tracking tool for scrum teams.

Sprints
 
BugTracker

Automatic bug tracking software for managing bugs.

BugTracker
 
Solo

The all-in-one toolkit for solopreneurs.

Solo

Developer Platforms

 
Creator

Build custom apps to simplify business processes.

Creator
 
Flow

Automate business workflows by creating smart integrations.

Flow
 
Catalyst

Pro-code platform to build and deploy your apps.

Catalyst
 
Office Integrator

Built in document editors for web apps.

Office Integrator
 
ZeptoMail

Secure and reliable transactional email sending service.

ZeptoMail
 
QEngine

Test automation software to build, manage, execute, and report testcases.

QEngine
 
Tables

Work management tool to connect people, processes, and information.

Tables
 
NEW
RPA

Automate manual, tedious, and repetitive tasks easily.

RPA
 
NEW
Apptics

Application analytics for all apps.

Apptics
 
Embedded BI

Embedded analytics and white label BI solutions, tailored for your needs.

Embedded BI
 
NEW
IoT

Build, deploy, and scale IoT solutions for connected businesses.

IoT
 
DataPrep

AI-powered data preparation service for your data-driven organization.

DataPrep

IoT

 
NEW
IoT

Low-code IoT platform and solutions for connected businesses.

IoT
 
CRM Plus

Unified platform to deliver top-notch customer experience.

Try now
CRM Plus
 
Service Plus

Unified platform for customer service and support teams.

Try now
Service Plus
 
Finance Plus

All-in-one suite to manage your operations and finances.

Try now
Finance Plus
 
People Plus

Comprehensive HR platform for seamless employee experiences.

Try now
People Plus
 
Workplace

Application suite built to improve team productivity and collaboration.

Try now
Workplace
 
Marketing Plus

Unified marketing platform for marketing teams.

Try now
Marketing Plus
 
All-in-one suite

Zoho One

The Operating System for Business

Run your entire business on Zoho with our unified cloud software, designed to help you break down silos between departments and increase organizational efficiency.

TRY ZOHO ONE
Zoho One
Zoho Marketplace

With over 2000 ready-to-use extensions across 40+ categories, connect your favorite business tools with the Zoho products you already use.

EXPLORE MARKETPLACE
Marketplace
Skip to main content
Points the way towards all things that can improve productivity, from project
management and collaboration to workplace culture and organizational behaviour.

Five Product Development Pitfalls — And How to Avoid Them

  • Last Updated : March 28, 2024
  • 6.3K Views
  • 6 Min Read
Five Product Development Pitfalls

Through decades of consulting for companies such as Apple, Bose, Roche, IBM, and others, we at TCGen Inc. have seen our share of product development snafus. We tend to see many of the same problems across organizations and across industries. Most of them are simple, all of them avoidable, and yet their effects are significant.  

Below are five of the most common product development pitfalls we have seen — and how to avoid them.

1. Lack of a clear product development strategy. 

A clear and well-understood product strategy is a must. Product strategy provides a line of sight between your “true north” as a company, and what you’re developing in your product programs. Yet, in too many companies we find teams still working on ideas that aren’t as tied in with company strategy as they could be. Both dev teams and the functions (Marketing, Engineering, Finance, etc.) must understand corporate strategy and how their work fits into its priorities.

Too many companies hide the strategy in a drawer. Executives treat it as top secret, when it should be known to everyone including individual contributors. When product development strategy is divorced from the day-to-day work it often leaves team members wondering “is my work relevant?”

A solution is to have a clearly communicated and simple strategic plan. This plan should be communicated throughout the organization and accessible to all. It should include:

  • A Vision: a broad statement of where you’d like your company to be in three to five years.
  • A Strategy document: the steps you intend to take to achieve that vision over a two to three year horizon.
  • Product and technology roadmaps, priorities and budgets, connected to specific programs that realize the strategy.

Individual programs should be able to see where they connect to the strategy and the vision. Getting this big picture right is a key to a coherent strategy and coherent brands that resonate in the marketplace.

2. Poor product definition.

Poor product definition is one of the most common pitfalls we see. In too many cases, we find that the dev team doesn’t know what to build. The Product Owner hasn’t been clear about product requirements, and often requirements aren’t sufficiently rooted in customer feedback. Communication between inbound marketing and the dev team is not always clear and efficient, often with the two speaking different languages.

One solution is to clearly identify customer segments. Make sure you get direct qualitative feedback from them. Integrate these customer research activities into the dev team. Ideally, have team members participate and not just the dedicated Marketing person. 

Next, prioritize the qualitative feedback. Transform this qualitative data into requirements expressed quantitatively. For example, if customers reviewing an audio electronics product report “there’s too much hum” quantify how much is “too much.” There’s a point where the signal-to-noise ratio is optimized and engineers don’t need to exceed it. Create a threshold for the amount of allowable perceived “hum” and make this a part of your product definition.  

Finally, it is up to the Product Owner on the team to make clear what are the “need to haves” for each product. In our audio product example, suppose engineers attempted to reduce noise levels below the perception of human hearing. That’s not a “need to have.”

Any product will have many customer requirements – only a few make a difference in terms of competitive advantage. Have a prioritized list of features and requirements and refer to it early and often. 

3. Project oversight fails to add value and slows decision-making.

Reviews of your team’s progress are inevitable, when your company is getting ready to commit to significant investment or facing a major release. But too often reviews turn into senior management meddling that does little good. Many reviews are inappropriately long, too detailed, and add little value. Teams that are on the right track are forced to deliver lengthy justifications for their continued existence in order to satisfy Management’s desire for control. 

Sometimes the opposite occurs. Rather than meddling too much, senior teams get distracted and neglect teams that require direction, need more resources to hit their targets, or face some other problem that only senior managers can solve. (This often happens when the VP of Marketing or Sales is travelling or out of the office.) This slows decision-making, creating costly delays.

To avoid this pitfall, have few, but logically justified, checkpoints. Establish a few critical parameters for the project and the product at the very beginning. We call these parameters a project’s boundary conditions. Boundary conditions define the key metrics that the team wants to hit with respect to features, product and project cost, quality, timing, or other success factors. If the team perceives, as it works, that it’s on target with these key metrics, the management team should leave them alone.

If the team foresees that it will violate one or more of the boundary conditions, then it requires a fast escalation process to let the senior team know so they can help put the project back on track. In our escalation process, a team that has crossed a boundary condition must a) inform the senior team immediately and b) propose a solution. If the senior team agrees with the solution, then it informs the team via e-mail or Slack, without lengthy analyses of what went wrong. The important thing is to get the team back on track in hours or days, not weeks. 

If the management team does not agree with the team’s solution, then a meeting is called to discuss how to solve the boundary break, or change the boundary condition in question. We’ve called this meeting an out-of-bounds (OOB) review (see flow diagram below). Once the dev team and senior managers agree, the new boundary condition is established and the team continues on this basis.

 

"Escalation Map"

4. Projects are under resourced leading to functional bottlenecks.

We see too many products that are under resourced. Project managers have too many projects on their plate, while teams lack key skills. Product Owners are also stretched and too often communication between them and the dev team is sub-optimized, leading to poor product definition. 

Also, make sure you have adequate dedicated skills on the team. Have a maximum of only two projects per Product Owner, Scrum Master, Project Manager or Program Manager. Efficiency and quality fall off when these managers have more than two projects on their desk. Our experience finds that the bottleneck often occurs with these roles. Where there is joint development with outside partners, we find bottlenecks in Legal as well. 

The ultimate solution to this pitfall is simple: don’t bite off more than you can chew. What’s worth doing is worth doing right, and you need sufficient skilled players to do development right. Skimping and getting by, while driving Program Managers into the ground, is an all too frequent occurrence. It leads to burnout, turnover, and hurts the company in the long term. 

5. Unclear roles and responsibilities.

Who does what? It’s a basic question. Yet you’d be surprised how many organizations don’t have that question answered. Too many times, it is unclear to teams who is responsible for which deliverable. 

Project managers should be responsible for the how and when related to product development, while Product Managers are responsible for the why and what. But beyond these broad definitions, many teams don’t have clearly defined work streams and deliverables, with someone’s name written next to each. Or more than one person has the idea that he or she is responsible, leading to redundant work and confusion. 

Even where the team itself is clear on roles and responsibilities, we have seen cases where these roles are not communicated to the functional groups or to partners.

The solution is to define roles and responsibilities at the beginning of the project. Document them. Make the tasks more granular than you expect, by dividing broader tasks into smaller, bite-sized activities. Have one and only one Directly Responsible Individual for each and every deliverable. We have used a modified version of the RACI diagram (below) that helps keep everything straight. It also helps to have a communication map that clarifies who speaks for the team, who talks to partners and executives, etc.

 

"RACI chart"

Avoiding the pitfalls

It’s frustrating to see the same mistakes repeated over and over, especially when they are avoidable. Many of the pitfalls above can be avoided without onerous post-mortems, lengthy change management initiatives, or expensive IT buys. They are basic to human beings and the vagaries of how we communicate — or fail to do so.

 


  • John Carter

    John Carter is a widely respected expert on product development. He is the co-inventor of Bose’s Noise Cancelling Headphones and designer of Apple’s New Product Process. As Founder of TCGen Inc., he has consulted for Abbott, Amazon, Apple, Cisco, HP, IBM, Mozilla, Roche, and 3M. He is the author of “Innovate Products Faster,” featuring more than 40 tools for accelerating product development speed and innovation.  John has an MS in Engineering from MIT.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked

By submitting this form, you agree to the processing of personal data according to our Privacy Policy.

You may also like