Insights | Propel Ventures

Building Products The Propel Way™

Written by Paul Greenwell | Propel Ventures Co-Founder | Aug 30, 2021 5:42:47 AM

Propel Ventures is laser-focused on making products that solve real user problems, positioning them to stand out in a crowded marketplace. We do this by partnering with our clients to apply The Propel Way™ of Product Strategy, Development and Management for building products that people love to use.

What is “The Propel Way™?

The Propel Way™ is a structured approach to developing technology solutions, shaped by our experience delivering successful products to market for a range of clients, and driven by our award-winning people-first culture. It’s a collaborative approach that allows for maximum adaptability and creativity, within a rigorous framework optimised for launching successful products. The methodology addresses three key areas when embarking on a product development journey: Strategy, Development, and Management.

Product Strategy

Propel helps clients identify opportunities and articulate strategies that the whole business can rally behind. We back-test new ideas against real-world conditions and help our client narrow down the trajectory of product development to achieve its maximum potential in the marketplace.

Testing & Alignment

The clients we partner with come to us with brilliant ideas, but before they invest they need to test their hypothesis in-market. This is where Propel’s experience and high-level view of the technology space can help. We use data gleaned from user-testing to show our clients exactly how their idea stacks up with the competition, and help them focus on the areas with the highest value-to-effort ratio.

Confidence & Buy-In

Our clients pursue their new product opportunities with confidence, knowing that Propel has validated product-market fit and their desired outcomes. We clarify the opportunity for our clients and crystalise it into a compelling value proposition that will resonate with the intended customer.

How does it work?

Our clients first engage with our strategy practice, which is made up of expert practitioners, who each have a depth of experience in financial and SMB services. Then, we use best-practice tools to distill exactly what the opportunities are for a proposed product, and a hypothesis covering the best way to leverage them.

Some of the activities we may carry out while providing our Product Ideation service are Exploratory research using the four-diamond discovery framework, Hypothesis formulation and testing, Technical due diligence and asset review.

By helping you figure out the answers to your questions and producing these outputs, we gain a shared, contextual understanding of your idea, your business and your intentions.

Common outputs you will receive from this process include four-diamond research findings, a set of confirmed or disproved hypotheses, Propel's hypothesis governance framework, and a clear and decisive set of recommendations.

Product Development

Propel and our Product Delivery teams get our client’s live product into the hands of customers on schedule, helping to iterate and find that sweet spot for perfect market fit.

Design & Management

Propel's dedicated team of experienced Product Managers drive the end-to-end product lifecycle, from inception through to launch and rapid growth in market. Propel’s 1st class Product Delivery capability is supported by our team of customer-obsessed User Experience Designers and Service Designers.

Accelerated Development

Propel’s software development practices have been fine-tuned through diverse partnerships and ongoing collaboration with some of Australia’s most successful software brands. Propel development teams rapidly deliver software to market, ensuring it runs as intended and iterating rapidly to achieve the perfect market fit for our client’s product.

How does it work?

Our clients have a range of business goals and success benchmarks to reach. Some are facing new challenges, entering new markets, or simply adjusting to the new normal. Propel will hand-pick the perfect team to help deliver best-in-class software that aligns with your technology infrastructure and resonates with the end-users.

Propel teams are the perfect blend of big picture thinkers and technical experts, all focused on delivering the best outcomes possible. Through their customer obsession, craftsmanship and drive, they strive to make a real-world impact with the work they do.

Our clients can capture product market opportunities faster with the support of Propel product delivery teams. We apply our bias for action to achieve their business objectives and let the result speak for itself. Having the ability to act fast on new market opportunities enables our team to identify new opportunities during development as they arise. 

Propel teams don’t silo knowledge and insights to generate future work or keep clients dependent on our services. We document processes effectively, socialising product and technical thought leadership to upskill our client’s teams, supporting their autonomy as needed.

Product Management

Propel's dedication to product management and the experience of our Product Managers guide your product through all of the development stages with a practised, methodical approach based on data, feedback, and real-world conditions.

Design & Depth

Propel’s industry-leading product management capability is supported by our team of User Experience Designers and Service Designers. We keep our eye on trending tastes and market sentiment, stay across new insights and best practices, and lean into challenges that let us devise novel solutions. 

Accelerated Deployment

The Propel Way advocates releasing frequently and iterating rapidly in response to user needs, to continue optimising and always ensuring continued market fit.

How does it work?

Propel takes the risk alongside our client by being responsible for a product’s ongoing iteration and development in response to market feedback and conditions. When we partner with a client, we commit to long-term success to not only ensure the product makes it to market, but grows from strength to strength.

The Propel Way™ is about guiding products through all stages of the development process, then closing the feedback loop by diving deep into user experience and converting responses to actionable steps for our client. This process needs a deep understanding of market conditions and the ability to sort essential features from the nice-to-haves.

Ask us about The Propel Way™

If you would like to ensure your next product gains fast traction in the marketplace, or just need an experienced hand to guide it to long-term success, contact us to discuss how The Propel Way™ can elevate and optimise your development process.