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7 Key Stages Of New Product Development Process (+ Examples)

Marta Lee-Perriard, Ph.D., has twenty years of experience in product management, most recently as VP of Product. She advises executives in Fortune 500 companies with a focus on women in product.

“Everyone thinks they can create new products, but in actual fact few people do,” my first manager wisely informed me about new product development.  Looking to build a new product?  Then the reliable new product development process I outline below will increase your odds of success.   Fast forward to twenty years of my building new […]

“Everyone thinks they can create new products, but in actual fact few people do,” my first manager wisely informed me about new product development. 

Looking to build a new product?  Then the reliable new product development process I outline below will increase your odds of success .  

Fast forward to twenty years of my building new products in three different markets: what I have seen repeatedly are product managers who present new product ideas that aren’t a strategic fit for their product line or organization. I made the same mistake.   

One failed new product idea I spearheaded was a product that helped engineers learn how to apply standards. Our customers needed this; they were well-funded and willing to pay for it; and there was ample, compelling customer and market research in support of the idea.

And yet, this new idea died several deaths. Nonetheless, a foolhardy product manager (me) resurrected it multiple times. This new product idea finally expired forever and almost took me with it.

The new product idea did not fit with the strategic direction of the organization’s new product development. Best to accept this and move on. Do not attempt to raise a product idea from the dead!  It does neither your company nor your career any favors.

Below are the seven key stages in any new product development process , but keep in mind that new product development is not a linear process. You will go through these phases, multiple times, while building a new product. I also included some product development process examples to help guide you.    

1. Customer Research

Get To Know Your Customers

Most new product development strategies tell product managers to start with brainstorming.

Sitting in a Zoom room dreaming about new product ideas is super fun but futile. Product managers need to start with their customer needs.

As a product manager, your job requires the same understanding of your customers that an anthropologist has of her subjects. You need to know what irks them, what they don’t have, what they have that they don’t like, and how they behave.

Example Of Customer Research

When I studied my customers (librarians) in their native habitat, I uncovered their frustrations. 

For example, until the 2000s microfilm preserved and displayed old newspapers. The microfilm reader—a hulking monstrosity invariably broken—lived in the basement. Genealogists, historians, and social scientists hated using microfilm and loudly complained about the impossibility of searching newspapers, and made their displeasure loudly known to the helpless librarians.

Librarians live to help their patrons. Their patrons’ irritation and the librarians’ ensuing frustration took the form of a question: wasn’t there a way to make newspapers more easily searchable? 

Through the new product development stages below that question resulted in a series of new products that made historical newspapers searchable.

There are proven methods to do thorough customer research and to understand customer needs, both qualitative and quantitative. Here’s a piece covering how to create a customer feedback loop to get you started.

3. Ideation 

How to brainstorm the right way

Once you have that customer problem and you understand all aspects of it, then you want to start idea generation or ideation. According to IDEO,  ideation is brainstorming with your colleagues and customers with the goal of answering ‘how might we”.

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Example Of How To Do Ideation

You’ll want to choose the participants in any ideation session with care, and ideally develop a solid idea management process . One of the features of product development software is that it can help guide this process.

Nothing dampens the mood more than a naysayer. Select individuals who are zany, creative, and open-minded. One of my best product managers would schedule a day and provide a brief summarizing the customer, market, and problem but no solution.

I walked past the ideation room, peering in to observe marketing managers, engineers and customers jumping up and down to scribble on a whiteboard and waving half-eaten cookies.

Involving stakeholders from inside the organization ensures strategic fit; involving potential customers seeds the market. Oh, and if your organization doesn't have a whiteboard—as most remote organizations don't— idea management tools make an excellent substitute.

After the ideation session, this product manager examined all the ideas and distilled them into two or three concepts she could prototype. For tips on how to create prototypes easily and for free, read this article .

3. The Prototype Process

Cupcake and then cupcake again

New product development is not a linear process. Once you have a simple prototype—a cupcake vs a whole cake—you’ll show it to customers.  

During your customer research, these same customers said they wanted exactly what you created. But now, they will turn up their noses. This is normal.

Example of Prototyping

The bigger the irritation for your customers, the more likely they will be to hate your first cupcake. 

I once built seven different prototypes in this stage for a new, low-cost product. It was classic Goldilocks: too little functionality, too much functionality to be low-cost, too hard-to-use, too easy-to-use and so on, until I found just the right mix. Persevere.

Make your cupcake with your designers, keeping marketing engaged and your engineers on hand: remember to bring everyone along. 

Along the way, cultivate mini evangelists. To understand how useful evangelizing about your product concept can be both internally and externally, read this Harvard Business Review article.

4. Concept Development

Check all the ingredients

At this stage, your customers are excited about the prototype. Your colleagues feel a sense of ownership. This is the time to do a strategic fit check-in before you go too far. 

Examples of a Concept

Write a concept paper—or whatever your organization calls it—that outlines your product vision , including the following:

• The customer problem you are solving
• The target market, market size and your market research
• The product launch plan (including a marketing test)
• A P&L (however rough but all executives want estimated costs and revenue)
• What product investment you need to move to the next step
• What you don’t yet know (be honest and have a plan to find out)

For tips on how to write a compelling vision and strategy, I recommend you read Five Crucial Parts of a Product Development Strategy .  

Present the concept paper to the decision makers in your company. Hopefully, your company has an established new product development process to review new product ideas. If it doesn’t then this is your chance to show initiative and/or possibly look for a product manager job in a company that does have an established investment process.

Be compelling, concise, and clear. Listen carefully to the feedback. This is a key check-in. 

Example of When Concepts Fail

If the decision-makers don’t see a strategic fit, it may be time to cease and desist. One of my product managers, Bill, was tenacious in the extreme, presenting different versions of the same new product idea in the product review meetings.

Bill’s product was shot down every time: there simply wasn’t a fit.

You may need to refine your product idea. You may need to do more business analysis and market research. You may need to do more idea generation, hone your process for idea management , or build another prototype.

In 75% of organizations, you will then proceed to a full-blown business case in which you will describe everything above but in far more detail. You’ll also need to answer any open questions.

At this stage, you will ask for the investment to build this product. Ask for enough investment. New products always cost more and take longer than you think. 

5. Building A New Product

Time to bake the cake

The Chief Product Officer approves your concept paper or business case. You’ve picked your favorite product development software and you’re ready to go. Now you start to build the product, using Agile methodology .

Engineering (including UX), quality assurance, marketing and your customers will all be critical in this stage.  

If you were able to involve engineers and designers early in the process, then the development team will understand your product vision. As a result, everything will go much more smoothly despite the inevitable delays and compromises. Collaborating well with engineers requires finesse and precision.

Example of What To Do and Not Do During the Product Build 

Having at times overestimated my ability to convey a product concept to the engineers, my products emerged looking nothing like what my customers needed. Agile enables you to catch a mismatch before these have progressed too far.  Agile also allows for creative solutions no one imagined in the product concept phase.

In the headlong rush to market, we often sacrifice quality assurance time to launch products sooner. When you are trying to convince customers to make a change—always a risk—nothing undermines their confidence more than a bug.

In one particularly critical product launch, I embedded customers into our engineering process to provide instantaneous feedback on a complex new product.  Marketing and product chose customers based on their size and ability to influence the rest of the market as we knew they were likely to be early adopters. 

Keep marketing involved and active, so they are thinking about the marketing strategy as the team moves through the new product development stages. They are about to become the lynchpin. 

6. Go-To-Market And Product Launch

Marketing is your co-chef

Ideally, the market seeding with potential customers began in Stage One, and now is the time for the marketing manager to unfurl the full marketing strategy. The product launch is critical. According to this Harvard Business Review article , it is also frequently bungled. 

As a product manager, you will want to be actively involved with the first customers to ensure everything goes smoothly. Sometimes the marketing tests are misleading, and you will have to adjust your marketing message. Here’s a great article to help you understand more about the role of marketing in product development .

Remember to have a Plan B if everything goes wrong. 

Example Of A Difficult Product Launch 

I once built an online learning product in conjunction with a third party. We did minimal quality assurance. Glitches riddled this product. The product also had an exceptionally poor user interface. It was painful to move customers back to their original version but infinitely preferable to losing their business altogether. Fortunately, it was an option.

Also, be certain to have a Plan A+ if the final product exceeds all expectations, so you are not struggling to meet insatiable demand. You never know.

7. Ongoing Enhancements And New Features

Your work is never done

Imagine you are celebrating the most successful product launch in your company’s history. Enjoy the moment but know that new customers, and old ones, will demand new features. That is why Apple rolls out a new iPhone every year or so. A benefit of good product development software is it can help you track these as you go. No idea left behind!

Strategic Fit In New Product Development

To ensure strategic fit you will have brought the organization along with you on the new product development journey. And you’re not alone! Different types of product development software will help with the heavy lifting across all stages. At every stop along the way, remember to evangelize, explain, and elucidate the strategic fit.

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• Product development process: The 6 stag ...

Product development process: The 6 stages (with examples)

The product development process is a six-stage plan that involves taking a product from initial concept to final market launch. This process helps break down tasks and organize cross-departmental collaboration. Find out how to implement a process of your own.

Product development is both an exciting and difficult endeavor. From initial ideation to research and prototyping, no two product launches are the same. However, there’s a general process that can help you get started with the product development process. 

The product development process describes the six steps needed to take a product from initial concept to final market launch. This includes identifying a market need, researching the competition, ideating a solution, developing a product roadmap, and building a minimum viable product (MVP).

The product development process has evolved in recent years and is now commonly used by dividing each step into six separate phases. This helps better organize the process and break individual deliverables into smaller tasks.  

What is product development?

Is product development the same as product management.

Though they sound almost identical, there's an important difference between product development and product management. Product development describes the process of building a product, where product management is the overseeing of that work. It's a slight difference, but an important distinction. A product manager, who often oversees a team that is in the product development process, will lead product management.

The 6 stages of product development

Not only does the product development process help simplify a launch, but it also encourages cross-team collaboration with teamwork and communication at the forefront of the process. 

Let’s dive into the product life cycle and define the six product phases. All of which can help you successfully launch your next product. 

1. Idea generation (Ideation)

The initial stage of the product development process begins by generating new product ideas. This is the product innovation stage, where you brainstorm product concepts based on customer needs, concept testing, and market research. 

It’s a good idea to consider the following factors when initiating a new product concept:

Target market: Your target market is the consumer profile you’re building your product for. These are your potential customers. This is important to identify in the beginning so you can build your product concept around your target market from the start.  

Existing products: When you have a new product concept, it’s a good idea to evaluate your existing product portfolio. Are there existing products that solve a similar problem? Or does a competitor offer a product that doesn’t allow for market share? And if yes, is your new concept different enough to be viable? Answering these questions can ensure the success of your new concept.

Functionality: While you don’t need a detailed report of the product functionality just yet, you should have a general idea of what functions it will serve. Consider the look and feel of your product and why someone would be interested in purchasing it.

SWOT analysis : Analyzing your product strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats early in the process can help you build the best version of your new concept. This will ensure your product is different from competitors and solves a market gap. 

SCAMPER method : To refine your idea, use brainstorming methods like SCAMPER , which involves substituting, combining, adapting, modifying, putting to another use, eliminating, or rearranging your product concept.   

To validate a product concept, consider documenting ideas in the form of a business case . This will allow all team members to have a clear understanding of the initial product features and the objectives of the new product launch. 

2. Product definition

Once you’ve completed the business case and discussed your target market and product functionality, it’s time to define the product. This is also referred to as scoping or concept development, and focuses on refining the product strategy. 

During this stage, it’s important to define specifics including:

Business analysis: A business analysis consists of mapping out distribution strategy, ecommerce strategy, and a more in-depth competitor analysis. The purpose of this step is to begin building a clearly defined product roadmap.

Value proposition: The value proposition is what problem the product is solving. Consider how it differs from other products in the market. This value can be useful for market research and for developing your marketing strategy.

Success metrics: It’s essential to clarify success metrics early so you can evaluate and measure success once the product is launched. Are there key metrics you want to look out for? These could be basic KPIs like average order value, or something more specific like custom set goals relevant to your organization. 

Marketing strategy: Once you’ve identified your value proposition and success metrics, begin brainstorming a marketing strategy that fits your needs. Consider which channels you want to promote your product on—such as social media or a blog post. While this strategy may need to be revised depending on the finished product, it’s a good idea to think about this when defining your product to begin planning ahead of time. 

Once these ideas have been defined, it’s time to begin building your minimum viable product (MVP) with initial prototyping.

3. Prototyping

During the prototyping stage, your team will intensively research and document the product by creating a more detailed business plan and constructing the product.

These early-stage prototypes might be as simple as a drawing or a more complex computer render of the initial design. These prototypes help you identify areas of risk before you create the product.

During the prototyping phase, you will work on specifics like:

Feasibility analysis: The next step in the process is to evaluate your product strategy based on feasibility. Determine if the workload and estimated timeline are possible to achieve. If not, adjust your dates accordingly and request help from additional stakeholders.

Market risk research: It’s important to analyze any potential risks associated with the production of your product before it’s physically created. This will prevent the product launch from being derailed later on. It will also ensure you communicate risks to the team by documenting them in a risk register . 

Development strategy: Next, you can begin working through your development plan. In other words, know how you’ll be assigning tasks and the timeline of these tasks. One way you can plan tasks and estimate timeline is by using the critical path method . 

MVP: The final outcome of the prototyping stage is a minimum viable product. Think of your MVP as a product that has the features necessary to go to launch with and nothing above what’s necessary for it to function. For example, an MVP bike would include a frame, wheels, and a seat, but wouldn’t contain a basket or bell. Creating an MVP can help your team execute the product launch quicker than building all the desired features, which can drag launch timelines out. Desired features can be added down the road when bandwidth is available.

Now it’s time to begin designing the product for market launch. 

4. Initial design

During the initial design phase, project stakeholders work together to produce a mockup of the product based on the MVP prototype. The design should be created with the target audience in mind and complement the key functions of your product. 

A successful product design may take several iterations to get just right, and may involve communicating with distributors in order to source necessary materials. 

To produce the initial design, you will: 

Source materials: Sourcing materials plays an important role in designing the initial mockup. This may entail working with various vendors and ordering materials or creating your own. Since materials can come from various places, you should document material use in a shared space to reference later if needed.  

Connect with stakeholders: It’s important to keep tight communication during the design phase to verify your initial design is on the right track. Share weekly or daily progress reports to share updates and get approvals as needed. 

Receive initial feedback: When the design is complete, ask senior management and project stakeholders for initial feedback. You can then revise the product design as needed until the final design is ready to be developed and implemented. 

Once the design is approved and ready to be handed off, move onto the validation phase for final testing before launching the product. 

5. Validation and testing

To go live with a new product, you first need to validate and test it. This ensures that every part of the product—from development to marketing—is working effectively before it’s released to the public.

To ensure the quality of your product, complete the following:

Concept development and testing: You may have successfully designed your prototype, but you’ll still need to work through any issues that arise while developing the concept. This could involve software development or the physical production of the initial prototype. Test functionality by enlisting the help of team members and beta testers to quality assure the development. 

Front-end testing: During this stage, test the front-end functionality for risks with development code or consumer-facing errors. This includes checking the ecommerce functionality and ensuring it’s stable for launch.

Test marketing: Before you begin producing your final product, test your marketing plan for functionality and errors. This is also a time to ensure that all campaigns are set up correctly and ready to launch. 

Once your initial testing is complete, you’re ready to begin producing the final product concept and launch it to your customer base. 

6. Commercialization

Now it’s time to commercialize your concept, which involves launching your product and implementing it on your website. 

By now, you’ve finalized the design and quality tested your development and marketing strategy. You should feel confident in your final iteration and be ready to produce your final product. 

In this stage you should be working on:

Product development: This is the physical creation of your product that will be released to your customers. This may require production or additional development for software concepts. Give your team the final prototype and MVP iterations to produce the product to the correct specifications. 

Ecommerce implementation: Once the product has been developed and you’re ready to launch, your development team will transition your ecommerce materials to a live state. This may require additional testing to ensure your live product is functioning as it was intended during the previous front-end testing phase. 

Your final product is now launched. All that’s left is to measure success with the initial success metrics you landed on. 

Product development process examples

Now that you understand the six stages of the product life cycle, let’s look at real world examples of some of the most successful product development strategies of iconic startups to inspire your own.

Example 1: How Figma expanded their product features

Originally started in 2012, Figma was the first professional-grade UI design tool built entirely in the browser. Today, Figma has grown into the leading competitor for design web applications.

Their mission is to make design accessible to more people and help them bring their creativity to life. They’ve shown this by continuously adding new product features—like multiple flow capabilities, a brainstorming timer, and an interactive whiteboard—coordinating successful software releases, and building trust through transparency.

Read our case study to learn how Figma uses Asana to manage development backlogs. 

Example 2: How Uber solved a market gap

While today we think of Uber as the biggest ride-sharing service, that wasn’t always the case. They too started with a compelling product strategy that made them into the innovative company they are today. 

Uber’s strategy began by solving a gap in the existing taxi industry: creating an easier ride-hailing process with simplified payment processing. But they didn’t stop there: they continued to innovate their product portfolio by developing ride tiers ranging from luxury to budget-friendly. 

While each situation varies slightly, with the right product strategy, you too can create an innovative portfolio. 

Who is part of the product development team?

There are many stakeholders and various teams that assist with the product development process. The main leader is the product manager, who oversees all product tasks related to ideation, research, development, and product launch. 

Additional important stakeholders include:

Product management: A product manager oversees all areas of the product life cycle and works to bridge communication gaps between various internal and external teams. The product manager works to initiate new product launches and initiates product ideation and market research.

Project management: A project manager may be involved in the product development process to assist with cross-departmental communication. They might also assist with task delegation and goal tracking.

Design: The design team helps during the prototyping and designing phase to support the visual product concept. It’s important to connect product designs with brand guidelines and UX best practices. 

Development: The development team helps with the implementation of the product on your website. Most commonly, a team of developers will work together to build the new product offering depending on the complexity of the concept.

Marketing: The marketing team will assist with developing the marketing strategy and testing it before the product goes live. They will also measure the success of the marketing initiatives.

Sales: The product manager works with the sales team to come up with an effective strategy and report on success metrics after the product has been implemented. 

Senior management: Senior stakeholders may need to give final approval before the product can go to launch. 

In addition to these important roles, other teams that may be involved are finance, engineering, and any other related stakeholders. All of which can play a role in the process depending on the complexity of the concept. 

The process that simplifies product development

The right product development process can help you streamline each step with organized tasks and team collaboration. The six stages outlined above will get your team through all steps of the process, from initial idea screening to the development phase. 

But you might need help along the way. Coordinate tasks and organize your product development process with Asana for product management . Asana can help get your products to market faster by tracking workload and simplifying planning.

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• Market Research Company Blog

Market Research For New Product Development

by Chris Coville

Posted at: 4/1/2023 12:30 PM

Organizations often depend on market research for new product development to stay competitive within an industry.

While the process can be challenging, and oftentimes lengthy, new products and services allow organizations to grow and further improve their market share.

However, on average, 33% of new products fail and never make it to the shelves. Therefore, investing in new product research becomes imperative.

It ensures the time, cost, and resources put into launching a new product concept are worth it. 

In this article, we’ll discuss more product development research including how, when, and why to do it.

Article Contents 📝

• Why conduct research and product development
• Factors to consider before product development research
• Types of product research methods
• When to conduct marketing research for a new product
• Example of market research for new product development

Interested in conducting market research for new product development? Get a quote from Drive Research by completing an online form or emailing [email protected] .

Why Conduct Research and Product Development

Market research in the new product development process is essential in the creation of any item. Why?

It allows owners to understand the pros and cons of their product, giving them areas of improvement to focus on. 

Therefore, c onducting market research throughout the product development process, including before, during, and after is critical to the success of a new concept. 

The main benefits of market research for new product development include:

• Prioritizes customer preferences, wants, and needs
• Areas of improvement to focus on
• Gauges market demand 
• Assists in pricing strategies
• Creates data-driven marketing campaigns 
• Ensures that the final product meets buyer demand 
• Offers incredible ROI

Factors to Consider Before Product Development Research

There are a few factors to consider before hitting the ground running. Our new product development research firm outlines these in this section.

We also share three tips for conducting market research for new products in the video below.

Step 1: Set your objectives

This first step of doing new product development market research is key. You'll want to fully discuss and understand several items before you start.

Think about what you want to learn from the research.

What are your expectations? 

What actions will you be taking?

Also, consider who you want to target for product testing. 

While most market research is typically focused on target customers, it’s important to note that other stakeholders need to be involved in research product development.

This includes:

• Sales representatives
• Leadership teams
• Customer support teams
• Distributors

These audiences should be included in the research through any of the methodologies we discuss today, or at a minimum be represented in some other way during the product design meetings.

Step 2: Determine your scope

The scope is determined by several factors and many of these overlaps with objectives.

Answer questions like...

• Who do you want to target?
• How long will the test run?
• What are the steps and instructions involved in the test?

When it comes to product testing you will want to be as specific as possible, especially if you are sending your shipment to participants to test products at home.

For example, let's say your company is sending a dish detergent to a client and you need them to download an app to log a diary of usage and feedback around the project for the course of 1-month.

The scope may need to include instructions during shipping such as:

• Information to download the app
• Instructions to register a free account
• Instructions to open and record feedback in the diary
• How often to test the product
• Who to call or email with questions

It’s often best to share your project budget with your market research company . 

With this insight, the market research team can craft the best approach and methodology for your product development research based on the funds you have available.

Step 3: Find a full-service market research partner

The most challenging and time-consuming piece of new product development research (both qualitative and quantitative) is recruiting.

This is recruiting in terms of finding participants for testing or finding survey respondents for a larger study.

Therefore, it’s best to work with a full-service market research company that specializes in both qualitative recruiting and methodologies like focus groups and online surveys.

Other factors you will want to look for in a market research vendor include:

• Being responsive. Product testing recruitment can be a long process, find a vendor who is responsive and willing to provide regular updates on progress.
• Find a market research company that is flexible. One that is willing to work and do more to make sure your project is successful.
• Adds rigor to the confirmation process. Simply signing up participants through an online survey is not enough. Make sure the vendor adds confirmation emails, phone calls, or even texts.

For instance, here is the qualitative recruiting process our market research company follows for new product development studies.

Obviously, other items such as cost, expertise, industry experience, and others come into play as well.

Ultimately, the choice is up to your company and what you deem is most important.

Though, we encourage you to add Drive Research to your list of candidates 🙂.

Types of Product Research Methods

There are several different types of market research for new product development. 

The choice of research methodology chosen for each phase depends on factors such as:

• Project objectives
• Product or service type
• Audience demographics
• Timeline and scope 

With that said, new product research typically includes both quantitative research (which provides statistically reliable findings), and qualitative research (which provides detailed feedback).

Quantitative Research Options for New Product Development

Our market research company often recommends an online survey as a form of data collection for companies looking to measure the appeal of a new product concept . 

Easily conducted on a mobile device, online surveys are typically sent via email to the participants.

This common form of quantitative market research aims to gather the “big picture” of a project. 

Benefits of online surveys for new product research include:

• They are ultra-accessible. Online surveys are typically sent via email or target Facebooks ads, making them easy to fill out on mobile, desktop, and tablet devices. 
• Fast feedback. Online surveys can quickly deliver results from your target consumer, regardless if they are B2B or B2C.
• Low cost. This approach is much more cost-effective when compared to other quantitative methods such as a phone or mail survey.

There are additional benefits if you choose to work with a third-party research company for new product demand surveys .

Their experts will write unique survey questions based on your main objectives to assure you receive high-quality feedback to make data-driven decisions.

Additionally, the research agency will program the survey, clean the data , and offer recommendations for how to use the insights when creating your new product.

Qualitative Research Options for New Product Development

While there are various studies available for product developers, Drive Research often recommends focus groups as our top choice.

Compared to individual interviews or IDIs , focus groups are particularly valuable when trying to explore consensus on a given product, service, or topic.

They are especially useful for helping your team generate hypotheses, develop questions, and understand concepts.

If choosing to conduct focus groups for product development research, look for a company that also specializes in qualitative recruiting services .

This will assure those participating in your group discussion are highly targeted and qualified.

In particular, there are five key benefits to focus groups that should not be underestimated for new product development.

1. Explore more than quantitative data

Focus groups are exploratory in nature. They provide a highly flexible and alternative way to obtain consumer information without using a survey.

Focus groups offer the distinct advantage of helping your team gain valuable, actionable insight into your product or services.

For example, let's say you conducted a survey and found that 75% of your target customers rely on reviews when purchasing a new product.

By using a focus group, you can explore more into the "what" and the "why?"

• What review sites do customers look to for products similar to yours?
• What is considered a positive rating? 3 stars and above, or higher?
• Why are online reviews so important?

The goal of a focus group is not to necessarily reach some level of agreement or decide what to do. 

Instead, the idea should be to identify feelings, perceptions, and thoughts about a particular topic.

Then, your team is able to use this in-depth qualitative feedback to make adjustments to product development, marketing initiatives, or general business strategies.

2. Collect different opinions all at once

Surveys can be somewhat cumbersome. You typically send out your questionnaire to hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals and then wait weeks to get enough responses back.

This process may be shorter or longer depending on who your target audience is and how many responses you would like to collect.

On the other hand, a focus group generally consists of 4 to 12 people who are most similar to your target buyer for the new product or service. 

These participants join a 60 to 90-minute group discussion as a moderator leads the conversation and touches on everything you need to know instantly.  

We discuss this more in, What is the Best Length for a Focus Group?

3. Create an interactive environment

In-person interaction is always highly valuable. 

There’s a reason why companies prefer in-person interviews compared to video interviews—you just can’t get the same feedback online.

The same goes for focus groups compared vs. survey research , especially when it comes to evaluating your product concept.

Focus groups allow people to physically see, touch, smell, and use your product. In this way, you get their full feedback or reaction to your product.

It’s immensely helpful when it comes to enhancing or changing your product based on actual user experience.

Although, online focus groups are growing in popularity. This methodology may serve as a good middle ground for conducting focus groups for new product development, but more cost-effectively.

Considering an online focus group? In this post, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of traditional vs. online focus groups.

4. Support new business decisions with facts and evidence

As explained above, the value of a focus group is to gain feedback on your product or service immediately in an interactive environment. 

What this means is that you can solve mistakes before your product or service launch.

The entire point of market research for new product development is to reduce serious gaps between what your internal team thinks and what your customers think and feel.  

And focus groups accurately capture just that. 

5. Narrow down customer wants and needs

Products and services must constantly change to adapt to the changing needs and wants of customers. 

And focus groups offer a great way to drill down into these ever-changing needs to identify what matters most to your target demographic.

They’re a great way to sit down with your customers and learn something new. 

When to Conduct Marketing Research for a New Product

The key to market research for new product development is to make it an ongoing process. 

It should not be a one-and-done study, but something that acts as a continuous performance measurement and tracking .

For instance, you don’t want to wait until the prototype phase to get feedback from your target demographic.

Instead, you should plan multiple market research studies throughout the product development process to gain immediate feedback on each phase.

If anything, our market research company recommends conducting two studies – one in the initial stages of testing a new concept , and another when you have a physical product.

Keep reading as we discuss these two phases in greater detail.

Phase One: Market Research Before Creating a Product

There are many things entrepreneurs should research before creating a product and exploratory research (such as focus groups) is a good starting point.

One of the most important steps in new product development, it provides value, even if an organization is in the initial phases of concept testing.

Questions market research can answer before creating a product include: 

• Is there a market need?
• What is the awareness of products available on the market?
• Are customers satisfied with the products available?
• How could products on the market be improved?
• What new products/features is there interest in?
• What are the customer needs? What needs are not being met?
• What type of customer would be most interested in a new product?
• What does the decision-making process for buying the product look like?

Gathering answers to these questions will help business owners understand the general needs of the market and identify new product or service opportunities for your organization.

Additionally, this type of new product research gives an understanding of current customer satisfaction and provides direction for optimizing and marketing current product/service offerings.

The best research options for new product idea generation and concept testing include: 

• Focus groups
• In-depth interviews
• Online surveys
• Competitive assessments

After conducting exploratory research (formally or informally), that should mean an organization has identified a need within the market. In other words, you are set to develop a new product that customers will be interested in.

Phase Two: Prototype Testing

The main goal of new product testing research is to have your target audiences evaluate the new product and ensure that the product meets their needs.

After all, nearly 30,000 new products are introduced each year, and 95% of them fail .

Many of the reasons why new products fail center around not using data and consumer insights to drive decision-making.

To avoid this, market research for new product development will provide insights into changes that must be made before a product is finalized and hits the market.

It can also help guide the product launch through marketing insights.

Questions market research can answer after a product or prototype is created include: 

• What do customers like about the concept/product?
• How could the product be improved?
• What would the customer use our product for?
• What features/specifications are the most important?
• How likely would customers be to purchase the product?
• How much would customers pay for this product?
• What research options are available for prototype testing?

Depending on the complexity of your product, this type of research may need to be re-visited at multiple points throughout the product development process.

In the beginning…

Early in the process, you may have a basic concept and idea that you want to test before proceeding. Conduct new product research now!

In the middle…

In a few months, your brand may have more detailed product specifications with renderings or product mock-ups. Again, conduct market research!

In the end…

Finally, near product design finalization, you may have an actual prototype or final product that the consumer can evaluate and provide feedback on. 

You guessed it – conduct prototype testing research!

The best research options for testing a prototype or existing product includes: 

• Voice of the customer (VoC)
• IHUTs (In-Home Usage Testing)

Recommended Reading: Ultimate Guide to In-Home Usage Tests

Example of Market Research for New Product Development

Drive Research is a market research company that specializes in new product development. This includes conducting various methodologies such as online surveys, focus groups, and in-home usage tests.

Recently, we conducted a new product development market research study on behalf of a fragrance and essential oil diffuser manufacturer. 

In this section, we'll discuss the real-world objectives, processes, and outcomes to give a better example of how (and why) organizations can conduct product and development research.

For the sake of confidentiality, the client's name will remain private.

Overview of the new product development study

A fragrance and essential oil diffuser manufacturer is currently developing a nebulizer, ultrasonic diffuser, and wax warmers (tabletop and plug-in).

To start, the brand would like to gather user feedback on the new nebulizer.

The research would entail 2 rounds of research, with the first being focused on functional feedback, and the second focused on the final product, including packaging.

The market research will assist the client with new product development decisions, product expansion, marketing, and strategy.

Approach to new product development market research

The first phase of the study included functional IHUTs and email surveys.

The process included a kickoff meeting with the client, recruitment of target consumers, collecting feedback, and reporting on the results. 

1. Kickoff meeting

Each market research project with Drive Research starts with a kickoff meeting. It is commonly held over Zoom. The kickoff meeting is an opportunity for clients to meet their project team and discuss their goals for the research.

From there, the Drive Research team creates a workplan and timeline to assure key deliverables are met on time.

George Kuhn , Owner and President of Drive Research

2. Recruiting target consumers for the IHUT

Next, our new product development market research company created a recruitment screener survey. Doing so assures each participant is qualified and matches the target criteria the client is looking for. 

The recruitment screener included questions such as:

• When it comes to home fragrance products (such as air fresheners, candles, or essential oils), which of the following best describes your role?
• Which of the following types of home fragrance products do you commonly use? 
• How often do you use the following types of home fragrance products?

Drive Research sent the screener survey into the field with trusted third-party panel vendors and sponsored Facebook ads.

Those who qualified for the study received re-screening phone calls to verify their answers. During these phone calls, our qualitative recruiting team also supplied instructions to ensure full participation.

We recruited a total of 40 participants to ensure 30-35+ completed the tasks and full test (the goal number requested by the fragrance manufacturer).

3. Collecting feedback with email surveys

Following the arrival of the new fragrance product, participants were instructed to use the product for four weeks.

After testing, participants answered a 20-30 question survey on the product.

The survey lasted approximately 7-10 minutes. 

In addition to the product, participants were paid $40 as a thank-you after completion.

4. Analyzing the results

As participants completed the survey, the home fragrance manufacturer has access to a   live online portal of results . This allowed the team to see responses in real-time, rather than waiting weeks for a final deliverable.

Drive Research also prepared a topline summary report document that recapped the biggest takeaways from the new product development research.

The product development research results answered key business questions such as:

• How many participants were highly satisfied with the product concept?
• How did the product concept score on factors such as set-up, ease of use, noise level, etc.?
• How satisfied were participants with components of the product such as color, effects, etc.?
• What did participants like the most about the new product? What did they like the least?
• What price point would participants expect to pay for this product?
• How likely would they be to purchase this product?
• How likely would they be to replace their current home fragrance product with this new product?
• What other suggested features would participants recommend adding to the product?
• How often did they use the product?

Additionally, our market research company hosted a debrief meeting with the client to discuss these findings with more key insights and recommendations.

Acting on the results

Based on the feedback obtained from the in-home usage test, the home fragrance manufacturer began to make functional changes to the product concept. They also made improvements to enhance the user experience.

The client addressed and fixed the following issues with the home fragrance product concept:

• Leaking with modifications to the siphon
• Lighting changes
• Noise issues 
• Improved cycle time and fragrance intensity experience
• Provide a tool to help with set-up
• Added an alert to users to clean the product

Next steps for the product development

The market research for new product development didn't end with the in-home usage tests.

For the second phase of testing, the home fragrance brand will have a market-ready product complete with branded packaging.

Once the packaging is finalized, the new wave of research will follow a similar process as phase one.

The process will include a kickoff, setup, recruiting, data collection, and reporting through another round of IHUTs.

Final Thoughts

In order to ensure the time and cost invested in new product development don’t go to waste, it is essential organizations make informed decisions based on actual market opportunity and customer insights.

Market research for new product development provides project teams with these insights and guides each phase and design activity.

When a focus group company , like Drive Research, conducts this type of new product development research your team gains instant insight into your customers—their behaviors, attitudes, feelings, perceptions, and opinions—all at once.

Contact Us For Product Development Market Research

Drive Research is a new product research company that partners with organizations to deliver qualitative and quantitative insights that inform decision-making.

To learn more about our product testing services and costs, contact Drive Research by filling out the form below or emailing [email protected] .

Chris Coville

As the Director of Research of Drive Research, Chris has 10 years of experience in the market research field and has completed projects with organizations across the globe. He was also named a 2017 40 Under 40 Award winner.

Learn more about Chris, here .

Categories: New Product Development

Need help with your project? Get in touch with Drive Research.

View Our Blog

New Product Development Research: What It Is, Stages, and Examples

AI Generated Summary

Introduction to the Blog Summary

This blog guides businesses on leveraging new product development research to successfully launch and sustain products in a competitive market, emphasizing the importance of data-driven decision-making.

Key Points Overview

• New product development research involves continuous market analysis to create products based on intelligence, not intuition.
• The research process includes stages like idea generation, concept development, business analysis, product development, and market entry.
• Successful product launches rely on understanding consumer motivations and timely, effective communication.

Top Takeaways

• Continuous Market Research: Ongoing market research is crucial at every stage of product development to ensure alignment with consumer needs and market trends.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Using advanced tools like Quid helps in collecting and analyzing large-scale data quickly and cost-effectively.
• Understanding Consumer Behavior: Insights into consumer motivations and behavior significantly enhance the chances of product success.

Effective new product development research enables businesses to turn ideas into successful products by providing actionable insights and minimizing the risk of failure. Utilizing platforms like Quid ensures data-driven strategies, improving product innovation and market positioning.

Are you thinking of bringing a new product to the market this year? Congratulations, yours will be one of more than 30,000 new entries! We’re going to help you stand out.

Yes, there are indeed that many new products being introduced to the market every year, according to   Harvard Business School . However, it is estimated that an overwhelming majority of them fail.

“Many new products fail because their creators use an ineffective market segmentation mechanism. It’s time for companies to look at products the way customers do: as a way to get a job done.”   – Harvard Business School.

Still want to launch? Have you rigorously tested your concept, developed a plan to turn it into a business, designed the product, and created a sound strategy for market entry?

And those are just four of the seven boxes you need to check if you really want your product to succeed. But don’t panic. If you conduct new product development research, you will gain the necessary consumer and market intelligence to make it among the few new products that survive and keep on thriving.

What Is New Product Development Research?

New product development is the process of bringing a new product to the market! And to do that, businesses conduct ongoing market research throughout the process to ensure they are creating a product based on intelligence rather than intuition. This is key.

So, market research tailored specifically to the success of a new product in the market is what is referred to as new product development research. It comprises primary and secondary, qualitative and quantitative research methods used in other forms of market research––but the difference is in the goals.

When you understand the role of new product development research, you will appreciate the process more and hopefully incorporate it in your current or future projects.

The Role of Research at Different Stages of Product Development

Net Solutions has laid out a beautiful illustration of   the product development process . It is broken down into seven stages; but keep in mind that product development is an ongoing process throughout the life cycle of the product or service. Iteration happens even when the product in question isn’t broken.

While Net Solutions’ tutorial is focused on tech product development, we are going to use the steps to show you the role of new product development research in the process for any type of product.

1. Idea generation

Good business ideas come with a solution to an existing problem or a way to improve the way things are done. There are many sources for good ideas starting with personal struggles, anecdotal information, access to relevant data, and concerted efforts in research and development.

When organizations need to come up with fresh ideas, a deliberate effort must be made. Since investing in research and development is out of reach for most businesses, brainstorming and new product market research is the surest path.

An organization’s proprietary, CRM, sales, and operation data – internal secondary research – may reveal previously hidden opportunities behind customer feedback or employee experiences at work.

While this often helps with the improvement of the current product, it sometimes leads to the development of entirely new products. Productivity apps are often created this way.

Ideas may also come from qualitative and quantitative research through surveys, interviews, and direct observation. This is a good approach for people starting out in business when they don’t have access to sufficient volumes of internal data.

Thirdly, ideas may be generated by analyzing consumer conversations and news media data on social media, review sites, and discussion forums through advanced techniques such as web scraping,   social listening, and   sentiment analysis. This way, potential markets are identified based on themes in natural consumer conversations and trends.

2. Idea screening

The first step is essential to exploring the open avenues, but it is not enough to determine the viability of any single idea. The second stage is idea screening where the feasibility of the idea as a business opportunity is determined.

Through new product development research, the organization can pick one idea to pursue – you don’t want to implement multiple ideas at a go. The SWOT analysis is a great way to screen ideas by comparing them to the market and to each other.

The strengths of an idea are the internal attributes that make it viable. If it solves an obvious problem, then the product or service will face less difficulty during market entry. Even better is if it can be developed easily and cheaply, which makes it more affordable.

An idea may require a large initial capital investment, or the end product may depend on third parties. These internal attributes are weaknesses which make it less viable.

Opportunities around an idea may be other verticals to where it may be extended into other categories adjacent to the brand. Or there might be added benefits that weren’t previously considered. For instance, an ecommerce store may collect customer data that can be shared with the producers to improve their businesses.

Threats to the idea include competition, high market regulation, and security risks.

New product development research can help answer such questions in the SWOT analysis through consumer data as well as the study of market factors such as production costs and distribution channels.

3. Concept development

Concept development is about developing the idea to a point that it can be successfully explained to a potential customer i.e. they can   buy   into it. Starting at this stage, the new product development research focuses on the one idea that made it through the screening stage.

One on one interactions with target consumers can help the brand better understand the product from the user’s perspective. For instance, it can help study the balance between what the consumer gains and the tradeoff in using the product.

A modern consumer intelligence platform can help study trends and consumer expectations to create a compelling value proposition.

With an advanced market intelligence platform, the brand can understand the target market in terms of the existing competition and potential allies. The platform can also deploy its social listening antennas to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the competing products through consumer conversations and feedback.

The data gathered is analyzed and the insights used to improve the concept before proceeding to build a business on it.

4. Business analysis

After proof of concept is established, the business framework should be created before going any further with the development of the product itself. This includes how to market, price, and deliver the product.

New product development research can be used to compare the different marketing avenues available to the brand (based on budget and target audience). Social listening can help study the voice of the customer and the insights used to craft marketing messages in a way that appeals to the audience.

Other than the cost of production, other factors may influence the price of the product. Brands use secondary research to determine their pricing model through benchmarking. Modern methods such as sentiment analysis can help understand how consumers feel about the current prices, bringing in a third factor.

Delivering the product here refers to how the buyer obtains value from your product or service. Through focus groups, the brand can get a closer look at how consumers perceive the concept before it is developed into a product.

5. Product development

With a business plan on hand, the creator can proceed to make a prototype and a minimum viable product (MVP). These processes require both internal and external data.

A prototype is simply a visualized concept. It is important in cases where the creator needs the help of others such as VCs and talent to develop the product. For both virtual and physical products, as well as services, research may involve methods such as observation and use of existing products and interviews with experts.

An MVP is a step above prototype because it works. It does the most basic set of functions the product is designed to do. Testing data – internal secondary research – is invaluable during the improvement of the MVP into a product that’s ready to launch.

6. Product launch

The product launch is probably the most crucial stage in the new product development process. Products that don’t hit their targets at launch rarely recover. On the other hand, those that succeed at launch are likely to maintain their trajectory.

As such, new product development research is critical to understanding consumer motivations, timing the launch, and communicating effectively with the target.

Understanding consumer motivations for seeking such a solution as you have will help build anticipation for the launch. Surveys can be used to get direct feedback about individual struggles of the target consumers while social listening can be used to listen in as they share their experiences with each other.

Social listening can also reveal the trends and mood of the target consumers in order to launch the product under the most auspicious circumstances.

7. Market entry

Post launch, the new business is primarily focused on building a reputable image i.e. brand development. This means promoting the product and fostering a good relationship with the customers.

Consumer research helps understand how buyers are using the product to solve their problems. This feedback may be shared directly through email, social media DMs and comments, or business websites. It can also be expressed indirectly through social media posts, external review sites, and forums.

Capturing consumer data through CRM software is the first step to building a strong relationship with the customers. Analysis of the data over time provides useful intelligence upon which to base strategic decisions.

New Product Development Research Example

New product development research should be conducted across all industries, not just tech products. And not just for products but for services too.

For instance, a major beverage manufacturer recently used NetBase Quid ®   to look into the cannabis-infused beverage trend. They think that it is an area of interest and although they are not making any decisions yet on entering the market, they still want to know what’s going on.

The idea came to them after having noticed a growth in news coverage on the subject. This was their idea generation stage.

So, they used Quid   to look into it to see who was driving the conversation and determine whether it was a solid trend or passing fad. If it turned out to be a trend, this would be a legit signal for an emerging market opportunity for them. This is idea screening.

They went further into the analysis to see how consumers were using cannabis. For instance, were they using it with or in beverages; what kinds of beverages; and were there any preferred brands and why? Concept development has taken shape and this is where they currently are.

Cannabis-infused beverages.

The business analysis stage shouldn’t be too complicated for them as they are already manufacturing beverages. Through concept development, they will have determined the best way to introduce cannabis beverages to the target market.

Through product development, they would use the insights gathered from the first adopters to improve the product.

Next would be the product launch guided by comprehensive data analysis then a data-driven strategy to establish themselves as a leading brand in the category.

New product development research is an invaluable aspect of the process of turning an idea into a sustainable business.

If more than nine out of every 10 new products launched are failing, it’s because the majority of creators aren’t following the process. If they did, we’d have far fewer products being launched and a much higher success rate.

New product development research can tell you when to proceed and when to take a step back. It can help you discover the thing in your idea that makes it irrelevant to the market or poorly timed so you don’t waste your resources on a failed project.

On the flip side, it can give you the confidence you need to keep improving until you have the perfect solution for the problem you have identified.

Not only can Quid   collect and analyze consumer and market data at large scale, the platform allows you to do it quickly, repeatedly, and inexpensively compared to traditional research. This means you have all the information you need, at all times, and more time to focus on making your product better.

Reach out for a demo   today to get a special introduction to the platform by one of our in-house experts!

How To Do Market Research For New Product Development

Market research for new product development can be overwhelming.

It’s easy to get lost in a mountain of market reports with thousands of data points…. yet get no clear insights on which product is best for your brand.

Instead of aimlessly searching for new product ideas and sifting through endless market reports, this post will walk you through a simple step-by-step process that outlines:

• How to quickly find relevant new product ideas.
• Specific data and metrics you need to analyze each product opportunity (and how to find these metrics).
• How to use market research data to assess a product opportunity.

What Is Market Research For New Product Development?

Market research for new product development is the process of evaluating the demand, growth, and gaps in a market for a particular product (typically a physical product sold in a retail setting or direct to consumer).

These insights help you understand which products your target market wants, which ones are most profitable, and the key characteristics customers like and dislike about competitors' products.

With this data, you can more accurately predict which product will perform best for your business.

Types Of Market Research For New Product Development

There are four types of market research typically used for researching and developing products: 

• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research
• Primary research
• Secondary research

Quantitative Research

Examples of quantitative data you might collect during the product market research process include:

• Market size and growth rates
• Pricing data
• Sales forecasts
• Website traffic data
• Market share of the top competitors

Quantitative data is helpful for benchmarking and is often the main type of research used to quickly gauge the potential of market opportunities.

Quantitative data can be fact-checked, but accuracy still varies depending on factors like sample size and data collection methods.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is data based on subjective opinions.

An example of qualitative data is customer feedback.

This data is helpful for product market research, as you can better understand customer pain points and what they like and dislike about what's already out there.

Some examples of qualitative research methods include:

• Interviews with potential customers
• Customer reviews
• Questionnaires and surveys
• Discussion analysis (monitoring conversations on social media, in forums, etc.)
• Feedback from focus groups

Primary Research

Primary research is data collected by you or your company.

Here are some examples of primary research:

• Results from a survey you conducted
• A report from sales data your team analyzed
• Customer interviews conducted by your team

The advantage of primary market research is that it's proprietary data your company owns. So your competitors won't have access to it. You can also tailor the data to answer your specific questions about the market.

The downside of primary research is that it’s expensive and time-consuming. You'll have to conduct the research, clean the data, and analyze it yourself.

You can hire a market research firm to help, but this will make it even more costly.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is data collected and published by other third-party sources, like an industry publication or government agency.

Here are some examples of secondary research:

• Free and paid market reports published by a source like Grand View Research or MarketResearch.com .
• Statistics published by a source like The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or the U.S. Energy Information Administration .
• Data in the Census Business Builder .

Secondary research is usually cheaper than primary research, so it's great for the early stages of product market research when you're narrowing down your list of product ideas.

For example, if you're interested in the padel market, search "padel market forecast" to find free industry reports. You can look at statistics like compounding annual growth rate and market size to quickly gauge if the padel market is worth exploring in more detail.

The drawback of secondary research is that the data quality may vary as you can't control data quality.

So research how each provider collects and cleans the data they publish.

Step By Step Process To Conduct Market Research For Product Development

​​In this step-by-step market research process for new product development, you'll learn how to find, validate, and develop a great product.

Step 1: Research And Identify Trending Products

Many people browse social media and Amazon to find trending product ideas.

But emerging products, by definition, aren't easy to find.

You might spend hours browsing these platforms to find a few promising product ideas. And even the most diligent product researchers might still overlook the best emerging product ideas.

One solution to find great product ideas faster is to use a product research tool.

However, each tool contains different product ideas.

So the tool you choose significantly impacts the product ideas you find.

For example, many product research tools only show products that have grown significantly in the past few weeks. These are often fads, and demand may die out when you’re ready to launch your product.

Other product research tools show you products that are currently trending. Yet this isn't helpful if you want to launch a product before demand peaks.

Or, the product research tool might simply overlook the best product ideas. This is common with product research tools relying on human analysts to find product ideas, as even the best analysts may overlook a great product idea.

To solve these problems, we built our own product research tool, Exploding Topics.

It has a unique trend identification and qualification method that uses AI and ML to scan millions of data points across sources like YouTube, Amazon, Spotify, Google Search, and Reddit. This ensures it consistently spots emerging product ideas. Then, we use Google Search volume data to ensure the topic has a steady compounding growth trajectory.

This process allows Exploding Topics to consistently identify emerging products with long-term growth potential.

It's also easy to use.

When you open the Trending Products dashboard, you'll see a list of trending products. You can filter the database by category (fitness, fashion, beauty, gaming, pets, etc.), BSR, monthly sales, price, revenue, and reviews.

The graph next to the product information also represents the keyword's Google Search volume trend so that you can gauge its growth trajectory:

When you see a product that interests you, click on it for more details, like a forecast of its growth trend for the coming year.

Further down the product page is a list of the Top Sellers for that product on Amazon.

You’ll also see related trending products and topics. You can also click on any of those products for more detailed information.

To track a product, click "Track Topic" and add it to a Project.

Projects are folders that live inside the Trend Tracking dashboard, and Exploding Topics updates each topic's growth trend in real time.

This makes it easy to gauge product growth at a glance so that you never have to worry about managing a product idea spreadsheet.

You can try Exploding Topics Pro for $1 to start researching product ideas.

Step 2: Analyze The Market For Each Product Idea

Your product is much more likely to succeed if it’s part of a growing market.

An easy way to quickly analyze a market’s general growth trajectory is to look at a market forecast.

Sources like Grand View Research , Globe Newswire , and Market.us usually offer free market reports with forecast data.

To find these reports, Google the product keyword and "market report:"

Next, identify the brands with the largest market share and analyze their growth trajectory.

If the market leaders are growing rapidly, the market is probably also expanding.

There are two ways to easily gauge a brand's growth.

1. Check the brand’s Google Search volume trend .

You can find a brand's Google Search volume trend by typing the brand name into Google Trends or the Trends Search feature in Exploding Topics.

You can also click "Track Topic" and add it to a Project to monitor growth.

2. Employee headcount

A company is probably growing if it has steadily increased employee headcount over the past few years.

You can find employee headcount data by typing the brand name into LinkedIn and scrolling down to the bottom of the company page:

Funding data is also a great indicator of a market's growth trajectory.

Investors spend a lot of time and resources assessing market growth, so a lot of funding activity is a good sign the market is growing.

Paid tools like CB Insights and Pitchbook offer detailed funding data for most industries. You can also search "funding" and the industry name to find press releases, funding reports, and other relevant investment news.

Step 3: Conduct Customer Research

Once you find a trending product in a growing market, the next step is figuring out how to create the best product possible.

First, identify what customers like and dislike about existing products. Then, create a product that incorporates the elements customers like about existing products and solves the pain points they experience.

The easiest way to conduct customer research is to analyze customer reviews.

Amazon is the best resource to find verified reviews. As you're reading through the reviews, make notes on:

• Target Audience Demographics : Who is buying the product? (gender, age, location, etc.).
• Use Case : What problem did they purchase the product to solve?
• Praise : What do they like about the product?
• Pain Points : What do they like about the product?

For example, from the review below, you can tell that customers value soft material, accurate color descriptions, and expensive aesthetics. You can also see that customers want a more durable product.

Reading through reviews can help you better understand your target customers, but most people don't have time to read thousands of customer reviews.

So you can also copy and paste customer reviews into ChatGPT and ask it to extract insights on audience demographics, product use cases, likes, and dislikes.

Here's a prompt you can use to analyze the reviews. (In this screenshot, all of the reviews are pasted in quotes following the prompt):

Here’s a snippet of the response it generated:

You can also find Reddit or Facebook groups of your target audience.

For example, if you're considering selling infant vitamins, you could join these Facebook groups for moms:

After joining the group, you can ask members about the product you're researching. Here are some specific questions you can ask:

• Why did they purchase the product?
• How did they select the brand they purchased from?
• What do they like/dislike about the product?

You can also ask respondents if they would consider getting on a quick call. One-on-one interviews let you ask more follow-up questions to better understand the audience.

Talking to prospects is also a great way to build up some demand for your product and even recruit a group of beta testers.

If you already have an audience, ask them about your new product idea.

For example, this creator asked her TikTok followers what they thought of her sleepwear product idea.

Then, she documented the product development process and gathered feedback from her followers to craft a product they want.

For example, after designing a few concepts with the manufacturer, she created another video of the initial product designs and asked her audience for feedback.

Her product launch went on to be a major success and she sold out in a matter of hours.

Step 4: Pre-Sell Your Product And Gather Initial Feedback

The best way to validate market demand for your product concept is to see if people will buy it.

So design a few product samples and then run a pre-order sale.

If nobody buys the product, you'll avoid wasting thousands of dollars developing tens or hundreds of products that nobody wants.

And if your pre-order sale is successful, you can use that revenue to fund product development.

For example, Nebia ran a pre-order sale for its bidets to validate the product concept.

There are a few different ways you can generate pre-orders.

If you already have an audience, you can create a social media post or email your list and announce the pre-order sale.

This post is a great example of a pre-order sale video. The influencer explains how the product works, its benefits, and how it solves common pain points.

If you don't have an audience, you can work with an influencer to create a pre-order video for you.

You can also run Facebook or Instagram ads to a landing page to generate pre-orders. Facebook has a step-by-step guide explaining how to set up and run ads for pre-order sales.

Another option is to run a pre-order sale on Kickstarter.

Nebia is a great example of an ecommerce brand that validated its product idea on Kickstarter.

The Kickstarter community will also give you initial feedback on the product before you launch it to the public. Kickstarter users also know they're beta testers, so they tend to be more forgiving if the initial product concept isn't perfect.

You can also ask some Kickstarter buyers to record video reviews of the product for your public product launch.

Step 5: Launch Your New Product And Gather Feedback

After launching your product, gather feedback from your audience to continue iterating on the original product.

If you have a social media following, you can ask your audience what they like and dislike about the product.

You can also email your list offering a discount or coupon to complete a product survey.

Survey tools like Pollfish and SurveyMonkey make it easy to create and send a product survey.

In the survey, ask specific questions about the product. For example, if you’re selling athletic clothing, you could ask them to rate the product fit, material quality, durability, style, color, and other specific factors.

If you leave the questions too open ended, people will give you generic feedback that might not be very helpful for improving the product.

Start The New Product Market Research Process Today

A solid product market research process takes the guesswork out of product launches by giving you the data you need to identify and design the best product for your audience.

It will also give you more confidence on launch day, as you'll have solid evidence of strong demand for your product.

To get started with the first step of the product market research process, use Exploding Topics to browse thousands of emerging trending products today.

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A Comprehensive Guide to Successful Product Development

• June 1, 2023
• product management

In today’s highly versatile business landscape, the ability to create and introduce profitable products is a critical component in determining the success and expansion of organizations. Product development is essential for addressing consumer wants, bringing novel solutions to market, and establishing a competitive advantage. Whether you’re an established company looking forward to expand your product range or a startup with a solid idea, it’s important to understand the fundamentals of product creation.

In this extensive blog, we will guide you through the realm of product development, starting with the fundamentals and progressively delving into more complex ideas. We will demystify the process, explore strategies for effective new product development, and outline the key stages in the product development life cycle. By the end, you will have a firm grasp of the guiding ideas, tactics, and best practices that guide fruitful product development endeavours.

So, if you want to learn how to make your ideas a reality, build products that appeal to your target market, and handle the challenges of the product development process. Let’s dig in and learn how to create extraordinary products that capture customers and spur company success, whether you’re a product manager, an aspiring entrepreneur, or just interested about the intriguing world of product development.

Key Takeaways:

• Prioritize understanding customer needs through thorough market research, user personas, and continuous feedback. Tailoring your product to meet specific customer requirements is essential for success.
• Embrace Agile methodologies and develop a minimum viable product (MVP) to expedite market testing and gather early feedback. Continuous improvement and adaptation based on user insights are key to staying competitive.
• Utilize data and analytics to inform product development decisions. Monitoring KPIs, conducting tests, and analyzing user behavior help in making informed choices throughout the development process.
• Foster collaboration among diverse teams, including product management, design, engineering, and marketing. Effective communication and interdisciplinary teamwork leverage different expertise to drive innovation.
• Leverage collaboration and product development software to streamline workflows and enhance team productivity. Data analytics tools provide actionable insights, facilitating data-driven decision-making and optimization of development strategies.

What is Product Development?

The act of developing and introducing new goods or services to the market is referred to as product development. It involves a series of activities aimed at transforming ideas and concepts into tangible offerings that meet customer needs and generate value for the business. Product development encompasses various stages, from ideation and design to testing, manufacturing, and commercialization.

Role of Product Development in Business Success

Product development plays a pivotal role in determining the success of a business. Here are some key ways it contributes to the overall growth and profitability:

1. Meeting Customer Needs : By engaging in product development, businesses can identify and address unmet customer needs and pain points. Companies may create products that meet particular requirements, improve user experience, and address current difficulties through research, consumer input, and market analysis.

2. Competitive Advantage : In today’s crowded marketplace, differentiation is essential. Businesses may differentiate themselves from rivals by providing distinctive features, functions, and benefits thanks to effective product development. Companies may grow market share, draw in new clients, and foster brand loyalty thanks to this competitive edge.

3. Revenue Generation : Developing new products expands a company’s revenue streams. By introducing innovative offerings, businesses can tap into new markets, target different customer segments, and create additional revenue opportunities.Successful goods may boost sales, boost profitability, and contribute to the organization’s long-term financial success.

4. Brand Image and Reputation : Well-executed product development initiatives enhance a company’s brand image and reputation. By consistently delivering high-quality, innovative products, businesses establish themselves as industry leaders, gain customer trust, and build a positive brand perception. A strong brand reputation can lead to increased customer loyalty, positive word-of-mouth recommendations, and improved market positioning.

7 Elements of Effective New Product Development

Planning, execution, and ongoing improvement are essential for successful product development. H ere are some key elements that contribute to the success of product development initiatives:

1. Market Research : Conducting thorough market research helps identify market trends, customer preferences, and unmet needs. It provides valuable insights that shape the product development process and ensures alignment with market demands.

2. Customer-Centric Approach : Placing the customer at the center of product development is crucial. Understanding their pain points, desires, and behaviors enables businesses to create products that address their specific needs and deliver a superior user experience.

3. Cross-Functional Collaboration : Product development involves multiple departments, including marketing, design, engineering, and operations. Effective collaboration and communication among these teams are essential for seamless coordination and successful product outcomes.

4. Iterative and Agile Methodologies : Adopting iterative and agile methodologies allows for flexibility and quick adaptation to changing requirements and market dynamics. This approach promotes rapid prototyping, testing, and feedback incorporation, leading to faster time-to-market and better product iterations.

5. Design Thinking : Applying design thinking principles helps in developing innovative and user-centered products. By emphasizing empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing, businesses can create products that address real user problems and deliver delightful experiences.

6. Quality Assurance : Ensuring product quality is vital for customer satisfaction and brand reputation. Implementing robust quality assurance processes and conducting thorough testing at various stages of product development help identify and rectify issues before product launch.

7. Post-Launch Evaluation : Continuously evaluating the performance and success of the product after launch is critical. Collecting customer feedback, monitoring key performance indicators, and making iterative improvements based on insights gained enhance the product’s long-term success.

Product development is a strategic process that drives business success by creating innovative, customer-centric products. By understanding market needs, leveraging cross-functional collaboration, and following key principles and methodologies, organizations can develop remarkable products that meet customer expectations, drive revenue growth, and gain a competitive edge in the market.

What are the steps in development of a new product?

New product development (NPD) strategies are a set of systematic approaches that organizations use to create and introduce innovative products to the market . In order to guarantee that the new goods fit client wants, line up with corporate objectives, and have a greater chance of success, these strategies comprise a number of clearly defined stages and processes.

New product development strategies are vital for businesses across industries, whether they are launching a completely new product or introducing enhancements to existing offerings. By following a structured approach to NPD, companies can reduce risks, optimize resource allocation, and maximize the potential for market acceptance and profitability.

Let us explore the key stages involved in new product development strategies, providing insights into each step of the process. From market research and idea generation to concept development, business analysis, product development, and test marketing, these strategies enable companies to create innovative and customer-centric products.

These are the strategies for developing new products:

1. Market Research and Analysis: Conducting thorough market research and analysis is the first stage in developing a new product. This entails compiling information and insights into the target market, consumer wants, competitive environment, and market trends. Businesses may make wise judgements regarding product development by using market research to find market opportunities and gaps.

Data analysis, focus groups, surveys, and interviews are all examples of market research methodologies. Understanding client preferences, problems, and unmet wants is the aim. Businesses may create goods that are in line with market wants and have a greater chance of success by developing a thorough grasp of the market.

2. Idea Generation and Screening:

Once market research is complete, the next step is generating and screening product ideas. Idea generation involves brainstorming sessions, idea competitions, customer feedback, and internal suggestions. The goal is to generate a pool of potential product ideas that address identified market gaps.

After idea generation, a screening process is conducted to evaluate the feasibility and viability of each idea. Screening criteria may include market potential, technical feasibility, resource requirements, and alignment with business objectives. Ideas that pass the screening stage move forward in the product development process.

3. Concept Development and Testing:

In this stage, selected ideas are further developed into product concepts. Product concepts are detailed descriptions of the product, its features, benefits, and positioning in the market. Concepts may be presented through visual representations, prototypes, or simulations.

Concept testing involves gathering feedback from target customers to evaluate their reactions and preferences. This helps refine and validate the product concept, ensuring it resonates with the intended market. Feedback from concept testing is used to make necessary iterations and improvements before proceeding to the next stage.

4. Business Analysis and Feasibility Assessment:

Before committing resources to product development, a thorough business analysis and feasibility assessment are conducted. This involves evaluating the financial viability, technical feasibility, and market potential of the product concept.

Financial analysis assesses the projected costs, revenues, and profitability of the new product. Technical feasibility analysis evaluates whether the product can be developed within the required time and resources. Market potential analysis examines the target market size, growth potential, and competitive landscape.

5. Product Development and Prototyping:

Once the product concept is deemed feasible, the actual product development process begins. This stage involves designing, engineering, and manufacturing the product. Multiple iterations of prototypes are created to refine the product design and functionality.

Product development teams work closely with designers, engineers, and other stakeholders to ensure the product meets the desired specifications and quality standards. Prototyping allows for testing and validation of the product’s performance, usability, and aesthetics. Iterative improvements are made based on feedback and testing results.

6. Test Marketing and Commercialization:

Before a full-scale launch, test marketing is conducted to gauge the market response and fine-tune marketing strategies. Test marketing involves a limited release of the product in select markets or target customer segments. It allows businesses to gather real-world feedback, assess demand, and make necessary adjustments.

Based on the test marketing results, marketing strategies and communication plans are refined. After successful test marketing, the product is ready for commercialization. This includes finalizing production, distribution channels, pricing, and promotional activities. The product is launched in the market and made available to customers.

By following a structured approach to new product development, businesses can increase the likelihood of creating successful and profitable products. The stages outlined above provide a framework for effectively managing the product development process. Each stage plays a crucial role in ensuring that the product meets customer needs, aligns with business objectives, and achieves market success.

What are the Steps in New Product Development

A successful new product development process involves a series of well-defined steps that guide organizations from the initial idea generation stage to the final commercialization of the product. These steps ensure that the product aligns with customer needs, business objectives, and market opportunities. Let’s delve into each step of the new product development process:

1. Idea Generation:

The first step in the new product development process is idea generation. It involves systematically generating and collecting potential ideas for new products or product improvements. This can be done through various methods such as brainstorming sessions, customer feedback, market research, competitive analysis, and internal innovation programs. The goal is to generate a wide range of ideas that have the potential to address customer pain points or tap into new market opportunities.

2. Idea Screening:

After generating a pool of ideas, the next step is to screen and evaluate them to identify the most promising ones. Idea screening involves assessing the feasibility, market potential, and strategic fit of each idea. Criteria such as customer needs, market size, competition, technical feasibility, and financial viability are considered during the screening process. Ideas that do not meet the predetermined criteria are eliminated, allowing the organization to focus on the most viable concepts.

Once the promising ideas are identified, the organization moves on to concept development and testing. In this stage, detailed concepts are developed for the selected ideas. These concepts outline the product’s features, benefits, and value proposition. Concept testing involves presenting these concepts to a target audience to gather feedback and assess their acceptance. This feedback helps refine the concepts and identify potential improvements or modifications before moving forward.

4. Business Analysis:

Before committing resources to the development of the product, a thorough business analysis is conducted. This step involves assessing the financial viability and market potential of the product. Factors such as estimated sales volume, pricing, production costs, distribution channels, and competitive analysis are considered. The goal is to ensure that the product has a strong business case and aligns with the company’s overall strategic goals and financial objectives.

5. Product Development:

Once the business analysis is complete and the product concept is deemed feasible, the product development phase begins. This stage involves transforming the concept into a tangible product through design, engineering, and manufacturing processes. Cross-functional collaboration is crucial at this stage, involving teams from various departments such as engineering, design, research and development, and production. Prototypes are created, and extensive testing is conducted to ensure product functionality, quality, and reliability.

6. Test Marketing:

Before launching the product on a large scale, test marketing is conducted in selected target markets.Test marketing enables the company to analyse the performance of the product in a real-world environment, acquire consumer feedback, assess the success of marketing initiatives, and make required improvements. It provides valuable insights that help fine-tune the product, positioning, pricing, and promotional activities before the full-scale launch.

7. Commercialization:

Commercialization is the last stage of the new product development process. This involves the full-scale launch of the product into the market. The commercialization stage includes setting up production facilities, establishing distribution channels, implementing marketing and promotional strategies, and managing the product’s lifecycle. The success of the commercialization phase relies on effective marketing campaigns, efficient supply chain management, strong customer support, and continuous monitoring of market performance.

By following a structured and systematic approach to new product development, organizations can increase the likelihood of success for their innovative products. To ensure that the product satisfies consumer expectations, corresponds with corporate objectives, and seizes market possibilities, each phase is essential. Market analysis, consumer insights, and cross-functional cooperation, when properly carried out, may result in the development of ground-breaking goods and long-term company growth.

What are the major challenges of product development?

Going to market with a new product is an exciting time for any company. However, the road to success is full of obstacles that can make or break your product’s development. In this blog, we’ll look at the 10 most common product development challenges faced by businesses and provide tips on how you can overcome them. Whether you’re a startup or a well-established company, understanding and overcoming these challenges can significantly improve your chances of succeeding in the ever-changing product development landscape.

1. Undefined or Unclear Objectives: One of the primary challenges in product development is not having a clear understanding of the objectives. Without a well-defined goal, teams may struggle to prioritize tasks, leading to wasted resources and delayed timelines. To address this challenge, establish clear and measurable objectives from the outset, ensuring everyone is aligned on the product’s purpose and goals.

2. Insufficient Market Research: Inadequate market research is a recipe for disaster in product development. Without a deep understanding of your target audience, competitors, and market trends, you risk creating a product that fails to meet customer needs or differentiate itself in the market. Invest time and resources in comprehensive market research to gain valuable insights that inform every stage of development.

3. Poorly Defined Target Audience: Knowing your target audience is crucial for creating a successful product. Failing to define and understand your ideal customer can lead to ineffective marketing, misaligned features, and a lack of resonance in the market. Develop detailed buyer personas to guide your decision-making and ensure that your product resonates with the right audience.

4. Inadequate Resource Planning: Resource constraints often impede product development progress. From budgetary limitations to a shortage of skilled personnel, inadequate resource planning can lead to delays and compromises in product quality. Conduct a thorough assessment of your resources, allocate budgets wisely, and ensure you have the right team with the necessary skills to execute the project successfully.

5. Lack of Cross-Functional Collaboration: Siloed teams can hinder the flow of information and ideas, leading to suboptimal product outcomes. Foster a culture of collaboration by promoting cross-functional communication between teams such as marketing, engineering, and design. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and working towards the common goal of delivering a successful product.

6. Scope Creep: Scope creep occurs when the project’s objectives and requirements continuously expand beyond the initial plan. This can lead to missed deadlines, increased costs, and a diluted product vision. Combat scope creep by establishing a well-defined scope at the project’s outset and rigorously managing changes through a structured change control process.

7. Ineffective Project Management: Efficient project management is critical for navigating the complexities of product development. Without a robust project management framework, tasks may be poorly prioritized, and timelines may be compromised. Implement agile project management methodologies, set realistic milestones, and regularly reassess and adjust your plan to keep the project on track.

8. Quality Assurance Challenges: Neglecting quality assurance can result in a product that fails to meet customer expectations. Implement rigorous testing processes throughout the development lifecycle to identify and rectify issues early on. This proactive approach ensures that your product meets high-quality standards and minimizes the risk of post-launch setbacks.

9. Regulatory Compliance Hurdles: Navigating the regulatory landscape is a challenge, particularly in industries with stringent compliance requirements. Stay informed about relevant regulations from the start and integrate compliance considerations into the product development process. This proactive approach can prevent costly delays and ensure that your product is market-ready.

10. Inadequate Post-Launch Support: Launching a product is not the end of the journey; it’s the beginning of a new phase. Inadequate post-launch support, such as insufficient customer service or delayed updates, can harm your product’s reputation. Develop a robust post-launch strategy, including ongoing customer support, regular updates, and an iterative approach to product improvement.

What is Product Development Life Cycle

The product development life cycle represents the various stages that a product goes through from its introduction to its eventual decline. For controlling the product’s growth, maximizing its profitability, and ensuring its long-term success, it is essential to understand these stages and put relevant measures into place. Let’s examine each phase of the life cycle of a product

What are the 6 stages of a new product development process?

1. Introduction Stage:

The introduction stage is the initial phase of the product development life cycle. The product is initially released onto the market at this phase. Customers are unfamiliar with the product, and sales volumes are typically low. The focus of this stage is to create awareness, generate interest, and establish a market presence. 

Key strategies for the introduction stage include:

a. Product Launch: A well-planned and executed product launch is essential to create excitement and generate initial sales.Getting the attention of potential clients requires effective marketing and promotional strategies.

b. Market Education: Since the product is new, educating the target market about its features, benefits, and value proposition is critical. Providing clear and compelling messaging helps potential customers understand how the product can solve their problems or meet their needs.

c. Pricing Strategy: Pricing during the introduction stage is often set higher to recoup development costs and leverage the product’s novelty. Premium pricing can also create a perception of exclusivity and quality.

2. Growth Stage:

The growth stage is characterized by increasing sales and market acceptance. Customers are becoming more aware of the product, and competitors may enter the market. The focus of this stage is to expand market share, solidify the product’s position, and drive profitability. 

Key strategies for the growth stage include:

a. Market Expansion : Identifying and targeting new customer segments or geographic markets can help fuel further growth. Investing in additional distribution channels and exploring partnerships can expand the product’s reach.

b. Competitive Differentiation: With increased competition, it becomes essential to differentiate the product from competitors. Highlighting unique features, superior quality, exceptional customer service, or innovative marketing campaigns can set the product apart.

3. Pricing Strategy : Adjusting the pricing strategy becomes crucial during the growth stage. Companies may consider competitive pricing to gain market share or implement volume-based pricing to attract a larger customer base.

4. Maturity Stage: The maturity stage is characterized by stable sales and market saturation. The product has achieved widespread acceptance, and competitors are numerous. The focus of this stage is to maintain market share, extend the product’s life cycle, and maximize profitability. 

5. Decline Stage: The decline stage is characterized by a decline in sales and market demand. The product reaches a point where it is no longer profitable or relevant due to changing customer preferences or technological advancements. Key strategies for the decline stage include:

a. Product Diversification or Extension: Exploring options to diversify the product offering or extending the product line can breathe new life into the declining product. This can involve introducing new variations, bundling products, or targeting new markets.

b. Cost Reduction: Implementing cost reduction measures becomes crucial to maintain profitability during the decline stage. This can involve streamlining operations, reducing marketing expenses, or optimizing distribution channels.

6. Product Exit Strategy: Eventually, if the product’s decline is irreversible, companies need to plan an exit strategy. This can involve phasing out the product gradually, selling it to another company, or repurposing its components for other products.

Understanding and effectively implementing strategies specific to each stage of the product development life cycle is vital for sustained success. By adapting to market dynamics, consumer preferences, and competitive landscape, companies can navigate the challenges and leverage opportunities at each stage to maximize the product’s potential.

The product development life cycle consists of distinct stages, each requiring unique strategies and actions. From the introduction stage to the decline stage, companies must adapt their approaches to ensure continued success. By leveraging the right strategies at each stage, companies can effectively manage their products, capitalize on market opportunities, and deliver value to customers.

Challenges in Product Development

Product development is a complex and dynamic process that involves numerous challenges. Overcoming these challenges is crucial for successful product development and ensuring that the final product meets customer needs and achieves business objectives.

The key challenges faced in product development:

1. Managing Risks and Uncertainties:

a. Technological Risks: Developing innovative products often involves technological uncertainties. This includes challenges related to feasibility, scalability, compatibility, and reliability of new technologies. Mitigating these risks requires thorough research, prototyping, and testing.

b. Market Risks: Uncertainties in market demand and customer preferences pose significant challenges. Conducting comprehensive market research, understanding customer needs, and validating product-market fit are essential for reducing market risks.

c. Financial Risks: It’s critical to manage financial risks connected to product development, such as spending restrictions, cost overruns, and return on investment. These difficulties can be lessened with good financial planning, monitoring, and risk assessment.

2. Cross-Functional Collaboration:

a. Siloed Approaches: Product development often involves multiple departments and teams working together. Siloed approaches and lack of effective communication can hinder collaboration and lead to inefficiencies. The answer to overcome this difficulty is to establish cross-functional teams, encourage open communication, and develop a collaborative culture.

b. Alignment of Objectives: Different teams may have varying objectives and priorities. Aligning these objectives to ensure a shared vision and coordinated efforts is essential for successful product development. Clear goal-setting, regular meetings, and effective project management techniques can facilitate alignment.

c. Integration of Expertise: Product development requires diverse expertise, including marketing, engineering, design, and operations. Integrating these different skill sets and leveraging the strengths of each team member is crucial. Encouraging knowledge sharing, providing training opportunities, and fostering a multidisciplinary approach can enhance collaboration.

3. Time and Resource Constraints:

a. Time-to-Market Pressure: In today’s competitive landscape, speed to market is crucial. Balancing the need for speed with thorough product development processes can be challenging. Efficient project management, streamlined processes, and effective resource allocation are key to managing time constraints.

b. Resource Limitations: Limited resources, including budget, personnel, and technology, can pose significant challenges. Optimizing resource allocation, prioritizing tasks, and seeking external partnerships or outsourcing opportunities can help overcome resource constraints.

4. Market Dynamics and Competitive Landscape:

a. Changing Market Dynamics: Markets are dynamic, and customer preferences evolve over time. To remain competitive, it’s crucial to keep up with industry trends, comprehend developing technology, and adjust to shifting client requirements.

b. Competitive Landscape: Competition is fierce in most industries, and launching a successful product requires differentiation and a competitive edge. Conducting thorough competitive analysis, identifying unique value propositions, and continuously innovating are vital to navigate the competitive landscape.

Addressing the challenges in product development requires a proactive approach, effective leadership, and continuous improvement. By anticipating risks, fostering collaboration, managing resources efficiently, and staying agile in response to market dynamics, organizations can overcome these challenges and deliver successful products.

Product development is a complex process with many difficulties. By recognizing and addressing these challenges, organizations can enhance their chances of success. Through strategic risk management, fostering cross-functional collaboration, optimizing resources, and adapting to market dynamics, companies can navigate the complexities of product development and bring innovative and successful products to market .

5 Best Practices for Successful Product Development

Successful product development demands a methodical, well-executed methodology. Businesses may improve their chances of producing goods that satisfy customers’ demands, help them fulfil their objectives, and outperform rivals by putting best practises into practise. Let’s explore some key best practices for successful product development:

1. Customer-Centric Approach:

a. Market Research: Conduct comprehensive market research to understand customer needs, pain points, and preferences. Use techniques like surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather valuable insights that drive product development decisions.

b. User Personas: Create user personas that represent your target audience. These personas help in aligning product features and design with the specific needs and preferences of different customer segments.

c. Customer Feedback: Continuously gather and incorporate customer feedback throughout the product development process. This helps in validating product concepts, identifying improvements, and ensuring customer satisfaction.

2. Agile and Iterative Methodologies:

a. Agile Framework: Adopt Agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Kanban, to promote flexibility, collaboration, and incremental development. Break down the product development process into smaller, manageable tasks called sprints, allowing for faster iterations and frequent feedback.

b. Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Develop a minimum viable product that addresses core customer needs and allows for early market testing and feedback. This approach helps in reducing time to market, validating assumptions, and making informed iterations based on user feedback.

c. Continuous Improvement: Embrace a culture of continuous improvement by regularly reviewing and refining product features, design, and functionality. This iterative approach enables organizations to respond to market changes and evolving customer needs effectively.

3. Continuous Learning and Adaptation:

a. Data-Driven Decision Making: Leverage data and analytics to inform product development decisions. Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), track user behavior, and analyze market trends to gain insights and make data-driven decisions.

b. Test and Learn: Implement a test and learn approach by conducting controlled experiments, A/B testing, or usability testing. This makes it possible for organizations to obtain empirical evidence and base their judgements on factual information.

c. Rapid Prototyping: Build prototypes or mockups early in the development process to visualize and validate product concepts. Prototyping allows for early feedback, identifies design flaws, and helps refine the product before investing significant resources.

4. Collaboration and Communication:

a. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Foster collaboration among different teams, such as product management , design, engineering, and marketing. Encourage open communication, knowledge sharing, and interdisciplinary teamwork to leverage diverse expertise and drive innovation.

b. Stakeholder Engagement: Engage important stakeholders, such as clients, partners, and internal teams, at every stage of the product development process. To guarantee a common vision and positive results, solicit their feedback, resolve any issues, and set clear expectations.

c. Effective Project Management: Implement effective project management practices, such as defining clear goals, establishing milestones, and setting realistic timelines. Utilize project management tools and techniques to streamline communication, track progress, and manage resources efficiently.

5. Leveraging Technology and Tools:

a. Collaboration Tools: Utilize project management and collaboration tools, such as task management software, communication platforms, and shared document repositories. These tools facilitate seamless collaboration, streamline workflows, and enhance team productivity.

b. Product Development Software: Leverage specialized product development software to streamline and automate various aspects of the process, such as idea management, requirements gathering, prototyping, and testing. These tools help in improving efficiency, reducing errors, and accelerating time to market.

c. Data Analytics and Insights: Leverage data analytics tools to gain actionable insights from customer feedback, market trends, and performance metrics. These tools enable organizations to make data-driven decisions and optimize product development strategies .

Implementing these best practices in product development can significantly improve the chances of success. By adop ting a customer-centric approach, embracing agile methodologies, fostering continuous learning and adaptation, promoting collaboration and communication, and leveraging technology and tools, organizations can enhance their product development processes and deliver innovative, market-leading products.

Successful product development requires a combination of strategic planning, customer focus, iterative approaches, effective collaboration, and leveraging technology. By following these best practices, organizations can navigate the complexities of product development, reduce risks, and increase the likelihood of launching successful products that meet customer needs and drive business growth.

Frequently Asked Questions

Product development refers to the process of creating and bringing new products or services by transforming ideas and concepts into tangible products or services that meet customer needs and provide value to the business.

Product development contributes to business success by meeting customer needs, providing a competitive advantage, generating revenue, and enhancing brand image and reputation.

Key elements of successful product development include thorough market research, a customer-centric approach, cross-functional collaboration, iterative and agile methodologies, design thinking, quality assurance, and post-launch evaluation.

New product development strategies involve conducting market research, generating and screening product ideas, developing and testing product concepts, analyzing feasibility, prototyping, test marketing, and commercialization. 

The steps in the new product development process include idea generation, idea screening, concept development and testing, business analysis, product development, test marketing, and commercialization.

Concept to product development involves transforming an initial idea into a marketable product, focusing on solving customer problems and meeting market demands efficiently.

The 5 stages of product development include ideation, research, planning, prototyping, and sourcing, each critical for transitioning from concept to a successful product launch.

The 4 types of product development strategies encompass new product development, product improvement, product line extension, and product repositioning, allowing businesses to stay competitive and relevant.

The product development process is a systematic approach to creating new products or improving existing ones, involving stages from ideation and research to commercialization, ensuring the product meets market needs and customer expectations.

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New Product Development Process : Stages, Examples, and Tips

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned product manager, the process for new product development hardly ever gets any less exciting – or stressful. According to the Standish Group's 2020 Chaos Report, 66% of new software products fail. The troublesome development process of a new product might entail insufficient preparation, underestimated production costs, delays and unpredictable deliveries, and high costs of modification. Because of this, around 20% of new products die unremarkable and unnoticed death before they are even launched. Not exactly optimistic.

Still, launching new products is not something you can avoid if you want to stay afloat and grow. According to various reports spanning across the last decade (the latest being McKinsey one), more than 25% revenue and profits come from launching new products .

So, how do you build the developing a new product process in a way that isn't setting you up for failure from the very beginning? In this article, you'll find specifics, step-by-step stages breakdown, and some helpful examples. Let's dive in!

What is new product development?

Before we're ready to get into the nitty-gritty details of the new product development process , let's cover the basics first.

When it comes to growing your business and staying ahead in the market, introducing new products is a must. That's where new product development (NPD) comes into play. NPD covers everything from generating ideas to getting those shiny new products out there for people to enjoy. The goal? To expand product offerings, attract new customers, and boost those revenue numbers.

Now, let's talk about the different flavors of new products. Here are some common types you'll come across:

New-to-the-world products

These bad boys are true innovators, breaking new ground with never-before-seen ideas or technologies. They're the ones that turn industries on their heads and create entirely new product categories . Think back to the first personal computers, electric cars, or those game-changing smartphones when they first hit the scene.

New-to-the-firm products

These products might not be brand-new to the market, but they're new to a particular company. It's like a company finding a treasure chest in a market segment they've never explored before. Think of Netflix . Known initially as a DVD rental service, it expanded its offerings by venturing into original content production. It created a new product line within their existing streaming platform. Obviously, Netflix didn't invent TV shows, or even streaming them. Still, with popular shows like "House of Cards," and "Orange is the New Black," Netflix became a trailblazer in the world of online streaming and original programming.

Additions to existing product lines

Sometimes, it's all about expanding the family. This happens when companies introduce new versions or variations of their existing products. It's like adding more flavors to the ice cream parlor or releasing a smartphone with a better camera or upgraded features. It gives customers more options and keeps things fresh.

Improvements and revisions of existing products

Ah, let's not forget about those improvements and revisions! Here, companies take their existing products and make them even better. They might tweak the design, add fancy new features , or use the latest tech to give their offerings a fresh glow. For instance, a software company releasing an update with improved user-friendliness and extra functionalities.

Repositionings

Moving on, we've got the repositionings. This is when a product decides to change its vibe and target a whole new set of customers. Let's think of Slack. Originally designed as an internal communication tool for a gaming company, Slack underwent a repositioning to become a comprehensive collaboration platform for teams across industries. Recognizing the need for efficient and streamlined communication in workplaces, Slack expanded its scope and transformed into a go-to platform.

Cost reductions

Last but not least, let's talk about cost reductions. One effective approach is optimizing the software development process itself. By streamlining workflows, adopting agile methodologies, and leveraging automation tools, companies can significantly reduce development time and costs . This allows to lower the price for the consumers and engage new audiences . Now that we know about the "whats," let's move on to "whys" of developing new products.

Why do you need to develop new products?

We've already talked a bit about staying ahead of competitors and those revenue percentages. Still, at the first glance it might seem that introducing new products is more pain than gain. So, let's explore the benefits of new product development .

Increased revenue and market share

By introducing new products, you have the opportunity to tap into additional revenue streams . Expanding your product portfolio allows you to attract new customers, retain existing ones, and ultimately increase your market share. Innovative and desirable products can stimulate customer interest, drive sales growth, and enhance overall profitability.

Competitive advantage and differentiation

In today's fast-paced and highly competitive business landscape, standing out from the crowd is essential. NPD enables your company to differentiate itself from competitors by offering unique, innovative, and superior products. Continuously introducing fresh offerings positions your business as an industry leader, capturing the attention and loyalty of customers who constantly seek the latest and most compelling products.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty

By developing new products that meet the evolving needs and preferences of customers, you can significantly enhance customer satisfaction . Addressing unmet needs, resolving pain points, or providing innovative solutions strengthens your customer relationships. Satisfied customers are more likely to become loyal advocates for your brand, leading to increased customer retention, repeat purchases, and positive word-of-mouth referrals.

Market expansion and diversification

NPD provides an avenue for market expansion and diversification. By introducing products that cater to different demographics, lifestyles, or geographic regions, you can unlock new growth opportunities and mitigate risks associated with relying heavily on a single product or market segment. Market expansion and diversification allow for sustained growth and reduce vulnerability to market fluctuations.

Technological advancement and industry leadership

Development of a new product often involves incorporating technological advancements, pushing the boundaries of innovation within your industry. Embracing emerging technologies enables your company to position itself as a pioneer, driving progress and shaping industry trends . Technological advancements not only enhance product performance but also streamline operations , improve efficiency, and create a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Brand enhancement and reputation

Successful innovation and new product launches contribute to building a positive brand image and reputation. Companies that consistently deliver high-quality, innovative products are perceived as trustworthy, reliable, and forward-thinking. A strong brand reputation fosters customer loyalty, attracts top talent, and opens doors to partnerships and collaborations, further fueling business growth.

From our experience, this should have convinced you that NPD is not something you can forego if you want your business to flourish . But then the next, practical question arises: how to develop a new product? For you to be able to tailor a viable strategy for new product development , we'll walk you through the process step-by-step.

Stages of the new product development process

To bring a new product to market successfully, businesses follow a structured and iterative process known as the new product life cycle development process. This process consists of several stages, each playing a critical role in the overall NPD journey. Let's delve into the key stages involved.

Stage 1: Idea generation

The first phase of new product development is idea generation, where potential product concepts are generated and explored. Idea generation can be sourced from both internal and external sources.

New product ideas from internal and external sources

Internal sources of new product ideas involve tapping into the creativity and expertise of individuals within the company. Employees at all levels can contribute ideas based on their industry knowledge, market insights, or customer interactions. These ideas can stem from R&D departments, marketing teams, sales representatives, or even customer service staff who have a deep understanding of customer pain points and possible solutions .

External sources of new product ideas include gathering insights from outside the company. This can be achieved through market scanning, competitor analysis, value analysis of existing products , customer feedback, and industry trends. External sources might also involve partnerships, collaborations, or acquisitions that bring in new ideas or technologies.

Product discovery

During the idea generation stage, it is essential to focus on product discovery. This involves exploring unmet customer needs, identifying market gaps, and understanding emerging trends. By analyzing customer problems, preferences, and behaviors, businesses can gain valuable insights that drive the creation of innovative and impactful product ideas .

Customer problems

A key aspect of idea generation is identifying customer problems and pain points. By empathizing with customers and understanding their challenges, businesses can develop solutions that address their needs effectively. This customer - centric approach ensures that the new product is aligned with the target market's demands and provides value. Analyzing customer feedback, conducting surveys, and observing market trends are some ways to uncover customer problems and generate ideas that cater to these needs.

Stage 2: Idea screening

Once a range of potential new product ideas has been generated, the next one of the new product development stages is idea screening. Idea screening involves evaluating and selecting the most promising ideas for further development. This stage aims to filter out ideas that are not aligned with the company's strategic objectives or do not have sufficient market potential.

One commonly used method during the idea screening stage is conducting a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). This analysis helps assess the internal strengths and weaknesses of the company, as well as the external opportunities and threats present in the market. By evaluating the fit between each idea and the company's capabilities and market dynamics, the SWOT analysis enables informed decision-making and the identification of ideas with the highest potential for success.

Product validation

Next in the list of the steps in developing new product is product validation. This involves conducting preliminary market research, concept testing, and gathering feedback from potential target audience. By seeking input from the intended users, businesses can validate whether the proposed product idea addresses their needs , solves their problems, and provides value. This stage helps ensure that the selected ideas have a strong market demand and are worth investing resources in for further development.

The following stages require a team. Linkup Studio is a Ukrainian outsourcing team, and in the video, we share how to integrate an offshore dev team into your business successfully .

Stage 3: Concept development & testing

After the idea screening stage, the selected ideas move into the concept development and testing phases in new product development . This stage involves translating the chosen ideas into well-defined product concepts and conducting concept testing to gather feedback and assess their viability.

Consideration

During concept development, careful consideration is given to refining and shaping the selected ideas into tangible product concepts . This involves clearly defining the product's features, benefits, target market, positioning, and pricing. The goal is to create a compelling and comprehensive description of the product concept that captures its essence and potential value to customers.

Product concepts

Product concepts are the tangible representations of the selected ideas. They provide a clear vision and description of the proposed product , including its unique selling points, functionalities, and overall value proposition. These concepts serve as the foundation for further development and testing, providing a reference point for evaluating the product's potential.

Concept testing

Concept testing involves gathering feedback and reactions from a target audience to assess their perception, interest, and acceptance of the product concept. This can be done through surveys, focus groups, interviews, or online platforms. The feedback collected during concept testing helps validate the viability and appeal of the product concept, uncover potential concerns or improvements, and guide further refinements in the development process.

Practical tips:

To have some practical tools for this stage, consider morphological analysis . This problem-solving technique helps identify and explore different possible combinations of features or attributes for a new product or solution. It allows teams to systematically break down a complex problem or product concept into its constituent parts and then generate a range of potential solutions by combining different attributes or features.

Concept-test surveys are another research method used to gather feedback and evaluate the viability and appeal of a new product concept or idea. These surveys are designed to assess consumer perceptions, preferences, and purchase intent regarding a proposed product before it is fully developed and launched.

Stage 4: Marketing strategy development

Once the product concepts have been validated through concept testing, the next stage is developing a new product strategy. In this phase, businesses define their marketing approach and formulate a comprehensive plan to introduce and promote the new product effectively .

During this stage, several key activities take place:

Target market identification

Businesses identify the specific target market or customer segment(s) that will be the primary focus for their new product. This involves analyzing market research data, customer demographics, and psychographics to understand the characteristics and preferences of the target audience. By clearly defining the target market, companies can tailor their marketing strategies and messages to resonate with the intended customers.

Positioning and differentiation

Positioning the new product in the market is crucial for its success. Companies determine how they want their product to be perceived by the target market and identify unique potential value propositions that differentiate it from competitors.

Marketing mix development

The marketing mix comprises the elements that businesses use to influence customer perceptions and drive product adoption. These elements include product, price, promotion, and place (distribution) . During this stage, companies develop strategies for each element of the marketing mix to create a coherent and compelling marketing approach.

Sales and revenue forecasting

During these steps of the new product development process, businesses also forecast sales and revenue projections based on market research, customer insights, and competitor analysis. This helps estimate the potential demand for the new product and provides insights into the financial implication s and expected return on investment . Sales and revenue forecasting guide resource allocation, production planning, and overall strategy of new product development.

Stage 5: Business analysis

Once the marketing strategy has been developed, the process of new product development progresses to the business analysis stage . During this stage, businesses conduct a comprehensive assessment to evaluate the financial and operational feasibility of introducing the new product. Business analysis might include:

Cost and profitability analysis

Businesses analyze the costs associated with developing, producing, marketing, and distributing the new product. This includes evaluating the expenses related to research and development, manufacturing, packaging, advertising, sales, and ongoing support. By estimating the costs and projecting potential revenues, companies assess the profitability and financial viability of the new product.

Sales projections and demand forecasting

Building upon the sales and revenue forecasting conducted in the marketing strategy development stage, businesses refine their projections and make more detailed assessments of anticipated sales volumes and demand. This includes analyzing market trends, competitors, consumer behavior, and any potential factors that could influence the demand for the product.

Risk assessment and mitigation

Businesses identify and evaluate potential risks associated with the new product. This includes assessing market risks , such as changes in consumer preferences or increased competition, as well as operational risks , such as production challenges. By identifying and understanding these risks, companies can develop strategies to mitigate or minimize their impact, ensuring a smoother product launch .

Market entry strategy

Businesses also determine the most appropriate market entry strategy for the new product. This involves considering factors such as distribution channels, sales force requirements, pricing strategies, and competitive positioning.

We covered the product discovery phase of the new product development process in detail in the video.

Stage 6: Product development

In this video on our YouTube channel, Linkup Studio’s CEO, Andriy Sambir, has discussed things to consider before building an app .

Only now in our stages in the development of a new product we move to, well, actual development. In this stage, businesses focus on transforming the concept into a tangible product through various activities. This includes prototyping and the creation of a minimum viable product (MVP).

Businesses create prototypes, which are early-stage models or samples of the new product . Prototypes allow for testing and evaluation of the product's design, functionality, and performance. They provide an opportunity to identify any design flaws, make necessary improvements, and ensure that the final product meets the desired specifications. Prototyping helps businesses refine the product before proceeding to full-scale production, saving time and resources in the long run.

According to an older McKinsey report , 60% of the companies prototype quite late in the development stage and only for internal use. However (and the 2022 report confirms it) rapid prototyping and introducing the users early on allows to develop a product with the better product-market fit and nip in the bud many issues.

Minimum viable product (MVP)

In addition to prototyping, MVP is often used during the product development stage. An MVP is a version of the product with the limited set of major product features required to meet the needs of early adopters and gather feedback for further development. By launching an MVP, businesses can test the market, gather valuable user insights, and iterate on the product based on user feedback. This iterative approach allows for continuous improvement and ensures that the final product aligns with customer expectations.

Our CEO gave grounded basics of MVP : its benefits, tips to use, and successful examples in the video:

Testing and iteration

Process for developing new products also involves rigorous testing and iteration to refine the service or app. This includes understanding product usage through conducting usability tests, functionality tests, and performance tests to ensure that the product meets quality standards. Feedback from internal testing teams and external beta testers helps identify areas for improvement and guides the iteration process.

Stage 7: Deployment

On these stages in new product development process, businesses focus on implementing and launching the new product into the market.

Technical implementation

This step includes finalizing the product design, integrating any necessary software or hardware components, and ensuring compatibility with existing systems or infrastructure. The technical implementation phase aims to ensure that the product is ready for production and can be effectively deployed to customers.

Resource estimation

Resource estimation is crucial in the deployment stage as it involves assessing the resources required for the launch, promotion, and support of the new product. This includes estimating the workforce, equipment, and facilities necessary to meet production demands and deliver the product to the market.

Requirements publication

Publishing the product requirements is an important step in the deployment stage. This involves documenting and communicating the product specifications, standards, and expectations to internal stakeholders, such as manufacturing teams, and customer support personnel.

Engineering operations planning

This step is aimed to ensure smooth production and delivery of the new product. This involves creating detailed plans and workflows, coordinating activities among different departments or teams, and addressing any operational considerations or challenges.

Scheduling and supplier collaboration

Scheduling plays a vital role in the deployment stage. Businesses establish timelines and milestones for production, distribution, and customer delivery. This includes coordinating with external teams you might work with.

Resource plan publication

Similar to requirements publication, businesses publish a resource plan. This includes documenting and communicating the allocation of resources, such as personnel, equipment, and facilities, to relevant stakeholders.

Program review and monitoring

Regular program reviews and monitoring activities are conducted during the deployment steps of developing a new product to assess progress , identify potential issues or bottlenecks, and ensure adherence to the deployment plan. This includes monitoring key performance indicators, tracking production and delivery metrics, and conducting periodic reviews to evaluate the effectiveness of the deployment process.

Contingencies (what-if planning)

Contingency planning is an essential part of the deployment stage . Businesses identify potential risks, challenges, or disruptions that could impact the deployment process and develop contingency plans to mitigate these risks. This includes conducting "what-if" planning scenarios to anticipate and address unforeseen circumstances.

Stage 8: Test marketing

Once the product has been deployed, businesses often undertake test marketing as a critical step before a full-scale product launch . Test marketing involves introducing the product to a limited market segment to evaluate its performance, gather feedback, and identify potential areas for improvement.

Alpha testing

During the test marketing steps in development of a new product, businesses may conduct alpha testing. It involves testing the product within an internal or controlled environment . It allows businesses to closely monitor the product's performance, functionality, and user experience in real-world scenarios. Feedback from alpha testing helps identify any bugs, issues, or usability concerns that need to be addressed before the product is introduced to a wider audience.

Beta testing

Beta testing is another key component of the test marketing stage . It involves releasing the product to a select group of external users, often referred to as beta testers or early adopters. Beta testing allows businesses to gather valuable feedback on the product's performance, usability, and overall customer satisfaction. Beta testers provide insights into their experience with the product, uncover any potential issues or glitches, and offer suggestions for improvement. This feedback is invaluable for identifying and resolving any remaining issues before the product's full-scale launch.

Stage 9: Product launch

At this point in time, from 6 to 18 months have passed, and you're finally ready to reach the final new product development steps : actually bringing your baby into the wider world.

Commercialization

Commercialization is a crucial aspect of the product launch stage. It involves the strategic planning and execution of various activities to maximize the product's market potential and generate sales. Businesses develop comprehensive marketing and promotional campaigns, determine pricing strategies, finalize distribution channels, and create compelling messaging to communicate the product's value proposition to the target audience. Commercialisation activities aim to create awareness, generate interest, and drive customer adoption of the new product.

The launch itself is a significant milestone in the new product development process. It involves orchestrating a well-coordinated effort to introduce the product to the market . The launch typically includes activities such as public announcement, press releases, product demonstrations, events, advertising campaigns, and social media promotions. The goal is to generate excitement, attract customer attention, and drive initial sales momentum. A successful launch sets the stage for the product's market penetration and long-term success.

There are few bonus advice on how not to lose intellectual software property rights in our video .

Here are 5 more thoughts on building digital products from successful founders we've talked to in our Building Digital Product podcast episodes.

Examples of new product development process

That was quite the journey! Now, let's take a look at how this process (or at least bits of it) works in real life with some famous products.

Airbnb spent a lot of time on preliminary research to identify pain points in traditional accommodation options and designed a user-friendly interface that streamlined the booking process. They prioritized creating a seamless experience for users, incorporating features like real-time availability, secure payment systems, and robust search functionality.

Figma started off in 2012 as the first professional-grade browser-based UI Kit. Since then, it has launched an app and became a major market player. At Figma , the team actively uses brainstorming for the ideation stage. However, an even more important lesson you can learn from their idea screening process. To narrow down the brainstormed ideas, their product manager uses a "buy a feature" exercise. The employees start with a certain amount of "currency," and then have a limited amount of time to “invest” in different product ideas or focus areas.

Asana follows roughly the same steps in new product development process that we discussed above. However, during their ideation stage they also use the SCAMPER method.

Known for products like Jira and Confluence, Atlassian follows an iterative and customer-centric product development approach . They emphasize continuous improvement, user feedback, and rapid iteration.

The same can be said for Google . It is known for its "Design, Develop, and Deploy" approach to product development. They prioritize user-centric design , rapid prototyping, and continuous iteration. Google is also an example of a company that heavily relies on A/B testing.

At Linkup Studio, we built Alleo , the AI tool to help people optimize their lives. In just nine months, we made an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that was a big help for our client to get enough funding. This tool, called the ALLEO app, lets our customers break into the US market as a life-optimizing tool - it was a real game-changer in managing tasks. Plus, its design and quality checks make it easy and quick to upgrade to new versions. Read the full case study.

Final thoughts

As you can see, developing a new product is quite a lengthy and demanding process. What's worse, the longest part of it is actually devoted to the preliminary research, strategizing, and design. However, we don't advise you to skip these stages. Obviously, speed is of essence for any startup. Still, most companies that fail do cite lack of preparation as the major reason for it. It's better to spend more time on ideation, research, and finding the right product-market fit than for your product to fall into those 80% that don't survive two years after their launch .

To develop new products successfully, research, iterate, and, most important, don't forget to listen to your users an all stages of the journey.

Get the 7 key takeaways from Linkup Studio after 100 digital product launches in the video .

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New Product Development - The 7-Step Process Explained

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Delivering innovative products can help you gain a competitive advantage, but maintaining that advantage requires continuously delivering new products that keep pace with your customers' evolving needs. New product development is the key to building and keeping market share and customer loyalty.

What is new product development?

New product development is the end-to-end process of creating a product that has never been brought to market—from idea to concept, prototyping, developing, testing, and launch. It involves building a product strategy and roadmap to successfully guide cross-functional teams and stakeholders through the entire process.

Unlike product enhancements and upgrades that modify and improve existing products, new product development addresses the unique challenges of designing and delivering brand-new products. This article discusses the seven stages of new product development, some challenges Agile teams face along the way, and how you can succeed.

The 7 stages of new product development

Successful Agile software development takes careful planning and good project management practices . The seven stages of new product development guide you through the process by breaking the work into stages or steps.

1. Generating ideas

Every new product begins with a problem and ideas to solve it. Ideas may come from within the company, such as the customer service team, or from outside via customer and market research. In this phase, it's important to gather all ideas without discrimination. The more ideas you can brainstorm, the better.

Products such as Jira Product Discovery help product teams structure the chaos of prolific ideas. Ideas can be supported by data, customer feedback, sales input, support tickets, and more to help shape what the product team should focus on, creating ongoing feedback loops. Idea generation is most effective as a team activity with the outcome of developing the essential elements for a new product. 

To help you prioritize ideas, methods such as a SWOT or Competitive analysis take the guess-work out of the process. When generating ideas, having a clear understanding of where opportunities exist and knowing how the competition stacks up can lead to brainstorming disruptive and game-changing ideas.

2. Screening ideas

Agile teams can use Jira Product Discovery matrixes to view a large number of ideas, using criteria such as impact, effort, and confidence level before scoring and selecting which ideas to move into the next phase. Gathering and organizing product ideas in a centralized tool makes it easier for product teams to prioritize which ideas or features will drive the most impact.

Scoring ideas by product development effort versus the overall impact of the solution is an excellent way to focus on those with the most impact. The SWOT and competitive analysis templates from step 1 can provide the foundation for where to place priorities. 

You can also identify good ideas that are simply not right for this new product but may be suitable for future products and the goals of the team. Screening ideas can be difficult, but aligning each good idea to your goals and comparing its impact to other ideas will help identify the most impactful opportunities.

3. Creating a product strategy

After selecting ideas to develop into a new product, it's time to create your product strategy. This is a concise definition of the need that the new product meets. A good product strategy includes the vision, target market or user, position in the industry, features and benefits, and the value the new product brings to the business. This phase involves creating a clear definition of the requirements.

Confluence offers a strategic plan template that can help you refine your strategy messaging, remove ambiguity, and clearly communicate the goal. From here, the Confluence requirements template walks you through the process of outlining your objectives and success metrics, listing assumptions and options to address them, and adding supporting documentation. These efforts include prototyping and validating with customers, ensuring the product being built will be something that customers actually want.

4. Building a product roadmap

A product roadmap is an action plan. It outlines product functionality and release schedules and helps you manage new product development. Think of the roadmap as the core communication tool for short- and long-term efforts that align with your business goals. It's a shared source of truth for a product’s vision, direction, priorities, and progress over time. Creating a great product roadmap keeps your entire team working together and moving in the same direction (try our product roadmap template ). They also make it easy to check in on the work at any time throughout the product development life cycle.

Product teams using Jira Product Discovery can then share their product strategy using always-up-to-date, custom roadmaps to present which ideas will be built, when, and why.

5. Prototyping

Time to market is critical for new product development, and your ability to rapidly prototype and develop products ensures viable solutions. Jira Product Discovery’s integration with software development tools like Jira  makes it easy to seamlessly connect your entire software delivery lifecycle.

Defects and change requests are simply a fact of new product development, but concise tracking and issue management keep everyone on your team informed, organized, and on schedule. Testing can span both internal quality assurance (QA) teams as well as customers and end users engaged in alpha, beta, or user acceptance testing. Jira  is the leading tool that Agile teams use for testing, in part because it optimizes the QA workflow by writing and managing test scripts, tracking test cases, and managing defects. 

The product roadmap template from the previous step, along with other Confluence project planning templates , also inform testing and help ensure you miss nothing.

7. Product launch

You only get one chance to make a good first impression, and launching a new product requires careful planning and delivery. Every step in the process is a building block to a successful launch. Confluence’s product launch template helps ensure a smooth launch.

Additionally, sales and marketing, HR, and legal teams are already using your product strategy and roadmap to align messaging, identify opportunities, and ensure regulatory compliance. Using Jira , they can seamlessly connect their work with the product team’s. It provides a streamlined UI and integrations with the tools they use daily, such as Gantt charts and spreadsheets.

4 main types of product development

There are four types of product development, including:

• New product development : These are products that haven’t been released in the market before, such as software applications that solve new or novel customer problems. 
• New product categories : These products may not be new to the marketplace, but they are new to the company developing them. For example, a software company may expand their offering to include products within the category they currently develop, such as adding tax accounting to their portfolio of personal finance applications. 
• Product line extensions : These expand the products offered within the organization’s existing range of products, such as adding new industries within a category. For example, a company may develop accounting software for the construction industry and decide to extend their accounting software to the airline industry.
• Product enhancements : These are new features and capabilities within existing products. Companies generally design them to provide customers with new or added value. Enhancements respond to changes in the market, performance issues, or new competitive products. 

Example of new product development

Whether creating a new product that hasn’t been seen in the market before, or expanding an existing application to address new geographic locations, understanding the time it will take to develop is essential. 

Jira insights help teams make data-driven decisions based on their own historical progress. Insights can come from every aspect of the product development process and provide continuous improvement opportunities with each new product development project.  

3 challenges teams encounter in the new product development process

Great tools can help alleviate the challenges of new product development. Understanding these challenges and how to address them can keep your team on track for a successful launch.

1. Defining clear requirements

When speed is important, the requirements often become an ironclad set of instructions. While clear requirements are necessary, Agile teams must have a shared understanding of and empathy for the customer. Include various members of your team in requirements-gathering activities, such as customer interviews. When designers, developers, and QA share an understanding of user stories, they can produce results more quickly and accurately without maintaining rigid rules.

Confluence’s requirements template gives you the power to capture and update assumptions, use cases, UX design, and scope together.

2. Estimating the development effort

Working with realistic project timelines is essential for bringing new products to market and gaining a competitive advantage. However, product development tasks are notoriously difficult to estimate, and new product development can be even harder. Break work into smaller tasks for more accurate estimates. In addition to giving you more flexibility with resource assignments, smaller tasks minimize the impact on your overall project when something takes longer than expected.

Many Agile teams have switched from traditional estimates to story points—units that measure the effort teams require to fully implement a user story. A user story is an informed explanation of a feature from the user's perspective. With Jira, Agile teams track story points, reflect, and quickly recalibrate estimates.

3. Siloed tools

Collaboration is a critical component in your team's success and the success of their products. Development teams use a variety of specialized tools, such as visual design tools for creating mock-ups and instant messaging apps for hosting team discussions. No single tool can provide the specialized functionality for all the needs of the development team. Jira Product Discovery and Jira integrate with a wide range of specialized development tools to easily collect and incorporate important information.

How long does new product development take?

The time to develop a new product can vary widely based on the complexity of that product. For example, developing an application that securely processes credit card payments may take magnitudes longer than developing software to track exercise statistics. But a few tips can help reduce the time to market while maintaining quality. 

Expert tips from Atlassian for new product development

Understand the customer.

Begin with the customer’s needs in mind. The time you spend early, interviewing customers and gathering input, helps create a clear product strategy. The entire team should understand the problem they are solving for the customer. It will keep the team on track when they make decisions during development. 

Foster team collaboration

When the team has the tools for seamless collaboration, generating ideas, prioritizing issues, and solving problems is much easier. Today’s product development teams include a wide range of cross-functional roles. The best way to prevent silos and keep the team working together is with collaboration, respect, and genuine appreciation for each other’s contributions. Centralized tools such as Jira Product Discovery and Jira help foster this.

Define the requirements

A good product specification outlines the purpose, what the client needs the product to do, the technical and functional requirements to achieve that, design mockups, and even release plans. This foundational document takes time to create, but it helps teams refine and clarify fuzzy requirements and align on the scope of the project. 

Optimize resource allocation

Resource allocation is among the hardest aspects of new product development, so the roadmap must be well-defined before you begin. Understand the tasks included in the project, their dependencies, and the resources required. Visual workflows can help teams identify when you underutilize or overcommit resources. They can also highlight bottlenecks and roadblocks to allow teams to quickly adjust and stay on track. 

Jira makes new product development easier

Jira  provides success tools for new product development teams to collaborate on and manage work from idea to product launch. Agile teams have made Jira the leading solution for new product development.

Jira Product Discovery is a dedicated tool that aids teams in crucial stages of product development. It helps Agile teams gather and prioritize ideas and align everyone with product roadmaps. 

With Jira Product Discovery matrixes and criteria, you can easily select which ideas to move ahead with, enhancing the experience of product development.

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What is Product Development Research and how to do it?

Product Marketer at Zeda.io

Jacob Koshy

Created on:

May 15, 2024

Updated on:

Transform Insights into Impact

Build Products That Drive Revenue and Delight Customers!

66% of customers expect companies to understand their needs. But how do you understand the needs and demands of your customers? 

This is where product development research comes in. It not only helps the product managers to understand customer needs but also enables them to address these requirements in perfect ways. In return, product managers can drive higher customer satisfaction, loyalty, and high revenue. 

Let us discuss everything you need to know about product development research.

What is Product Development Research?

Product development research is the process of crafting, developing, and selling a product. It includes the crucial steps of market research, user research, and also coming up with a marketing plan to market the product to prospects. It also refers to tracking the progress of a product you are currently working on, its appeal to the target audience, and identifying potential changes you need to make to make the product more attractive.

Development cannot take place in isolation from research. It is a crucial process that directs the development of a product. It helps you to identify, understand and analyze consumer needs so that you can cater to them accordingly and increase your desirability in the market. It includes the processes of concept testing, loyalty testing, and many other tests that validate the product.

Why is Product Development Research important?

Product development research lays the groundwork for all the important functions of product development, marketing, and sales. It makes sure all your activities are data-driven and not just based on assumptions, minimizing the chances of errors. 

Let us try to understand why product development research is important with the following points.

• It ensures you are giving your customers what they really want. Sometimes you may have a different idea of the benefits and features that you want to offer your customers, which they might not even need. Research saves you from committing errors like this and ensures you don’t waste resources.
• It helps you identify customers and market trends so that you can devise your strategies accordingly.
• It helps you to identify gaps and drawbacks in the current development plan and helps you brainstorm and analyze ways to improve.
• It enables you to forecast the demand for the product and develop unique ways to promote, market, and sell.
• It allows you to identify specific features that customers might be willing to pay more for and help you figure out ways for increasing customer loyalty.

How does the product development research process looks like?

There are primarily 3 broad stages of product development research. Let's discuss.

1. Exploratory research

This occurs in the earliest stage of product development research. During this time, you have no idea of what your product is going to look like, what features it will have, or what will be the pricing structure. In this stage, you explore ideas and dig into data around customers to understand their pain points and needs. 

Idea generation

When you are at the first stage of product development, you generally have no direction. The research will help you to lay the foundation of an idea and how to work around it. This process should focus on answering these vital questions.

• What type of product do you want to build?
• Who is the target audience?
• What do they really need?
• How can you address their need with your product?
• What segment of the market would you like to target?

Idea screening

This will help you evaluate potential ideas based on the criteria gained by market research. For example, if you have a new idea, the screening will help you test the feasibility by evaluating the budget requirements, relevance, constraints, risks, and challenges.

It starts with the generation of an ‘idea’ or ‘ideas’. It can come from you or your team members or anyone who is involved in the development process. Once you have the idea, you have to evaluate it against special criteria like benefits/value, target audience, complexity, profitability, and market situation. If the idea shows potential even after weighing against each criterion, you need to gather evidence-based resources to support that idea. You can start doing qualitative and quantitative research to understand prospects' points of view. After compiling all the important research data, you can now start refining your ideas into actual product concepts.

Evaluative research

Ideas that emerged during the previous stage will be scrutinized in this stage. This will help you identify the ones that are worth moving forward and discard the ones that aren’t promising enough. Data collection through surveys can be one of the methods used in this stage to gather details about your product concept.

Concept development and testing

It is the process of gathering information and insight about your product concept from the target audience. It helps you adjust your vision and ideas based on the results of the research.

Market research 

This process is essential to examine the different forces of the market that not only pertain to the customers but also competitors, economic stability, government policies, and all other factors that can influence the lifeline of the product. 

2. Iterative research

This stage is to analyze and refine your product to ensure it appeals to the customers. Iterative research is detailed and in-depth and focuses on developing the critical features of the product. It can start from testing the different versions of the product to finalizing the packaging.

Development

The development of the product initiates in this stage. From the technology stack to the product labels, everything is analyzed and planned in this step. All the team members pool in their ideas and start working on developing the product after it has been approved.

Before the product is launched in the market, tests are conducted to test its performance of the product. This may include evaluating the product’s performance, safety, quality, and compliance with standards. 

Commercialization

This is the final step when the product is introduced in the market.  Before launching the product into the market, all the important factors like pricing, packing labels, marketing, and sales channel are decided.

How to perform Product Development Research effectively?

As a product manager, you cannot afford to mess up product development research. All the steps should be carefully planned and executed to ensure success. Make sure to read the steps attentively to know all about conducting effective research.

Step 1: Ideation

Ideation is the process of identifying the type of product you want to build. Suppose you have recognized an opportunity for introducing a new product in the market, but are unsure about what type of product you want to create. This is when you can hold internal sessions with your team to discuss the idea and concept of the product. The processes of combining, adapting, substituting, eliminating, and rearranging will play a crucial role in creating the perfect product idea.

Step 2: Market research

Market research means collecting information and analyzing the crucial players in the market. From competitors, target audience, geographical location, and economic stability to government policies, you have to have a thorough understanding of the market landscape to develop a strong product strategy .

Step 3: Demand analysis

The demand for a product drives the financial decisions of a company. Knowing the demand for a particular product is essential to know the feasibility of a particular product. If a product has low demand, there is no use in investing in the product. Conducting demand analysis will give you information about how many units you need to produce, which are the geographical area you need to target, and forecast your revenue from the product.

Step 4: Concept testing and validation

After you have gathered all the best ideas for product development, it is time to test and validate it. This focuses on clarifying  the idea of the product by focusing on questions such as-

• Is the concept understood by the team?
• What pain points can be addressed by the product?
• Who will the product users be and how will they use them?
• What are the possible strengths and weaknesses of the product?

You can validate these questions by conducting qualitative research to test the viability of the product in front of your prospective customers in the form of surveys or interviews.

Step 5: User experience research

User research or UX research is the process of discovering user behavior, motivation, and need of your customers through analysis, observation, and other types of feedback . It will help you dismiss assumptions and find common information about target customers, and recognize their needs and requirements.

Step 6: MVP research or prototype research 

A minimum viable product or MVP is a model of the product with enough features to allow customers to use it to validate the product ideas.  Creating an MVP and letting early adopting customers use it will help you get an insight into the product experience from their feedback.

Step 7: Pricing research

Pricing research will help you determine an appropriate price for your product. A suitable price should neither be too low as it will impact your profit margin nor too high to make it unaffordable for the consumers. Research will help you come up with a suitable price that appeals to your consumers while ensuring profit. 

Step 8: Competitor research

Competitor research is one of the important steps you cannot miss at any cost. Researching your competitors thoroughly will give you a base for comparison so that you can develop your own unique strategy for product creation and promotion. You can research your competitors from various sources like social media, google search, software listing sites, etc.

Step 9: Satisfaction and loyalty research

Satisfaction and loyalty research is vital to understanding the user experience of your product. Once you have launched your product, feedbacks are most likely to come in. You have to carefully analyze and address those feedback in a way that leaves the consumers content. 

Best Practices while doing Product Development Research

Here are some of the best practices you should follow to get the most effective results from your product development research.

1. Dig deeper into consumer needs

Just identifying the needs of your consumers based on a survey is not enough. You have to dig deeper into their needs to have a comprehensive understanding. 

What kind of challenges do they face? What are they looking for in a product? How much are they willing to pay? What section of consumers will use your product? All these questions will help you create a viable product. 

2. Involve customers in your development process

There is no one better than the customer to show you what and how they want in a product. They are the ultimate users of your product so involving them in the development process will only increase the chances of success. You can generate polls, surveys, and feedback sessions to ask prospective customers about their ideas and opinions. 

3. Expand your research horizon

Generally, you research only the targeted market and location while developing a product. It helps you get specific insights into the market you want to operate in. Broadening your research horizon is necessary to help you get a thorough understanding of the perceptions related to your product. Don’t limit your research to the target market, try to understand the national and international scenarios related to your product.

Product development research is not as complex as it sounds if you know how to do it correctly. If you know how to address their pain points in the most appropriate and innovative way, you already know you are way ahead of the competition. 

Zeda.io is there to support you in your product development research process. It is the ultimate product management tool to help you build the right product for your consumers. Check it out now!

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Sep 6, 2021

Product development strategy: How to define the direction of your new product

Let's explore what a product development strategy is, why it matters, types of strategies and examples, and how you can create one for your product.

Giada Gastaldello

Content Marketing Manager at Maze

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To stay competitive, companies need to find new ways to innovate and deliver continuous value to their customers. Yet creating winning products requires more than an innovative idea. Careful planning and strategy are a must for success. You'll need a clear direction to follow to optimize resources, identify priorities, and ensure a smooth product development process.

In this article, we’ll look at what a product development strategy is and how you can develop a great one for your product. For expert insights and best practices, we spoke to Vicky Volvovski , Senior Director & Head of Product Management at Postlight and former Head of Product at Zapier; Enzo Avigo , Co-founder & CEO at June and former Product Manager at Intercom, Zalando, and N26; and Ian Booth , Senior Product Manager at EduMe.

What is a product development strategy?

A product development strategy is a fundamental part of the new product development process (NPD) . It’s a high-level plan that describes the actions needed to develop new products or upgrade existing ones and introduce them to current or new markets.

New product development strategies link together the product vision and the strategic steps to realize that vision. In other words, a product development strategy guides a company's product development efforts—from concept to testing to launch—and aligns the new product's features and functionalities with the business strategy and target market needs.

The benefits of defining an effective product development strategy

Defining a product development strategy before you begin development is crucial. It will set the direction of your product and help you set clear goals. Let’s dive into the top three benefits of developing a strategy for your new product.

1. It gives you clarity

There are a million things that could get prioritized and a million directions that the product could go in. A product strategy allows you to say “yes” to the things that are aligned with your direction and say “no” to the rest.

Vicky Volvovski , Senior Director and Head of Product Management at Postlight

When you’re building a new product, deciding what to do, and most importantly, what not to do, is challenging. A product development strategy gives you a clear direction to follow. It helps you set priorities and make decisions that align with the company's overall strategy. "Sometimes the things you say 'no' to might be good ideas, but they don't align," explains Vicky. "That’s where product strategy gives you clarity."

2. It improves decision-making

The more your team can understand the strategy, the more they can make decisions in their day-to-day that help you reach that goal rather than having people pulling in different directions because they don’t understand what you're working towards.

When goals and priorities are well understood, product teams can make better decisions throughout the development process. They will know what ideas are worth pursuing, what features they should prioritize, or how to adjust the plan if challenges arise. This brings us to the third benefit.

3. It maximizes product development efficiency

I think a clear strategy is really what differentiates the companies that move fast from the others. If you know what you want to achieve and communicate it clearly to your teams, they will be able to find the best way to reach the goal. It maximizes the time and energy of all the people who work in your company.

Enzo Avigo , Co-founder and CEO at June

When product teams have a well-defined strategy to follow, they can better manage resources, estimate timeframes and costs, and make quick, confident decisions. Enzo points out that a product development strategy not only is a way to optimize resources but it also keeps your teams motivated and your organization healthy.

Product development strategies and examples

Now that you know how a product development strategy can benefit your organization, let's look at three different types of strategies you can adopt and some real-life examples of product development strategies.

Data-driven product strategies

Being data-driven means making decisions based on data and key metrics. Data-driven companies break down the product development strategy into quantitative objectives to measure progress and success. What to measure and why usually depends on the company's high-level strategy. Product teams translate the high-level strategy into key metrics and generate initiatives to achieve the desired goals.

N26 is a company that adopts a data-driven approach to product development strategy. The company was founded with this vision: A global digital bank to transform the way we manage money .

“One of the ways to achieve our vision was to reach as many people as possible and increase our user base,” says Enzo Avigo, Co-founder of June and former Product Manager at N26. He and his team identified the metrics they wanted to move, such as the conversion rate and the number of active users, and worked on the main product initiatives to unlock those metrics.

While data-driven companies use data to lead the decision-making process, data-informed companies acknowledge the limitations of data and use them to inform their decisions. Learn more about the difference between data-informed and data-driven .

Vision-driven product strategies

A vision-driven strategy starts with a view of the future—a clear picture of what the company wants to build. Innovation is driven by intuitive vision and personal goals rather than market research data. Founders of such companies rely on this type of strategy when they want to create truly innovative products and explore a market where users don’t know much about the new product and what features they’d like.

Yet “vision-driven” doesn’t mean that product teams won't use data. Insights and data are still needed to understand user behavior, test assumptions, or understand how to upgrade the product in the future.

Apple is one of the best examples of a company executing a vision-driven product strategy. Historically, Apple was known to build the products first and then find the market for them. In an interview, Steve Jobs explained : "We do no market research. We just want to make great products. When we created the iTunes Music Store, we did that because we thought it would be great to be able to buy music electronically, not because we had plans to redefine the music industry."

Research-driven product strategy

This third type of product strategy is based on market and user research . Product teams start the new product development process with product discovery and use research to inform their decision-making at all stages of the process. They reach out to users to understand their needs and expectations and based on data and user feedback, they determine how to build a product that satisfies those needs and delivers value to customers.

One example of a research-driven product strategy is Intercom. During his time as Product Manager at Intercom, Enzo Avigo worked in the platform group. The team was developing the Intercom App Store , where users can browse and install third-party apps and integrations. User research was crucial to figure out what to build. “We knew that the more integrations our users had, the better retention they had,” says Enzo. “We created the platform group to make sure that all the users could find the right app, for the right use case, at the right moment.”

While this is a "formal" distinction between different types of strategies, the most successful products employ a mix of these strategies: they are driven by data, do research, and have a clear vision of where they want to get to.

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How to create a winning product development strategy

As we saw, there are different approaches to product development . But whatever strategy you choose, here are some simple steps to develop and execute a successful new product development strategy.

1. Define your vision

Your product development strategy is the bridge between your product vision and the actions needed to realize that vision. So, as a first step, you’ll need to clearly define where you want your product to go and what you want to achieve. In simple words, your vision communicates the intent behind your product and the high-level goal driving your product development.

Sometimes, companies use mission and vision statements interchangeably, but they have different purposes. A mission statement focuses on the here and now and what the company is doing to achieve its goals. A vision statement focuses on the future and where the company wants to be in the long run.

One example of a successful vision statement would be Google's: To provide access to the world’s information in one click .

2. Do your research

A successful product development strategy has to be rooted in real user problems and goals and a real market opportunity.

The second step is to conduct in-depth research of your target audience, existing market, and competitors . In this way, you and your team can mitigate risks, use accurate data to inform your decision-making and increase your chances of building a successful product.

First, define and understand your ideal audience. Who are your target customers, and what problems are they facing? How will your product solve their problems? Interviews, surveys , or product analytics are just a few methods to get to know your users and identify their wants and needs.

Ian Booth, Senior Product Manager at EduMe, explains: "We have fantastic customer support and user research teams who constantly communicate with the customers and understand what they’re looking for from a strategy perspective. They’re so focused on being the champion for the user within the conversations that we’re having."

As a product manager, you're trying to balance the commercial side and the user side. You want to make sure that you’re not missing any information. Leaning on internal teams such as Customer Support and Research to champion the user's voice for me is the best route to go.

Ian Booth , Senior Product Manager at EduMe

Second, conduct market research and competitor analysis to learn what other products are available in the market, understand how users perceive your product compared to your competitors' offers, and identify what makes you unique. This is a fundamental step to decide how you will position and differentiate yourself in the market.

Learn more about how market validation justifies product investment by assessing how viable your product idea would be in the market.

3. Set product goals

When you have a deep understanding of your target market, you should use the data gathered to establish a series of goals you want your product to achieve to deliver value to customers and gain a competitive advantage. Set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. They will help you decide what to build next and give you a tool to measure the success of your product.

We always have a really good objective to focus on and good key results to track success. If you’re able to set them early, track, and understand them, you can determine if your product launch is successful because you can see the actual progression.

As part of our product development process at Maze, we always include a summary of our goals in the product development strategy document and regularly track our progress on every goal. This allows our product team to make decisions and align on the next steps.

4. Plan the product roadmap

It’s now time to define the initiatives, features, and releases that will help transform your goals into action. A product roadmap is a high-level visual that allows you and your team to execute the strategy. Product managers use roadmaps to plan tasks, communicate priorities, allocate resources, and see the evolution of a product over time.

A product development strategy ensures that all the initiatives in the roadmap are linked to the product’s vision and goals so that you can start development with a detailed and solid plan.

🎧 Learn how to balance intuition, analytics, and user feedback to make better product decisions & discover frameworks for building a clear product strategy in this podcast episode with Ravi Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO of Outpace. Tune in to The Optimal Path Podcast .

Looking for a comprehensive list of product management tools? Check out our list of the best 13 product management tools to streamline your workflow.

Final thoughts

We’d like to conclude with a piece of advice from Enzo Avigo, Co-founder and CEO at June:

Strategy is like chess. You can think for hours before you start the game, but nothing ever happens until you play. The same occurs with product strategy. The best thing to do is not to think about the perfect strategy but move a piece, build something, and see what it yields. So usually, building the easiest prototype or finding a way to validate your assumptions.

Rapid prototyping can help you explore and validate ideas early in the product development process. With tools like Maze, you can test prototypes with users and get actionable results that help you make informed product decisions.

We hope this article has provided an insight into what a product development strategy should include. Now it's your turn. Start testing things out and get ready to launch a successful product.

Frequently asked questions

A product development strategy is a strategic plan that guides the new product development process. It aligns product teams around the product vision and outlines the actions needed to bring new products to market or upgrade the performance of existing products.

What are the main product development strategies?

Companies can consider three main types of product development strategies: data-driven strategies rely on data and analytics, vision-driven strategies are based on intuition and personal experience, and research-driven strategies depend on market and user research.

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What Is Product Development? 7 Steps to Making a Product (2024)

Learn everything about the product development lifecycle as well as tactics to improve your workflow to help bring your vision to life.

Even for the most successful ecommerce businesses , the journey to a finished product rarely resembles a straight line. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, the product development process might even seem shrouded in mystery—how does an idea in your head become a 3D object you can hold in your hands?

Effective product development involves market research, product management, and plenty of trial and error. While every story is different, there are a few best practices founders take on the road to starting a business and shipping a finished product.

In this guide, learn everything you need to know about the product development lifecycle as well as tactics to improve your workflow to help you bring your vision to life.

What is product development?

Product development refers to the complete process of taking a product from idea to market. It also describes the process of renewing an existing product or introducing an old product to a new market. This includes identifying market needs, conceptualizing the product, building a product roadmap, launching a product, and collecting feedback.

New product development (NPD) specifically refers to creating a new product from scratch and bringing it to a market. The process doesn’t end until the product life cycle is over. And, you can continue the product development process after launch by collecting user feedback and iterating on the product and developing new versions.

Who is responsible for product development?

How to create a product development plan

A product development plan (or product development strategy) is the methodology that a business will use to guide its product development. It is a detailed plan with milestones and checkpoints that keeps a multi-disciplinary team on track and heading toward the same goal until product launch.

Before starting any stage of product development, put your plan to paper. Ask: How long do we need? What are the deadlines? How often will we meet? What are our goals?

Later on in this guide, we’ll walk through the product development process. You can use this as an outline to map mini-goals, ways of working, and areas of responsibility to each stage.

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Why is a product development plan important?

A product development plan is a critical stage in the process for the following reasons:

• It aligns the team. Having everyone on the same page from the get-go ensures that team members can have autonomy and move quickly toward the same end product.
• It creates checkpoints. Your plan should have a meeting cadence and goals to reach at each stage. This allows the team to come together periodically to stay on track.
• It eliminates risk. Having a plan in place that accounts for all competitive research, market research, and target audience research means you’ll leave no stone unturned.
• It contains success metrics. How do you know if your process is successful? Your plan sets out exactly what success looks like and how it will be measured.
• It lets you get more creative. With guardrails in place, you don’t need to micromanage the process. The teams will have clear guidelines to innovate within. 

📦  Read more: How To Create a Successful Product Development Strategy

The 7-step new product development process

• Generate an idea.
• Conduct market research.
• Develop a plan.
• Create a prototype.
• Source materials and production partners.
• Determine your costs.
• Launch your product.

Although the product development process differs by industry, it can essentially be broken down into seven stages: idea generation, research, planning, prototyping, sourcing, costing, and commercialization.

Use the following development framework to bring your own product idea to market.

1. Generate an idea

Many aspiring entrepreneurs get stuck on the first stage: ideation and brainstorming. This is often because they’re waiting for a stroke of genius to reveal the perfect product they should sell. While building something fundamentally “new” can be creatively fulfilling, many of the best ideas are the result of iterating on an existing product.

The SCAMPER model is a useful tool for quickly coming up with product ideas by asking questions about existing products. Each letter stands for a prompt:

• Substitute (e.g., faux fur for fur)
• Combine (e.g., a phone case and a battery pack)
• Adapt (e.g., a nursing bra with front clasps)
• Modify (e.g., an electric toothbrush with a sleeker design)
• Put to another use (e.g., memory-foam dog beds)
• Eliminate (e.g., get rid of the middleman to sell sunglasses and pass the savings on to consumers)
• Reverse/rearrange (e.g., a duffle bag that doesn’t wrinkle your suits)

By considering these prompts, you can come up with novel ways to transform existing ideas or even adapt them for a new target audience or problem. Using insights from business analysis can also be helpful to better understand the opportunities in the market.

📦  Read more: Find New Product Ideas in These 16 Places

2. Conduct market research

Starting production before you validate your idea can lead to failure. Product validation ensures you won’t waste time, money, and effort on an idea that won't sell. There are several ways you can validate your product ideas, including:

• Sending out an online survey to get feedback.
• Starting a crowdfunding campaign.
• Performing test marketing by releasing your idea to a very small group of your target market.
• Researching market demand using Google Trends.
• Gauging interest via email opt-ins or pre-orders.
• Asking for initial feedback on forums like Reddit.
• Running a feasibility study to assess whether your proposed idea is worth investing in.

It’s important to get feedback from a substantial and unbiased audience. Be wary of overvaluing feedback from people who “definitely would buy”—until money changes hands, you can’t count someone as a customer. Asking advice from your family and friends (unless they have prior experience in your industry) is also something to avoid.

Validation research will also involve competitive analysis . If your idea or niche has the potential to take up market share, there are likely competitors already operating in that space.

Researching competitors will help you understand how they attract customers and make sales. Ask your potential customers what they like or dislike about your competitors to define your competitive advantage.

The information compiled from doing product validation and market research will gauge the demand for your product and the level of competition before you start planning.

3. Develop a plan

Since product development can quickly become complicated, it’s important to take the time to plan before you begin to build your prototype. At this stage, it can often be helpful to have a clear product roadmap.

The best place to begin planning is with a hand-drawn sketch of what your product will look like. The sketch should be as detailed as possible, with labels explaining the various features and functions.

You don’t need a professional quality drawing, since you won’t be submitting it to a manufacturer at this stage. However, you can outsource this stage to a technical illustrator. Dribbble and UpWork are two sites that list freelancers for hire.

As part of your diagram, create a running list of parts or materials needed. For example, a purse design could be accompanied by this list:

• Zippers (large and small)
• Metal clasps
• Leather straps
• Protection pouch
• Embossed label
• Interior wallet

Your plan should also answer the following questions to inform pricing, brand positioning , costs, and marketing strategy:

• Will the product be an everyday item or for special occasions? 
• Will it be a luxury or price-accessible product?
• Will it use premium materials or be environmentally friendly ? 
• What will the packaging and labels look like?

4. Create a prototype

Prototyping difficulty depends on the type of product you are developing. The least expensive and simplest cases are products you can prototype yourself, such as:

• Food recipes
• Cosmetic or personal care formulations
• Some fashion and jewelry designs

However, more often than not, entrepreneurs will work with a third party to prototype their product. If you’re starting a clothing brand, work with local seamstresses, cobblers, or pattern makers. These services usually can be found online by Googling local services or reaching out to design or fashion schools for prototyping help.

For objects like toys, household accessories, electronics, and many other hard-exterior objects, you may require a 3D rendering in order to make a prototype. Use UpWork or Freelancer to find artists or engineers who are trained in computer-aided design and drafting (CAD) software. Or, try SketchUp , Tinkercad , or Vectary to create 3D models on your own.

With the innovation of 3D printing, digital designs can be turned into physical samples at a much lower cost and quicker turnaround time than the traditional method of mold-making.

The first usable version of your prototype (or minimum viable product) can be released to a small test group to gauge interest and test price sensitivity and messaging. The feedback gathered at this stage allows you to create iterations of the product and build something more valuable for your target market.

Founded in 2019 by childhood friends Charlie Bowes-Lyon and Freddy Ward, Wild wants to eliminate plastic and single-use waste from bathrooms across the world.

🌸 Podcast: Why Perfecting Product Design Was Key to This Brand's Success

5. Source materials and production partners 

Once you have a product prototype you’re satisfied with, it's time to start gathering the materials and securing the partners needed for production. This is also referred to as building your supply chain : the vendors, activities, and resources needed to create a product and get it into a customer’s hands. 

When finding manufacturers or suppliers , follow these sourcing best practices:

• Factor in storage, shipping, and warehousing partners.
• Find multiple suppliers for the different materials you will need to compare costs and create backups.
• Attend trade shows dedicated to sourcing. Discuss materials and build a personal relationship with suppliers, which can be valuable when it comes time to negotiate prices.
• Compare advantages and disadvantages of sourcing locally or internationally.
• Look for Alibaba listings with similar products to your own and then contact the factory to see if they can produce your specific design.

6. Determine your costs

You should now have a clearer picture of what it will cost to produce your product. Costing is a business analysis process where you take all information gathered to find your cost of goods sold (COGS) and determine a retail price and gross margin.

Your calculation should include raw materials, factory setup costs, manufacturing costs, and shipping costs. Factor in other costs such as shipping, import fees, and any duties you will need to pay in order to get your final product into the customer’s hands. These fees can have a significant impact on your COGS, depending on where you’re producing the product.

If you were able to secure multiple quotes for different materials or manufacturers during the sourcing phase, you can include different columns for each line item that compare the cost. Another option is to create a second version of the spreadsheet, so you can compare local production versus overseas production.

Once you have your total COGS calculated, you can come up with a pricing strategy for your product.

7. Launch your product

At this point you’ve got a profitable and successful product ready for the world. The last step in this methodology is to introduce your product to the market. At this point, a product development team will hand the reins over to marketing for a product launch.

If you don’t have the budget for expensive ads, don’t sweat it. You can still run a successful go-to-market strategy by using the following tactics:

• Sending product launch emails to your subscriber list
• Working with influencers on an affiliate marketing campaign
• Getting your product featured in gift guides
• Enabling Instagram Shopping
• Gathering reviews from early customers

📦  Read more: 25 Alternatives to Running Paid Ads to Promote Your Business

Product development examples

In the based-on-a-true-story 2023 film BlackBerry , the founders of Research in Motion (RIM) assemble a crude prototype of their mobile smart phone to accompany a pitch to investors. Although the final product looked nothing like the first iteration, the prototype serves as a proof of concept and a jumping off point to get funding or test the market. 

Product development became a key part of RIM’s (later named BlackBerry) business in the race against Apple, which the company ultimately lost by failing to understand the market and racing to the final product without adequate testing.

Don’t make the same mistakes—understand your industry and market. The product development cycle will naturally vary by industry, so let’s take a brief look at what you might have to consider with case studies for each.

Fashion and apparel development

In the fashion industry, product development usually begins the old-school way: with a hand-drawn sketch or the digital equivalent made using a program like Procreate .

A sketch is then developed into a sample using a pattern maker or seamstress. During the prototyping phase, a size set is created, which means a range of samples with different measurements for each size you want to sell. 

Production will either be handmade by the designer, produced by a factory, or printed by a print-on-demand company (in the case of graphic t-shirts or accessories). 

Other factors to consider:

• Hang tags: The branded tags that hang from a garment and usually contain information like price, size, etc.
• Labels: The fabric tags sewed or stamped into a garment that usually contain information about fabric contents and care instructions.
• Wash tests: Putting your product through wash tests to understand whether it holds up over time and how it should be cared for.

👗 Case Study: From Sketch to Sample to Successful Business

Sarah Donofrio dedicated her life to fashion working for major brands before launching her own clothing line. 👉 Read Sarah's story

Beauty and personal care development

From makeup to bath products to skin care , much of the beauty industry’s hottest new labels started in a kitchen. Founders experiment with ingredients, some even launching handmade products, before mass producing through a manufacturer.

White labeling is also popular in the beauty and cosmetics industry. It’s the process of finding an existing product or manufacturer, then packaging and branding the products they already produce. Whichever route you decide to take, mass manufacturing for cosmetics is usually done by working with a lab and a chemist to make sure quality stays consistent at scale.

• Labels and warnings. Identify all materials used in the product and any potential reactions.
• Laws and regulations. Research FDA regulations and how they pertain to your product and packaging, both where they are produced and where you intend to sell them.
• Shelf life. Conduct tests and add necessary expiration dates to products.

🏭 Case Study: Making the Leap to Manufacturing

In this guide to starting a skin care line, Meghan Cox discusses the early days of starting her business, Amalie. While she launched on handmade formulations, she eventually made the move to manufacturing—and then opened her own lab. 👉 Read Meghan’s story

Food and beverage

Food and beverage products are among the easiest to start developing at a low cost from home. Creating a new energy bar can be as simple as buying ingredients and tweaking the recipe in your own kitchen, like Lara Merriken did when she started Lärabar .

In order to move from recipe to packaged goods you can sell in stores or online, you will need to find a commercial kitchen that is licensed to produce food and has passed a health and safety inspection. These are manufacturing facilities that specialize in processing raw materials and producing food and beverage products at scale.

• Labels and warnings. You will need to display ingredient lists and nutritional information.
• Laws and regulations. Many countries have regulations around dietary information, allergen warnings, and health claims that you will need to comply with.
• Expiry dates. You will need to understand your product lifetime and how you will produce, package, and stock the product to accommodate this.

☕ Case Study: A Beverage Brand's Humble Roots

Hannah Mendoza spent a year in her own kitchen honing her recipe for Clevr Blends, a brand of superfood plant milk lattes. 👉 Read Hannah's story

Wrapping up the product development cycle 

During product development, each journey to a finished product is different and every industry has its own unique set of quirks involved in creating something new.

If you find yourself struggling to figure it all out, remember that every product that came before yours had to overcome the same challenges. By following the steps in this guide, you can better manage the overwhelming task of bringing a new product to market.

No matter what you’re developing, by putting in all the necessary preparation—through researching, planning, prototyping, sourcing, and costing—you can set yourself up for a successful final product.

Feature illustration by Pete Ryan Infographic design by Brenda Wisniowski

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Product development FAQ

What is the product development process.

The product development process refers to the step a business takes to bring a product to market. It can be a completely new product, renewing an old product, or introducing an existing product to a new market. It involves concept development and testing, prototyping, costing, and commercializing the product by marketing it online.

How can I come up with new product ideas?

• Brainstorming
• Customer reviews
• Test marketing
• Examining your competitors
• Audience surveys
• Social media
• B2B wholesale marketplaces
• Concept testing
• Online consumer trend publications

What is the difference between product development and product management?

Product development refers to the conceptualization and creation of a new product of the product life cycle. It involves a specific product strategy to bring an idea to life. Product management is responsible for guiding all product teams toward creating a usable product customers will buy, as well as the product roadmap. Both the product management and product development departments work together to plan and build the product roadmap that will bring the product to market.

What are the 7 stages in the product development process?

• Idea generation
• Prototyping
• Commercialization

What is a minimum viable product?

The minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of your product with just enough functionality for early customers to use. It helps validate a product concept early in your product development process. It also helps product managers get user feedback as fast as possible to iterate and make small, incremental improvements to the product.

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Develop a New Product Development Strategy (Examples Included)

• July 20, 2023

Read time 8 min

• by Ishan Vyas

Table of Contents

What is a product development strategy, importance of new product development strategy, top 5 approaches to new product development strategy, how to develop a product development strategy, tips for new product development strategies, examples of new product development strategy, wrapping up.

Quick Summary In this blog, we explore product development strategy, emphasizing meticulous planning for success. Discover essential elements, real-world examples, and actionable insights to craft winning strategies and achieve remarkable outcomes. Empower your product development journey!

Well, everyone would say - identify product opportunities, define business goals, design prototype, build MVP, prepare a marketing strategy for launch, and iterate product improvement. But no one answers - how to do it; what strategies to follow while planning a Digital Product Development process

Is it really something that requires meticulous planning? 

Yes! This article has all the answers to your questions. It explores the vital elements of an effective strategy for new product development along with real-world examples of successful companies.

A product development strategy is a roadmap for creating and selling new products. It helps companies understand customers and the market, from generating ideas to product introduction. The aim is to satisfy customers and achieve company success.

A strong product development strategy identifies opportunities, sets objectives, and outlines steps and resources to turn ideas into reality. By executing this strategy well, companies align efforts with business goals, reduce development risks, and greatly increase the chances of a successful product launch.

A product development strategy helps create desired and high-quality products that meet customer needs. These strategies also have the potential to positively impact society by improving lives and creating job opportunities.

Apple's launch of the iPhone in 2007 serves as a prime example of their strategic product development approach. 

Their strategy involved:

1. Market understanding

2. Innovation

3. User-centric design

4. Strategic marketing

5. Efficient execution

6. Customer-centric approach

By following a well-executed strategy, Apple revolutionized the smartphone industry, differentiated their product, created a seamless user experience, and established a strong brand presence. 

This example highlights the importance of choosing a product development strategy that aligns with your product's strengths and meets the needs of your target audience.

Some other reasons for implementing a product strategy include

1. Customer value

2. Demand generation

3. Business growth

4. High-quality products

5. Long-term planning

6. Complexity management 

Product development strategies can enhance and support business positions through various approaches like prioritizing time to market, evaluating technology and market risk, leveraging a strong platform, incorporating customer insights, and internal processes to deliver optimal solutions.

1. Time-based Approach

This approach focuses on being first to market, fast following, or being a laggard. 

Being the first to introduce a new product category is proven to be advantageous and linked to long-term success. 

Fast followers capitalize on the innovator's experiences, while laggards offer similar products as competitors. 

Companies benefiting the most are those that are first to market. For example, Apple, Uber , and Amazon . 

You can shorten time to market through techniques like an escalation process, streamlining product development and launch.

2. Ideation-process Approach

Emphasizes generating innovative ideas through brainstorming sessions to address customer needs or market gaps, and seeking input from internal stakeholders. 

Here's how it works:

- Customer Feedback: Collect feedback to understand customer needs and preferences.

- Focus Groups: Engage target customers in deeper discussions to gain insights.

- Brainstorming: Encourage creative thinking within the product team to generate ideas.

- Internal Stakeholder Input: Seek input from internal teams for diverse perspectives.

- Market Analysis: Consider market share, demographics, and corporate strategy.

- Improve Existing Product: Identify areas for improvement based on user feedback.

- Early Validation: Validate ideas through prototypes for early feedback.

Product ideas are filtered based on criteria like time to market, risk assessment, platform strength, or customer insights. This process helps generate and prioritize concepts for further development.

3. Market-oriented Approach

This approach centers around understanding and meeting customers' needs by conducting thorough market research and aligning product development with target market demand. 

It includes different types:

- Innovators create new technologies for existing markets.

- Investors in technology acquire or partner with other entities.

- Searchers find new market applications for existing products.

- Business As Usual companies focus on existing products in current markets.

- Middle of the Road companies make incremental improvements to existing products and markets.

This approach allows businesses to align their efforts with market dynamics, technology advancements, and customer demands.

4. Platform-specific Approach

Develops products that align with specific platforms or technologies.

Platforms, resulting from extensive research and development, maximize revenue and business impact by enabling the creation of multiple new product offerings. 

Utilizing a platform reduces engineering and time requirements for subsequent product variants, making innovation processes more efficient. It also facilitates efficient entry into new target markets by creating derivatives within a product family. 

By capitalizing on existing design work and knowledge, you can streamline product development and enhance your competitive edge.

5. Customer-oriented Approach

Places the customer at the center of product development, incorporating their feedback and preferences to create products that deliver exceptional user experiences.

Design Thinking, a popular framework, is used to deeply understand customers and translate insights into successful products. 

The process includes:

- Product concept generation

- Engineering

- Manufacturing

This approach focuses on customer requirements rather than competitors and can be part of an Agile Product Development process. It may involve creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for early market feedback. 

CTA: - The Ultimate Guide to MVP Development [Step-by-Step]

Customer-oriented approach is applicable to both new and existing products, emphasizing customer-centricity throughout the development process.

All these approaches are often combined to suit specific needs. The key is to select approaches that align with company resources, market dynamics, and overall strategy.

Here’s how to develop an effective product development strategy.

Developing a product development strategy requires careful planning and execution. 

Here's how you can approach it:

1) Define a Vision: Establish a broad statement of where you want your company to be in the next 3-5 years.

2) Create a Strategic Plan: Outline the steps and actions necessary to achieve your vision within a 2-3 year timeframe.

3) Develop Roadmaps: Create product and technology roadmaps that connect your strategy to specific programs and projects. These roadmaps show the progression of products and technologies over time.

4) Align with Budgeting: Connect your roadmaps to the yearly budgeting process to prioritize future products and allocate necessary resources.

5) Establish Strategic Product Planning: Formulate a process that links the company's long-term vision with the strategic steps required to realize that vision.

6) Implement Portfolio Planning: Introduce a yearly portfolio planning process that aligns with budgeting, allowing for systematic decision-making on product concepts.

7) Implement Ongoing Portfolio Management: Establish a monthly process for selecting and prioritizing emerging product concepts that align with the company's strategy.

8) Link Strategy with Execution: Ensure a tight connection between strategic direction and product concepts, with ongoing management and planning to support successful execution.

9) Embrace New Product Development Process: Implement a structured approach that bridges strategy and execution, considering both product design and business factors that shape the product definition.

Maintaining a balance between strategic planning and ongoing management helps enhance new product development process, foster innovation, and effectively manage product portfolio.

Strike Balance Between Speed and Quality

Prioritize the minimum viable product (MVP) to avoid feature overload and focus on essential customer needs. While speed is important, ensure it doesn't compromise product quality or user experience. 

Dedicate resources to perfecting core features that deliver value. Implement agile testing and feedback loops to continuously improve. Emphasize quality assurance by thoroughly testing for bugs and performance. Foster a culture of continuous improvement to refine processes and enhance efficiency. 

This way, you can deliver lean products that meet customer needs while upholding a high standard of quality.

Make Customers Part of Your Process

By prioritizing customer satisfaction and incorporating their feedback, you can build long-term relationships and deliver customer-centric products that meet market demands.

Here are effective strategies to engage customers in the product development journey.

1. Customer as the First Step

Begin by envisioning the end result and crafting a press release that highlights the product's value for customers. This approach keeps the customer at the forefront of your development process. Utilizing tools like an AI Poster Generator can help create visually appealing promotional materials to showcase the product's benefits effectively.

2.Continuous Feedback

Embrace the Agile philosophy by seeking real-time feedback from customers at every stage. Utilize user engagement metrics to gather insights without relying solely on customer feedback surveys .

3.Periodic Feedback

Even with a traditional approach, periodically expose users to the product for valuable input. Conduct surveys or user testing sessions to gather feedback and make necessary adjustments.

Experiment With Your Product and Strategy 

Experimentation is vital for new concept development, especially with Agile methodologies like Scrum because it facilitates rapid iteration and adaptation based on results. 

Be brave and test different features, designs, or approaches using A/B testing to gauge user engagement. Gradually roll out changes while monitoring user statistics, allowing for quick reversals if needed. 

Data-driven decision making, and continuous improvement are key outcomes of experimentation. By integrating experimentation into your strategy, you can optimize your product's performance, user experience, and overall success.

Make Use of Your Existing Product

Often, we consider product development strategy only for new products, but it should also be applied to existing ones.

For example, create a new version of your existing product with slight changes to determine which features customers would like to see improved.

is one of the finest examples. Generative AI Search  Offer a trial of the latest version in BETA like big companies do. Google’s

After modification, if the existing market is not responding to it, change the idea. Undo the features that you added and strategize and add others. 

Find new markets. This could include targeting a different age group or marketing to another geographical location. 

Maintain a Realistic Product Development Roadmap

Design and maintain a realistic product development roadmap for a successful new product ideas. 

- Use goal-oriented methodologies like OKRs or SMART goals to establish clear objectives. 

- Regularly revisit and adapt the roadmap based on feedback and changing market conditions. 

- Communicate the roadmap to stakeholders for better transparency and collaboration. 

- Prioritize tasks and sequence them logically. 

- Evaluate progress, identify bottlenecks, and make necessary adjustments. 

A well-defined roadmap provides guidance, manages expectations, and increases the likelihood of delivering a successful product on time.

Here are some product development examples of brands like Coca-Cola, IKEA, Kellogg, Netflix that implemented product strategy during their new product development process.

Coca-Cola's complete product development strategy revolves around prioritizing the voice of the entire user base. By embracing consumer preferences and evolving with changing tastes, the company aims to thrive. They have introduced new products like juices, coconut water, and organic tea to cater to consumer demand. 

Coca-Cola acknowledges the need for beverages with added benefits and smaller packaging options. Continuously listening to the voice of the customer remains a key focus, allowing Coca-Cola to respond effectively and meet consumer needs. This customer-centric approach drives their business strategy and helps them remain competitive.

IKEA's product idea focuses on providing low-cost, quality products through an extensive global supply chain. They lease equipment to suppliers, ensuring quality standards. Their supply chain management allows for a product differentiation strategy, offering furnishings for diverse homes. IKEA's commitment to sustainable design principles is reflected in their smart design approach, enabled by their strong supply chain capabilities.

Kellogg's marketing strategy is all about adapting to changing consumer preferences by divesting and acquiring brands. With the decline in the cereal market due to shifting trends away from sugar and carbs, Kellogg has divested iconic cereal brands and acquired health-conscious brands like RXBAR. This strategy allows Kellogg to better serve potential customers and stay relevant in the evolving multiple markets landscape.

Amazon's product development strategy is a prime example of a customer-oriented approach. It begins by writing a simplified press release for the product, focusing on meeting customer needs. They then work backward from the press release to develop the actual product, engaging with customers throughout the process. 

This approach ensures that Amazon creates specific solutions that address identified customer pain points effectively. By aligning their internal process with customer feedback, Amazon delivers products that prioritize customer satisfaction.

Microsoft's idea generation revolves around strategic partnerships and embracing emerging technologies. The company has shifted its focus from smartphones to AI and Cloud. It established a dedicated AI division and prioritized collaboration with open-source software. 

By emphasizing innovation and leveraging partnerships, Microsoft differentiated itself from competitors like Google, Twitter, and Facebook, offering a discrete product rather than relying solely on user data. 

This has enabled Microsoft to stay at the forefront of the tech industry and gain competitive advantage over its competitors.

Netflix employs a profit-driven strategy, focusing on margin growth and customer retention. By offering unlimited access to a vast library of high-quality original content, Netflix captivates viewers and builds a strong brand known for easy movie enjoyment. 

Its personalized user experience and seamless interface provide a competitive edge that is hard to replicate. As the largest streaming service globally, Netflix's marketing strategy revolves around maximizing adoption and retention through compelling content and a trusted brand.

By following a systematic approach and incorporating key elements like market research, ideation, and strategic partnerships, you can enhance your chances of creating innovative and successful products. 

Examples, such as Apple's meticulous approach, highlight the importance of strategic thinking and customer-centricity. Continuously evaluating and refining the strategy is essential for long-term growth and profitability. 

So, embrace these principles, implement the tips to navigate the complexities of the product development process and position your business for success.

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Product research: the key to building a product people will love

You want to build a long-term vision for your product, and work on something that your users will buy and love—but can you really do that if you don’t understand your customers?

Probably not.

Enter product research, the key to leading your business to success through data-backed insights and smart, customer-centric product decisions.

But how can you make sure your product research is effective, and that it will benefit your customers and business? Keep reading to find out!

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Product research: what it is and why it matters

Product research is a vital first step before introducing new features, a new product, or entering a different stage of the product lifecycle. It enhances your understanding of what the customer wants so you can make user-led product decisions and address customer needs.

What is product research? 

Product research is the process of gathering information about your product's purpose, development direction, and which solutions you should offer to create customer delight. Product research is conducted through surveying and studying users to identify their needs and understand what they demand from your product, and usually happens at these stages in the product lifecycle:

Before launch : to understand which initiatives you should include and prioritize based on customer needs, and to develop a product-market fit.

Testing and feedback: to understand how the customer perceives new iterations, learn what they like or don’t like, and how you can improve the product to delight them.

Soft launch: to analyze how effective and useful your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is among a segment of customers, and identify changes to make before releasing the full product to market.

Post-launch: to study customers' reactions and behavior after launch for continuous discovery , analyze customer satisfaction, and identify potential bugs or improvement areas.

Why product research matters for product teams

If you don't know what your customers want from your product, even your most brilliant idea risks failure. Here's how product research helps you align your product ideas with customer needs:

Understand user needs and pain points: your product needs to solve the customer's most pressing issues, but how can it do that if you don't know what issues they’re having? Product research helps you gather data and behavioral insights to understand your users’ problems and build the solutions they need.

Align user needs with business goals: understanding customers' needs and how they align with your product and business goals helps you plan a product roadmap that'll serve both the users and your company.

Higher scope for innovation and accuracy: when you have clarity about what your customers need, you can find innovative ways to solve their problems and build a product they'll love.

Gain a competitive edge: researching your competitors will help you understand how to differentiate your product and uncover gaps in the market, which can help you decide what features to build.

Simpler and more impactful prioritization: with product research, your entire team is clear on how to prioritize initiatives to achieve customer delight , making it easier for you to manage your product backlog .

Why and how product research can vary across product teams 

Product research validates your ideas and gives you a better understanding of your user throughout the product development process. But the responsibility to conduct product research doesn’t fall solely on the product manager— people across departments should also be conducting product research.  

Since product research isn't a single, standard process, the purpose and level of contribution can vary at different stages of the product lifecycle and across roles and departments:

1. Product managers

A product manager's primary goals are to understand user needs, learn business goals, and determine market requirements to create a product vision and roadmap. 

They also use product analytics to validate ideas around iterations and product features—all of which require extensive product research. 

A product manager’s main research aims are to ensure that product development decisions are data-informed and customer-centric, and address users' needs to build a great product. 

Common research methods include interviews, surveys, competitor studies, and analyzing user behavior and product experience insights.

2. Product designers

Product designers need to empathize with users to create an intuitive product experience that users will enjoy. 

During product research, designers might observe customers in real-time to note their reactions, responses, and behaviors around different elements of the product's design. For example, they might observe how users interact with the UI to identify product elements or features that seem to slow down or confuse individual users.  

Product designers use these insights to improve the user experience ( UX ) and create a seamless product experience ( PX ) for easy navigation and usage. 

Their research methods include customer feedback forms and behavior tools (like heatmaps and session recordings) to understand where users are facing issues and how design changes can fix them.

3. Researchers

Researchers study user behavior, needs, and motivations to translate insights into new and better product opportunities and better-informed product decisions. 

Researchers constantly conduct product research to monitor trends over time and see how user behavior patterns are changing in response to product iterations—and how to improve them.

But, here’s the catch: this data is not readily available. So, researchers use a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods like surveys, feedback forms, and customer interviews to get recurring data.

4. Product research by lifecycle stage

Product research processes, methods, and findings will change as your product reaches new stages of development:

If you're developing new features for an existing product , you want to understand the customer's current needs, how they've changed over time, and their reaction to recent iterations. This helps you understand which initiatives and ideas you should prioritize and introduce next.

When you're developing a completely new product, product research will be different. Here you don't have historical information about user response and behavior patterns from your previous developments, so you need to perform in-depth product research to understand your target customer's needs and pain points.

4 elements of successful product research

Product research is necessary to avoid misguided product development decisions, identify potential issues with your product, and get an in-depth insight into your customer's mind. This research helps you create a well-thought-out strategy for building a product customers love.

But you need to take some proactive steps to make your research successful:

1. Use accurate and unbiased data collection methods

The primary goal of your research is to collect accurate data that tells you about how your customers experience your product—what they like or don't like, what they want or need, and what issues they encounter.

But your research won't be useful or actionable if you use unreliable data collection methods .

The best way to ensure the data you collect is accurate and unbiased is to use reliable methods like surveys, customer interviews , and tools that provide consistent real-time product experience insights (like Hotjar!). 

Only with accurate data can you be confident in making truly customer-centric decisions to build the best product.

Pro tip: use Hotjar Heatmaps and Session Recordings to study customers' behavior patterns on your site. These tools give you an unbiased look at how your customers scroll, click, move, and navigate your website, which can help you identify potential issues and improvement areas.

For example, if you use heatmaps and notice that users aren’t scrolling down your home screen to where you’ve included testimonials and product use-cases, you can use this information in your research to place them further up the page.

2. Conduct thorough competitive and comparative analysis

Product research isn't just relevant for studying customers and their needs—it's also key to understanding your competitors and where you stand in the market. 

Conduct a thorough analysis of your competitors' products, audience, and processes. This will help you analyze what's working for your audience, what gaps you can fill, and how to create a better, more efficient product for your customers.

You can complement your research efforts by carrying comparative analysis of what you're missing out on. Study your competitors and identify which features they’re providing that you’re not and what makes them unique. This will tell you where you’re lacking and help you create an optimization plan for better results and customer satisfaction.

For example, if you understand how your competitors are launching features—and how their customers are responding to them—you can use those insights to develop and introduce your next feature, and build a better product that delights your customers and stands apart from the crowd.

3. Leverage existing research material

Marketplace and trade reports—analysis reports by institutions and organizations in your industry—give you valuable insight into product processes used by companies over the years and indicate how consumer trends have changed.

This goes beyond your first-hand information and adds a historical touch to your research, so you can discover new product opportunities by taking inspiration from what’s worked before (or learn from what hasn't).

For example, you may come across an innovative way to collect customer feedback or an efficient way to test product features that might not have crossed your mind. You can explore this idea with the help of historical data.

4. Segment results based on business goals

Your product research is irrelevant if you can’t use it to make more effective decisions and product improvements. 

Enter segmentation, which is when you categorize your research findings based on business goals, so information doesn't get mixed up or lost in translation. You can also document your findings so product team members can refer to them from time to time for guided decisions.

Segmentation can also help you align your short-term and long-term goals to make the research more valuable for use in the future.

For example, you may want to study your customers' major pain points around a specific feature, at first—but later, when you're introducing a suite of new products, you might want to look at the issues your previous product didn’t solve, potential initiatives that can complement your new products, or gaps in your past marketing strategy. This will help you better address these areas for your new product.

How to measure the success of your product research

Measuring the success of your product research isn't exactly straightforward: tangible product results come much later when you receive feedback for the product, so it’s challenging to gauge the effectiveness of your research process in the beginning.

You can get some clarity around how research is translating into benefits for your users and business by attaching Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to your product during the initial stages.

It's important to know what success means to you before starting product research. Be clear on the question you are trying to answer first.

Much like a scientific experiment, you should identify the aims and objectives and develop a hypothesis to test. Design your research methodology around the hypothesis.

You might choose a survey, a literature review, or something else. The results, once analyzed, should illustrate a statistical significance in your findings to prove or disprove your hypothesis—a true measure of research success.

Here's a list of questions you should answer to determine the success of your product research:

Do you understand the major triggers and pain points of your customer?

Have you analyzed your products in comparison to competitors and identified gaps?

Have you converted your research into data points and findings?

Have you used the research report to introduce modifications in your product roadmap or created a new one from scratch?

Did this research give you a good idea of what the customer wants from your product?

Do you understand which initiatives you need to prioritize?

How you answer these questions will tell you whether you have sufficient information or need to change your product research strategy and collect additional data.

Ultimately though, the best measure of product research success is the knowledge you gain about your customers—and how you use that knowledge to build a product they'll love.

3 ways Hotjar can assist your product research for better results and efficiency

1. use recordings and heatmaps after releasing features to get user behavior insights.

One of the most direct ways to get feedback and insights about your customers' needs, pain points, and responses to product features is to understand their behavior in context as they experience your product.

Heatmaps give you insight into the elements of your page that drive the most clicks and conversions while highlighting things you can optimize for better results. These findings can be used in your research to identify potential areas for improvement.

Session Recordings give you a play-by-play of individual user activity in your product to show you their navigation path, mouse scrolls, and clicks. Real-time behavior patterns tell you what the customer is struggling with presently , so you can improve product design, navigation, and experience.

2. Leverage surveys to get validation and feedback

If you want to know exactly what your customers are thinking and let voice of the customer (VoC) data guide your product strategy, use qualitative tools like Hotjar's Incoming Feedback widget and Surveys.

Try placing surveys and feedback widgets on high-traffic visitor points of your product to get direct, unbiased, and genuine feedback from the customer at the best time: when they’re experiencing your site. This helps you understand user needs more intuitively so you can validate ideas and features.

3. Use Hotjar integrations to prioritize features and get buy-in for ideas

Product research is a comprehensive process, and it’s challenging to do it regularly. However, the process becomes more efficient when stakeholders and team members have access to customer feedback as soon as it’s available.

Hotjar integrates with tools like Slack and Zapier to help you seamlessly communicate with stakeholders and get buy-in for your ideas then and there, so you can move forward with your product improvements.

Final thoughts

Product research lies at the very core of product management. If research isn't conducted throughout the entire development process, you risk misalignment and a resulting product that doesn't meet users' needs.

You need to understand what users need right now to build a truly user-centric product—and product research can help you achieve just that.

Use Hotjar's qualitative and quantitative product insights tools to organize your product research efforts and really understand how your customers experience your product.

FAQs about product research

What’s the difference between product research and market research.

The primary difference is that product research involves studying the product (customer needs, feedback, pain points, issues) while market research involves analyzing the market (competitors, consumers, demand).

How do you conduct product research?

Define your product and its vision

Identify your target customer

Understand your customer's needs and pain points

Conduct research using qualitative and quantitative methods

Convert the research into data findings and insights

Use the analysis to guide your product strategy

How can using product research tools help?

Product research tools help you identify consumer trends, study user patterns, and analyze user behavior for data collection. Some useful product research tools are Hotjar, Zendesk, Product Plan, Jira, and ProductBoard.

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What is New Product Development? Stages, Examples & Best Tips to Improve NPD

July 24, 2023 | By Hitesh Bhasin | Filed Under: Marketing

New product development is a process of idea generation, creation, designing, validation, and launching of a product that is completely new to the market. Examples of new product development include creating a new brand of canned soup, launching an app for tracking mileage, and introducing a smartwatch that can track workouts. This process requires careful planning and consideration of potential customer needs, market trends, and competitive landscape.

Businesses that have the best product development strategies incorporate the right governance to create novel concepts for products while gathering sufficient funding to ensure that these products can grow. These companies work on a systematic process of vetting and prioritizing new products as per the target market and customer needs. A new product development project goes through a thorough understanding of the new product ideas, target audience, concept testing, product management, and other new product development stages.

Table of Contents

What is a New Product Development?

New product development is the entire process of creating a new product in the market, renewing an already existing product, or launching a product in a new market. Different elements of the process include idea generation, product design along with different business considerations.

The process can be broadly described as the transformation that takes place in different stages from the concept to the final product to the market opportunity. The company that creates the product will also provide different means for generating income. The new product development involves researching the needs and requirements of the customers along with the environment, competition, and market nature.

Key Takeaways!

• New product development is the process of bringing a new product to market, which includes generating the idea, assessing its market potential, refining it, creating a prototype, and ultimately launching it for sale.
• To remain competitive in the market, companies either develop new products or improve the existing ones.
• Building a product that’s already been conceptualized and tested falls under regular product development while coming up with a completely new idea, generating, developing, and launching it is involved in new product development.

Why do Brands Need New Product Development?

Having the process of new product development is nothing less than a boon for any company and organization.

This process helps the company in achieving growth and success with the creation of new and amazing products that meet the needs and requirements of the people. Some reasons why product development should be considered are:

• To meet the customer’s changing needs and requirements
• To launch a new product in the market
• To maintain an edge against the competition
• To solve the problems of customers
• To create products and introduce them based on disruptive technology
• To help in solving common issues of the product

Popular Brand Examples Using New Product Development

• JBL launched a new headset series called JBL Live , which promises to provide superior sound quality, extended battery life, and increased comfort.
• Apple launched the initial iPhone in 2007 and has subsequently introduced various new models including iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, and iPhone 14.
• Coca-Cola introduced the Zero Sugar version of its popular drink to a different group of people.
• McDonald’s added a new burger option called McVeggies , which features a patty made entirely out of plants.

Stages of New Product Development Cycle

One very important thing to keep in mind is that there aren’t any generic processes for product development. The renditions will differ according to the detail and depth of the explanation that has been provided by the company.

There are 8 different stages of the New Product Development process and these have been explained in detail below –

1) Idea Generation

This is the 1st stage of the process and in this particular stage, the company will come up with ideas that are based on external and internal sources. Mostly, internal data is comprised of development teams and in-house research. External data on the other hand refers to customer requirements, competitor creations, suppliers, distributors, and other factors. A model mostly used by the company is SCAMPER- Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Rearrange/Reverse.

2) Idea Screening

This is the next stage of the process where the ideas are screened to make sure that only the best are selected. The main goal here is to put primary focus on those ideas that resonate most with the financial goals of the company along with the consumer values. This stage will filter out some of the ideas that don’t have enough potential to benefit the company in the long run.

3) Concept Development

The third stage of the process is concept development which is a pretty important one and it focuses on the testing and development of the concept. The concept development stage will comprise the development of the ideas into detailed concepts for the company. These ideas will be properly conveyed using terms that are customer-oriented. It is essential to create a concept to project the new product idea in terms of how it is supposed to be perceived by the customers. It is also important to then test the concept to ensure that can withstand the competing market efficiently.

4) Strategy Development

In this particular stage, the company has to come up with different strategies that are meant to introduce a worthy product into the competitive market. This process is extremely important to ensure that the product that is developed will have the right launch. The company has to create strategies for potential revenue, price, as well as other figures for distribution and advertising in the best way for this step to work properly.

5) Business Analysis

This is the 5th stage in the new product development process and albeit a very important one. In this process, the concept of the product will be put through different tests and business analysis models to properly figure out the revenue and sales projected. This process also helps in risk analysis and much more. The objective of the company is to make sure that the product can satisfy all the conditions, optimize the market share, and only then be moved forward.

6) Product Development

Now in this step, the company will declare the concept of the product to be completely in line with the goals and objectives that the company has. Hence, the company production team will get the green light for beginning the process of production. The product development team and research section will work on this particular product concept for a certain period and come up with a functional prototype of the concept.

7) Test Marketing

The second last stage in the process involves the proper testing of the prototype along with the marketing strategy of the product in the best way. This stage will also help the company figure out ways to introduce the product into the market through a well-defined market strategy. More focus is put on the processes of production, market research, market testing, advertisement, distribution, and sales in this process.

8) Commercialization

This is the stage when the product is finally completed and will be ready to launch. Based on the important pieces of information that had been collected about the product, the company will decide on the marketing process as well as proper business management too. In this stage, the company could choose between launching the product or it can also choose to put the product aside. If the product gets a proper get-go, then it will be introduced to the customers along with the features and benefits that it has to provide. Apart from that, there are some other things to keep in mind about this process. Here, the company will have to incur different expenses such as initial investments in infrastructure, advertisements, and promotions.

New Product Development Examples

The entire cycle of a product development process will vary according to the industry, so it is suitable to take a look into the most amazing and largest industries that partake in the process of new product development.

These industries are completely straight when it comes to the development of products and hence there are different case studies to prove the point that we are trying to make. Let us have a look at some of the popular product development examples-

In the world of fashion, the process of new product development will usually begin traditionally by creating a sketch of the design using different digital programs. Then the sketch will be developed into a working sample with the help of a creator of patterns. This is the phase of prototyping where the size set will be designed. Hence, different samples with different sizes will be created based on various measurements. After finalizing the size set, the production process will begin.

Rather than creating the product, most apparel and fashion companies tend to print on demand to create the clothing in the first place. With this method, designs can be uploaded to a particular 3rd party application that will provide a legitimate connection between the fashion store and a warehouse. This is where the order will be completed and the clothing will be delivered to the fashion house without any glitches.

Other important factors that should be considered:

Labels: Some of the fabric tags that are stamped or sewn into an article of clothing will contain certain information about care instructions related to the fabric content.

Hand tags: Most of the branded tags that hang from any piece of brand-new clothing contain details about the size and the price of the clothing.

Wash tests: By putting the product through different washing tests, the company can ensure that the product will be able to hold through the test of time and care.

2) Cosmetics

The cosmetics industry incorporates different products that are always expanding. It might be due to the ever-changing trends related to self-care and wellness. From skincare to bath products and makeup, there are new products that are launched by these beauty brands. These products mostly focus on all-natural components as well as sustainable results. Hence, the process of creating a prototype of the product based on everyday ingredients becomes a lot easier.

The process of White labeling can be considered a proper and popular process in the cosmetics industry. Now, what does that mean? Well, it is the process that involves the discovery of a particular product that already exists, and then branding and packaging of the products that are already produced. No matter what route is taken, the process of mass manufacturing has naturally opted.

Some important factors that are to be included:

Regulations and laws: Some research related to FDA regulations and the inclusions that they can have for the product will help in providing more information about the packaging.

Warnings and labels: You need to identify all the important materials that are used in the product along with the potential reactions that the people might have.

Shelf Life: It is important to conduct different tests on the shelf life of the product. Along with that, the necessary information should be provided about the products’ expiration dates.

3) Food & Beverages

The products of food and beverages are commonly used for the process of new product development since they can be developed at a low cost and that too from the comfort of the homes. It is a pretty simple process to create an energy bar, right? All you have to do is go to the market and get the ingredients that you need to create the energy bar. The only thing that you have to do to make it a new product is to tweak the recipe a little bit. To make sure that you are properly able to manufacture the product so that it can be sold in stores, it is essential to have a commercial kitchen with a proper license. This is where the food or the beverage can be produced after passing the safety and health inspection.

These commercial kitchens are basic set-ups that consist of all the cooking equipment along with ovens and other appliances to create large batches of food or beverages. However, in the case of mass production, having a co-manufacturer is a good idea for sure. The manufacturing facilities have proper specialization when it comes to efficient processes of all the raw materials to produce amazing beverages and food products for the customers.

Some of the important factors that should be considered are –

Laws and regulations: Most countries tend to have different laws as well as regulations related to allergen warnings, dietary information, health claims and so much more. As a company, you will have to agree to all these regulations and comply with them while creating the product.

Warnings and labels: It is essential to have a display of all the ingredients that are included in the product along with the nutritional information as well.

Expiry dates: You also need to keep in mind the lifetime of the product and mention the expiry date and shelf life of the item. Also, proper instructions should be provided about storing and packaging the product.

Advantages of New Product Development

The data from Mckinsey Global Institute states that just 1 out of every 7 ideas for a product results in the development of the product itself.

These are pretty low rates of success. Also, the rates of failure for the products that are launched range somewhere between 25 and 45 percent in total. Hence, it is important to know where to spend the resources, money, and time of the company. This will help in deciding whether the company is going to be a success or not.

If you want to ensure that your company can create products and helpful services that will appeal to the clients, having a proper new product development strategy is simply the best idea.

With a strategy in place, you will have the best chance of avoiding losses for your company. There are some other advantages that a company can get from a properly developing new product development strategy and some are mentioned below –

1) Creating a culture of innovation

To create a new product, it is essential to have new ideas. With a culture of proper innovation, the ideas of people will be heard as well as tested and hence it can lead to proper business growth and success.

2) Keeping up with customers’

The habits and requirements of the customers keep on changing according to the economies as well as other important reasons. Having a proper product development process in hand will ensure that the companies can keep up with the newly emerging demands of the customers.

3) New opportunities

When you focus on the requirements of the customers, you will be able to make sure that new opportunities are created for the success of the business in the best way.

4) Higher Value

With new designs for the companies, you will be able to create products that are valuable to the customers, thus increasing the value of the company as well.

5) Improved brand reputation

When all the requirements of your customers are fulfilled with proper product development, it can help in increasing the reputation of your brand.

6) More Marketing time

A systematic and streamlined process will help in the identification and creation of plans for mitigating any challenges in marketing in the future.

7) No feature creeps or pitfalls

With a proper strategy for new product development, you will be able to manage customer requests better. Not to mention that it will lead to the mitigation of any pitfalls that might come forth in the future.

Here is a video by Marketing91 on New Product Development.

Tips for Improving NPD Process

To optimize the effectiveness of new product development projects, you should follow these tips –

1) Develop a long-term plan

Developing new products is a long-term process that requires patience. Simply aiming for quick wins won’t be enough beyond the initial startup phase. To consistently develop new products, your company requires a distinct vision, a reliable strategy to achieve it, as well as adequate funding and organization to support and implement the strategy.

2) To optimize NPD, you should include both technical and customer perspectives

While tech companies are typically focused on technology, an effective venture board for approving investments in new product development should have a balance of technical and customer-oriented skills, including a Product Manager. When screening ideas for product development and marketing strategy, it is important to consider the customer’s perspective to make informed decisions.

3) Please provide adequate funding to support NPD.

Although it may seem simple, not many companies prioritize nurturing early-stage new product development to maximize their product portfolio’s potential return. Providing seed funding for new ideas that align with company budgets and strategies is crucial in transforming new product concepts into successful offerings in the market.

4) Create a product portfolio strategy

Establishing a product portfolio strategy can help prioritize investments in new product development and help focus on the right projects. Having a clear portfolio strategy helps you to identify which products have the highest potential and invest resources accordingly. It also helps you to anticipate market trends and competitive pressures, so that you can make informed decisions about which new products to develop.

5) Capture the Voice of the Customer

Having a direct connection with customers during the initial stages of developing a product is crucial, whether through Design Thinking or any other approach that focuses on meeting market needs. Establishing a clear process to convert customer feedback into a product with the most appealing features is crucial.

6) It’s better to avoid committing to too many features than to overpromise and underdeliver

Companies often overpromise on features and fail to deliver on them. It’s better to start with a minimum viable product that includes basic functionality, and then use test marketing to guide the product development process as early as possible. It is important to listen to customers to identify essential features. It is not recommended to promise more than you can deliver as it damages the brand’s reputation. Instead, it is better to fulfill your commitments and gradually enhance the product over time.

Conclusion!

Taking everything into account, new product development is nothing less than a revolutionary process that helps in the conversion of untried, new, ideas into workable and functional products.

By creating these products, companies all over the world will be able to delve deeper into the mindsets of their customers and provide them with exactly what they want to optimize their brand presence and sales.

Summing up the different stages of new product development, a proper process of success and growth can be created for every single brand. Now, in closing, how useful do you consider the production process in developing successful and sustainable new products that can optimize the brand’s profit margins?

What are the Characteristics of a successful NPD organization?

The new product development refers to the following characteristics –

• New product ideas developed in response to client demands are the foundation of effective NPD.
• The greatest new product ideas are in line with an organization’s strategy for product development.
• A fluid, lightweight procedure cultivates the concepts.
• Work is completed by cross-functional agile teams by a defined new product development procedure.
• The outcome is a brand-new product that thrills consumers and helps the company expand.

How long does it take to develop a new product and get it to market?

The amount of time required will be influenced by multiple factors, such as the level of difficulty of the product, the company’s stage and resources, as well as the industry involved.

If you want to create a successful product, having a clear process in place can help you and your team work faster and more efficiently whether you’re starting from scratch or making improvements. This process can increase your chances of success.

Who is involved in the new product development process?

Developing a new product is a collaborative effort that involves individuals from various departments within the company. During the idea generation phase, cross-functional teams work together to create the initial product concept .

Many industries rely on cross-functional teams to develop new products. These teams consist of members with different skills such as design engineering, coding, testing, product management, sales, and finance, among others. The team is led by a team leader or scrum master and stays together throughout the development cycle.

What are Some of the New Product Development Ideas?

Some of the ideas for developing a new product include-

• Survey customers to gain an understanding of their problems, needs, and value proposition
• Identify new trends in the industry that can be addressed with a product
• Research existing products to determine what can be improved or modified
• Identify internal issues that are within your control to solve
• Identify any issues or challenges that customers may encounter with a product currently serving the same market as ours

Liked this post? Check out the complete series on Product Management

Related posts:

• What is Product Life Cycle? Definition, Stages & Examples
• Concept Development – Definition, Meaning and 6 Stages
• What is a product – Product definition – Define a product
• What is Product Development Process? Definition, Examples & Steps
• How to improve product quality? A guide for Business managers
• Media Buying – Definition, Importance, Stages and Tips
• Brand Journey: Definition, Stages and Tips
• Marginal Product: Definition and Examples of Marginal Product Explained
• What is Product Development? Definition, Meaning, Phases
• Brand Development – Meaning, Steps and Tips

About Hitesh Bhasin

Hitesh Bhasin is the CEO of Marketing91 and has over a decade of experience in the marketing field. He is an accomplished author of thousands of insightful articles, including in-depth analyses of brands and companies. Holding an MBA in Marketing, Hitesh manages several offline ventures, where he applies all the concepts of Marketing that he writes about.

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i really liked the “to the point” nature of this article, i was wondering if you could summise in a short paragraph, what the purpose of new product development is?

Thank you for the appreciation :) I have made the modification requested (Though it has come a bit late)

Much had been learned thanks for your contribution

how to get idea about new product to develope

excellent article..

More thanks cause u have taught me exactly what i was searching for……

Your thought is superrrr…

Very comprehensive

Leave your forum as an archive if it brings organic traffic but turn off signups. You can avoid 404 errrors

If you want to delete discourse, try importing it into bbpress/ wpforo or as comments under your articles. You can pay for it to be imported into bbpress/ wpforo if you think the content is good and might have keywords.

Import all forum members as subscribers to your blog.

Or you can manually convert each forum thread as an article and add it to a q&a category.

Content is content – Dont waste it.

Thanks for the kind feedback. I will look into the same.

so much thank you

Thanks though this notes it become more easier to understand and it is superrrr

I have an innovative car product idea that will eliminate water damage during flooding

Great information sir

Sir plz write about role of product

where is the business analysis stage? Sure an accounting point of view must be done before product development.

You information is very helpful to me.

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7 stages of the product development process (flowchart example)

So, maybe you’re a budding entrepreneur, looking to create a product for the first time. Or perhaps your business struggles with launching new products because of disorganization. Whatever your situation is, everyone can benefit from using the new product development process.

What is the new product development process?

The new product development (NPD) process is a 7 stage practice to help you create a product, from idea into reality. In the software world, one can turn an idea into workable software, as either a stand-alone product, or an addition to already existing software. For each step there are certain methods or practices that will help you get the results you want.

Make your own flowchart with Gleek .

The 7 stages of new product development

Stage 1 – idea generation.

During this brainstorming stage, the goal is to get as many viable ideas as possible. How do you make the most out of your idea generation sessions? Consider these two sources for potential ideas.

Internal sources – These ideas come from within the company, through employees and their ideas or feedback.

External sources – The other place to look for new ideas is outside the company, in the form of competitors, or other entities associated with the business, such as suppliers or distributors. By far, the most valuable source of ideas is from the customers themselves.

Stage 2 – Idea screening

After you’ve come up with dozens of ideas and thrown out the ones that don’t fit, it’s time to screen the ideas, to further eliminate concepts that won’t work. Here are some common ways to know whether an idea can become a viable product.

Customer interviews – By asking the customer what problems they have with an existing product, or what they need, you gain valuable insight into the market.

Product analysis – What’s missing from the current product or software?

Competitor analysis – Is this concept already on the market? If so, how can you make it different or better?

Prioritization – Some consumer needs or problems are less important than others. Does this idea solve an urgent issue, or is it something not many people are concerned with?

Stage 3 – Concept development and testing

During this stage, several different concepts for the product must be made, with the customer in mind. The point of creating multiple concepts is to present the product to the customer in a way that will make them want to use or buy it. Two types of research are needed in order to create the best possible concepts.

Market research – The state of the economy and the target audience are important when considering the launch of a new product.

Consumer research – This type of research is to gauge how the consumer will react when presented with the product. It can be in the form of a survey, focus group, or through customer feedback.

Then comes the concept testing. Here are some ways to get feedback on your new concepts.

Focus groups – a group of people, usually more than 30 but fewer than 100, are left alone to discuss the concept and provide feedback.

Monadic testing – Like a focus group, the test subjects are left to discuss things on their own. However, each focus group receives a slightly different concept to look at.

Surveys – Asking the public questions that pertain to the concept, to gauge their feelings about it.

Comparison testing – Comparing your concept to products that already exist in a ranking system with parameters your company sets.

Concept testing and development is not a one time thing. You will likely have to make changes more than once before you get a concept that is compatible for production.

Stage 4 – Market strategy development

When information about concept testing is gathered and analyzed, the next step is to make a marketing strategy. This stage is split into three parts.

Target market, product positioning

The outcome of this part of the strategy development is to identify the target market, decide how to advertise it, and where to distribute it.

Price, budget, and distribution

The price of the product, marketing budget, and plans for distribution in the first year are set.

Long term analysis

Expectations for beyond the first year, such as profits, sales goals, and more.

Stage 5 – Product development

Finally, it’s time to create a product for demonstration purposes. This is what you will show to investors, stakeholders, and any other relevant parties. There are a few things you need to have before this stage is complete.

Minimum viable product – This is your product or software in its simplest, yet fully functioning form.

Finalize features – All of the features of the final product must be decided on.

Manufacturing cost – The cost of making or developing each unit must be calculated.

Stage 6 – Test marketing

When there is a working product that has passed all functionality tests, then it’s time to see what the customer thinks. There are a few ways to gather this information.

In house use testing – by giving people who would actually be using the product access to it, they can test it in real time and provide feedback. These potential testers can be within the company, or outside of it.

Alpha testing – Similar to in house use testing, the product is put through its paces by the development team and other employees.

Beta testing – To further work out bugs and gain feedback, testing is opened to people outside the company. Especially with games or new software, there will be plenty of volunteers willing to try out the product.

Stage 7 – Launch and commercialization

The final step is launching and commercialization. Issues such as sale price, distribution, manufacturing, and advertising are all included in the launch and commercialization. While techniques for launch vary between industries, here are some tips and techniques that can make a launch successful.

Marketing campaigns – Develop a direct marketing plan as well as an advertising strategy several weeks or months before the product launch to get the public excited and informed.

Creativity – Creativity is an important part of the launch process. The more creative your marketing and branding, the better the launch will be. Utilizing social media is a cost effective way to reach much more of your target audience.

Customer support – When a new product is available, it’s likely that there will be some issues. Having a robust customer support network helps give your company a good reputation, even if there are some bugs.

We visualized 7 stages of the product development process flowchart via Gleek:

Product development flowchart

The new product development process is a tried and true method that will make innovation and creation go smoothly, and boosts your chances of success on the market. With all business comes the need for charts and diagrams. Gleek is a text-based diagramming tool used by software developers and other business professionals to quickly create easy-to-read diagrams. Get started for free here . Looking for more flowchart examples? You can find them in the 20 editable flowchart templates blog post.

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New product survey question examples for important insights

Creating a successful new product depends on crucial market insights. Check out these new product survey questions to get your product off the ground.

What is a new product survey? 

New product survey question examples, what information do you need to develop a successful product , survey question examples for new products , measure customer satisfaction for your target audience.

Welcome to your practical guide to what questions to ask in a new product survey, with examples, whether your audience is local or you’re planning on sending an international survey .

Want to gain a valuable perspective on the future direction of your new products? We’ve touched on market research for new product development before, but this article will delve into how your customers can give you feedback that will inform your new product decisions. As well as our product survey template questions to guide your next survey; with our explainer and sample questions, your survey will empower you to gain beneficial insights from clients.

The basic definition of a new product survey is a method of gauging your client’s potential needs and satisfaction with current products. With this article, we want you to take away questions for use in your surveys or questionnaires with this and our other survey templates. 

By engaging with your target audience of existing customers, you also open yourself up to a world of relevant information on important features that they can incorporate into your product or service. Respondents are given a chance to say exactly what they value in your product, and you have an excellent opportunity to collect data with the satisfaction survey.

• How often do you use this product? 
• How simple is it to use this product?
• Which of these products have you purchased in the last 12 months?
• Which brands would you consider next time you purchase this product?
• How important is each of this product’s features to you? Please rank the following features from most to least important.
• What feature(s), if any, do you feel are missing from this product?
• How would you improve this product?
• At what price would you consider this product to be [too cheap/good value for money/starting to get expensive/too expensive]?
• How likely or unlikely would you be to recommend our product to people you know?
• What issues do you solve through the use of this product?
• What do you like most about the product?
• What do you like least about the product?
• How would you use this product?

Need more inspiration? We’ve listed the 9 best concept testing examples that have already worked for real brands.

When gathering together the questions for your study, your first thought should be: what am I trying to achieve? One main aim to consider is using the feedback to gain insights to create future products. Other outcomes could include acquiring new customers, retaining current users and changing perceptions of your brand. By having a clear goal, you’ll know what exact questions to employ in your own survey.

Learn the steps for NPD success

Make your new product your best yet with our step-by-step guide to product development, from idea to commercial launch.

1: How often do you use this product? 

How often products are being used is an essential survey question. If you find your product is being rarely used, see if there are additional features or a different price point you could consider as a result of feedback later in the survey. You’ll then be able to follow up on this survey information for new future products. Frequency of use can also dictate aspects like messaging, pricing and naming, among other uses.

2: How simple is it to use this product? 

Gaining an understanding of the customer experience is an excellent use of collecting feedback. Understanding if the user can use the product with ease or difficulty lets you see whether you need to simplify things. The answers could also help you understand whether clients would need more onboarding or video tutorials, for example, to aid them in using the product.

3: Which of these products have you purchased in the last 12 months?

Survey questions like this allow your research to determine how long people have engaged with your products. This response will then let you cross-reference their satisfaction with their length of ownership.

Having information like this in your survey can determine if your product is built to last or just has short-term satisfaction for customers.

4: Which brands would you consider next time you purchase this product ?

By asking your customers this question, you gather feedback that will be a valuable tool for market research , easily indicating how you measure up against your competition. Customers don’t spend time calculating which brand is the best by calculating market size – they focus on the quality of your product . By seeing how people rate your service versus others, you gauge how close your survey taker is to switching to another brand.

5: How important is each of this product’s features to you? Please rank the following features from most to least important.

By assessing what features are most valued, you gain data on prioritizing your future product features. Of all the survey questions involving features, this is the one that will demonstrate which feature of your product really is valued. The answer may even surprise you!

6: What feature(s), if any, do you feel are missing from this product?

Following up with a question on features you may have overlooked is integral for product research because your target market has the most valuable knowledge about the product. So instead of plowing through with a product, see what potential features your customers can alert you to first.

7: How would you improve this product?

By assessing ways to improve your product in the eyes of current and potential customers, you’ll be on the path to more revenue. Using open text for these questions allows the client to add their thoughts to the survey. This question differs from the previous one because it offers a more personalized look at product use.

8: At what price would you consider this product to be [too cheap/good value for money/starting to get expensive/too expensive]?

This survey question helps measure the satisfaction of the customer and the relationship of price and value for them. If you’re offering a product that creates value for your customers but is too expensive, this may be time for a rethink.

However, suppose this survey lets you know that your product is very affordable in the eyes of your customers. In that case, this will create room for your company to expand those desired features into a more premium product that justifies a higher price.

One potential add-on could be asking customer demographic survey questions to analyze the income of your survey takers and find out whether they can afford your company’s products.

9: How likely or unlikely would you be to recommend our product to people you know ?

Use of a Net Promoter Score (NPS) question type would be perfect here, giving you a rating for how customers see your product. If you get a high score, then your customers are excellent advocates.

However, if you have a negative score, don’t worry; that’s still useful feedback as well. Net Promoter Score differs from Likert scale questions because they work best in a ‘would you recommend’ format, compared to the Likert scale, which applies more to satisfaction, loyalty, service performance and more.

Gaining knowledge like this is invaluable on your journey to creating new products. Also, by making changes suggested in the survey, you’ll be able to switch dissatisfied customers back into advocates in no time.

10: What issues do you solve through the use of this product?

Product research survey questions should always include a question that gets to the heart of what issues are solved through the use of the product. Sometimes you may feel like you already have a grasp of it, but then a response could bring a whole new dimension to that problem.

The product survey questions could even help your company develop different ways to market new products and create features that market this new problem that your product solves directly.

11: What do you like most about the product?

In product research terms, this question allows you to gather what your product selling points are. This question can be measured with a free text question type, giving the responder ample opportunity to wax lyrical about what you do best.

12: What do you like least about the product?

Learning about what people like least about your product is never easy. Still, if clients are willing to give you constructive criticism on where they feel you need to improve, this product research will be valuable in creating your next new product.

Depending on your survey goals, you may want to close the question to be more about your overall product and features or open it out to be broader about your brand.

13: How would you use this product?

Rounding off the product survey questions with something that gets to the heart of how customers use the product will give you a clear picture of day-to-day use. With previous questions having looked at frequency and simplicity, this short survey will allow you to have a fully-formed picture to help flesh out your new product research.

Get the guide to new product development

Our expert guide to market research for NPD comes with all the info you need to develop spectacular products your audience will love.

New product surveys are excellent for valuable product research feedback. By doing your own survey, you’ll gain a more nuanced insight into customer perceptions of your product and how it can aid future new products.

For a deeper dive into survey questions, check out our 100 great survey questions and copy testing questions. For a practical template that you can use for your own survey, try our concept testing survey template . Not sure what to write in your survey? We’ve listed the best concept testing survey questions here .

And if you’ve already created your amazing new product, next up is to figure out how to market it—check our rundown on how to market a new product .

Elliot Barnard

Customer Research Lead 

Elliot joined Attest in 2019 and has dedicated his career to working with brands carrying out market research. At Attest Elliot takes a leading role in the Customer Research Team, to support customers as they uncover insights and new areas for growth.

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Top 10 New Product Research Templates with Samples and Examples

Geetanjali Chauhan

In a competitive market, ensuring that your new product makes a mark is critical? How to do this, however, is an operational matter of great planning and flawless execution. 

Think of this: Of all the new products, 95% fail to make it past the first year. This makes market research not only useful but also vital. From New Product Research to Market Research Proposals, our templates handle all aspects. 

Our slides help you through the crucial stages of pre-launch market research.  Be it product market fit, running surveys, or evaluating new product markets, we address all issues. Every template is designed for a particular facet of research for the creation of new products. Even better, each template is 100% editable and adaptable, so you may change them exactly to meet your particular needs. Ready to present your offering and the launch it merits?

Want to understand your market? Check out our Product Market Research Templates —perfect for diving deep with handy PPT samples and examples!

Template 1: Comprehensive Market Segmentation Slide for Strategic Analysis

Explore the subtleties of market segmentation with this presentation, aimed to boost your strategic marketing initiatives. Whether your project calls for market research surveys, preparing for a new product market analysis, or product market mapping, this presentation is your go-to tool. Four basic characteristics of market segmentation are defined by geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral categories. Every category is thoroughly detailed with traits including age, lifestyle, brand loyalty, and more. This slide is perfect for pre-launch market research or new product development. It organizes and explains your target audience so you may treat them correctly. Customize your marketing strategies dependent on reliable, segmented data to ensure that your new product introductions significantly affect the market.

Download this template

Template 2: Fundamental Analysis of Market for Strategic Planning

This educational presentation will teach you about market segmentation and how it could support your strategic marketing projects. Anyone engaged in product market mapping, planning for a new product market analysis, or market research survey would find great value in this presentation. It breaks out market segmentation into four main categories: Geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. Every category—including age, lifestyle, brand loyalty, and more—is methodically developed. Define and classify your target audience with this slide. This also makes it perfect for pre-launch market research or new product development studies. Customize your marketing initiatives to particular, segregated data to guarantee the effective introduction of your new product.

Template 3: Strategic Framework for Competitive Market Positioning

This slide offers a strategic framework for understanding strategies. It separates two primary competitive advantages—lower cost and differentiation—into both wide and narrow target strategies. For companies emphasizing cost leadership, the slide covers the Focused Low-Cost Strategy and the Overall Low-Cost Provider Strategy, enabling them to target particular market niches with cost advantages or dominate the industry by lowering costs. Regarding differentiation, it offers a Focused Differentiation Strategy and a Broad Differentiation Strategy, perfect for companies trying to stand out by providing qualities for both a niche market and a general audience. Businesses developing fresh product market analysis, a thorough market research proposal, or product market mapping will find great use for this slide.

Template 4: New Product Market Research Survey Template

Using our New Product Market Research Survey Template helps you learn about your consumers unlike anything else. Essential insights on consumer preferences and expectations for new products are gathered on this slide, which is meant to be a main instrument for your pre-launch market research projects. The template comprises a structured survey, asking participants about their preferences for branded goods, expectations of product features, and their relative impressions of your product against rivals. It also looks at consumer priorities between quality and volume, therefore guiding your development plans and product market mapping. This input is priceless in helping satisfy market needs. Perfect for companies doing new product research and development, this survey form guarantees that your new product exactly meets customer expectations.

Template 5: Overview of New Product Market Research Survey Results

Use this comprehensive presentation showing the results of our new product market research survey to get insights from our most recent market research studies. This PowerPoint clearly shows consumer preferences and important information that could direct your marketing plans and product development. It addresses consumer tastes in branding, expected characteristics, and quality over quantity inclinations. It also looks at consumer knowledge of related products online and compares our offering to rivals. Every chart presents a percentage split, illustrating consumer opinions — qualities vital for pre-launch market research and new product development. Anyone looking for specific data to improve product offers and enhance market positioning will find great value.

Need to make your next marketing move? Explore our Top 10 Marketing Research Report Samples —grab these templates and examples to start crafting smart strategies.

Template 6: Insightful Outcomes from New Product Market Research

This PowerPoint Template showcases findings of a new product market research study to help you sense consumer attitudes. This PPT documents how customers answered significant questions on brand loyalty, general satisfaction, online buying preferences, and product usability. Find out if customers would promote the product to friends, their inclination for online buying, how easy they find the product to use, and their degree of satisfaction. The slide also looks at brand product preferences among consumers. This fundamental method of market research helps to grasp consumer preferences and modify plans in line with them. New product research, pre-launch market research, and developing new product market analysis techniques all find a perfect fit on this slide.

Template 7: Essentials of Market Segmentation

With this thorough market segmentation slide that groups your possible clients into geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral categories, master successful marketing. The PPT carefully describes geographic features including location and climate, demographic factors like age and income, psychographic traits including lifestyle and beliefs, and behavioral elements including brand loyalty and purchasing readiness. Businesses working on a thorough market research proposal, getting ready for pre-launch market research, or doing new product research depend on this presentation. Anyone trying to grasp and influence their target market will find it essential. 

Template 8: Navigating Competitive Landscapes with Strategic Insight

Your strategy roadmap for negotiating competition is drawn out in the PPT Layout. Emphasizing themes, such as Competitor's Market Perception, Innovation in R&D, Competitor Detection, Competitor's Profile, Value Proposition, and Financial Review, it breaks down crucial elements required for a thorough competitive study. This template helps with market mapping, new product research, and strong market research proposal development. Examining their marketing techniques, product development, and financial situation will help you grasp plans and market positions of your rivals. This slide clarifies your competitors' positions and what distinguishes and valuable your offers are. This slide offers the skills to create a thorough, strategic response to the competitive dynamics of your sector. All aspects, whether new product development, or  pre-launch market research, or any specific issue you face can be addressed.

Template 9: Effective Communication in Market Research Proposal

Emphasizing giving in-depth market insights for a new product, this presentation showcases the cover letter for a market research proposal. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, it answers a potential client for the opportunity to suggest a study on accommodation preferences and brand perceptions of non-business tourists in the United States. The slide is interactive, allowing the plan to be improved depending on comments. Anyone who has to provide a thorough market research proposal must have this form.

Looking for a research breakthrough? Peek into our Top 10 Research Program Templates —find the samples and examples you need!

Template 10: Market Research Methodologies Slide

This slide presents a quick but thorough summary fit for any market research proposal by dissecting many approaches applied to market research. Along with the projected times for each and important data stressing their relevance and use, it distinguishes the approaches into quantitative and qualitative forms. For instance, polls taken over two weeks are hailed for their efficiency in gauging opinions among large populations. Conversely, interviews—which take roughly one week to do—are noted for their part in exploratory research. For strategists and researchers working on New Product Research and Development, this template is an essential tool for compiling relevant data.

Effective Market Research for New Product Launch

Following the path to a successful new product launch needs the correct tools. Our excellent market research templates offer the required information to guarantee your product makes a splash rather than a flop. From determining market demands using thorough surveys to honing your competitive strategies, these models cover excellent and comprehensive ground in pre-launch market research. Analyze competitive environments, grasp consumer preferences, and create market-winning plans using our disciplined systems. Our flexible templates let you customize every element to match your market requirements, therefore transforming every insight you acquire into something you can use. Remember that the degree of your market knowledge will define the height of success of your product as you get closer to its introduction.

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• 99% of the Pitches Fail! Find Out What Makes Any Startup a Success

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