Introducing the Onda Process™

Illustrated flowchart representing the Onda Process™, showing integrated paths for product development, strategy checkpoints, and go-to-market planning.

Where strategy meets execution—on purpose.

In today’s fast-paced product environment, clarity is everything—and often the first thing lost.

Late in my career, after years of bringing new technologies to market, I returned to school to formalize something I had long sensed: product failures often aren’t engineering failures. They’re the result of a breakdown between strategy, development, and market readiness.

At Rochester Institute of Technology, while earning my Master’s in Product Development, I worked alongside brilliant systems thinkers from companies like Harris and Delphi. It was a technically rigorous program, grounded in process discipline and product engineering.

But what stood out was this: even in these advanced environments, business strategy, marketing, and go-to-market planning were too often left out of core product phases. That misalignment—those blind spots—inspired me to create a better approach.

The Onda Process™

The Onda Process™ is a proprietary framework designed to ensure go-to-market (GTM) strategy evolves in lockstep with product development.

Built on the foundation of Stage-Gate principles, Onda weaves GTM strategy into every phase of the lifecycle—not as a handoff at the end, but as a parallel, visible, and actionable workstream from discovery through launch.

“Onda”—Italian for “wave”—represents the cadence, rhythm, and energy needed to bring modern products to life.

Each wave is both a product milestone and a strategic checkpoint.

Why This Integration Matters

In startups, scale-ups, and even global enterprises, product and marketing teams are often siloed. Development may be halfway done before someone asks:

“Who is this actually for?” “What’s our positioning?”“ Are we ready to sell this?”

That disconnect isn’t just inefficient—it’s costly.

🔹 49% of products are launched late🔹 44% fail to meet profit objectives🔹 Only 1 in 10 new product concepts succeed

Onda helps teams avoid these traps by embedding market strategy inside the development process—not tacked on at the end.

How It Works (Without Giving Away the Secret Sauce)

Onda follows six waves that mirror the product lifecycle, but with GTM checkpoints baked in:

• Advanced customer discovery & market segmentation

• Pricing, feasibility, and business modeling

• Channel planning and launch readiness

• Sales enablement design

• Digital marketing triggers

• Positioning and messaging development

Rather than building first and scrambling later, Onda ensures business cases, GTM assets, and messaging evolve alongside product maturity—reducing launch friction and increasing internal buy-in.

The process begins with a custom rapid-discovery tool, inspired by A3 thinking. It forces early clarity and helps teams validate quickly—or kill the wrong idea early, saving time and capital.

Where Onda Works Best

• Entrepreneurial teams where people wear many hats

• Startups and scale-ups seeking product-market fit

• SMBs struggling to align product, sales, and marketing

• Innovation groups inside larger enterprises

3 Questions to Reflect On

1. Is your go-to-market strategy evolving with development—or arriving late to the table?

2. Are your teams aligned by design—or fighting for resources?

3. Do you validate readiness for more than just the product—like sales, ops, and brand?

Let’s Share Ideas

I’d love to hear how others are solving this. Have you built internal models that integrate GTM into product development? What’s working—and what’s still messy?

Let’s make launching smarter—not just faster.

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