Product lifecycle: From 0 to Release

When I was a student or just started my career, I was curious about how software companies work to develop software. What are the steps to develop a good product. In this article, I will share some basic steps that companies follow to develop a product or feature. The article is mostly useful for current students and developers with 1–2 years of professional experience.

In this article, I will use product and feature interchangeably. Most of the time they follow the same flow. Also, this article is written based on my professional experience. It is possible that other companies/developers experience different flow. I would love to know about your experience in the comment 🙂

If you are not a member, the blog is available here

Idea initialization

This is the initial stage for any product or feature. The majority of startups begin with idea generation. For startups, founding members spend days developing the initial idea and preparing a basic product overview. For existing companies, they prepare a business requirement document (BRD).

In BRD, the product team shares an overview of the initial idea. They briefly describe the basic concept of the product and share the business impact. The product team might share the possible revenue model and how it will impact the overall user experience too. BRD format can vary depending on different companies.