The changing face of product development: Thinking social

The social web has dramatically transformed the customer relationship and is changing the rules of how products are created. Customers are no longer passive providers of static feedback- they are active collaborators in the co-design of products and services. In addition, the multitude of channels available for customers to provide feedback has made it increasingly difficult for organizations to effectively capture and manage this insight to enhance the product development process. As a result, organizations feel that they have lost ownership of the conversation about their products.

Leveraging the right tools for social product development

Today, there exists a multitude of channels that customers commonly use to communicate their feedback. For instance, customers may chose to share their ideas and suggestions through a corporate website portal, engage with social media networks, send an email directly to an organization, or submit a support inquiry through a help desk service. The question is, how do organizations successfully locate, capture and manage these conversations and incorporate them into the product development process? Through the use of integrated social product development tools.

Next generation social enterprise tools like Social Media Monitoring help organizations reach “customers where they live,” capture conversations on the social web and ultimately, help bridge the gap between organizations and their customers. At FeatureSet, we believe that the adoption of the right tools will enable organizations to capture customer insight and use it to affect real change from the ideation to the commercialization stages of the product development process. We also believe that social product development tools are essential to breaking down communication silos, and help keep customers, business partners, and employees across different departments connected.

Product managers need social tools

Product professionals are increasingly showing interest in social product development technology to help drive innovation and increase stakeholder collaboration. In his most recent study, “Product Strategists want Social Innovation,” Doug Williams of Forrester discovered that “most product strategists believe social tools can enhance their ability to help shape product strategy”. Equipped with the right integrated tool set to fully address the needs of the social customer at every touch point and promote collaboration across the enterprise, product strategists can reap substantial benefits: Reduced time-to-market, increased stakeholder engagement, sustainability and competitive advantage.

Spark a discussion: How does your organization use social technologies to drive product innovation?

By Catherine Constantinides, FeatureSet Inc.

If you are interested in this topic and more, make sure to attend PDMA's Conference on Social Product Development & Co-Creation, June 27-28th in AZ.