How products and features can be developed with both customers in mind and with respect for scarce internal resources by following a seven-step process framework is the focus of this report.

Key steps covered in the report include:

• Understand the mission.
• Articulate the problem.
• Define customer needs.
• Validate the idea.
• Create a prototype or minimum viable product (MVP).
• Test and iterate.
• Share results.

The report contains insights and case studies from Gannett, The Financial Times, Yahoo News, Straits Times, The Scotsman, Newsday, Dagens Naeringsliv, Schibsted/Aftenposten, Thoughtworks, and MediaNews Group.

Author

Jodie Hopperton is the lead for INMA’s Product Initiative. She is a British media executive based in Los Angeles whose career has featured corporate roles, technology start-ups, moderating events, authoring, and speaking at news industry events. She has served as interactive manager for Trinity Mirror, director of syndication and licensing for the New York Times, and as a consultant to media and tech start-ups focused on video distribution, VR, audio tech, and more.

Who should read this report

C-suite at news media companies
Product executives

Detailed overview

According to the report, product teams have become the customer advocates at media companies, and there is a process that can be followed to ensure that what those teams are building – products and features, large and small – is focused on the people they’re building them for.

Through this framework, product 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.

The report highlights the seven steps as:

• Understand the mission.
• Articulate the problem.
• Define customer needs.
• Validate the idea.
• Create a prototype or minimum viable product (MVP).
• Test and iterate.
• Share results.