Of course, the fantastic thing about this type of tech is that you can find a niche and take on the big boys even when you're relatively inexperienced. The market is open to entrepreneurs who can fill gaps.

Of course, this doesn't mean that success is guaranteed - far from it. There are a variety of different elements to consider and plates to keep spinning during the development phase, which means there are several extra pitfalls to try and avoid. While it might not be possible to swerve them all, it does help to have some advance warning of what form they may take in order to prepare yourself as best as possible. With that in mind, here are the three most common problems developers run into when bringing a product to market.

Rushing to commercialisation

While it might be tempting to get your idea out there into the world as quickly as possible, this strategy often results in missing the mark. A quality product is one that will satisfy the needs and wants of its users, rather than being the first thing they stumble across. After all, history is littered with examples [1] of companies and entrepreneurs who made their fortunes by taking the ideas of others and refining them to achieve excellence.

Don't become one of those who dreams up concepts but doesn't cash in on their profitability. Instead, take the time to truly understand your target market and the problems they're facing, then pour the requisite resources into engineering a solution. After that, it's a case of conducting thorough tests to identify any issues or bugs, before then - and only then - unleashing it into the marketplace.

Overemphasizing BOMs and product margins

By their very nature, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and fledgling start-ups are restricted in terms of the resources available to them. This means that they are often overly focused on the bill of materials (BOM) [2] involved in creating their products and concentrate too much on the narrow margins associated with their physical products.

Of course, keeping a tight grip on the purse-strings is crucial for any financially successful business. However, losing sight of the end goal of the product itself - satisfying the needs of its end users - because you're too worried about what it's costing you is a sure-fire way to fail. Achieve a balance between frugality and functionality to plot a course to conquering your chosen marketplace.

Overdeveloping proprietary technology

Have you ever heard of the phrase "if it's not broken, don't fix it?" Too often, smart product development companies are continually focused on trying to reinvent the wheel, even after it has shown that it can perform its duties remarkably well. Of course, this doesn't mean that you should stop looking for issues to fix or ways to improve, but neither should you waste resources by constantly trying to refine technology that is already succeeding in the marketplace.

Instead, you should adopt a smart connected product strategy [3] that focuses on how you can take a saleable idea to the mass market. One way to do so is to involve specialist third-party services which can scale up your product and make it secure across the board using ready-made reference architectures and libraries that instantly bring it to a wider audience. In this manner, you can boost productivity, reduce the costs involved and bring your product to market sooner.

Developing a successful smart product is a challenging endeavour, but diverting your resources to the areas which need them most, never losing sight of your objectives and involving the expertise of specialist partners are key ways of ensuring you give yourself the best chance of success.