New Product Development

Evaluate Your Idea First

Not every idea you think of is going to be a world shaker. In fact, most of the ideas that you do think of won’t be feasible, due to a lack of funding, available technology, or a lack of simple logistics skills. Not all ideas will fit the scope of operations of your business. Some become distractions that can lead you astray when you become hooked on the idea, investing time and funding that you really can’t afford to invest, while ignoring other areas of business operations that demand your attention and time.

The questions you’ve got to ask yourself are:

• Do I have the cash necessary to fully develop this new product development idea? This includes market research, hiring of subcontractors for machining and design, production, retooling, product testing, promotion, advertising, marketing and product rollout.

• Does this idea fit into my mission statement and is it consistent with my product line? Will this new product development idea fit the market identity you’ve worked hard to establish. For example, if you sell office paper products does it make sense to introduce a computer tech product? Will the new product fit your niche? Or is the idea just a passing fantasy, created by a mind craving stimulation?

• Are there comparable products already on the market? If not, why not? If so, is your product idea better than the competitions? How could you improve your new product development idea to outstrip the competition? Can you capitalize on competitor products by piggybacking on their advertising?

Consider if you have the a staff necessary to produce the product and do you have enough cash reserves to carry you from new product development in the idea stage, to finished product that you can efficiently manufacture, market and deliver?

Test Market The Idea

As a few of your better customer what they think of your new product developments idea and get their feedback concerning its need. They may either dismiss the idea as unworkable or unmarketable, or provide ideas that you haven’t thought of concerning product design, that you can use to further refine the product.

Develop A Prototype

Should all of your evaluation questions be successfully answered, you’re ready to proceed to the next step. Assuming you have all your funding ducks in a row, and all the professional designers, fabricators, machinists and package design experts ready to go, you can pull out the stops. New product development isn’t cheap. What looks good on paper frequently doesn’t translate to your production floor. It will take a lot of time and money to work out the kinks in the idea, and develop a working prototype. Once this is completed, you can again approach your test market customers and ask for their evaluation, making sure you get them to sign non-disclosure forms first. Again your customers will be able to tell you instantly if they like or hate your idea, and offer constructive criticism on what you need to do to improve it and make it more appealing. Take notes and retire back into the production shop to have a talk with your development team. Work out the bugs and when all the various development tasks are completed, you’re good to go for the final step.

New Product Introduction

Introducing your new product development idea is still not completed. Now you’re at the stage where you move from idea fabrication and design to production, marketing and advertising. A marketing campaign will have to be planed, ads written, publicity generated to trade magazines or consumer magazines or both, if your product has crossover appeal. With luck, a whole lot of cash invested and a clever advertising campaign, you might succeed with a successful new product introduction. Hopefully your product will take off and sell, providing you not only with a healthy return on your investment, but adequate profits to help your bottom line. If your new product goes past the break even point, count your blessings, because you now have a product that you can market for years as part of your product line, and bask in reflected glory of target customer perceptions that yours is an innovative up and coming company.