Secrets to Product Success

Defining product success is easy depending on what you classify as success. Did it benefit humanity or society? Was it embraced by the people? Did it exceed sales expectations? Did it redefine a market or product category? It is easy to observe when a product is successful. But what goes into making a successful product? Here at our Melbourne office we take a closer look into a few of the key aspects of product success.

Vision for the product

The first thing needed to make a product successful is vision, as this forms the basis from which all aspects of the product are built. The vision is the end result or goal that all future collaborators work towards to make it a reality. Without the vision there is no clear direction for people to work towards. Clarity of this vision by those driving the product is critical in forming the basis of the successful product.

Understanding the Market

Identifying a need or desire within the market is the next step in ensuring your products success. This aspect of understanding the end user has two sides. The first is filling the need, the product needs to fulfill a need or requirement of the user. Whether it be making their life better or easier the product should enhance the user's life in some way. The other aspect is design, does the design itself resonate with the user and help define who they are? People relate to products and their surroundings in a very personal way, the product must therefore engage them at this level to be successful.

Consumer Input and Feedback

We can all try to guess what people want and can have opinions of what we think is the best design but at the end of the day this means nothing. It is the voice of the end user that really matters and this needs to be feed into the design process. By turning to the people who will be using the product you open up the opportunity to integrate new features and aspects of the design that may have been overlooked. This in turn not only creates a better product but ensures product success because you know, not through opinion but facts, that the product is the best it can be and most importantly, it’s what the people want.

There are many other aspects that will also assist in making a product successful including but not limited to, financial backing, path to market, marketing and distribution, some of which can be read about here. But if the above steps are followed and feed into the design process, one can have confidence they will be going into the market with a product destined for success. If you are looking for success in your next product or would like more information on developing a new product please contact our Product Design Team here in Melbourne on +613 9413 9000 or email Mark at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Above: Acrux used extensive product mock-ups and prototypes to prove out the design and gain valuable user insights.