Product development

Product development is a process allowing to materialize concepts, to concretize objects, goods, equipements, or to create services, technique different from those already existing, and which propose answers to satisfy collective or paticular needs in order to bring benefits to users. In other words, product development is a process bringing a product  from concept through market release, with the aim of offering answers to collective or particular needs. (New product development) and (What is Product Development?)

This process is composed of various stages. Although it is not always, the same steps for every organazation, there are common stages throught which products typically progress: 

Product development diagram

• Idea Generation: Collective brainstorming ideas through internal and external sources.
• Screening: Condense the number of brainstormed ideas.
• Concept Testing: Structure an idea into a detailed concept 
• Business Analysis: Understand the cost and profits of the new product and determining if they meet company objectives.
• Developing MVP (minimum viable product): Developing a sample of the product. This initial version of the product needs just enough  functionality to be used by customers
• Market testing/release MVP to users : The product is tested to a trial run, this will allow to get feedback, complaints and suggestions but also bring interest to potential customers. 
• Commercialization: Introducing the product to the public

(New product development) and (What is Product Development?)

Idea Generation (What is idea generation ?)

Idea generation is described as the process of creating, developing and communicating abstract, concrete or visual ideas. It is the initial part of the product development process, which focuses on finding possible solutions to perceived or real problems and opportunities.

There are several methods to do this step, we can mention the following : 

• Idea challenge: A form of focused innovation where you raise a problem or an opportunity in the hope of finding creative solutions. The goal of the Idea Challenge is to participate in ideation and generate ideas around a predefined theme during a limited time period. It allows you to formulate a specific question and address it to a specific audience in order to receive new ideas and unique points of view. Idea challenge is the best technique when you need to generate a lot of new ideas. It may not be the most effective way to generate ideas if you only involve a few experts in your ideation process, as it has proven to be more useful for engaging large audiences. However, it is important to keep in mind that while the Idea Challenge allows you to gather many ideas quickly, careful planning takes time and may not be worth the effort if you do not have the resources to execute it properly. In addition, proper timing is necessary for the challenge to be successful.

• Analogical thinking: A technique of using information from one source to solve a problem in another context. Often, a solution to one problem or opportunity can be used to solve another problem. For example, analogical thinking can be used to analyze a successful business, identify what makes it great, and then apply those same principles to your business. It's an effortless way to come up with new ideas that are pre-validated. The above techniques are some of our favorites for generating ideas, but they are certainly not the only ones out there. It is by testing different options that you will find the ones that work for you.

 Screening 

Idea selection is the step in the product development process that follows idea (or concept) generation.It involves the use of checklists or personal judgments and is based on information from experience and market research. Considerations include strengths and weaknesses, the company's mission, market trends, and the product's potential return on investment. The screening also uses judgments that predict the organization's ability to manufacture the item and its ability to market it successfully. The purpose of this step is to sort through all of the initial ideas to select those that will provide guidelines to guide the technical staff in their concept development efforts.

Concept testing 

Concept testing is defined as a research method that consists of using surveys (and sometimes qualitative methods) to assess consumer acceptance of your product or service concepts and ideas before you actually launch them. In this way, you can assess your customers' acceptance and willingness to buy and thus make critical decisions before launch.

There are four primary methods of concept testing:

1. Comparison testing:
   In comparison tests, two or more concepts are presented to respondents. Respondents compare these concepts by using rating or ranking questions or by simply asking to select the best concept presented.
   
   
   Comparison tests provide clear and easily understood results. It is easy to determine which concept is the winner. However, this method has a flaw. The results lack context. There is no way to know why respondents choose one concept over others. 
2. Monadic testing:
   In a monadic test, the target audience is divided into several groups. Each group is presented with a single concept. These tests focus on the in-depth analysis of a single concept. A monadic test survey is usually short and very focused. 
   
   
   Because each group of respondents sees only one construct, it is possible to go into depth without lengthening the survey. Researchers can ask follow-up questions about different attributes of a concept: its price, what they liked about the concept, its look and feel, etc. Even if each group of respondents sees different concepts in isolation, the follow-up questions for each concept will be the same.
   
   
   Monadic test surveys are short and thus give researchers the opportunity to ask several follow-up questions. Thus, the results provide more context as to why one specific construct is better than the others. However, because the target audience is divided into several groups, the sample size needed (for this method to be effective) to conduct a monadic test is large. Since multiple concepts need to be tested, the sample size is larger. Increasing the sample size significantly increases the cost of the research.
3. Sequential monadic testing: 
4. Proto-monadic testing: