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:
- 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 ?)
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.
- 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.
- Brainstorming: group discussion to generate ideas or solve problems.
Screening (Screening)
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.
- 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.