4 Reasons Your Digital Product Is Failing

When building a new digital product there are a few common pitfalls that need to be avoided. There are some common reasons why digital products fail, and nearly all of them are down to human error.

Digital innovation isn’t an easy task, but when you’re building digital products there is a formula that needs to be followed. This knowledge is what we share with clients at ENO8, which enables them to build their digital products and innovate their business.

To get a head start on your digital product development, take a look at the common pitfalls to avoid when building new digital products.

• You Allow Product Ambiguity To Arise Because You Don’t Develop Clear and Accepted Definitions

This is one of the issues cited by Gartner in their recent paper on why digital products fail. They noted that many product managers don’t carry out their due diligence when it comes to developing clear definitions on what the product should be.

Product managers need to ensure that everyone is on the same page, and understands who the product is for and what it will need to do. This understanding should be backed by complete market research which identifies and defines the needs of what is being built. Before anything is done, product managers need to develop clear definitions with the team and document them accordingly.

• You Don’t Do Market Research

Doing your market research with regards to how you will build your product is essential. It is important that you understand how your product will work within the market, and who it will serve. It is also important to understand the cost of building your digital product vs it’s value in the market.

This crucial information is often overlooked, however this leads to budgeting issues and products that don’t offer ROI.

• You Overdetail Your Features List

Good design is about streamlining the user experience and making your digital product easy to navigate. When you over complicate your features, you end up with a digital product that tries to do too much, and ends up not achieving the key goals of your customer.

Instead, try to minimize the features list and only include the essentials in your digital product. You can still get opinions from people and aim to please all stakeholders, however it is important that the features list is trimmed down before you go into the development stage.

• You Don’t Plan For Future Growth

When creating a digital product, it’s essential that you think ahead and plan for future growth. This might include building a digital innovation roadmap so that your product will map onto your overall strategy and be able to last the test of time.

You should be prepared to have a 3 or 6 month review, to assess the feedback, comments, new feature requests and defects that you may find in your digital product once you take it to market. One of the main pitfalls people make when launching a new digital product is creating it and unleashing it into the world without planning for future growth.

How To Avoid Digital Product Fails

If you’re looking to launch a digital product, and want to avoid these key failings, then it’s worth booking a call with ENO8 to discuss your needs. We are always eager to learn about your business or tell you more about how we can help you.