The Product Development Process in Seven Steps
When you go through the process of developing and then launching a product, it can actually often be a deciding factor in your business making it or failing completely, especially for small start-ups. Some businesses are centered around only one product, and others have many, but in either case, the development process is similar. The specifics of the steps will depend on the style of management for each business and the nature of the business, but the following seven steps should be applicable to all.
- Brainstorming
To begin with, you need to start by getting the idea for what your product will be and brainstorm options. Speak with your employees and in particular those who are in regular contact with your client base, and find out if any ideas come up frequently.
You can also run surveys among your existing client base to get feedback on your existing products, a good way to get new ideas. Look around your industry to see if there are gaps exploit with a useful product that can fulfill a need.
- Explore all your ideas
Once you’ve got your list of ideas, it’s time to evaluate each, along with all other stakeholders and decision-makers in your business, like the whole management team. Look at the benefits and drawbacks of each idea so you can start narrowing down the list of potential ideas to only a few of the very best ones.
As per Tara Rookston, a business writer at Write My X and Brit Student, “one of the main things you need to consider is the potential of each idea to generate revenue, as well as your ability to create the product physically, both in terms of time and resources.”
- Get feedback
At this stage, you should get feedback on your top ideas from your audience, your employees, and your stakeholders. Ask for feedback by email and by phone, and email your team at work to find out which product seems the most appealing, the most useful, and the most valuable. Through this process, you should be able to narrow down your list to just one or two ideas.
- Social media usage
Social media is a great option to get feedback and you should use it to its full potential if you’re fine with making your idea public. This is an especially great tool if you already have a strong Facebook or Twitter presence or other social media platform. You can post a description or image of your concept and request comments or likes.
You should also consider using a business site like LinkedIn to seek feedback from professionals and colleagues that have a lot of industry knowledge. If you need funds for your project you can consider looking at crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo or Kickstarter, if they fit in with the objectives of your business.
- Look at competitors
At this stage, you need to be looking at the product idea that’s left from a purely business standpoint and putting aside your personal feelings about your creative idea. Look at the competition to see if there are any similar products, what the demand is for it, and what your costs would be to develop it. That includes development and operational costs, to find out what your profit margin is.
- Prototype building
This stage is the prototype development stage, which you should share with some top loyal customers and partners. Request that they try it out and give you useful and actionable feedback. This feedback can be used for your marketing purposes and to develop your marketing campaign strategy, including email, website, and posters or billboards. The messages for your marketing strategy should revolve around the top positive comments and reactions from the tour feedback team during the prototype stage.
You should also be making adjustments to your prototype as required. Dean Young, a project manager at 1Day2Write and Next Coursework, says that “you can evaluate your price and see how effective your marketing messages are, which will help you prepare for the full launch of your product.”
- Launch preparation
The last step is to prepare for your launch. This means you must start your production for the first round of releases. You should also determine how many products you want to produce, a determination that’s based on your market testing and initial demand.
Mildred Delgado, a young marketing strategist for Academic Brits and PhD Kingdom, works with business marketing teams to improve their connection to their clients. She is passionate about helping start-ups with their marketing plans and giving marketing advice. Mildred also writes for the platform Origin Writings.
