Regardless of your level of experience with product development, it is always exciting to learn from other entrepreneurs–especially if they are working in different verticals.
In this article, e27 features professionals from three different startups in Southeast Asia to explain how they are doing product development in their respective companies. These companies are working in different verticals, from fintech to insurtech to logistics, and they reveal everything from the process to their aspirations for the future.
These professionals are:
– Dr Ramesh Rajentheran, CEO and Co-Founder of MiyaHealth
– Howard Law, Director, Product, Lalamove
– Jaya Kapur, VP, Head of Product at Instarem
They have shared their insights with e27 through email interviews, and the following is an edited excerpt of our interview with them:
Can you tell us about the teams that are involved in the product development process in your company?
Dr Rajentheran: We take on a cohesive approach when it comes to building and deploying our products, as our team is made up of software developers, data scientists, and doctors who work closely together to ensure that every product created optimises the patient experience – even though our partners are insurers, governments, and hospitals.
Our strategy of building a foundational technology first allows us to go from ideation to launch very quickly in a new market and in a matter of weeks.
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Law: The product, UI/UX, and tech teams make up a larger team that comes together to solve the bigger customer problems. The Product team acts as a bridge between the Product and markets, helping to convey the needs of the business. The Product team will also collaborate with individual cities directly to understand local problems as well as solve problems specific to a city. The timeline from idea to product launch is tentative depending on the problem and solutions, but we have backend releases every week and new versions for our mobile apps every two weeks.
Kapur: The composition of teams involved in our product development process varies depending on the specific demands of each project. The usual suspects in our development process include Product Managers, developers, QA, Risk & Compliance, Legal, Design, Marketing, and Analytics … to name a few! Likewise, the timeline from idea inception to product launch can range from a few weeks to multi-year, depending on the level of complexity and priority.
While our dedication to speed remains constant, the actual duration can vary significantly based on the complexity and scale of the product in question.
Can you tell us about the product development process in your company?
Dr Rajentheran: Healthcare remains highly fragmented both within countries and across borders … With this in mind, we wanted to build a global company that would make healthcare more efficient for everyone, everywhere. Hence, we started by building a methodology of classifying and harmonising healthcare data into a common language, or what we like to call a data dictionary. For example, our machine would be able to recognise what the drug is, even if it has twenty different brand names. We then added rule engines and analytics to it. This is the technology that forms the foundation of all our products.
One example would be MiyaPayor – a platform that automates processes for health insurers, effectively eliminating inefficiencies and waste costs. It is a combination of the data dictionary, rules engine and analytics. Through this approach of classifying and harmonising healthcare data, we are able to speed up product development and deploy them internationally relatively quickly.
We also believe that the key to making healthcare more efficient and accessible is to have products that are able to benefit all stakeholders, including payors (i.e. insurers), patients, and healthcare providers, and ensure that these products are interoperable with each other based on one common language. Hence the rationale behind our broad product focus.
Also Read: Evo Commerce banks US$2.8M more for product development, Asia expansion
Law: Product development at Lalamove follows a structured four-step process of problem definition, solution crafting, development, and finally, rollout and review. Iteration is a constant theme throughout, allowing us to refine and enhance our products continuously.
Kapur: At Instarem, we pride ourselves on our streamlined and cross-functional product development lifecycle, an iterative process aimed at placing our users at the forefront of our product launches. This approach enables us to move quickly, taking into account user and stakeholder feedback along the way so that we can deliver cutting-edge solutions with rapid speed and efficiency. We believe bringing together feedback from multiple teams through the process–from user feedback and discovery to go-to-market–helps us think end-to-end and reduce churn.
As a result of this process, we’ve significantly improved our product velocity, despite increasing the amount of investment we are making in user research. The process was set up based on prior learnings from large technology companies, tailored to the needs of a fast-moving, iterative start-up environment. This synergy of strong product execution and cross-functional collaboration is the driving force behind our commitment to delivering exceptional value to our users.
How about the testing process?
Dr Rajentheran: Our MiyaPayor platform is customisable, as we understand that each insurer’s needs are different. We also provide support through re-engineering some of our insurer partners’ workflows based on our operational expertise. Testing for that product is iterative and happens continuously as features are rolled out.
The approach we take for MiyaPatient, our chronic disease management platform, is slightly different. Before a full-scale rollout, we often run pilot testing phases with healthcare institutions and patient groups. This is what we did in Europe, where we partnered with an innovation-first biotech company to launch a pilot initiative for a diabetes management platform that is adapted and customised from MiyaPatient.
It is through these pilot tests that we can validate the effectiveness and real-world impact of the technology and solutions that we offer, paving the way for an anticipated full-scale roll-out of the application later this year.
At MiyaHealth, we are committed to meeting the healthcare industry’s standards for quality and safety. If our products fall short of meeting these standards, we will go back to the drawing board to make the necessary improvements to meet the needs of patients.
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Law: Product testing occurs extensively during solution development. There are multiple steps, such as designing the user interface, establishing seamless system interactions, implementing data tracking mechanisms, configuration settings, wireframing, and prototyping. User testing and the creation of Product Requirement Documents also occur to ensure that the solution aligns with user needs and business objectives. Alignment sessions are conducted to ensure everyone is on the same page.
During the development stage, there is technical refinement, sprint planning, progress monitoring, and rigorous testing (Quality Assurance). Each step is carefully put into place to bring the solution to life while maintaining the highest standards of quality and efficiency, and if a product fails to meet standards, we will immediately identify where it went wrong and refine it from there.
Kapur: Our products are all about managing our customers’ money, so we don’t take testing lightly. We will release products only if they go through rounds of testing, employee betas and, where relevant, limited public releases.
We have teams on standby to monitor and, in rare instances, roll back changes as needed. Our impressive, hyper-responsive Tech Support team operates 24/7 to ensure any technical issues are addressed as we learn of them. Our biggest priority is keeping our customers’ finances safe and making sure they’re happy with our services.
How do you measure the success of a product?
Dr Rajentheran: There are multiple ways to measure the success of a product. For us, a few indicators include the impact it has generated for our partners in terms of driving efficiency and, ultimately, the impact it has on patients in terms of creating improved health outcomes and patient journeys.
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Law: We look at quantifiable metrics, where Product Managers will estimate the business impact of each feature on the business, after which they set quantifiable goals (e.g. higher usage rate, shorter time of completing a flow, lower dropout rate, higher transaction value, etc.) throughout the design process. They then validate the results with trackers embedded in the apps and websites to see if the expectations are met.
Qualitative feedback is also important. The Product research team and product team will monitor app store reviews, app store ratings and in-app feedback. We do ride-along with our driver partners and shadow our frontline staff and users. This is now mandatory for all product team members. We also have a budget to use the service ourselves.
When it comes to a good design, it will create a smooth offline and online delivery and transaction experience, and a good indicator of this means that users can usually complete a task (e.g. placing an order) on the app or website successfully without training. A poor design, on the other hand, can result in confusion, disputes, complaints, dropouts, etc.
Kapur: We use data to measure how well our product is doing. We have clear definitions of what success would look like at the start of the product launch process. User behaviour can sometimes be unpredictable, so things don’t always go to plan, but it helps to have clear objectives to measure against.
We pay close attention to what our users are saying. We listen to their feedback through customer support, app store ratings, social media, and more. We even have teams dedicated to this. Our main goal is to make sure our customers are happy, and we use their input to shape our product and iterate further.
We talk to our users at different times during the product launch process. Post-launch, we get user feedback and iterate our product based on this feedback.
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Is there anything that you would like to improve from this process?
Dr Rajentheran: In the initial stages, developing that foundational technology was a challenge for us. It meant that we were building on a global scale but that we could only sell products later. We are now reaping the rewards of that approach as we have signed long-term contracts in multiple geographies over the last year, so we have that commercial acceleration.
For us, the process of development and utilising our foundational technology will not change. We are, however, continuously improving the deployment process to ensure it is optimal.
Law: The reality is that we can never 100 per cent accurately foresee the exact outcome until the feature is deployed, so we see an advantage in getting the product out as quickly as possible and rolling it out to the market as long as there is no huge risk involved.
For relatively complicated features, we are looking to break them into small phases for faster execution. It is not uncommon that companies pass their opportunities to their competitors because they want year-long research to reassure them of the decision to proceed with the development.
Kapur: We get together for review sessions every few months to talk about how things are going and get input on what we’re doing. Our process is always changing and improving. As our business gets bigger, the challenges we face change too, so it’s something we’re always working on.
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Image Credit: RunwayML
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