The magic ingredient for new product development concept success is straightforward: concentrate on product discovery while simultaneously addressing the target audience’s specific problems. This is why it is critical to obtain consumer insights using various methods such as customer surveys, interviews, social media monitoring, and ethnographic studies.
Also important is that product discovery should be a continuous process that continues across the product life cycle stages, including ideation, idea validation, validating proofs of concept and prototypes (PoCs), MVP development, pre-launch, and post-launch phases.
In this article, we will discuss the process of product development:
What is the Product Development Process?
It is the step-by-step technique of all the steps required to take a product from its original idea to its market presence, known as a product development process. As part of the complicated process of providing new goods, it often includes a number of steps that translate an initial product concept into commercially viable items.
In the course of the process, you begin with an idea or concept and end with product specifications, a price plan, service components, and distribution methods, among other things. Initially, this process must be motivated by an idea or by the needs of the market!
The product development process is intended to not only produce something new but, more importantly, to maximise the value of the product while minimising the risks of failure, which are generated by:
All factors to consider are poor quality, noncompetitive price, late or premature entrance, limited brand recognition, and insufficient promotional assistance.
The Product Development Process in Eight Steps
By now, we’re all aware that the only way to create and enhance new goods is via an organised, systematic, and value-driven product development process. To better understand the product development process, we’ll take a closer look at eight of the most important processes.
Step 1: It all starts with a thought.
The first stage is to develop a basic idea for what the product will be. To uncover the best ideas, a company often develops hundreds of them.
Step 2: Research and validation of the product.
If you have a good idea for a product and are ready to go on with manufacturing, you may wish to skip the validation stage.
If you’re building a product that people are willing to pay for, you won’t spend time, money, or effort on a concept that isn’t going to work. You may verify your product ideas and do research in a variety of methods, including:
- distributing a web-based questionnaire to get comments
- launching a crowdsourcing effort
- Posting a question on Reddit or Quora and getting others to respond
- Analysing demand for a product or service over the internet
Step 3: Plan your company’s future operations
A full-fledged business plan for a product includes all of the economic factors involved in producing and promoting it. This will help you examine all of your investments throughout product development and define variables for the sales pipeline and associated expenditures after the launch of your product.
Step 4: Prototype a Working Model
During the product development process, a prototype stage is used to construct a basic product to test the design, verify use assumptions, show investors, and utilize it for marketing reasons. Prototypes may be both physical and digital in certain circumstances. Product development begins in earnest at this point.
Step 5: Testing
It’s time to put your product to the test with actual consumers now that you’ve finished developing it! In order to do this, you may either try it out with current customers or conduct formal-informal focus groups. Your testing has to provide real results and answers to the following issues:
Whether or not they like or hate the product, what areas of improvement do they think are needed, and if your product’s pricing is competitive.
Step 6: Costing
It is likely that you already have an idea of the cost of manufacturing your product. At this point, you take all of the data you’ve gathered so far and add it all up to determine your gross margin and retail price. All of your production expenses, raw materials, factory setup fees, and shipping charges are included in these prices. “
Step 7: Setting up a website
Your prototype and cost estimate is now complete, so it’s time to draft the design-phase technical requirements. In certain cases, it may be necessary for you to engage with external designers to supply the design specs needed to manufacture your final product for that you can easily hire freelance developers for setting up your website.
Step 8: Marketing and distribution
A new product’s marketing and sales are among the most challenging aspects of the whole product development process.
Conclusion
From the time of conception until the time of launch, your product would go through thousands of iterations. If you want to succeed with your product, ensure you are always obtaining market information.
With careful planning and preparation—through creativity, research, planning, experimenting, designing, budgeting, and distribution—you can ensure that your final product is a commercial success no matter what you’re working on.
Author’s Bio:
Shresth Shrivastav is the Founder and CEO of BeGig, a new-age tech startup striving to bridge the talent gaps faced by modern enterprises and connecting them with reliable tech freelancers at competitive costs.
