One of the drivers for the changes taking place in new product development is certainly the evolution of the consumer internet or the Web 2.0 world. YouTube, MySpace, Wikipedia, Flickr, Craigslist – the successes of these Web 2.0 products and services have spurred hundreds of competitors who aim to be the next big Web 2.0 success story.
Many of these consumer internet start-ups got started in garages with a fairly small team and had a beta version of the product out in a matter of 6 months – more or less.
While the success of some Web 2.0 start-ups can be attributed to early-mover advantage in identifying and filling an under-served niche, there are some underlying similarities behind the successful companies.
With the limited resources available at their disposal, the key focus areas were: simplicity and usability – the intuitiveness – of the product or site, collaboration and deep involvement with the user community who are more than merely ‘users’ – they are also contributors, participants and co-creators – and constantly incorporating their feedback to make the user experience better; developing viral product features that are valuable to users like blogs and integration with other Web 2.0 tools, and ultra fast development cycles.
What does all this mean for enterprise software companies? While the consumer internet market certainly has a different user base, some of the lessons that can certainly be learnt are the simplicity and usability of software and understanding the end-user’s real needs better. If these lessons are incorporated, enterprise software has enormous potential for growth!
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"Online communities, iterative methodologies and software scalability" with Andres Camacho - Vice President of Engineering at Vinfolio 
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