A simple method to prevent catastrophic digital product failures

Those working in digital product development are downright dreaded by not being able to deliver a project in an expected way, especially if they have strict contracts and tight deadlines around their necks.

But what can one do, putting new digital products out in the world always holds a great deal of risk, and well, the opportunity to hit a few failures. The question remains: how much are we going to lose if the much-dreaded failure occurs? What if I told you that while failure should be expected at all times, it can actually be managed with the right methods and tools.

At its core, prototyping is a process where design and research teams experiment with various ideas by implementing them into tangible forms from paper to digital. Prototypes can have varying degrees of fidelity to capture product concepts and test on users. With the help of prototypes, you can refine and validate your product ideas so your brand can release the right products. On another level, prototyping is all about communication and testing hypotheses that help teams to build empathy and to collaborate with stakeholders and users so that they can build the best product possible.

Surely we all vividly remember the controversial Hertz-Accenture scandal from 2019, which was a classic example of client and service provider not having enough synergy between themselves. US-based car rental giant Hertz filed a $32 million lawsuit against the well-respected consulting firm Accenture because it

Hertz withdrew from the contract in May 2018 after repeated delays from Accenture’s part prevented a launch initially planned for December 2017, and on top of that, the product and design apparently didn’t do half of what was specified, and even that was still not finished. Little wonder that the fiasco had cost the car rental company millions in a “tremendously competitive industry.”

Working in the field of digital transformation, I know that product failures can’t be seen as black & white as Hertz puts them in its complaint. Although the inside details of the project won’t come to light, it’s not hard to imagine that the two companies share the blame for things going sideways.

You see, carrying out complex digital initiatives should be both party’s responsibility as what concerns laying down project requirements very clearly and communicating these across all teams involved. Even if those requirements were stated in a cumbersome contract, it’s most probable that neither Hertz, nor Accenture had a clear overview over the deliverables, and that is the inescapable scenario for a project to fall apart. Product teams best learn about requirements through direct communication with the client, also, good clients keep tabs on everything happening during a project, not just sit around and wait for a perfect product to fall in their lap.

As I’ve said, one proven way to decrease the scope of failure and eliminate irrecoverable failures similar to the Hertz-Accenture case is to integrate prototyping into your digital product development process. For one thing, prototyping encourages teams to try (even the riskier) ideas, be able to align with stakeholders, and ultimately, to learn along the way. And what’s the best kind of learning?

Failure. That’s right, failure. However, the when and how of failure is what really counts here. Failing after your product has already been coded can be a rather costly practice that generally elongates run-out time, whereas failing with a prototyped concept fast and early into the project eliminates the hazard of completely exhausting the available funding and burning through the entire product development lifecycle.

Related posts:

Over the past few years, I have become a somewhat of an environmentalist. I partially attribute this to moving from Kansas, land of unpopulated space for landfills, to San Diego. Like a lot of…

Dodger outfielder Mookie Betts has been named a 2020 Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner, winning his first National League Gold Glove and fifth straight Gold Glove overall. Betts is the second straight…

In order to make an IT operation or a DevOps team as agile as the development team, a good and automated provisioning process is a necessity. There are a number of tools out there to help with the…