What is new product development and why is it Important for your organization?
Running a business you hear a lot of terms. Some you know, others are questionable. One of the questions you may ask yourself may be, what is new product development? If that is something you have asked, I am here to explain it to you.
The definition of what new product development is a step by step process used to develop a service or product for consumers.
Here are the 5 steps for new product development:
1. Bring on the Ideas
You start any process with ideas to create the new products or necessary improvements on a product. The ideas for the product can come from a variety of sources in your company, like your marketing team, sales team, or any other part of your business team. The best ideas often come from workers that deal directly with the customers. Your new products need to find and meet a need that your customers may have. This need also needs to be something that your competition or you have not already met. You can make products that may not meet a need, but generally these only end in an expense to the company with no real results.
2. Gather Up a Team
Good ideas need to be assessed. To do this you need to create a team that can look at the potential for this new product’s market. Having manufacturing, technical, and financial specialists need to consider cost and practical need for this new product. The team needs to have confidence that this product will turn a profit before moving to the next step.
3. Time to Create
This is the stage where you create the product. You should be careful and thorough as you proceed through this stage. This will be the largest workload for your team in the entire process. Your marketing team should oversee the design, to ensure that the design is still focused on customer need. Be sure to pay attention to cost as it may cost more than originally estimated.
4. Take a Final Look
Look over what you have now that the product is completed. You also should, if possible test the product in the market before your initial launch. That way you can see exactly how your product will fair in the market.
You may also look into having test groups that try out your product to get opinions. That way you can make any needed changes before launching.
5. Ready, Set Launch!
Now it is the most exciting part of the development process. You finally get to show off the product that you have worked so hard on.
Take time to explain the importance of inquires on this new product to your customer service and sales team so they are all well informed about any questions they may have.
You can launch in small regions to continue your test of the product slowly expanding its reach as you test it. Prepare your ads, website, and press release to go along with the product as you build your campaign for this new product.