What is the Product Development and New Product Development Process
As the start-up culture is gaining momentum, more and more people are entering the entrepreneurial space with their innovative ideas. However to convert an idea into a real product with better accuracy, one has to follow a new product development process.
So if you any doubts regarding product development and new product development process, then this article has got you covered. Here we have comprehensively explained the whole product development process along with other related terms. So without further ado, let's jump into it.
- Part 1: What is Product Development
- Part 2: Introduction of New Product Development Process
- Part 3: Introduction of Product Development Strategy
- Part 4: Introduction of Product Development Life Cycle
- Part 5: The Best Tool for Product Design
What is Product Development?
Product development refers to the complete process involved in delivering a product from an idea or theory. It includes all the steps that are required to improve an existing product or bring a new one into the market. The methodologies under product development are utilized to build different new offerings and it supports various kinds of products, ranging from hardware to software.
A well-planned product development process assists organizations in exploring new product ideas. It also helps them gain a better understanding of the genuine wants of the customers. The main motive to opt for a product development process is to make sure that the customers are satisfied with the new or enhanced product. Nowadays, the majority of reputed companies have developed their own product development strategy, which helps them be ahead of the competition and reach their business objectives.
In simple words, product development includes a complete record of a product journey. However, the product development varies from one organization to another but there are some stages that remain constant. To commence the product development process, product teams have to follow various frameworks, which includes understanding customer needs, testing ideas, market research, etc.
Introduction of New Product Development Process
New product development refers to the process of introducing a new service or product to the world. It is like a well-organized series of steps that new products go through. Now which steps will be utilized totally depends on the type of product or service being developed. For example- if the product is revolutionary, new, or is it just an existing product getting some improvement.
The main reasons why businesses need to engage in the new product development process are the rising competition and the change in consumers' taste. It is very important for businesses to adapt according to the market's environment if they want to stay with the trend and capitalize on a fresh opportunity.
All the big companies advance themselves by understanding the need of the market, designing smart product modifications, and developing products and services that fulfill customers' requirements. New Product Development (NPD) can be utilized for two kinds of products. The first one is the products that a business has never sold or manufactured and the second one is the products that are completely new or an improvised version of an existing product.
Along with the existing businesses, sole traders, freelancers, and new businesses can also utilize NPD and enter the market by researching, building, and developing new products. It's not necessary to become an inventor to understand and master NPD. You can even acquire fresh products through licensing acquisition.
Introduction of Product Development Strategy
A product development strategy refers to a well-planned procedure and action used to deploy products into a marketplace. This strategy is used to improve the success ratio to realize the product vision or desired goals. As mentioned above that product development comprises of various stages and to make each stage successful, a strategy is implemented.
Product development strategy gives direction to the team and also motivates them to focus on daily development tasks. With a solid PDS, any individual could demonstrate the potential of a product. These strategies are generally used by businesses when there is no opportunity for new advancements in their current market. When these types of scenarios happen, a company is left with only three choices.
They can either upgrade their current products, modify an existing product, and release it in an untapped market, or leave the product at all. In most cases, companies opt for option ‘a or option b', and to make a decision successful, they start designing a product development strategy to upgrade an existing product for its current market or release it into a new market.
Product development strategies can really improve a business's position but it is also very important to create an effective strategy. However, most top businesses have strict criteria to make sure that their PDS is worth implementing. There are some questions that a product development strategy must answer. For example- what's the competitive landscape, what's the unique value proposition, the main growth drivers, the success metrics to measure, etc. are some of them.
Introduction of Product Development Life Cycle
Product Development Life Cycle is a set of consecutive identified stages that a service or product passes through. There are four stages into which the entire path is divided. This includes introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Some businesses also include development and some combines it with the introduction phase.
1- In the product development and introduction stage, all the research work is done. Businesses conduct market research, competition analysis, and similar fundamental tasks, which help them validate the product. It is also suggested to take customer interviews and build prototypes at this stage as it helps in collecting customers' feedback and reviews.
2- Once the testing is done, businesses start shifting to the introduction phase where they start promoting the products. The introduction stage should contain effective practices to make people aware of your product. There are multiple strategies to spread awareness like skimming or a penetration strategy. The next stage is the growth stage.
3- If you promote your product, then it is obvious that you will see some decent growth. Businesses spend a lot of money at this stage to increase the market share of their product. The best thing here is to target your customer through advertising and make them buy the benefits of your product. Now the advertising you should choose totally depends on the type of business you are. If you are a B2C enterprise, then you should opt for social media platforms.
4- If you are a B2B firm, then promoting on LinkedIn and other professional platforms would be more beneficial. The next stage is the maturity stage. Every business wants to stay in this stage for as long as possible and if you had put efforts in the above two stages, then you will surely achieve that. At this stage, your market will get stable and once this happens, you should move back to the development stage. This will help you assess your performance and make better improvements.
5- The last stage is the decline and here your sales will begin to fall. This happens for mainly two reasons. Either you have reached all of your audience or someone else has introduced a product similar to yours. The best way to deal with this situation is by making better changes to the product and adapting to the environment.
The Best Tool for Product Design
Creating a good product design is very important as it can affect the success of your product. That's why it is best to use a good product design tool like Wondershare Mockitt. It is a rapid prototyping solution that allows you to build interactive prototypes and app/web wireframes with simple clicks. The drag and drop interface eliminates the need for coding and seamless collaboration makes it very convenient to share your creation with others.
Mockitt supports all the popular operating platforms, so you can easily create wireframes without any hassle. So after discussing the fundamentals, here is the complete guide on how to do product design.
Step 1. Log Mockitt and you will be able to access your dashboard where you will see a "Create > Project" option. Click on that and it will take you to a new page.
Step 2. Here you will see various device options. You can choose the one you want to design a product for.
Step 3. Now, you will be redirected to the main artboard where you will get all tools and widgets to design the product. The left area contains screen options along with other basic features.
On the right side, there is a cubical icon and if you click that, a pop up will appear, which contains all the necessary widgets. You can customize your product design with the help of these tools. For example- you could add text by clicking on the "T" widget.
Step 4.Once your design is ready, you can click on the "Preview" button to check how it would look on the device. If you think that it looks perfect, then you can easily share it by clicking on the "Share" button, which will be located on the top right side of the window.
