A Step-wise Roadmap to Convert an Idea into a Custom Software

Digitalization of every industry has brought a storm of competitiveness that businesses are trying to survive through modern business models. Adopting a custom software development strategy is one of these business models that have worked out for plenty of businesses out there.

However, it is also true that a bad software development strategy can jeopardize the brand's reputation instead of contributing to its growth. To save your business from such a tragedy, this blog is drafted. The blog aims to provide you with a step-wise custom software development strategy for the best ROIs.

We will also discuss some statistics and examples that will help you understand how some businesses have successfully created and deployed their product launch strategies.

Step 1- Product ideation and conceptualization

The success of your custom software depends on how well you plan your development process. Once you have an idea to work on, you will have certain tasks at your disposal. In this stage, you will answer a few questions-

• How will your product look?
• What problem you are solving through your product?
• Where is your target market?
• What are your goals behind building a custom software solution?

Step 2- Market and customer research

The quality of research done to build a product can influence its overall success. Researching your market can help you answer questions like:

• The number of possible competitors existing in the market.
• What is working for your competitors and what is not working?
• Demographics, income level, and tech literacy of your target market.

Step 3- Product designing

Product design influences the overall user experience which directly affects the user retention rate and product rating. So, at this phase, there are a few points you need to consider while designing the product:

• The number of features you are including in your product.
• Is your product’s user interface design intuitive and consistent enough to offer a smooth user experience?
• Is design impacting the product’s loading time?
• Will users be comfortable using your software?

Step 3- Software prototyping

Prototyping is a phase where you prepare a rough design of the product that you have envisioned. At this phase, you can collect feedback on your prototype from colleagues, and employees, and even organize a survey to know the opinion of actual potential users.

The prototyping stage also helps you figure out inputs like:

• How well you have planned your product strategy.
• Whether the number of shortlisted features will look good for your app.
• If your app design is practically suitable for the target market or not.

Step 4- Product development

After prototyping when your product design is ready to get developed, you can decide whether you want to develop the app within a single phase or multiple phases. Most top custom software development companies also develop early beta access to collect feedback from real users and make modifications accordingly before launching the final version of the product in the market.

Depending on your experience, you can also use some assistance for the development of the phase by leveraging tools like low-code development tools or no-code development tools. These tools are built to save time and money. However, using these tools will not offer you as much customization as possible.

Step 5- Product testing

The testing phase of a product helps you understand how well it will get popular in the market. At the same time, product testing also helps you identify any glitches or errors in the codebase that can be fixed before the launch.

There are several product testing tools existing today that can help you automate your custom software’s testing so you can launch it in the actual market without creating a bad first impression on your target users’ minds.

Step 6- Product deployment

Once the software is done with the testing phase, it is ready for deployment in the actual market. The deployment phase will streamline the product installation and configuration processes. Additionally, to help target users smoothly adopt your custom software, it is ideal to organize training and information sessions to introduce your software to the masses. Software development companies in the USA, India, the UK, and other countries have adopted a popular practice of preparing websites, social media posts, video ads, and other such methods to make target users aware of their products.

Step 7- Product maintenance and upgrades

Post-launch of your custom software, it becomes a necessity to maintain your product regularly by releasing regular updates. Most software face compatibility issues as soon as new operating systems are released in markets.

To tackle this problem, developers prefer keeping their software up to date by releasing new patches often. This also helps you avoid any possible glitches or app downtimes in the future.

Wrapping up

A custom software development lifecycle’s success depends on how clear your vision is that you are using to launch the product. If you have researched the target market well, understood the market position of your future competitors, and are ready to take the risk, then you are ready to start building your product.

Hopefully, our input on preparing a custom software development strategy will help you secure the best possible ROIs by assisting you with the planning at every phase of the development. These tips are based on development trends popular among the top mobile app development companies in the USA, India, the UK, and more. So, irrespective of your location, these strategies can help you boost the quality of your outcomes of software development.