Bogdan Costinescu, manager of software engineering at Freescale, joined the TechLounge Talks in a special meeting with students from Politehnica University about creating software products.

Here are some of the most important ideas shared:

When creating software products you need to have an entrepreneurial spirit to solve the uncertainty. Your software will be part of a system and you’ll have to develop a business model focused on customers.

You need to know who’s your client: markets don’t buy products, clients do. Nevertheless, you have to be the first one to answer the question „Why would anyone buy my product?”. 

The products are influenced by lots of factors like:

• Marketing – who’s my client? How am I going to promote my products? What’s the price?
• Distribution – where am I going to distribute my product? How can I control that?
• Licensing
• Documentation training (part of the product – forum, group discussions)
• Support
• Maintenance
• Customization services
• The development ecosystem – you have to have in mind your future partners who will develop the product

“The product is a clearly defined mix of quality standards” said Bogdan Costinescu

ISO 9126 defines the 6 quality standards: functionality, efficiency, reliability, maintainability, usability, and portability.

A software is created in a certain context and the quality of a product is influenced by internal and external attributes:

• Verification = normal testing
• Validation = the answer from your customer – if what he gets is what he needs.

If you want to create a software decide to follow one idea that is worth being implemented. After that, you have to keep in mind: the cost, the revenue, the market window, capabilities and the alignment to strategy.

„If you launch your product too soon, you ruin the surprise. If you launch too late, you run out of money” said Bogdan Costinescu, adding that one thing is for sure “You don’t want to loose the client’s confidence in your product”.

“The clients are important; if you don’t have clients I don’t know why would you do the product. Pay attention to the first client. The risk is to satisfy just one client.” said Bogdan Costinescu

If you want to create a successful product, use that product for yourself. That’s the best feedback. Moreover, find ways to get feedback from your users. In the end, think of your product as a platform and leave an open space for the possible extensions.

Student Elena Buchir took notes for this text.