How to Design a Saas Product

Developing a Saas product can be tricky, especially if you do not have the required tools. Designing software products is a tedious process involving numerous intricate steps that must be followed to accomplish a decent outcome. 

Software products, if developed correctly, can be highly beneficial to companies, as they’ll allow them to become more efficient and productive. This is a significant reason why most companies worldwide are employing various software applications to help them scale their operations much better. 

There’s so much involved in developing a software product, from brainstorming to visualizing to using the proper tools to ensure any alterations need to be made midway. It’s almost safe to say it takes a village. This article will explore what goes into designing a software product, its stages, and the tools that should be used. 

What Are Software Products?

Software products have taken over the modern lifestyle in companies or daily life. All of us use some software to access many things these days. Since so many software products are launched almost daily, they’ve made life much more convenient for everyone. However, companies have benefitted the most, as these software products help them expand their business. 

If we must define it, a software product is anything that delivers information or makes carrying out operations much easier through the software itself. If it weren’t for software products, many companies wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the recent trends, competition, and technology. It’s because of software products that enterprises have allowed themselves the opportunity to understand what needs to be done to accomplish more significant goals. 

Types of Software Products 

When shopping for a software product, you’ll find many, each offering a unique set of benefits. Different software comes with varying technological features, each with a competitive edge that sets it apart from others. Let’s explore the several types of software products one by one. 

COTS

COTS, otherwise known as consumer off-the-shelf software, is a specific software for consumers looking for numerous solutions. COTS is considered a traditional software, providing larger audiences varying solutions for, more or less, the exact needs. 

The most significant example of COTS is MS-Word, as this word processor is meant for the mass public. COTS can be used online or offline, with the user typically having to pay a one-time purchase price. 

SaaS

Software as a service (SaaS) is another software product that has made life more manageable for everyone. Unlike COTS, these products are cloud-based and do not require to be installed on the desktop. Another distinguishing feature is that SaaS doesn’t offer a one-time purchase price and must be paid monthly or annually. The user must subscribe to a SaaS product to fully use it. 

Customized 

The third type of software product is customized software, where the user will get specific features tailor-made. Companies mainly have customized software developed for them, needing key features that align with their business model. 

Customized software products can be heavy on the wallet, as having specific characteristics especially built-in, can cost plenty. However, given their specificity, customized software products can benefit more than COTS or SaaS. 

Characteristics of Software Products

Every software product possesses specific characteristics that make them efficient and beneficial. These characteristics reflect how qualifiable these products are, encouraging business runners to invest in them. The following are a few characteristics a good software product should have. 

Efficiency 

The efficiency of a software product determines its quality, allowing employees to work with them without facing any hassle. 

Maintainability

Every technological product is bound to encounter bugs and other issues. However, a good software product should be able to spot and fix them for a seamless user experience.

Dependability 

All software products should deliver reliable information, not to mention how secure it should be. Companies rely on this information to improve their performance, so it’s a must for the software to be compliant. 

How to Design a Software Product?

When developing a software product, you must always follow an elaborate plan if you don’t want your idea and execution to go to hell. It’s called business suicide to act on a hunch and not follow a well-laid-out plan. It’s best to create a step-by-step process and go through each stop organically instead of jumping from one task to another. Here’s a complete guide on how to design a software product effectively. 

Assess Readiness

It’s natural not to know much initially, but you must ask the right questions to kick off things. You should know so much technical stuff to start your software development process. If you don’t assess things, you might not know what niche you’re getting yourself into, failing to create the appropriate product. Get in touch with an expert team that can help you get ahead and move on to the next stage. Hence, before moving on, you must know if you’re ready, and here’s how you can:

Product Specifications 

Product specifications are crucial, as your whole model will depend on them. If you do not know the business type, industry, purpose, goals, functions, and vision, you possibly can’t develop the right software product. So, we suggest you take some time to define product requirements to understand precisely what you’re doing entirely. 

Domain Expertise

Domain expertise is yet another way to determine if you fully understand the requirement the product needs. It’s crucial in software product creation, as it lets you know your target audience’s needs. You might even say it’s key to accomplishing product-solution fit. Hence, it would help you if you become aware of your domain expertise. 

Relevant Experience 

Lastly, if you’ve been in this business for long, you would know the entire process inside out, giving you adequate experience. This is an excellent way of assessing your readiness, as being aware of the process will provide you with realistic expectations regarding the software product. Having sufficient experience also backs up your project management skills. 

Know Your Team

The second step is to get acquainted with the people you’re going to work with to design the software product. It’s not only basic but essential to understand your team well, as it ensures a smooth development process. If you don’t break the ice with your co-workers, you might not have the desired product. Here are a few people you should become acquainted with while developing your product. 

Tech Lead

A tech lead oversees the project, especially the technical aspects. They ensure that the product perfectly aligns with the business model and will help you identify numerous product requirements and specifications. Following your tech lead is crucial, as they will help you identify and fix errors. 

Delivery Manager

Delivery managers closely work with tech leads to develop a roadmap regarding deadlines. Such people also know how to allocate resources ideally, so it would help if you were in the same loop to understand what’s happening at all times. Delivery managers are ideal team co-workers who maximize the software product’s value. 

Business Analyst 

Business analysts are highly crucial to the team, as they make necessary analyses regarding what the target audience wants. They ensure to achieve all your goals for the product, helping the business improve its functions and operations. Business analysts find satisfactory solutions to problems by hitting those numbers hard, especially in the initial stages. 

Validating Idea and Estimation

Idea validation and project estimation are two significant steps you cannot and should not miss. Idea validation refers to connecting the dots between what you want to create and what the audience wants. It’s a collection of surveys, questionnaires, interviews, etc., to understand what product should be developed. Idea validation will give you a good measure of the audience’s demands, helping you plan budgets and deadlines accordingly. 

At the same time, project estimation is figuring out the total cost of the entire product. Project estimation is crucial as it will allow the business analyst to prepare a work breakdown structure (WBS) for better execution. Project estimation is based on idea validation, product specifications, and features. If you’ve already covered the rough estimate, you can get into the detailed one that will provide you with more accuracy regarding the figures. 

Creating a Prototype or MVP

It would be best to test your product to see if it works in real life and provides solutions. Creating a prototype or minimal viable product (MVP) is the way to do that. It’s wise to test a prototype or an MVP to know if you’ve used your resources adequately. If not, it’ll give you a second chance to get things right the second time around. You can skip this step if your product plan is going solid. However, if not, you can create the following types of prototypes and MVPs. 

Clickable Prototype 

A clickable prototype is a toned-down version of your existing product, and it’s built for mobile and web applications. This prototype allows you to test your product’s functionality, giving users a little taste of what the product is actually about. Clickable prototypes will provide a good sense of the product’s layout and structure. 

Full-Fledged MVP

Another way to test your design is through a full-fledged MVP. A full-fledged MVP gives users a more detailed insight into what the product is about, something that clickable prototypes that don’t offer. However, you cannot sell a full-fledged MVP as a product, as it’s just a trial product to get feedback from the audience regarding what they think about the product. 

Design

The next step is to design the product to achieve a visual milestone. After you’ve collected all necessary data, such as idea validation, project estimation, and customer feedback, you can officially begin the design process. All crucial information can be used to proceed further in the software product development process. Also, if you’re hustling to get some stakeholders or investors on board, the product’s design can help you gain their trust and approval.

Development

After designing the product, it’s time to get on the technical side of the process, which is to develop. Developing refers to coding, which can be an extensive process altogether. During this stage, all teammates sit together to work on the product’s frontend, backend, and infrastructure. 

You should know that a statement of work (SOW) has to be submitted during the development phase. The SOW would contain information regarding what, when, why, and how everything will be executed. 

Testing

After writing the first code, it’s time to test it to see how effective the code is. It’s wise to try the code each time you develop one to avoid any errors in the final product. In the software world, the more you test, the better your software product will be when it goes live. You can manually test the code or implement automated testing; both are equally beneficial and will give you a good idea of how adequate the code is. 

Implementation

When you’ve tested your code successfully, with positive results, it’s time to implement further resources to move onto the production phase. The production phase will involve setting up a server, building a continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) pipeline, and protecting your software from third-party failures. All these steps are crucial to ensure your software product runs as efficiently as possible. 

Operations and Maintenance

When you’ve accomplished all the steps mentioned above, it’s time to maintain your software’s operations to ensure it runs smoothly. Even though this is the last step, you must not take maintaining your software lightly, as it has great significance. You must hire a team (or do it yourself) that will keep upgrading the software, looks out for errors, protect it from cybercrime, etc. The more you maintain your software, the better usability it’ll have in the long run. 

Wrapping Up

So, now you know how extensive is the software product development process. It undoubtedly takes a village, as so many intricate steps are involved. If you want a successful product, you must go through all steps to get every little detail right. After you’ve done so, you’ll have a fine software product ready to be used by its target audience.