Digital product development is booming — but lack of strategy is a barrier to success

This is part of a series highlighting key takeaways from our latest report Investing in Digital Transformation and Product Development. (<– Download the full report for free!)

We see no signs of slowing investment in digital products. According to a survey of product development decision-makers, in the last two years, a whopping 69% of organizations have implemented or overhauled a customer-facing product or application as they move to modernize their offerings and improve user experience, and it doesn’t stop there. Another 44% of organizations will be investing in the launch of new customer-facing applications or features this year. 

Investing in digital product development

Budgets are also increasing significantly, according to product development decision-makers. 95% of those surveyed in the report expect an increase to some extent in the budget dedicated to planning, building, and managing customer-facing digital products this year. That is a notable number, considering the slowdown of investment in other areas.

An organization’s product development strategy is a central part of digital transformation. Decision-makers know that customer-facing products are where the customer interacts with their brand and they are investing to make sure that experience is a success.

Improving digital product development, whether in the form of implementing new products or overhauling existing products, results in a myriad of benefits that directly address business challenges. Nearly half of the decision-makers surveyed report an improvement in customer experience as a result of their latest digital product implementation or overhaul. Other benefits include improved data security and increased ROI.

Product strategy challenges

Product development might be booming as a way to improve customer experience — but organizations still struggle to strategically scale their products.

A clear strategy to innovate and modernize products and applications is necessary to future-proof digital transformation. However, accountability for follow-through on strategy proves to be a roadblock for most organizations, with 79% of those surveyed reporting that following through on strategic elements of developing and launching new products is a barrier to success.

Scaling technology strategically and creating an enterprise-wide strategy are among the top-reported challenges for decision-makers as they implement, execute, and manage new customer-facing products.

Who makes decisions about digital products?

Who has decision-making authority for customer-facing digital products? What’s different about the most successful strategies?

Unsurprisingly, executives and IT departments are the most commonly reported departments to have decision-making authority, with 90% of respondents in our survey reporting their executive team often or always has this authority and 89% of respondents reporting that their IT department often or always has this authority.

This data speaks to how innovation is often most successful when it is engrained across the organization. We tend to see that companies with high digital maturity have a unified, multi-department strategy, rather than creating products in a bubble. The results are better when everyone is on the same page about the organization’s goals and investment in technology to achieve them.

As our CEO Pat Sheridan puts it, “Over the years, I’ve learned that the best and most innovative ideas spring from the collective efforts of everyone in an organization. Because at the end of the day, the responsibility for driving innovation doesn’t just fall onto one person. We all have our roles to play.”

Curious about more insights? Check out our latest research report on Investing in Digital Transformation and Product Development.