How To Create An Effective Product Development Plan? | Blog
New products are the crux of businesses. With new products, companies can better satisfy the requirements and expectations of customers, increase their distribution, stay relevant, and have the edge over their competition. However, without a proper product development plan, it is very easy to have a product failure. It is estimated that 70-80% of products that enter the market are product failures. A solid product development strategy can minimize the risks and increase the odds of success of a product.



If you are looking for information about product development and its process, this article is for you. Let's take a deep dive and learn about product development.



What Is Product Development?


Product development refers to the complete process of releasing a product into the market. It is the product's journey from a concept or idea to a market release. The steps involved in product development are conceptualization, design, development, and marketing. Product development is done by companies with the goal of meeting consumer demands and ultimately increasing and sustaining improved market shares.



Before the process of product development starts, it is important to define your target market. Quantitative market research is a necessity for product development.



Why Is Product Development Important?


Product development has numerous benefits, such as-



Product development strategies are important for enterprises because they provide value to the customers.
Product development ensures that you put the best quality product on the market.
They also maintain demand in the market for your product, increasing the sustainability of the company by offering new value to customers.
If the product is useful to the customers, they demand better innovations from the enterprise. Hence, better and better products keep entering the market.
New product development is also beneficial to society at large because it generates new resources and new streams of income. It creates growth for the world at large by developing new technologies.



Product Development Process And Steps


The steps involved in product development take a product from its concept to market release. It breaks down the task and simplifies product development. The process also helps in cross-organization collaboration by encouraging teamwork and communication.



The major steps that are followed during the product development process are as follows:



Step 1: Ideation and concept


Defining an initial concept for the product by systematically searching for new product ideas and concepts is the first step. A handful of good ideas is selected from the hundreds of ideas generated by the business. Ideas or concepts can come from various sources, such as a discovered statistical occurrence, discussions with a development team, or a piece of information available in the market. The idea or concept will have to be described on a document for approval and presentation.



Step 2: Product research and validation


Before the product is taken into production, you must validate it. Research and validation about the product ensures that the people will buy/invest in your product, and you won't be wasting your time and resources by developing this product. A few ways of getting product validation and research are:

A crowdfunding campaign
Online surveys for feedback
Online demand research
Feedback on online forums such as Quora or Reddit.


Step 3: Business plan


A business plan consists of all economic elements involved in developing and marketing the product. These economic parameters are extremely significant for a product launch. With a business plan, you can analyze your investments during the product development and, as a result, establish the course of the sales and related post-launch costs.



Step 4: Prototype


In this step, your product starts to take form. The prototype is a preliminary product that is created to test the product design, verify usage hypotheses, utilize it for marketing purposes, and show investors. A prototype can be in a physical or digital form.



Step 5: Testing


In this step of the product development process, you test the prototype with potential customers. Here, you can either test the product with your existing customers or through formal-informal focus groups. During the testing, you should seek the answer to questions like what is their like or dislike about the product, what can be improved in the product, and if the price point of your product is competitive?



Step 6: Costing


The next step is to develop a product cost plan. In this stage, you have to evaluate your manufacturing costs, raw materials, shipping costs, and factory set-up costs. The data collected so far will help you in determining your retail price and gross margin.



Step 7: Designing


Now, you enter the design phase of your product. Here, you will need to write the technical specifications for the design of the product. The design specifications might be so that you will need to work with external designers to create and launch your product.



Step 8: Marketing and distribution


One of the hardest steps in the product development process is getting the marketing and sales right for the new product. It is the final task in the product launch phase. For successful marketing and distribution of the product, you will need a solid strategy.



How Can Focaloid Assist You?
To help businesses successfully adapt and thrive in the digital economy, Focaloid Technologies designs digital strategies. Our dedicated design studio is focused on creating a user experience that is simple and intuitive. Our team of experienced architects, engineers, and product managers concentrates on building technology solutions that will help your business scale quickly and cost-effectively.



Focaloid supports services that allow applications and businesses to provide their end-users with uninterrupted service. Our independent testing services validate the security, scalability, and capabilities of your products and platforms.



Conclusion
In this competitive market, a business must constantly adapt to new marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competition. The understanding of product lifecycle and extension strategies results in the growth of your business. Hence, there should be a response by the enterprise to the customers' changing needs. This is why product development is essential for you.