Under the right circumstances and when used for their intended purposes, spreadsheets are among the most useful and impressive software tools ever developed. So, let’s get that out of the way upfront — we at Craft.io aren’t spreadsheet haters or skeptics. #GoSpreadsheets! In fact, we use them internally to build and manage our business. We just don’t use spreadsheets for our product work. Because… time and place.

For many businesses selling SaaS software and other modern tech solutions, the product mindset is built right into the corporate culture. But companies in older industries, such as bricks-and-mortar retail stores, have yet to embrace the product mindset – or, in many cases, even the product management role in general.

Product managers are responsible for defining the product strategy, delivering value to customers, building roadmaps, and driving direction. They also drive alignment between multiple teams to bring a product vision to life. That sounds like a lot to juggle! Product is certainly not easy, so how can you ensure you’re set up for success?

As the industry’s favorite end-to-end platform for product organizations, we have been listening to our business customers around the world adding more ways for product teams to benefit from our platform. For example, we recently released integrations for Figma, InVision, and Adobe XD, to allow product designers to embed their wireframes and journey maps right into the relevant items in Craft.io for their product management coworkers to review.

Bill Gates has said, “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it’s more important to heed the lessons of failure.” He’s also been quoted as saying, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Gates, you’ve probably heard, managed to launch a few successful products in his day.

Yes, you need a product development process if you want to build and release successful products. But no, creating this process doesn’t need to be difficult. We’ll show you a simple, logical formula you can follow to give your products the best chances of success.