From Customer Insight to Innovation: The Road to Product Explorer

We often receive requests from customers about what functionality the product should include. Each suggestion is carefully reviewed to determine whether it is a generic request that could benefit the majority of our customers worldwide. In many cases, we conclude that it is more of a request tailored to a specific customer, which then becomes a customer specific customization developed by our Professional Services team. In other cases, when we see broader value for multiple customers, the request may be incorporated into a larger enhancement or lead to an immediate update in the core product.

Earlier this year, a customer with a wholesale business model approached us seeking to improve product catalog transparency for their service providers. The customer highlighted two key challenges:

1. Service providers often lack clear notifications when the communications operator introduces a new product.

2. They face difficulties identifying wholesale operator-created products for which a corresponding service provider offering has not yet been created.

These challenges limit the ability of service providers to quickly launch and monetize new services, ultimately slowing down their go-to-market activities and revenue growth.

Within our Product Management team, we discussed the customer’s challenges and began brainstorming potential solutions. The discussions concluded that a new view was needed, one that would provide value not just to this customer, but to many of our clients. Consequently, the request was added to our Change Request backlog for further development. At Netadmin, we have a setup called Product Advancement Fee, which this customer was choosing to activate.

Close customer collaboration enabled us to develop "Product Explorer" - a feature that addresses the original need while creating opportunities to accelerate sales. This exemplifies how customer-driven innovation delivers business value and enhances efficiency across our customer base.

— Victor Andersson, Product Operations Manager at Netadmin

Subsequently, a series of meetings were held with representatives from Netadmin’s Product Management team, UX/UI designers, and the customer where we discussed and created mockups illustrating how the view would function both visually and functionally. This process allowed the customer to provide immediate feedback on how the final feature should look and operate. During one of these workshops, it became clear that there was also a need to simplify the copying of information between a service provider’s different products. This request was subsequently added to the project scope.

The new feature was then reviewed with internal representatives from other customers to ensure a comprehensive perspective and broader applicability.

Throughout the development process, we maintained a close dialogue with the customer, ensuring that any questions or uncertainties were clarified together. Regular demo sessions were held, giving the customer unique insight into the feature’s progress during both development and testing. This collaborative approach ensured transparency and alignment at every stage of the project.

We are very proud to present “Product Explorer”, which emerged as the solution to this initial challenge. More information regarding Product Explorer can be found here.