We don't need to start coding every feature into the digital solution. During the early stages of product development, we must assess where to spend our capacity and resources. Often, both business sponsors and engineers get carried away by the possibilities that a digital solution can offer. Since we have now methodically established the business outcomes, the most important product features, and the success metrics to achieve, we need to find the right fitment of solutions.
Once we have established a differentiator or an enabler, we need to explore the possible options available to us. The first step is to decide if there is even any value in building the feature. We could also look for solutions outside (off-the-shelf products) or use an open source tool or outsource (to a noncore product development team). If our feature is an enabler and if our success metrics can be achieved by an off-the-shelf tool, then we should just proceed with finding the...