The job of a product developer starts way before developing a product, bringing about creativity and innovation with product creation ideas. It is no secret that either it could be related with brand new product creation, or possibly improving the existing legacy ones.
No matter what the client requirements are, product developers need to fulfil certain prerequisites to be a best fit for successful product development. Let us look at these must haves in the form of skillsets to be possessed by a product developer, in both visible and invisible forms.
Getting the nerves of the clients
This is quite evident, as without understanding what end results are expected from the clientele, a product developer can’t set the right path and tone for product development.
Having a cool and calm mind, backed by patience and open mindset, is the key to sit back for hearing to what inputs a client has to give, so as to implement the same for best results.
Know about the market and competition
As much you should comprehend your clients, it is equally important to be aware of what’s going on with the competitors products design around, and how you can have your clients outperform via a competitive edge.
The best way is to go about with Google News, Trends, and Alerts to stay on top with all the technological updates going around the globe.
Letting business values penetrate to the core
When you treat a client business as your own baby, you can know the business to the core likewise your clients, or even better based on your passionate approach towards learning.
This can have a profound impact on letting business values take you over from inside, so that you gain the ability to get into client shoes, and get a thorough idea of how a product meant to be.
Plan in advance while emphasising on prioritisation
A product developer has to plan out things way in advance before actual product design and development to commence, since prioritising activities and tasks is the key to success in terms of manpower, efforts, time, and money.
Knowing about people and processes is just not enough, as one has to integrate both facets in a cohesive manner to perform as a right team your project does require.
Build a prototype after done with wire-framing
Prototype building helps people associated with the project to have a brief idea of what the end product is going to be, and whether it is suffices all the technical specifications and requirements for what it is being created.
With workable versions of the product, a product developer can collect as much feedback possible from the test group as well as the client itself, to cut down on all bugs, errors, or technical abnormalities gradually bringing the product to near perfection as much possible.
Test and test product at regular intervals
A product developer should have the tendency to test a product frequently enough, so that if by chance any features or functionalities are missing, they can be included to build a custom product as soon as discovered.
Testing phases are also critical when it comes to introducing updates or upgrades, for the product to fulfil jobs of an end user, who expect a lot from the product to meet their day to day needs.
Be conscious about time and money constraints
For any business to be fruitful the products created should not only be time efficient but also be cost effective, for releasing affordable products to market in quick turnaround time.
A product developer should be well aware of this fact and hence plan a project such that it can overcome all those hurdles that can lead to unnecessary rise in project costs or delays in project stages execution.
Pro-activeness keeps positive vibes on high
Being a team player and working with team members backed by empathy and collaborative attitude helps great deal in accomplishing the project with precision as a software development team.
Also, getting on the toes all the time, motivates other team members to adapt same attitude towards work, hence giving rise to team synergy coming out on top.
Self and team direction when required
A product developer should be responsible enough to take over the decision making and job allocation abilities in the absence of a product manager, team leader, or other team members.
This should happen two ways – taking over one’s own self as well as taking over the actions of individual team members, without being bossy and allowing for autonomy.
Visual sense of User Interface & Experience (UI/UX)
A product developer should be able to visualise a product in terms of how it will appear towards the end of design, development, and testing phases, to get a perception on how users would perceive the same.
Additionally, usability should strike the mind of a product developer especially when part of an experienced offshore development team, to learn behavioural and reactive patterns of users while using the product.
There is so much more to product development
A product developer should be proficient in multi-faceted aspects of product development. It is not technical skills or soft skills alone, but a combination of both to accomplish a project.
Next time when plan to hire dedicated developer, do consider both knowledge and personality traits. What’s your take into it?
