Leave Your Competition in the Dust with an LPA
In today’s digital landscape, companies live and die by speed-to-market. If you have an idea for a new digital product but fail to act quickly, it’s highly likely that another company has leapfrogged you and is already well on their way to launch. So how can you ensure that your product development is moving at the necessary pace? Allow us to introduce you to the Lean Product Accelerator (LPA).
An LPA is a process used to jumpstart design and confirm direction, as well as to deliver a tested, functioning prototype. The timeframe? Only two, four, or eight weeks.
2-Week LPA
Focus: Validation
A two-week LPA focuses largely on providing you with vision and direction for your product. This may include a Design Studio and audience research to determine the features that must be part of the Minimally Viable Product (MVP). At the end of these two weeks, you will have a cohesive set of wireframes and a clear path forward.
4-Week LPA
Focus: Cultivation
A four-week LPA takes the process a step further. The wireframes are created on the second week, and the next two weeks are spent iterating and further mapping user flows and stories. At the end of these four weeks, the wireframes will be detailed enough for development.
8-Week LPA
Focus: Creation
Building off of the first four weeks, this LPA culminates with a developed prototype of your digital product. The full eight-week process aims to turn your idea into a clickable reality.
The Team
The goal of an LPA is to consolidate steps and use lean methodologies to quickly get a product to market. This fast-paced, incremental approach requires an agile team working in tandem with one another. Most teams that work on LPAs include the following members:
- Product Delivery Managers: Overseeing the whole process, and making sure you, the business leader, are being kept up-to-date every step of the way.
- UX/UI Designers: Designing and mapping out how the product will look and feel to users.
- Solution Architects: Making sure all of the designs and wireframes are technically sound.
- Developers: Adding in the back-end coding, to deliver a functioning prototype.
When an LPA is executed properly, regardless of whether it is a two, four, or eight-week process, you should feel that your timeline is shortened, and the competition is left in the dust.
To learn more about LPAs and how 10Pearls can help you with new product development, click here.
