DALLAS (24 February 2022) – 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 the seven steps as:

1. Understand the mission.  
2. Articulate the problem.  
3. Define customer needs.  
4. Validate the idea.  
5. Create a prototype or minimum viable product (MVP).  
6. Test and iterate.  
7. Share results.  

Click here to download the report

According to the report, there is a process that can be followed to ensure that 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 that 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 insights and case studies are 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.

About INMA

The International News Media Association (INMA) is a global community of market-leading news media companies reinventing how they engage audiences and grow revenue. The INMA community consists of nearly 20,000 members at 900+ news media companies in 83 countries. INMA is the news media industry’s foremost ideas-sharing network with members connected via conferences, reports, Webinars, virtual meetings, an unparalleled archive of best practices, and strategic initiatives focused on digital subscriptions, smart data, product, advertising, newsrooms, and the publisher relationships with Big Tech.

About INMA Product Initiative

The INMA Product Initiative focuses on what media companies must do now to embrace the evolving discipline of product to delight customers and grow business. The initiative looks at what it means to build customer-informed products, how to manage conflicting product objectives, and how to go beyond traditional products to become part of a customer lifestyle. Led by Jodie Hopperton, the Product Initiative includes newsletters, a Slack channel, video meet-ups, master classes, reports, and private mentoring sessions for INMA members.