How to Implement Community-Driven Product Development (CDPD) Without Overhauling Your Process
Jake McKee | April 15, 2025
Read time: 5 minutes
The traditional black box approach to product development isn’t just flawed—it’s risky.
By the time you reach the verification stage, the fate of your product is already sealed. If something is off—whether it’s missing features, usability issues, or a complete mismatch with customer expectations—you’re left scrambling for last-minute fixes, costly pivots, or, worst of all, watching your product launch to indifference.
But what if you could prevent these problems before they happen?
That’s exactly what Community-Driven Product Development (CDPD) does.
In our previous article, we explored why traditional product development fails—how companies collect insights at the start, disappear into development mode, and only reconnect with customers at the very end, when it’s too late to make meaningful changes.
CDPD changes this by bringing customers into the process—not just as test subjects, but as collaborators. It ensures that what gets built isn’t just “good”—it’s right.
But how do you implement CDPD without disrupting your team’s workflow? What’s the best way to integrate real customer engagement into your process—without slowing things down or creating chaos?
Let’s break it down step by step.
The Four Core Components of CDPD
CDPD isn’t about handing product development over to customers—it’s about strategically involving representative voices at the right moments to ensure what you’re building aligns with real-world needs.
1. Find the Right People
Not all feedback is created equal. The key to CDPD success is engaging the right participants—customers who are:
- Passionate about your product or industry
- Trusted voices in your community
- Representative of your broader customer base=
- Willing to provide honest, constructive feedback
2. Involve them at the right time
CDPD isn’t about collecting ideas whenever—it’s about integrating customer voices at key moments in the development cycle, such as:
- Early ideation – Ensuring you’re solving the right problem.
- Feature prioritization – Identifying what truly matters to customers.
- Prototype testing – Observing real users interact with early versions.
3. Focus on the right outcomes
Customer feedback can be noisy. The goal isn’t to gather more input—it’s to gather the right input. CDPD programs should have clear objectives:
- Are you refining a feature?
- Testing usability?
- Validating product-market fit?
4. Design the right activities
CDPD engagement should feel valuable—not like a chore. Instead of relying solely on surveys and feedback forms, bring customers into the process in ways that spark deeper insight and engagement.
Examples:
- Co-Creation Workshops – Customers brainstorm alongside your team
- Feedback Sprints – Short, structured sessions for testing prototypes
- Beta Groups with Real Influence – A core group that provides input over time
Practical Steps to Get Started
CDPD doesn’t require a massive overhaul. The best way to get started? Start small and prove the value.
1. Start with a pilot program
Pick one feature, product, or team to test CDPD with. Keep it manageable and focus on demonstrating quick wins.
Example: Invite a small group of engaged users to an ideation session and test their input against your internal priorities.
2. Define clear objectives
Before engaging customers, define what success looks like. Are you:
- Gathering early-stage ideas?
- Testing prototypes?
- Strengthening relationships with super-users?
Each one of these options will alter the approach you take to everything from recruiting to onboarding to program engagement. Clear goals ensure focused, actionable insights rather than broad, overwhelming feedback.
3. Recruit the right participants
More isn’t better. A smaller group of engaged, representative customers is far more valuable than a massive, unfocused group.
How to find them:
- Look at existing customer communities (forums, social media, support interactions)
- Identify users who provide insightful feedback in existing support and engagement channels
- Create invite-only opportunities for select participants
4. Communicate expectations clearly
Transparency is key. Set clear guidelines on:
- The scope of customer involvement
- What kind of feedback will be acted on
- How decisions will be made
This ensures trust and clarity from day one.
5. Create a structured program
Instead of generic feedback requests, design activities that align with your goals.
Examples of CDPD Activities:
- Ideation workshops – Bring customers into brainstorming sessions.
- Feedback sprints – Fast, structured testing of prototypes.
- Long-term co-creation – Engaging a select group throughout the product lifecycle.
6. Use technology to facilitate engagement
Make it easy for customers to participate by using tools they’re already comfortable with.
Examples:
- Private groups or forums (Slack, Discord, Facebook Groups) – For ongoing discussion.
- Video calls – For deep-dive sessions and usability testing.
- Survey tools – For structured, quick feedback collection.
7. Recognize and reward participants
Customers aren’t just giving you their time—they’re helping shape your product. Recognizing and rewarding their contributions is key to keeping them engaged.
Ways to show appreciation:
- Early access to features/products
- Unique program merchandise or custom items
- Small thoughtful gifts and hand written thank you cards
- Public recognition (e.g., credits, social media shoutouts)
Pro Tip: Customers don’t participate just for free stuff. They want to feel valued and heard. You can motivate with kind words and insights into how things work inside your company as effectively as free gifts.
8. Train your team in facilitation & engagement
CDPD isn’t a solo effort. Even if a single leader oversees the program, everyone on your team who interacts with participants needs the right skills to foster engagement, facilitate discussions, and ensure a productive, collaborative experience.
Key facilitation skills:
- Active listening techniques.
- Managing group dynamics.
- Balancing customer input with business priorities.
9. Build feedback loops
Nothing kills engagement faster than unacknowledged feedback. Customers want to see how their input is making a difference.
How to close the loop:
- Regular updates on the status of suggestions.
- Before-and-after examples showing how feedback influenced decisions.
- Acknowledging contributors publicly.
By keeping customers informed, you reinforce trust and create long-term advocates.
The Future of Product Development is Collaborative
Companies already know the traditional black box model is broken. They’ve tried:
🚫 Expanding market research.
🚫 Investing in more usability testing.
🚫 Launching beta programs.
🚫 Monitoring customer complaints post-launch.
But these efforts happen too late in the process to drive meaningful change.
CDPD addresses this by integrating real, representative customer voices throughout development—not just at the beginning and the end.
Why CDPD works
Fewer costly last-minute changes
By engaging real customers during development, teams catch potential issues before they become expensive fixes.
Products that launch with built-in advocacy
When customers are involved in shaping a product, they become its biggest advocates. Instead of launching to an indifferent audience, companies launch to a community that’s already invested in its success.
Stronger customer relationships and loyalty
Real engagement fosters trust, deepens relationships, and keeps customers engaged long after launch.
Start Small, Scale Fast
You don’t have to change everything overnight—but by starting small and proving the value, you can build a product development process that actively engages the customers who will champion it.
The best companies don’t build for customers—they build with them.
About the Author
Jake McKee, Community Driven Product Development and Consultant
Jake McKee is one of the founders of the modern customer community movement. He led Apple’s famed Global Support Communities and pioneered efforts at LEGO to engage its adult users in a community, which spawned breakthrough innovations such as the Mindstorms Community Driven Product Development (featured on the cover of Wired Magazine). For more than 10 years, Jake has been a leading industry community consultant working with clients like Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Calix, Southwest Airlines, and Outdoorsy. His consulting practice, Jake McKee Consulting, focuses on helping organizations of all sizes design, execute, and grow Community Driven Product Development programs that bring the Community Voice into the product development lifecycle. Jake also manages the CX 5essions project, an invitation-only monthly dinner series that brings senior online community, CX, and product management leaders together for conversation, connection, and camaraderie. And just for fun, he created a web comic for community managers called Confessions of a Community Manager.