What are Digital Products?
Introduction
When I thought about writing this article, I had envisioned a title along the lines of “Managing (or not) Digital Projects that Span Across the Company and/or a Specific Digital Product in an Agile Environment.” However, I dedicated some of my time to ponder the matter and realized that the title doesn’t make any sense.
And in order to not make the article overly long, I divided it into 3 parts:
PART 1 — What Are Digital Products
PART 2 — What’s Involved in Creating a Digital Product
PART 3 — Is Creating a Digital Product Different in an Agile or Waterfall Environment?
What Are Digital Products?
A digital product is any product that can be used and/or marketed online. In other words, we can have as digital products those that are capable of being downloaded and those that aren’t capable of being downloaded:
Downloadable Digital Products
Products that users can download and start using. For example, an app for tuning a guitar like the Guitar Tuner.
Within this category of products, we can also have digital products like e-books.
Non-Downloadable Digital Products — SAAS / Cloud Software
Products where users don’t need to download them and can still use them in free, paid, or freemium modes. All Software as a Service (SAAS) fall into this type of product. For instance, Google Cloud Platform functions as SAAS.
Digital Products as an Online Channel of Experience
Then there’s still a category of digital products that are a mix between the two categories mentioned above. I don’t characterize them as digital products, but rather as tactics or communication channels with users. For example:
ebooks — books; Webinars — Conferences; Podcasts — Interviews; Online Courses — in-person classes; Websites/Online Stores — headquarters or physical store
Conclusion
Creating digital products isn’t just about designing and developing the front-end of that design. Nor is it about developing the back-end of that front-end.
Thinking about digital product development solely in terms of design, front-end, and back-end will result in:
1 — Potentially ill-defined MVPs (Minimum Viable Products)
2 — Product development based on features (outputs) rather than outcomes (changes we want to see in the world or in people’s lives to make them better)
3 — Technical debt with a multitude of bugs and issues to fix
4 — Hidden costs — development or redevelopment costs; team overtime; potential customer support expenses, among others
Is this easy to implement in companies? Certainly, it’s not! But it’s halfway there if we understand these topics and their implications in the development of digital products and within the company.
