In today’s era, it is very difficult to assemble a team of top developers, testers, designers, and others to develop a product. And that’s why remote product development comes into consideration. Remote product development is the process of getting your product developed by some external group of talented and specialized professionals In a location outside your company’s physical location.
Remote product development will bring together the best talent from different parts of the world, and develops your product faster, cheaper, and with a quality code. In this pandemic situation, working with a remote developer for product development is the current continuous reality and upcoming future.
Let’s explore some of the secrets behind successful remote product development.
6 Secrets To Successful Remote Product Development
1. Project Management Is the Key
The project management system will allow you to make assignments, track progress, and monitor employees’ productivity. To get success in PDM, the remote team has to concentrate on a lot of tasks such as task management, team management, document management, and configuration management of application code.
If you have a product idea that you want to nurture into a complete product, you must excel at all your expected standards which are quality, budget, performance, and time. You can assign all your work to an online product development company, hire remote developers, or build your own technical expertise product development team remotely to get successful product development.
2. Communicate Clearly, Concisely, And Consistently
Communication is the key to a successful remote product development team therefore communication should be clear, consistent, and concise. Make sure that you are clear and concise in your messages, and consistent to begin a conversation while hiring remote developers.
- Communicate Clearly:
Communicate clearly means being on point which will eliminate ambiguity, confusion, misunderstanding, and anticipation mismatches, and all communication gaps. Set manageable expectations for the team.
- Communicate Concisely:
Compose your message as concisely as possible without messing up important issues. This saves everyone from reading lengthy documents and saves precious time.
- Communicate Consistently:
Keep updating your team regularly and usually at the same time and manner. Make sure the teams’ time zones match each other while working on a similar project. It helps offshore software teams to work transparently with each other and make their work more productive.
3. Focus on Documentation
Documentation is the key to a simple and non-friction remote development process. You should document everything, whether it’s keeping your product development team focused or making sure all tasks are properly prioritized for product development success, documentation is everything. With detailed documentation, it is much easier for the remote development team to check if everything is going in the right direction or not.
4. Create A Visual Outline
Product development is a long and complex process that consists of several stages and each stage has different functions. If you are hiring a dedicated development team, this process is not as easy as an in-house team. As with an in-house team, you can get them with any change and get real-time implementation.
Therefore, you are urged to have a visual outline of product development when working with a remote team. Create a visual outline of all the components that are to be built with capabilities for product development, solving problems, etc.
Video outline can be more effective in explaining the requirements radically. Once you get your desired team you should retain the extended development team.
5. Establish Clear Objectives
Establishing clear objectives can be very helpful while working remotely. Some members of the remote team may have worked in an alternate environment while some could have a hierarchical structure in the past therefore you need to clarify how you want them to work with your product. Ensure that whatever you want in your outsourcing contract is specifically mentioned with each detail.
Let the remote team members know each other so they can discuss any suggestions or issues seamlessly while using the appropriate collaborating tool. Let them inform, when you need deliverables, tell them what kind of reporting you expect, and how often you will meet for discussions and further clarification to avoid any confusion.
6. Connect Using Right Remote Collaboration Tools
When working remotely it is important to ensure clear communication, proper evaluation, and proper feedback loops of data before making decisions on key products. Therefore it is crucial to invest in the right tools and right technologies to avoid potential issues. Due to the rise of remote work, more and more collaboration tools are available in the market. Some of the tools you can use are:
- For project management & collaboration You can go ahead with Jira & Basecamp
- Slack discussion is preferable for communication, document sharing, and instant messaging
- Make use of Google Drive for keeping everything in one place
- To create code & review GitHub is advisable
- Zoom & Google Hangouts for online meetings and daily updates.
- WebWork Tracker for monitoring employee’s productivity
These digital tools and the right technologies bring everyone together. By using some great remote tools you may feel in close contact with your remote product development team.
Besides the above 6 secrets a few more things to be considered are:
- Set realistic expectations to make your remote product development success. Don’t set unrealistic expectations that are hard to achieve.
- Understand your product and its requirements before establishing targets.
- Interact regularly with your team and share your vision.
- Trust your team and allow them to work in their own space and showcase their talent in their field.
Wrapping Up:
Working remotely is a new norm. Businesses are seeking remote partners to meet their product development requirements. Again this Covid-19 comes with a huge cost to the businesses out there, although it has shown inefficiency in the world of work which requires continuous solution discovery as well as Covid-19 has accelerated remote work.
The above secrets can streamline your product development collaboration and production.