The RPI Series | Lessons in Digital Product Innovation from Qualcomm

“Digital disruption” is the phrase of the decade. Virtually every industry, from entertainment to retail to healthcare, has been forced to evolve because consumers want to access content in new ways and competitors offer a digital service that encroaches on traditional business models. With the digital landscape still in its infancy but evolving quickly, it’s extremely difficult for companies to understand where the best opportunity exists for their business, how the landscape will change, and how to get digital products and services to market rapidly.

In June we co-hosted a webinar with Qualcomm, one of our most innovative technology clients, to discuss how brands can quickly plan, design, optimize and build a new digital product. At CES 2012, Qualcomm showcased the first smart TV experience powered by their line of powerful Snapdragon processors. The entire process of creating the TV experience, which Rosetta and Qualcomm partnered on, took just over three months and the end product achieved fantastic accolades at the show.  Three months to get a product ready for debut at CES? Yes, and here are some of the most critical drivers of success reviewed in the webinar.

Initial team alignment leads to exponential time savings later on

Use “quick-hit” research methods like talking directly with ecosystem partners and end users or leveraging research intellectual property that exists elsewhere in your organization. To ensure team alignment, bring all groups together, distill the research into a concise strategic brief, and use it as part of a structured workshop with the Design, User Experience and Engineering teams, among others, on the market opportunity and customer need.

Expedite concept design with a “soft landing” approach

One of the biggest causes of delays and product failure is large gaps between project milestones. For Qualcomm’s TV, our teams were concurrently exploring wireframe directions, mood boards and visual elements, creative comps and annotated wireframes. With strong communication between groups and a foundational approach established in the initial strategic brief, this “swim-lane” methodology allowed us to quickly explore and refine concepts and turn big milestones into a series of baby steps. Each round the work got better and better, and technical teams provided continual input to ensure a seamless hand-off between the design and development teams.

There is no such thing as over-communication during delivery and hand-off

Small changes in one product stage can have major implications for other stages that are still held to a specific deadline. To ensure development stays on track and to ensure the end product accurately reflects the initial use cases, Qualcomm and Rosetta recommend creating a checklist for the development team that includes everything from a communication plan to milestone delivery dates and well-defined roles for all partner teams.

I encourage you to watch the recorded webinar, Bringing Better Products to Marketing Before the Competition with Rapid Product Innovation, for a glimpse at deliverables and more insider tips on ways to simplify and expedite the digital product development process.