Your Insights Toolkit
For Product Teams
Launching a new product is an exciting, yet challenging endeavour. You may be under pressure to justify the resources for its development, or lack the data, and confidence, to know both what will make your product a success, and what are the distractors that need to be deprioritised.
We have designed this toolkit to equip you with a clear understanding of where and how to apply 360° customer, market and competitive intelligence across your lifecycle to guide your decision making and optimise your resources.
Common pitfalls that will be avoided by following this process:
1. Developing a comprehensive product or service that ultimately fails because it does not address a specific or genuine need, and does not resonate with the target audience.
2. Failing to recognise emerging trends and developing products or services that lack
long-term sustainability.
3. Building an undifferentiated product
or service as you fail to recognise and analyse the competition.
4. Misallocating resources – people, time or money - as the development process is not well structured.
6. Compromising quality
by rushing the
development process.
5. Unfocused teams leading to misunderstandings, delays, and inconsistencies in the product development process.
7. Launching products or services that are riddled by bugs or usability issues as you neglected to test these and incorporate any feedback into the development process.
8. Misunderstanding or failing to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, potentially leading to recalls, penalties and damaged brand image.
9. Encountering obstacles in launching a successful product or service due to neglecting controllable timing issues and failing to effectively plan for uncontrollable factors.
10. Failing to build long
term success by
neglecting to listen to user feedback post-launch.
Steps to Launching Your Product
Depending on your organisation, you may have developed your own version of a best-in-class product development lifecycle, where we would typically be expecting you to have incorporated some sort of stage-gate cadence to allow your product teams to be agile. We have experience working with a range of frameworks according to the needs of our clients – in all cases with a key principle of helping them take an evidence-led approach to knowing how far to take an idea to launch – and when it needs to be dropped.
KAE’s best-in-class application of research and insights across the typical product development lifecycle
1. Innovative Solutions Rooted in Customer Needs
We believe the best products begin with a clear problem to solve. Leading organisations continuously gather customer intelligence to ensure that every great idea originates from a genuine customer need. This approach, combined with ongoing market analysis, helps us identify untapped opportunities and anticipate emerging trends that could shape future customer demands.2. Idea Prioritisation and Alignment
We understand that not all ideas are created equal. It is crucial for leadership to have the right tools and the objective insights from both customers and the market to effectively prioritise and deprioritise initial ideas before further investment. Additionally, it is essential that the product ideas that move forward are well-aligned with the organisation’s overarching business objectives and balanced against other priorities.
3. Business Planning and Market Analysis
After screening initial ideas, the next step is to build a robust business plan. Conducting a Total Addressable Market (TAM) analysis is crucial to gauge potential market size and commercial viability. This involves reviewing existing market data and conducting in-depth interviews (IDIs) with industry practitioners and leaders.
While quantitative analysis provides a solid foundation, we emphasise the value of qualitative insights. Customer feedback helps refine your concept and value proposition, ensuring it resonates with your target audience. Additionally, competitive analysis identifies your market positioning and differentiation.
Our comprehensive approach delves into these areas, providing the evidence needed for informed decision-making and strategic refinement.
4. MVP Design and Market Positioning
After reviewing the business case and securing investment, the next step is to design your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and prioritise features based on customer research. In both a B2B and B2C environment, it is crucial to distinguish between buyer personas and user personas. Understanding the drivers of choice for decision-makers and the features that ensure end-user adoption is essential.
At this stage, firming up your market positioning is vital. Identify industry table stakes for the MVP, and define your unique selling proposition (USP) and differentiators. A thorough competitor benchmarking exercise can clarify your market position and help Product Marketing build a compelling value proposition.
As product prototypes are developed, leveraging customer feedback ensures the product resonates with your target audience. Pre-launch testing and refinement save time and resources by addressing potential issues before market entry. 5. Effective Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy
After refining your concept into a robust MVP using comprehensive insights from customers, the market, and competitors, it’s time to bring it to market.
When planning your GTM strategy, leverage customer research to optimise marketing and distribution channels, messaging, and pricing. Identify the best ways to connect with your customers to drive adoption. Determine the optimal price point to maximise revenue. Data-driven decisions prevent the pitfalls of launching an unoptimised product at the wrong price.
We assist brands across industries in building successful GTM roadmaps, commercialising propositions, and scaling them. Understanding your competitors’ GTM strategies reveals opportunities and challenges, helping refine your sales approach, channel selection, and prioritisation.6. Optimising Post-Launch Success
On launch day, you can be confident in your data-driven decisions that have guided your solution to market. However, continuous refinement is essential to ensure your product remains optimised and evolves with future development phases. Regularly review its competitive positioning and how well it addresses customer needs and pain points to maintain relevance and increase user engagement.We support brands through the entire launch process, from monitoring soft and full launches to refining the product post-launch based on evolving needs and market conditions. View our full Product Launch Support Cycle here.
Utilising intelligence throughout the product development lifecycle ensures that every decision is data-driven, enhancing the likelihood of success. By integrating both qualitative insights and advanced quantitative techniques, we provide a comprehensive understanding of market needs, customer preferences, and competitive dynamics. Our expertise in designing and applying the right methodologies allows us to address your unique requirements on a global scale, ensuring your product is not only relevant, but also poised for long-term success. Partner with us to leverage best-in-class intelligence and elevate your product development process to new heights.
Get in touch with us to learn more, or learn how to build your brief.