Product Development Stages: The Ultimate Guide to Product Development

What is product development?

Product development is when an organization introduces a new product on the market or improves the existing product. This happens in different phases, and the success of the product development depends on many factors, such as the product type, target audience, competition, market dynamics, and marketing strategies.

Product development stages

There are crucial steps you should follow when running a product development project. Each product is unique on its own. So, you will need to be creative when managing your project. Below are the product development stages.

Determine what you want to do

First, you need to know what you want. Either you want to improve an existing product or introduce a new one. This will help you create an effective plan to guide you in managing the project.

Get quality information from reputable sources online, journals, competitors, employees, and suppliers. You want to generate quality information that will help you run your lean product development effectively.

Screen your new ideas

Once you gather information from different sources, you need to analyze each element and determine whether it is worth moving forward. Filter out the acquired data and only pick the essential items. You do not want to stuff your project with unnecessary ideas that add no value.

At the end of the analysis, look for viable points that add value to the end-user. This will enable you to go through effective product development phases and achieve your goals.

Research intensively

During this phase, you want to know whether your product will add value to the end-user or not. This is the time to validate your product ideas and make informed decisions.

Acquire information from family, friends, and colleagues about the new product. You should also reach out to your target audience either online or offline through surveys. Ask for feedback about your upcoming project. Use the acquired information to analyze the product's strengths, weaknesses, and threats.

Develop your content

At this point, you should assess the product theory, costs involved, manufacturing, packaging, and supply. This will help you project your revenues and determine whether the project will give you returns. Use the SWOT analysis obtained from your research to create a marketing strategy to drive your project.

Create a plan

A project needs a concrete plan as a guide for implementing and managing the project. Sketch your plan on a piece of paper, showing how your project will run. Make the plan precise and label each item for clarity purposes. Explain all items, features, and functions of the project to your team members.

Prototyping and evaluation

This stage plays a crucial role in determining the success of your project. Prototyping eliminates miscommunications and misunderstandings among the team members assigned to manage the project. Detect any errors in your product and correct them before the launch.

Product development

During product development, you will design, manufacture the product and test it before the launch. The results you get after testing will help you determine the project outcome. You will know whether to go for large-scale production or begin small.

Determine the cost

After identifying your target audience, market dynamics, strengths, weaknesses, and threats, you can now use this information to determine what your products will cost. Be careful when setting the figure because it can either make or break your product development efforts.

Launch the product

Now, you're confident that your product is worth going on the market. You want your audience to know about it. Launch a campaign using effective strategies visible to your target audience. Use the market research data to reach out to your audience based on the demographics.

The bottom line

Following the product development steps above will help you implement and manage your project well. You can also invest in product development software for effective budgeting, deliver business value, quality products, team efficiency, and minimized risks.