Process Behind
Well-done Products
The best apps don’t happen by accident. There are a series of well-crafted steps and tasks that happen before they even hit the market - and that’s not including further refinement, optimization, and support. From concepts to coding, we’ve refined our process over the years to produce the best results as effectively as possible. And it’s a process that starts with you. As a product owner, you’ll be involved in every step.
Research
Through workshops and design sessions, we work with you to generate the core concepts for the project. During this early stage, we focus on:
Market Analysis
By studying your competitors and the wider industry, we understand what the product needs to do to stand out and make a difference.
User Research
All products need to answer users’ problems. We explore and define the target audience, their pain points, and how the final app will resolve the situation.
Product Requirements
We start putting everything we have into a dedicated Product Requirements Document, forming the essential, central resource for every other step.
Prototyping
With prototyping, we start to showcase and demonstrate the core elements of a design. With wireframes, we can show user flows, confirm the vision, and get early, initial feedback while development is able to adapt with ease.
There may also be parts of a design that are new and untested. A prototype is how we further test these specific areas. We test new technology, ensure it works as intended - and in-line with the defined business objectives and user needs - as well as identify any risks before moving forward with the larger project.
Finally, prototypes serve to demonstrate parts of - or even entire - functionalities, which can help gain approval from stakeholders, ensure the project works, and otherwise provide a useful reference for the rest of the development.
You can learn more about our prototyping expertise here.
Development & Testing
After the research and prototyping phases, we have a fully-fledged Project Requirements Document that details the ultimate objectives of the project, as well as the technologies, team, and scope involved.
From this, we start development using an iterative, agile method. Each feature or functionality is developed on its own, added to the full service when it’s ready. This way, we can focus on developing and testing each section at its own scale, so that the overall project is never slowed down from one singular area.
Testing
We test our solutions at every stage to ensure they are of the highest quality. Nothing gets released to the production environment without extensive testing and code review.
A Proof of Concept
A PoC is the first real compilation of code. It’s not ready for the market, but it demonstrates how the final app will look, feel & work. It’s a stage to test the product’s progress and gain further approval. You can read more about Proof of Concepts here.
Minimum Viable Product
The MVP is the first version to reach the market. It has all the essential features to target your users core needs and secure a foothold within your audience. You can learn more about our Minimum Viable Product services here.
Post-Release
So, what comes after the MVP? Often, we’ll have defined a larger roadmap of additional features in the Project Requirements Document, but we’ll also test the initial market reaction to see what users most follow for. For new features, we simply repeat the process.
We start with research - taking what’s already been planned and adding new elements if needed.
We prototype - if needed, to ensure these new features fit your business objectives and criteria.
We develop, test, and release - and that’s it until we move on to the next improvement!
It’s important to note that this iterative process of improvement is how all the best applications stay up to date in a competitive market. Even the biggest products, such as Facebook, Airbnb, or Uber, have to stay up to date to secure their dominance.
Cross-Functional Teams Deliver The Best Results
Paired with an agile approach, we work with cross-functional teams to ensure all skills and expertise are available at every step. This way, our developers are active right from the initial workshops, our designers can influence the final product and, ultimately, the overall quality is much higher.
This process also ensures that you, as a product owner, only have to talk to one team for all project-related information. Nothing gets lost in between.
You can learn more about cross-functional teams here.
One Cohesive Unit
A cross-functional team can cover all needed expertise, so there’s no need to slow down progress by breaking up into different departments.
Cost-Effective
With overlapping skills, we can reduce the number of people needed per project, reducing costs without sacrifice in quality or time to market.
Focus On Quality
By removing silos, we only have one team focused on updating quality across the entire project - no weak spots.
The Tools That Enable Our Process
Over the years, we’ve learned to develop and refine our process in order to deliver the best results each and every time.
6 Stages of Lean Product Development Process
Ideate, Validate, Roadmap, Prototype, Feedback, Iterate… these 6 steps enable us to deliver products that exceed objectives and ultimately sell. Lean development keeps us agile, but focused.
Learn more here.
A User Centered Design Process
Whether it’s a paying customer or internal staff, the end-user ultimately impacts whether or not a product is successful. By designing around this core fact, we ensure your products have the best successes.
Learn more here.
A Lean Startup Methodology
Great for startups and new projects, this approach avoids risks by staying flexible and ready to adapt or pivot, focusing on short iterative bursts and frequent updates. Launch quickly - but stay adaptive.
Learn more here.
Lean and Business Model Canvases
A lean canvas focuses on one problem at a time, while a business model looks at the larger operational context. We’ll help you choose the right canvas to keep the product-focused through design, development, and release.
Learn more here.
Product Requirements Documentation
Finally, we recommend a Product Requirements Document for every project - it’s essential for keeping everything inline with the original goals.
Learn more here.
Success stories
We've collected a set of inspiring examples to help you get a feel for our work.
Each of our case studies is about something unique.
Please find one that
inspires you to dream big.
Why Should You Work With Us?
It takes a lot to make a great product. From the initial design phase through to development and release, it takes a team with both the right range of skills and the ability to think strategically.
UIG Studio has been operating since 2010 and our team has a growing legacy of successful apps and products.
Our team is a boutique, but our competencies are vast and our passion is evergrowing. Want to hit the ground running with your next project? Contact us to get started.
