Ensuring a smooth shift from idea to delivery is a must in the fast-paced world of product development. That's where product development software plays an essential role. It supports teams through the complicated steps of product creation using an organized, collaborative, and data-driven process.

You can group product development into four major categories: new-to-the-company, improvement of existing product, extension of product line, and new-to-the-market.

Product development software also greatly affects the success and efficiency of the product creation process. It enables teams to produce innovative solutions and unlock successful product outcomes.

This guide will cover product development software in more depth, including key features, benefits, and more.

Product development is a long process that includes researching what the market wants, coming up with ideas, planning, designing, testing, and launching the product.

Getting through the different stages takes precision, teamwork, and adapting. The aim is to ensure the final product meets customers' needs and the company's goals.

Product development software refers to tools that support the full lifecycle of product creation--from concept to launch-- easier, faster, and more efficient. 

Product development software handles idea generation, product data, version control, and other parts of product management, such as product roadmapping, backlog management, and release management. 

The software helps product managers generate ideas by providing tools to capture, organize, and evaluate ideas. It manages product data by providing a central repository for all product information. It also assists with version control by providing a way to track changes to product requirements and designs.

Product development software helps businesses create new products efficiently. It helps teams work together, outlines the product's journey from idea to launch, and organizes tasks. Let's look at the various types and features of each.

Product roadmapping

Product roadmapping is like making a business plan; it shows how to get from the idea to the end product. It's a visual that helps you find your way and marks important goals, tasks, and due dates.

Product roadmaps like those found in Jira Product Discovery help teams plan and collaborate to meet their goals. Jira Product Discovery lets product teams share their product strategy using always-up-to-date, custom roadmaps. These roadmaps keep everyone on the same page with the product plan by providing product backlogs and user stories.

Product backlogs are tasks the development team needs to complete, ranked by importance. User stories describe the product from the end user's point of view.

Learn how Atlassian's product roadmap template can transform your product features from ideas to reality.

Agile development

Agile development involves using tools like Gantt charts to build a product. The Agile methodology emphasizes the importance of taking small steps and being adaptable.

Teams use Agile product development software, such as Jira, to divide work into small chunks called sprints. The Scrum framework and Kanban help with sprint planning. Teams give customers parts of the product over time. How customers feel about it shapes the next versions of the product.

Customer feedback

Customer feedback is the market's voice. It can shape the direction and features of a product in important ways. Customer opinions are like a compass that ensures the product creation process aligns with customers’ wants and needs.

Customer feedback tools help gather opinions and suggestions from users through surveys and forms. They also help analyze feedback to find common trends or issues. Other tools use feedback to improve the product, making it easier for teams to understand what customers want and need.

Task management

Task management tools, such as Jira, aids product development by organizing, assigning, and keeping track of jobs. It helps teams monitor, handle, and finish all jobs, whether big or small, on time and up to standard.

Atlassian offers a task management template to make the process easier.

Product development software opens a world of benefits that lead to higher productivity and better results:

• Accelerates development lifecycles: Teams move quickly through the development stages, from design to testing. This reduces the time it takes to get a product to market.

• Enhances collaboration: Product development software encourages seamless collaboration between teams.

• Improves accuracy: The software encourages accurate documentation and data management, reducing mistakes.

• Streamlines project management: Product development software makes tracking tasks, assigning resources, and creating schedules easier. This helps teams efficiently manage and organize different parts of product development.

To pick the best product development software, you need to carefully consider several factors, such as:

• Business needs and goals: Find software that aligns with the needs and goals of the business. For instance, Jira is known for its Agile project management features that help teams reach iterative development goals.

• Scalability and flexibility: Ensure the software can grow and evolve with the business's needs.

• Integration capabilities: Check whether the software works with the company's current tools and systems.

• User interface: Verify the design is easy to use and improves the user experience. Jira Product Discovery's intuitive interface facilitates smooth navigation and ease of use.

• Cost: Look at how much the software costs to confirm it's worth the money. Both Jira and Jira Product Discovery are cost-effective solutions worth considering.

Companies that want to stay competitive and develop fresh ideas need to adopt the right tools. Product development software allows companies to track trends and discover customer needs, strengthening their position in the market.

Jira and Jira Product Discovery are some of the best product development tools available. 

Jira Product Discovery helps product development teams keep track of and manage their product ideas by providing a central place to capture, prioritize, and collaborate on ideas. Teams can back up their ideas with data, customer reviews, sales information, support tickets, and more. 

Its seamless integration with Jira speeds the product development process, enabling teams to efficiently move from conception to delivery. Using Jira, software teams can break big ideas into actionable chunks to plan, track, and release software.

What are some challenges of product development software?

Challenges with product development software include overcoming the steep learning curve, making sure the software works well with other product development tools and processes, and keeping data safe and secure.

To ease the learning curve, pick easy-to-use software and offer training to team members. Ensure the software works well with other tools you use ahead of time. For data safety, choose software with strong security features and teach your team about keeping data safe. Also, start using the software for smaller projects to get a feel for it before using it for more complex projects.

What tasks can product development software help with?

The best product development software helps with many tasks, including product strategy, roadmapping, analytics, and customer feedback. It encourages planning and organization by showing the state of the product in real time, cutting down time to market.

Does product development software integrate with other tools?

Product development software such as Jira and Jira Product Discovery can connect to other tools using the platform or product ecosystem model. This further streamlines processes and improves the efficiency of operations.

Related resources

• Project Management Resources

  • Product Launch Resources

  • Software Project Management