For those starting a new service or digital product, the path to a successful launch and adoption can, at times, seem daunting or opaque—particularly if it’s the first venture of its kind for a company, be they a start-up or an enterprise org.

When Grand Studio takes on defining a new product or service, we take a similar holistic approach to what an internal product management team might take, including: product definition and strategy, establishing a brand and design system, and roadmapping prioritized features. Here’s a peek at how our approach can help any organization when they are faced with building something new.

To begin: use what you have

One of our long-term collaborations this year has been creating a new digital suite in the complex cybersecurity space. To move quickly and effectively, we and our client partners have been leveraging existing processes they developed from their consulting experience within cybersecurity. 

This practice, of digging into successful existing processes to further define digital tools or automations, is one we use with many of our clients and remains a key way to successfully bring a new tool to market. It’s important to know where the team is starting and where the gap is to properly define a new product. It can not only help the design and development teams to know what they’re building when an existing set of processes is documented, but it can also be supremely helpful in constructing an effective business plan for the new product or service by helping define the market, its size, its needs, etc.

Collaborate closely with partners

We make sure to work closely with our clients every step of the way as we’re designing everything from scratch. Regular meetings throughout the week are important times to define, align on goals, and finalize design direction. This includes leadership, developers, and subject matter experts being involved throughout the design process so that all areas of the business have visibility and proper input into design decisions. Not only does this create a stronger product overall but also develops mutual ownership in the design process and decisions made throughout. 

But even when final designs have been handed off, that doesn’t mean collaboration should end.  Being committed to building the right thing means being close to the actual development of the product and continuing to make design updates due to changes in direction, development issues, or any other discrepancies. Keeping an open channel of communication and being transparent about the process helps build that bridge while adhering to a timeline.

Start a new design system from scratch

Establishing a design system from the very beginning helps serve as a guide to tackle the growing complexity in any new initiative.  A design system is when a team defines common design patterns that can scale and document those elements (buttons, colors, interactions, etc.) properly to re-adapt in design and maintain for developers as they build out screens that have been designed. Thinking about that cybersecurity tool we mentioned, we put the collaboration ethos to good use and empowered our client partners to help determine which sections of the tool would be best to design first in terms of establishing a system. 

Another useful strategy here is to map out key screens and list all the user needs and features to determine where to start. Naturally, the system won’t be fully planned as things will come up throughout design—that cybersecurity tool has grown and evolved since the first iteration which has only improved the overall product. But having an agreed-upon and (hopefully) user-data-driven list to work from, helps keep everyone moving quickly and efficiently towards launch.

Find ways to adapt to the ambiguity

At Grand Studio, we thrive when working through ambiguity. In fact, it’s one of our core tenets. When you have an initiative similar to our referenced cybersecurity tool, you may be presented with challenges like diving deep into a complex system, working with evolving business priorities inside your organization, and supporting developers as they work off design specs. Working through these challenges has required us at Grand Studio to be nimble enough to jump from one thing to the next while prioritizing our time to be most effective. This requires coordination within our team and the client to determine where design is needed to achieve the ultimate goal of building an initial release. There’s a continuous conversation between business, tech, and design around priority of tasks and the tradeoffs we inherit from decisions. Keeping ourselves adaptable amongst the whole cross-functional team is absolutely necessary to ensure the right features get launched. 

All in all the challenge of creating something new is exciting. After a few months designing the cybersecurity tool, we’ve gone from high-level definitions to a full design system that informs a suite of tools for users to manage cybersecurity threats on devices. Though there’s plenty of work to be done from now until the initial release we’ll keep pushing consistency in design, collaborating across functions, and working through ambiguity to create a great product.

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Need help with designing the next big thing?

Grand Studio can help. We use a tailored approach to work with you to define and fully learn your problem space so that we ensure we are solving the right problems through proper design methodologies.