What Is Your Product Development Strategy?

Posted by Betsy Pruitt

The Business of You is made up of the same departments as a traditional company. Simply flipping the script on how you see these departments in your own life can be key to taking your career to the next level. Today, let’s look at Product Development in the Business of You.

Are you working on your product development strategy?  Just like a traditional company thinks strategically about its market and how to expand its product portfolio, you need to be mindful of career trends and continually add new skills to your own arsenal. If you want to increase revenue, you have to invest heavily in product development to bring more value to potential employers and win new customers.

The days of learning a trade and getting paid more every year based solely on seniority are over. Both blue-collar factory jobs and white-collar knowledge professions are being outsourced to emerging economies around the world like crazy.  The real way to differentiate yourself and succeed lies in your ability to develop your own “secret sauce” for wowing others with your hard-core skills and awesome service.

Here’s a simple three-step cycle for establishing your Product Development Strategy:

1. Quiet Time
   Shhh! If you really want to think strategically, find some ways to cut out the noise. It’s amazing what just 10 minutes of silence a day will do for your career.  Turn off the radio on your way to work, find a quiet park to eat lunch, or leave your cell on silent while exercising. This is the time when you can set goals, put your day into perspective, and refocus on how it fits with your long-term objectives. I once read that enlightenment can be found in the humblest of tasks, which I’m often reminded of while doing chores around the house. I think the silence that often accompanies these humble tasks is what makes this brilliance happen.
    
2. Mad Skills
   Adding new skills and expertise is crucial to your product development. Your employer isn’t responsible for your training plan, and you don’t need another pricey certificate or degree either. For God’s sake, we live in the internet era, where you can learn to do anything by watching a video on YouTube. Think about what skills you need to be more versatile in your field and get out there and grab them.  Then find some practical ways to put them into practice.  I wanted to learn more about search engine optimization (getting a website to the top of Google search results), so I read a few books and many blogs on the subject before starting my own blog to get some hard-core experience.  I now average 24,000 page views a month, mainly through search traffic. It just takes a little initiative and hustle.
    
3. Best Practices
   There’s no need to re-invent the wheel.  Stay well read on best practices in your industry, trends in your field, and novel things happening in the news.  Pepper in some interpersonal skill development, too, like learning to become a better communicator or effective negotiation tactics. Then this knowledge will provide some interesting fuel for quiet time and help you recognize some of the mad skills you need to add to your portfolio.

Recognize that these three Product Development Strategy steps are a cycle that you should continuously implement in your daily life.  If you spent 10 minutes a day on each step (30 minutes a day total), just think of where you’d be a year from now!