Products and features can be developed with both customers in mind and with respect for scarce internal resources when media teams adopt a seven-step media product process, according to a report released today by the International News Media Association (INMA).

“7 Steps to a Successful Media Product Process” outlines these seven steps:

According to the report, there is a process that can be followed to ensure the products and features media companies are building — large and small — are focused on the people they’re building them for. 

Through this framework, teams can create not only successful products but also transparency from sharing goals and objectives, ideas, data, tests, and results. Sharing well means colleagues will see practical uses within their own areas and ask to be included in developments. Cross-department collaboration, the report says, should start happening more naturally. 

The seven-step process INMA has built and details in the report fuses together work from a mixture of sources, including interviews with more than 100 product executives from around the world. 

“It is a time-tested structure that means news teams are building products in a smart way that invests resources when we have some certainty around outcomes,” said Jodie Hopperton, lead for INMA’s Product Initiative and the report’s lead author. “And, importantly, it works to adapt culture to embrace change and try new things.”

Among the report’s best practices include case studies from Gannett, The Financial Times, Yahoo News, Straits Times, The Scotsman, Newsday, Dagens Naeringsliv, Schibsted/Aftenposten, Thoughtworks, and MediaNews Group.

“7 Steps to a Successful Media Product Process” is available for free to INMA members and for purchase by non-members at INMA.org.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .