Ideation
The beginning of every product development process is an unmet customer need or an unresolved customer problem. In the ideation phase, an incrementally innovative idea can be generated to improve upon an existing product of the company or the competitors. Or, based on the market study, customer inputs, and your technological abilities, you can come up with completely disruptive product innovation.
Once you have generated sufficient ideas, however, you need to screen the best idea out. This could be done based on the market potential of the idea, alignment with your objective and capabilities, resources and technology available, and financial feasibility of the idea.
Concept Development
After you have selected the idea to develop a product around, you now have to fill it out and turn it into a viable concept. This means determining how the product will function, its underlying technology, which features you will include in the product, who will be your target market, and ultimately how the product will satisfy their needs. Even the pricing aspect of the product can be built into the product concept.
A product concept can be simply drawn on paper or designed with a no-code tool into a presentation or slide deck. This can then be tested with some early innovators and prospective customers to figure out whether the concept appeals to them and they will buy it or not.
Prototyping
The tested product concept then needs to be developed into a functional prototype. This is where the actual hardware and software development takes place if it’s a technical product. For personal care or edible products, the chemical composition and recipe can be iteratively developed to arrive at a fully functioning prototype. Just like the product concept, the prototype can also be tested with closed user groups or the development team itself.
Design and Development
Once a functional prototype is approved and does all that the product was intended to do, the actual product can be designed and made market-ready. This includes figuring out the shape, size, color, branding, and packaging of the product. The final version of the product can look very different from the prototype.
Market Testing
Whether you have the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or the final version of the product, the product will need to be tested with a selective test market before a mass market roll-out. Users who represent the target market demographic and psychographic can be empaneled for in-vitro testing of the product. Or, a limited market launch can be done to check customer reaction to the product.
Findings can then be taken back to the drawing board, and changes must be made to the product before fully commercialization and product launch.