You’ve scheduled a video conferencing call with 3 individuals from your client’s team, based in different locations around the world.
It’s time for the call, and you join in. Suddenly, there is a barrage of notifications.
Your phone rings – one person’s phoned to tell you that you’d shared a desktop link, and they couldn’t join it using the phone app.
There’s an email from another saying they can’t join in because they forgot to download the app.
Meanwhile, the third person was able to join the call, but they weren’t able to see or hear you.
While this may sound like a bizarre, end-of-the-world experience for us right now, this was just a regular day in office for Skype users barely a few years ago.
Any wonder why Skype faded away into oblivion?
Now, imagine your product five years from today—how will users, stakeholders, and the market perceive it?
Consider the fate of platforms like MySpace, once a social media giant, now a cautionary tale of how rapidly technology can outpace a product.
Even IBM Watson in the healthcare space promised revolutionary changes in diagnostics but fell short of initial expectations, resulting in a reevaluation of its role and capabilities.
The rapid pace of technological advancement often forces product teams to prioritize short-term gains, leading to quick wins that may sacrifice long-term sustainability. However, building products that evolve and retain value over time is crucial for enduring success.
So, how can you ensure that your product will be just as valuable—or even more so—a few years down the line?
Why do Future Perceptions Matter for Your Product Strategy?
Either change the world, or let it change you
At the risk of using a cliche – the only thing that’s constant is change – and your users are no exception.
User needs, behaviors, and expectations constantly shift as technology advances and society changes. What seems cutting-edge today may be outdated tomorrow. Consumers now expect products to offer more personalized experiences, respond to ethical concerns, and integrate seamlessly with other technologies.
If your product fails to evolve, users will likely migrate to alternatives that better meet their changing needs.
It took a single tweet (yes, it was ‘tweets’ back then!) from Kylie Jenner that led to the downfall of an already-dysfunctional Snapchat.
Your competition is working 2X as hard
The competitive landscape is always in flux. New players enter the market, armed with innovative solutions and aggressive growth strategies. If your product strategyremains stagnant while your competitors continue to innovate, it will inevitably lose ground. Even industry leaders can fall behind if they fail to anticipate or respond to changes quickly enough.
Quick fixes aren’t for the long run
Choosing short-term wins over sustainable growth can lead to significant costs down the road. Fixing poor decisions made for immediate gains often involves a considerable investment in resources, time, and money.
Key Decisions to Future-proof your Product
Flexibility and scalability are non-negotiable
Investing in a flexible, modular architecture that can scale to accommodate future changes is essential for products intended to stand the test of time. Adaptability helps ensure the product can respond to changing market demands and technological advancements.
Adopting design systems that standardize components while remaining adaptable can also make products future-ready. A scalable architecture allows for the integration of emerging technologies (such as AI or IoT) and ensures the product can accommodate new user requirements over time.
In 2022, we used the Atomic Design approach to create a design system for a healthcare product suite. It was based on a neutral color palette and has detailed design specs and usage guidelines along with a searchable, scalable icon library tailored for healthcare apps, such as alert buttons and emergency codes to support software for admins, clinics, ICUs, and surgery. It also has code demos on all components and their deployment across the product suite.
This robust design system enabled the business to improve build time by 34% and as a result, truly focus on innovation and rapid scaling to meet user and industry needs in real time. The design system acted as a North Star for the product team. It enabled faster iterations and testing by 24%, thus ensuring smooth roll-outs of new features, consistent removal of legacy codes, and negating design and technical debt.
Read the iF Design Award winning case study here.
Innovate with user needs in mind
A product strategy designed with a long-term vision must prioritize user-centered innovation. It should address not just the current pain points but anticipate the evolving needs of its users.
Investing in continuous user research, usability testing, and feedback loops helps ensure that your product stays aligned with the evolving expectations of your target audience. A user-centric approach helps maintain relevance, not only responding to immediate market needs but also shaping future trends.
Don’t deviate from ethical and inclusive design
No matter what the temptation – dark patterns will always be your downfall.
The growing demand for ethical, inclusive, and sustainable products is shaping the future of technology. Products designed without considering these factors risk becoming obsolete as consumers increasingly seek solutions that align with their values.
Ethical concerns around AI, data privacy, and sustainability will only become more pronounced. Addressing these considerations proactively ensures your product remains relevant as regulatory and societal expectations continue to evolve.
How to Balance Present and Future
Short-Term Gains vs. Long-Term Value
Balancing the need for quick wins with long-term sustainability is a challenge every product team faces. Understanding when to prioritize immediate objectives and when to invest in long-term solutions can make a significant difference.
But how do you do that?
It’s simple – you keep researching and testing iteratively – also known as ‘continuous discovery’.
Marty Cagan, an influential name in product management defines continuous product discovery as:
Continuous discovery is a process where you are constantly identifying, validating, and describing new product backlog items.
In other words, this method has product teams constantly in touch with users and other stakeholders across the full cycle, validating every problem, idea, and solution.
Whatever discovery framework or methodology you use, it’s usually to find a new problem to solve, validate that the problem is worth solving, and test possible solutions. The sustained practice of product discovery to inform product development decisions continuously ensures you remain one up to the uncertainties that come your way.
To AI or not to AI?
Innovation in digital technology is not about throwing a fancy new feature at your users every now and then. It’s about innovatively solving problems and meeting a genuine need, while adapting to ever-evolving technology.
There’s no harm in wanting to stay ahead of the curve by leveraging emerging technology trends and deep user insights. But before you jump on to the AI bandwagon, here’s a cautionary tale by the name of Facebook’s Metaverse initiative.
Facebook’s highly hyped Metaverse struggled to gain traction due to limited immediate value and significant technological barriers – which only goes to emphasize the importance of timing and genuine user need when incorporating cutting-edge technologies.
Go Agile or go home
Adopt Agile methodologies that encourage iterative design and development processes while keeping an eye on future adaptability. Each iteration should add value to the user while positioning the product strategy for future scalability. Ensure the product’s architecture remains modular and open to updates, allowing for the seamless addition of new features and technologies.
Collaborate across departments
Future-proofing isn’t just a design or development challenge—it’s a cross-functional collaborative effort. Bring together product, engineering, marketing, and customer support teams early in the product lifecycle to anticipate challenges from different perspectives. This holistic approach ensures that business goals, technical feasibility, and user experience all align for long-term sustainability.
Future-proof your tech stack
Choosing the right technology stack can make or break your product’s future readiness. Opt for future-friendly technologies—open-source tools, cloud-based solutions, and platforms with robust developer communities. These technologies ensure longevity, scalability, and flexibility as your product and market evolve.
Conduct regular competitive analysis
Your product strategy exists in an ever-changing market. Conducting ongoing competitive analysis will help you anticipate market shifts, uncover emerging trends, and stay ahead of your competitors. This proactive approach allows you to pivot your product strategy based on industry movements rather than reacting after the fact.
Plan for regulatory changes
Regulations, especially in sectors like healthcare, finance, and data security, are continually evolving. Make sure your product development process includes compliance planning so that you can quickly adapt to new regulations without major disruptions. Having a flexible compliance framework ensures that your product remains viable and legally sound as laws change.
Build for interoperability
Ensure your product is capable of seamless integration with other systems, platforms, and tools. Future users may expect your product to work alongside other software, hardware, or cloud solutions. Designing for interoperability from the outset ensures that your product can evolve and connect with new technologies as they emerge.
Plan for global expansion
Even if your product strategy is currently focused on a single market, consider how it might be adapted for international audiences in the future. This could involve planning for multi-language support, cultural differences in user experience, or compliance with international regulations (like GDPR). A globally adaptable product is more likely to endure as markets grow.
Lessons From Products That Lasted—and Those That Didn’t
Microsoft Office has maintained its status as an industry standard for decades by continuously adapting to technological shifts—from desktop software to cloud-based solutions. Similarly, Google Workspace has evolved from a simple email service to a comprehensive suite of productivity tools, driven by user feedback and the changing needs of modern workplaces.
Blackberry’s failure to adapt its product to the touch-screen revolution led to a rapid decline in market share. Its reliance on a physical keyboard and failure to embrace app ecosystems made it difficult to compete with more versatile platforms like iOS and Android.
MySpace’s fall from grace was due in part to a lack of innovation. As competitors like Facebook introduced more user-friendly interfaces and features, MySpace struggled to evolve its platform, leading to a loss of user interest and market share.
Long-term product success is not just about meeting today’s demands but anticipating future challenges and opportunities. Making strategic product decisions with an eye on flexibility, user-centered innovation, and ethical design can set your product up for enduring relevance.
Product leaders must continuously evaluate their strategy and ask themselves: How will our product be perceived in the future?
