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.

Brainstorming: group discussion to generate ideas or solve problems.

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 (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) 

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 on the market. In this way, you can assess your customers acceptance and willingness to buy and thus make critical decisions before launch.

This step can be done in four main methods: 

• Comparison tests : 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, there is a flaw in this phase. There is no way to know why respondents choose one concept over another. It is essential to understand these details before launching a successful product.

•  Monadic test: 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. 
  Because each group of respondents sees only one concept, it is possible to go into depth without lengthening the survey. Interviewers can ask follow-up questions about different attributes of a concept: price, usability, etc. Even if each group of respondents sees different concepts in isolation, the follow-up questions for each concept will be the same.

Because of the length of time, monadic test surveys give researchers the opportunity to ask multiple 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 to conduct a monadic test (in order to be effective) 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. This is the main flaw of this step.

• Monadic sequential test: Like monadic testing, in sequential monadic testing, the target audience is divided into several groups. However, in this stage each group is presented with all concepts. The order in which the concepts are presented is randomized to avoid bias. Respondents are asked to answer the same set of follow-up questions for each of the concepts to obtain additional information.Because each group of respondents sees all concepts, the size of the target audience needed to conduct a sequential monadic test is relatively small. Multiple concepts can be tested in a single round. This makes sequential monadic testing more cost-effective and easier to conduct. This method of concept testing is ideal for research with budget constraints or when only a small target audience is available. However, since all concepts are presented to each group of respondents, the length of the questionnaire is quite large. This affects the completion rate and can lead to non-response bias. Researchers can reduce the length of the questionnaire by limiting the number of questions. However, this affects the depth of information collected. Sequential monadic tests are also subject to other biases, such as interaction bias or order bias.

• Proto-monadic test: A protomonadic test includes a sequential monadic test followed by a comparison test. Here, respondents first evaluate several constructs and are then asked to select the construct they prefer. This design is useful for validating the results of the monadic sequential test. Researchers can check whether the construct selected in the comparison test is consistent with the information collected on each construct.

However, during the concept testing ( no matter the method used)  it is important that the instruments (questionnaires) used to test the product are themselves of high quality. Otherwise, the results of the collected surveys can be biased by measurement errors. This makes the design of the test procedure more complex. Empirical testing provides an idea of the quality of the questionnaire. This can be done by:

By conducting cognitive interviews, meanin, asking a portion of potential consumers about their interpretation of the questions and use of the questionnaire, a researcher can also test the viability of the cognitive interview.

By conducting a small pre-test of the questionnaire, using a small subset of target respondents. The results can inform the researcher of errors such as missing questions or errors in logic and procedure.

Finally, we can also predict the measurement quality of the question. This is done with the Survey Quality Predictor (SQP) software.

Complementary steps :

• Identifying market need : Identify a problem that needs solving : conversations with potential customers, surveys, and other research activites 
• Quantifying the opportunity/ Idea Screening : Determining the amount of people and companies this product can be beneficial to and if they are willing to pay for it
  
• Building a roadmap: Identifying which themes and goals are central to develop first to solve the most significant pain points 
• Evaluation: Research to monitor the progress of new service offering in relation to organizational goals.

Identifying market need 

A product solves problems. So the first step in a product developement is to identify a problem that needs solving to offer a way (or a better way) to solve it.  

• Understand the goals on consumers 

One way to start identifying underserved needs is by examining the market through the lens of the jobs that needs to be done. Which means, by not focusing on what the people want but instead the goal they acheive by consuming a certain product. In other words, the goal here is not to dwell on what the users need but instead, focus on why do they need it. ( HOW TO IDENTIFY AN UNDERSERVED NEED IN THE MARKET )

• Be introspective 

When determining the needs of the market you can start by yourself and observing your daily routine: determining your daily tasks and listing all the tools that could be helpful to ease some of your tasks or by taking note of the defaults and inconvineinces in an existing product.

• Interviews 

Conducting interviews is another important step in the stage. Indeed, by interveiwing other people you can affirm or deny any hypotheses you came up with during your introspection. To do so you can either (if you already have a settle idea on who you want to introduce your product to) focus your interviews on a target demographic or you can interview a wider and more diverse range of people to ensure you hear a variety of perspectives and ideas.  

You can ask questions on their needs, or on the reason do they use a certain product and if these products fufill all of their neeeds and so on. 

• Identify and examine competitors 

After interviewing people, selecting an idea that seems profitable and have discovered you're goal. It's time to see if there isn't a company already fufilling this need.Therefore you should research businesses that are currently offering solutions to the job you’ve identified and also list those that can be hired to do the job that aren’t a one-to-one match to your product (those that can be used as subsitute to satisfy the consumers needs). 

Then make a list of the strenghts and weaknesses of each competitor again focusing on how well they satisfy the need of the users. This step may involve more market research, including interviewing people who have purchased rival products or services.

By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors you can find the gap they collectively leave. This is how you know the market need is currently underserved and leaves the door open for your new product to solve it. ( HOW TO IDENTIFY AN UNDERSERVED NEED IN THE MARKET )

• Be observant and attentive 

Finally you must stay observant of the market progression, as technologies shift and new jobs to be done arise, so you can continue to serve customer needs.