5 Ways to Take the Stress Out of Product Development
Developers, app-builders, and entrepreneurs live in the zeitgeist. Everyone wants to put their name behind a product that will change the way we live – the opportunities are endless, and the market is ready.
You know what else is endless in product development? Stress.
Here are a few ways to cut it down to size.
1. Keep Your Work Secure
It could be as scary as a ransomware attack or as annoying as a key employee forgetting a password for some files only they have access to. Mistakes lead to security complications; the last thing anyone in product development wants is complications.
If you work on the cloud, you need high-quality Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) software backing up your operation. This significantly reduces the risk of compliance breaches and violations in your cloud infrastructure, leaving you to focus on the task at hand.
A secure operation is a happy operation. If there's even one thing that makes you think, “oh yeah, we should probably fix that,” fix it. Don't wait around for someone else to notice the problem.
2. Set Realistic Deadlines
A great way to put yourself and your team under immense stress with no benefit is to set super-tight deadlines.
Expecting top-quality work in very limited time is asking too much. People will panic, and the product will appear rushed. It won't have the impact you want it to, because it won't be as good as it could have been.
Even the world-class development team at The Pokémon Company are vulnerable to unrealistically short deadlines.
However, setting over-generous deadlines can be just as bad. Giving your team too much time presents an opportunity to spend too much time tinkering and brainstorming rather than achieving practical goals in realistic timeframes.
There's a Goldilocks zone when it comes to deadlines. If you can find it, you'll cut down on stress and significantly improve your product.
3. Trust Your Best People
From the startup owner to the supervising developer, trust needs to be built into the management system. Visionary owners especially – if there's nobody on your team you trust to see the project through without you, you've got a problem.
Trust your best players to deliver first-class results, and they will reward you. Micromanage them and treat them as if they're incompetent, and you'll create a toxic work environment.
4. …But Consider Outsourcing Smaller Tasks
While it pays to keep a tight-knit network of Highly Trusted Individuals, there's no sense wasting your most talented developers' time on tasks that could easily be performed by someone else. And for less money.
Outsourcing gives you access to talented people across the world who can develop your product at a reasonable price. More importantly, you can keep your most valuable team members focused on the most important development tasks.
5. Find Satisfaction in Small Gains
You're used to pitching your app to investors as a product that will “revolutionize” something… right?
This is all well and good. Ambition is welcome, and you should have a strong marketing pitch if you're serious about success. But it pays to not get too caught up in your own hype.
If you design a product that performs well, fulfills a need, and is consistently profitable, you've done a great job. Make that your goal – the revolution can wait, and you're more likely to make it work if you're not stressing out about changing the world.
Final Thoughts
Some people respond well to stress. Most don't, and even those that do have their limits.
A trusted team making steady progress towards achievable goals is what product development should be about. Make it so!
Leave a comment
Comments will be approved before showing up.
