Product development can be broken down into three distinct phases: research, prototyping/development, and product testing with evaluation. To keep your product development on schedule, you must ensure that each phase moves quickly and smoothly to the next one. As you begin developing your product line, here are some tools to help you in each process phase. Let’s get started
What tools are most generally used?
There are an many tools out there that can be used in development. Of course, it depends on what you’re developing. The most common tools include: make.com, Canva, Typedream, Slack, Mailchimp, Buffer.com, etc.
These are all applications that help with various aspects of product development. For example, if you’re creating a website or mobile app, a tool like Typedream will help with website design and coding, while Slack will help communicate between team members. If you need more information about how these specific tools work and how they can benefit your company, let’s briefly understand various development tools.
List of Essential Tools that can Accelerate Development
With Product development, there is always a struggle between speed and quality. However, you can accelerate the product development process faster with innovative tools while maintaining quality. Let’s look at some of the best tools used in the product development process.
Make.com
MAKE is an exciting, new way to quickly build anything from tasks and workflows to apps and systems. It’s an amazing, simple-to-use tool that helps accelerate product development without limiting creativity. Design, build and automate anything from tasks and workflows to apps and systems. Everything you’ll be required to bring your ideas to life – like creating prototypes of your design or building a fully functional app in minutes – is just a few clicks away.
The best thing about this designing tool is that you don’t need any design or engineering experience. Use your favorite device, whether a tablet, laptop, or smartphone, and build anything from tasks and workflows to apps and systems without coding. With an ever-expanding library of Make blocks, there are limitless possibilities for what you can create.
Visit Make.com
Canva
An online design tool helps you make custom graphics, such as websites, marketing material, etc. It’s extremely intuitive and doesn’t require any previous experience in web design or graphic design. A good way to create mockups of potential products, promotional material, or digital products like e-books.
The product development process is complex, requiring a lot of time and resources from developers. Designing software can be especially challenging because it requires high levels of creativity combined with technical knowledge. With Canva, your product design and graphics are good to go without using coding, complex tools, etc.
Visit Canva.com
TypeDream
Build everything for your website in record time. Simple to design and manage with no code. TypeDream is a 100% visual editor that’s fun and easy to use. It includes a drag-and-drop page builder, icons, images, galleries, and sliders. Import content from a CSV file or your WordPress account! Everything is editable and mobile responsive so that you can do it all in minutes. No programming knowledge is required! The best thing about TypeDream is how fast you can create things on it.
Visit TypeDream.com
Slack
Slack is a cloud-based online tool for a team collaboration platform that facilitates group communication and enables teams to track projects, messages, files, and activities in one place. Slack works on all major platforms (Web/PC/Mobile), a true alternative to email. It integrates with Google Calendar, Dropbox, and your other tools to easily see what’s happening or being worked on at any given time.
You can also integrate and use it with your company’s data sources to gather real-time information about customer accounts, leads, sales, etc. The free version includes unlimited message history and searchable archives of up to 10 megabytes of older messages per channel.
Visit Slack.com
Buffer.com
A buffer is an advanced tool for scheduling and publishing content on social media. Social media has become an important part of online marketing, and if you want your site to succeed, Buffer is an easy way to schedule posts in advance and publish them at optimal times. It’s a great tool for small businesses because it allows you to post regularly about new developments, upcoming products, or other important things going on with your company.
If you have any e-commerce product, making sure that people know about it is essential. If people don’t know that your product exists, they can’t buy it and therefore can’t generate revenue for your business. With a free account on Buffer, you can create as many as three scheduled posts per day.
Visit Buffer.com
Mailchimp
When it comes to email marketing platforms, you can’t beat Mailchimp. This easy-to-use app makes it possible to create highly customizable emails that reach your audience when they need them most. There are paid and free features available, making it easy for startups with limited funds to grow quickly. You can also use custom forms, segmented lists, and automated workflows to streamline communication and save valuable time.
Even better is that Mailchimp offers an array of templates designed specifically for ecommerce brands, making it easier than ever to send targeted messages based on user actions or purchase history. For example, if a customer places an order using one of your discount codes, you can send a follow-up message featuring similar products at a discounted price.
Visit MailChimp.com
Figma.com
A product design tool that’s intuitive and easy to use for both product designers and non-designers. Figma is free when you have fewer than five team members, which makes it a great option for freelancers or small startups working on a budget. Its simple drag-and-drop interface allows users to create wireframes, mockups, interactive prototypes, and more without writing code. The platform also has robust collaboration features so teams can work together in real-time from anywhere in the world.
It helps business owners who are new to designing products with little experience but want their ideas to be visualized quickly. Designers of all skill levels can use Figma’s easy-to-learn interface to take an idea from a rough sketch to an interactive prototype in minutes. This eliminates barriers typically associated with getting feedback during development cycles and keeps everyone involved up-to-date as changes are made throughout development.
Visit Figma.com
Notion.so
This is a super-easy way to create simple, beautiful project management web pages. It’s ideal for sharing your ideas with clients or organizing projects within your company. You can also use Notion as a glorified version of Google Docs and create collaborative documents between team members. If you’re searching for easy-to-use and share (and track) projects, Notion is perfect for you.
Visit Notion.so
Tally.so
Here’s a no-brainer for startups looking to integrate seamless forms into their software: Tally.so, a service that makes form creation simple. Tally allows you to build your forms with no code and at no cost by creating a visual canvas with prebuilt components, like image sliders and quizzes. Integrate the feature directly onto your form to add in more advanced features such as email collection or payment methods!
Visit Tally.so
Beside these tools, a more advance tool is there that aims to ease the app development process- Flutter. It can transform an idea into a live app without investing much efforts, when all other no-code tools fail you.
You can build multi-functional and native apps with Flutter and Dart. All you’ll be needed is to hire a Flutter Development Company that will ensure smooth and streamline development process and consultation.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a huge enterprise or an entrepreneur with one great idea, these tools will help you develop your product quickly and efficiently. Try out a few of these tools and see if they can help you move from ideation to implementation quickly and efficiently.