Business and product development strategies, particularly in the case of start-ups and scale-ups, are not merely about new product creation but infinitely more so about business development. The purpose of this book is not to dismiss traditional product development, but rather to show that in startup environment product development takes a very different dimension, and is more than a mere product creation but just as much if not a more business development.  When we think about product development we intuitively think of technological innovation of some sort that leads to the creation of a new tangible good. And yet, product development is broader than this as will be demonstrated in the remainder of this book. In short, product development can be understood as anything that creates value to customers and this can be a new tangible product, a new service, but also a new business model. Put differently, innovation should be understood very broadly and can encompass not only novel scientific discoveries but also repurposing of an existing technology for a new use, devising a new business model that unlocks value that was hidden, or simply bringing an existing product or service to a new location or a previously underserved set of customers. In all these cases, innovation is at the heart of the company’s success. Traditional thinking about product development implies that to launch new products organizations must:

• Build internal structures that have open communication with customers,
• Have innovation cultures,
• Have aggressive R&D teams,
• Have strong leadership,
• Have formal incentives and training.

What’s more, in executing product development strategies it is traditionally thought that companies must focus on specific opportunities identified as the result of the following:

• Understanding the customer, or that a company and its product development team (if there is one in place) must be tuned in with the market and product end users,
• Economic change, such as rise of the overall level of disposable income and general level of economic welfare
• Sociological and demographic change, such as decreasing family size or ageing population,
• Political/legal change, such as those resulting from new legislation,
• Technological change, or when new disruptive technology comes to market.

The above suggests that product development is a linear process, whereby outside opportunities can be easily identified and factored in well in advance. This may very well be the case for established businesses, but it isn’t something of much use to aspiring entrepreneurs. As will be shown in this book, building a new product in a startup environment is a highly iterative process, whereby a specific identified opportunity must be validated through what is called a “build-measure­ learn-feedback-loop”. In fact, startups engaging in product development undertake a grand experiment, one that abides by totally different rules than traditional product development. Take quality for example. When we think of quality we must agree that quality represents a set of features and characteristics built into the product that we know will satisfy the customer. For this to happen companies must of course understand what the customer wants, and this isn’t something that startups have the luxury of knowing. In fact, most startups have nothing else than an idea, and perhaps a product prototype. Logically, the quality characteristic of a product cannot therefore be determined which is why, as will be explored in This book, startups must build what’s called a minimum viable product (MVP), or a product with minimum functionalities and without much regard to quality. Put differently, product development in a startup environment is about discovering who the customer is, what the customer’s problem is (if there is a problem), and how the problem can be solved. These discoveries are made using the MVP. As the company learns more and more about its customers, it can start fine-tuning its MVP for specific quality characteristics sought after by customers.