The Iterative Process: 5-Step Guide + Examples

Some project managers start a project with a clear vision of the final outcome. Others start with a looser plan of attack, making adjustments as the process unfolds. The advantage to the former is confidently knowing how the project will proceed, no matter what happens. The advantage to the latter is agility. Through trial and error, checkpoints for feedback, and rapid prototyping, a team may find itself able to work more nimbly as it surges toward a final product.

This adaptive approach is known as an iterative process. It’s for teams that like to evaluate work while it’s happening, subjecting products to processes like usability testing. If the first iteration of a product doesn’t work, the team creates an alternative right away, rather than waiting for the development cycle to conclude.

If you’re intrigued by the iterative process and want to understand how it works, read on to learn more.

What is the iterative process?

The iterative process is a method of problem-solving, product development, or project management that emphasizes repeated rounds of planning, executing, evaluating, and refining. Teams following an iterative process model don’t aim for a perfect final version on their first attempt. Rather, they consciously build and improve step-by-step, learning from feedback or testing at each incremental development stage. An iterative development process allows for flexibility, continuous improvement, and faster identification of issues.

Many project managers push their teams to follow iterative methodologies like agile, scrum, lean, or kanban, which break work into smaller segments. The iterative approach grants teams the opportunity to assess their work at various stops along the way. They can test and gather feedback from team members, focus groups, and industry peers. Once they’ve processed their feedback, they can apply it to the next iteration, delivering incremental value at every stage in the development cycle.

The iterative cycle ends when the development team produces a final product. Yet, even from here, a business can continue to use the iterative process. They might use it to respond to customer feedback and add new features and improvements. This is particularly common in software development, where customers expect updates for several years after initially purchasing a software product.

What is a non-iterative process?

A non-iterative process, also known as a linear process or sequential process, follows a rigid, step-by-step approach where each phase must be complete before the next one begins. There is typically little to no room for going back to previous stages once they are finished.

One of the best-known non-iterative processes is called the waterfall model, which follows a fixed set of steps. You fully define project requirements in the initial planning phase. Design, implementation, testing, and deployment follow—always in that order. Each phase of the waterfall model strictly flows into the next without overlap or feedback loops to earlier stages.

If you need to make changes late in a non-iterative process, they may be extremely difficult and costly to implement. This is why many project managers prefer an iterative model; it’s more forgiving when you need to adjust your tactics.

5 steps of the iterative process 

1. Planning
2. Design
3. Development
4. Testing
5. Retrospection

There are multiple interactive processes used by business leaders and project managers. These include lean project management, agile project management, scrum project management, and kanban project management.

To show how the iterative process works, we’ll break down the agile methodology into five steps. The agile method is based on a statement of values called the Agile Marketing Manifesto, which emphasizes working quickly and responding to change. The agile approach uses short development cycles, which in this case are called sprints. Teams use these sprints to plan, build, review, and refine their work.

Here are the five steps of an agile iterative approach, as imagined for an ecommerce business.

1. Planning

At the start of an iteration, you and your team review what work you can realistically complete in the upcoming sprint. This is your project scope. You’ll review a prioritized list of business processes and tasks known as a product backlog. You’ll select items and break them down into smaller, actionable tasks.

Let’s say that your ecommerce sales team defines your sprint goal as: "Increase conversion rate for first-time visitors on the product page." You select tasks such as: 

• A/B test product image layouts

• Implement customer review widgets

• Optimize product description copy for SEO

You also develop a project timeline for executing this iteration cycle.

2. Design

Your team now pivots to the iterative design process. Because you’re employing an iterative and incremental approach, your design may draw upon previous iterations. In our ecommerce website example, this might mean you aren’t redesigning each webpage from scratch. It’s more likely that you’ll use the iterative method to alter your existing website.

Sometimes the iterative process involves large, sweeping changes, like when a business isn’t close to meeting its goals. But even in these scenarios, the workflow is flexible, and the design phase may cycle back to the planning phase before proceeding forward.

3. Development

In the development phase, you work on the tasks you committed to during your planning sprint. You may hold daily meetings to check progress, discuss any roadblocks, and ensure alignment.

At this point in your ecommerce redesign, your marketing specialist drafts new product copy, your web developer implements the A/B test for image layouts, and your content manager integrates the review widget.

You might discover the review widget clashes with a pop-up, which you discuss in the daily meeting to find a quick resolution. Iterative and incremental development gives you this luxury. If you can’t produce deliverables that achieve your desired outcome, you have the flexibility to pivot back to your planning and design phases.

4. Testing

In the testing phase, you’ll present your ostensibly completed project for stakeholder feedback. In an ecommerce business, stakeholders might include the company owner, marketing director, and members of the sales team. This is an informal session where you gather feedback on your work.

In an ecommerce context, you can also move the testing beyond internal stakeholders. You could show your revamped website to customers and solicit user feedback. Even with careful planning, it often takes multiple iterations to fully execute the goals you set forth when planning.

5. Retrospection

It’s now time for a project evaluation. Gather your team and discuss your sprint. Did you meet your project goals and achieve your desired result? You can steer the conversation by asking questions like:

• "What went well?"

• "What could be improved?"

• “What will you commit to doing differently in future iterations?”

In our ecommerce example, your team might realize it underestimated the time for A/B test setup, or communication between marketing and development could be better. You commit to changes for future sprints, such as allocating more time for testing setup or implementing a shared document for design specifications. The goal is to make subsequent iterations more efficient and cost-effective.

Applications of the iterative process 

• Design
• Product development
• Marketing
• Sales
• Brand culture

Countless business owners have reaped the benefits of an iterative, incremental approach to their work, using techniques like the kanban, scrum, agile, and lean methodologies. Here are five specific ways you can apply the iterative process to your business strategies, with examples of how businesses have done it.

Design

You can use iteration to test product layouts, refine visual elements, and improve user experiences through rounds of feedback and usability testing. Sometimes feedback comes from your customers, sometimes it comes from industry professionals, and sometimes you need to involve stakeholders within your own organization.

Electric toothbrush company SURI’s development process was based on, in founder Gyve Safavi’s words, “feedback-driven innovation.” Since SURI is a toothbrush brand, it made sense for Gyve and his cofounder, Mark Rushmore, to speak to actual dentists.

“We would reach out to get their feedback,” Gyve explains on an episode of Shopify Masters, “and we were able to get real insights like: ‘Oh, so, a lighter brush actually is better because people don’t have to strain holding it.’ And: ‘Actually having a softer mode for people who are just getting started on it will be important.’”

Product development

Iterative development lets your team release product features in small increments. You can test the performance of each iteration and adapt quickly to make the product better. You can make big changes with each redesign or aim for smaller iterations to speed up your turnaround time.

For Thousand founder Gloria Hwang, listening to customers and partners is a crucial element of the product development cycle.

“I would say in terms of introducing new products or even modifications on our current products, the learnings have involved listening to feedback,” she said in an interview with Shopify Masters. “We’re always listening to feedback on an ongoing basis. But we also have an orchestrated attempt once or twice a year to get all the feedback from major partners, distributors, and customers.”

Gloria says they use the feedback every single year to update products or develop new ones.

The iterative process was also crucial for pickle brand Good Girl Snacks. Prior to launching, founders Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar worked with a food scientist, altering the product multiple times before landing on the recipe. They launched with large-sized pickles, then leveraged their customers to make improvements.

“Due to this large community that we’ve built, we were able to garner a lot of customer feedback and decided to switch to smaller gherkin cucumbers for pickles,” Leah said in an interview with Shopify Masters. “So now there’s a lot more pickles in a jar. They’re smaller, they’re crunchier, they’re saltier. And we then launched this glowed-up Hot Girl Pickles. And we’ve been running with those.”

Marketing

As an iterative marketer, you can run A/B tests, tweak messaging, and revise campaigns based on analytical reports and key performance indicators (KPIs). It’s quite common for brands to refine their marketing tactics over time. An iterative approach often lets you test new messages much more nimbly than you could with a non-iterative approach. You can track crucial marketing metrics like open rates, cost per click, and customer acquisition cost to understand how your marketing assets are performing and make adjustments based on user data.

Sales

You convert prospective clients with outreach, pitches, and custom offers. Invariably, some of these efforts will be more effective than others. An iterative approach lets you adjust messaging in the middle of a sales cycle, rather than wait for a campaign to end. A mid-stream pivot might benefit your final outcome because you’re processing and responding to customer needs with more effective messaging.

Perhaps you’re selling direct-to-consumer (DTC)furniture made from eco-friendly materials, shipped to arrive within a week of purchase. You’re focusing on the environmentally friendly aspects of the brand. Talking with customers, you learn your real selling point is speedy shipping. You can pivot the messaging to emphasize your excellent shipping policy and potentially win more business in the middle of a campaign.

Brand culture

Sometimes an iterative mindset extends beyond one single project or department. For Blume founder Karen Danudjaja, the iterative spirit drives all aspects of the beverage company’s operations.

“The products that we have today are so different than what I had that first month or the first sale,” Karen said in an interview with Shopify Masters. “Like, even though we still have the turmeric latte product, the formulation is different, the ingredients sourcing is different, and how we package it is different.”

“And so I think of Blume in the same way. It’s like an iterative journey. It’s a progression, and we’re getting clearer and clearer and who we should be and how we can support customers by listening.”

Not only did Blume adjust its formulation and packaging, it also adjusted Blume’s entire identity as a brand.

“Despite Blume being like a health product that would sit in a supplement store, it almost presents like a beauty brand,” Karen says. “So the way that Blume is positioned, it really feels like a lifestyle beauty brand while still having the benefits that are typically reserved for the supplement aisle.”

Karen observes that her willingness to iterate on the fly helped her get the company off the ground, whereas a non-iterative approach might have kept her paralyzed with doubt.

“I don’t think, in those first few months, I felt like I had the perfect idea, the perfect product, which I know holds a lot of people back from starting,” says Karen. “It was more like I had to develop the confidence in myself to iterate, to listen, to adapt. And Blume is a product of that today.”