How a Cloud‑Native Demand Chain Boosted Product Delivery Speed by 98%

Why a New Demand Management Mechanism Was Needed

The cloud era forces enterprises to be far more flexible, and performance‑management platforms must iterate quickly to meet diverse user needs. Traditional product‑manager processes—discovering and solving problems—could not keep up with the flood of requests from users, sales and after‑sales, leading to a “whack‑a‑mole” situation.

Core Goal: Accelerate Demand Flow

TianDan’s product department analyzed the whole process and set a single objective: speed up demand circulation . They deconstructed the workflow, involving upstream sales/after‑sales and downstream design/development, and created a flow‑based demand‑handling mechanism.

Validated Results

After half a year of trial, the BPC for Cloud product launched on schedule, proving the mechanism’s feasibility. The demand‑chain consists of a “transparent process board” and a “standardized demand‑collection form”.

PM Methodology Foundations

The team draws on the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) and its NPDP certification, which the entire TianDan product team has earned. Facing new capacity challenges, they revisited NPDP theory to create the new demand‑chain.

The Four Parallel Pipelines

The end‑to‑end process is split into four pipelines that can run in parallel, dramatically shortening the time a demand spends in the system:

Demand Line : converts user‑reported problems into formal demands, requiring close cooperation with sales and after‑sales and providing detailed templates to improve demand quality.

Design Line : turns finalized demands into functional designs, producing low‑, medium‑ and high‑fidelity prototypes, UI designs, user tests, and detailed design documents.

Development Line : R&D implements the designs into product versions and delivers them for acceptance within the agreed timeline.

Delivery Line : packages the product, hands it to the originating sales/after‑sales teams, and verifies that the promised business value is realized.

Applying Drucker’s Management Theory

The team introduced detailed checklists and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for every step, turning the demand chain into a quantifiable, auditable process.

Transparent Board Tool

A specialized board displays demand status, assigns owners, and lets upstream stakeholders track progress while downstream developers adjust schedules based on real‑time demand positions.

Teaching Smart Questioning

Inspired by the classic article “How To Ask Questions The Smart Way”, TianDan created a comprehensive user‑problem collection form, trained sales and after‑sales staff in two sessions, and ensured that every submitted demand is vetted before entering the board.

Impact of the New Demand Chain

The assembly‑line‑like process cleared long‑standing backlog, achieved 97.9% on‑time completion, and enabled the timely release of BPC for Cloud while preparing the company for future products.

Future Outlook

With continuous refinement of its product methodology, TianDan aims to build products users love, confident that a solid product‑development mechanism will meet the rigorous demands of the cloud era.