Key Takeaways:
- 95% of new products launched each year fail because they don’t consider customers.
- Prototyping and iterative development help refine usability, validate assumptions, and prevent costly rework.
- User-centered design and agile strategies ensure digital products align with user needs and business goals.
No business is immune to product failure, but having the right strategy can dramatically improve the odds of success.
With 95% of newly launched products failing every year, the key to beating the odds lies in real user insights, a sharp focus on core features, and scalable design.
Keith Shields, CEO of software development agency Designli, emphasizes that overlooking these elements leads to misaligned development, unclear requirements, and inefficient workflows — common pitfalls that derail even the best ideas.
In our interview, Keith elaborates on the strategic process behind creating digital products that not only meet user needs but also exceed expectations.
Who Is Keith Shields?
Keith Shields is the CEO and co-founder of Designli, a leading software development firm. With over 20 years of experience in the tech industry, Keith has helped businesses successfully launch software products. Under his leadership, Designli has earned a reputation for delivering high-quality, scalable solutions and has received over 200 five-star reviews.
According to Keith, many businesses struggle with a lack of technical expertise, unclear product strategy, and inefficient development processes.
However, he points out key steps in transforming an initial idea into a fully functional digital product that aligns with user needs and business goals.
“Turning an idea into a fully functional digital product requires a structured, user-centered approach.”
“Without real user insights, assumptions can lead to a product that misses the mark. Conducting early and ongoing research prevents this,” Keith points out.
Unfortunately, Keith says many businesses skip this when designing digital products, resulting in overloaded features and other problems that prevent scalability:
“Businesses sometimes try to do too much at once. We recommend focusing on a core MVP first, then iterating based on feedback. And to prevent technical debt, we design scalable architectures to support future growth.”
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To prevent all these operational glitches from occurring, Designli’s team guides clients through exercises like empathy mapping and user journey workshops.
“By putting themselves in their customers' shoes, they gain clarity on prioritizing features that genuinely enhance the user experience,” Keith adds.
The agency follows a proven methodology to identify and prioritize needs during the product development process:
- Discovery and strategy: Starting with deep-dive conversations to understand the business goals, user needs, and market landscape, Designli’s SolutionLab process helps validate ideas through rapid prototyping.
- User-centered design: UX/UI design is crafted with real user behavior in mind, ensuring intuitive and engaging experiences.
- Agile development: Designli uses Scrum methodology to develop the product in iterative sprints, allowing for continuous feedback-based improvement.
- User testing and refinement: Designli gathers real user insights to tweak and optimize the product.
- Launch and support: A smooth deployment is followed by ongoing maintenance to ensure continued success.
By focusing on iterative improvement and strategic execution, Designli helps businesses build products that drive growth and long-term success.
How Thoughtful Integration Prevents Costly Mistakes
To illustrate, Designli helped trench and traffic safety product supplier National Trench Safety prevent significant operational downtime and unnecessary expenses through this process.
It all started when National Trench Safety needed a digital platform to streamline operations, but integrating it with the company’s legacy ERP was complex.
“If not done correctly, this integration could have led to significant operational downtime and unnecessary expenses. By deeply analyzing their existing systems, we created an architecture that allowed seamless data synchronization without disrupting their day-to-day workflows,” Keith explains.
In addition, the agency developed an intuitive user interface tailored to National Trench Safety’s field operators, reducing onboarding time and increasing adoption rates.
“As a result, they avoided months of potential rework and improved efficiency, ultimately saving substantial costs while boosting productivity.”
Designli provides a full suite of expertise that ensures products are built the right way from the start.
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The team’s experience across multiple industries means the agency brings best practices and technical knowledge that internal teams may lack. Keith says this leads to a faster, smoother development process that reduces risk and maximizes impact.
“Our structured approach allows businesses to avoid common pitfalls such as misaligned product development, unclear requirements, and inefficient workflows.”
By following agile methodologies, we ensure constant iteration and refinement, allowing businesses to stay flexible while making informed decisions.”
During this process, the agency leverages a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to gather user feedback. While an early soft launch with friends and family provides initial insights, tools like in-app surveys, app store reviews, and in-app customer behavior tracking help refine the experience.
“Structured user testing sessions also allow us to gather direct feedback before wider deployment,” Keith explains.
Then, qualitative feedback is combined with industry trends and business objectives to balance user input with innovation — ensuring that only innovations that enhance and do not complicate the experience are introduced.
The Power of Prototyping in Product Success
Prototyping and user testing are at the heart of Designli’s approach. The agency’s SolutionLab process includes interactive wireframes that allow users to test workflows before development begins.
By taking an iterative approach and gathering feedback from stakeholders and real users at every stage, Designli can validate assumptions early, refine usability, and uncover potential roadblocks before committing to full-scale development.
“By investing in prototyping and testing upfront, we reduce costly rework later in the process, leading to a more polished and user-friendly final product.
Additionally, having a working prototype can help clients secure investment, as it provides tangible proof of concept for stakeholders and potential investors, demonstrating the viability and direction of the product,” Keith says.
But how do you know when a prototype or product iteration is ready to move forward to the next stage? According to Keith, the answer lies in user validation.
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“If users can easily navigate the prototype and find value, we move forward. If testing reveals friction, we refine before proceeding.”
Overall, he emphasizes that success is measured through user adoption, retention rates, and engagement metrics like session duration and feature usage.
This is complemented by business KPIs such as conversion rates and revenue impact.
However, the key to success, he says, is continuous monitoring to ensure the product remains alignedwith both user needs and business goals.
