What are the Important Steps to Develop the Most Ideal Products for the Market?

From the first idea to the final product launch, marketing to its target audience requires a lot of steps.

To turn a product idea into a sellable product, you need to look at the product, the market, and how it will be sold in a systematic way and then create your business plan. This includes technical specifications, product positioning, pricing strategy, service components, and financial characteristics.

Here are the 8 steps that go into making a product:

1- The concept

We start by coming up with the first idea for the product. Most of the time, you won’t be able to pinpoint exactly where the idea for a product came from. It could have come from a “aha!” moment, a conversation with a friend, a piece of information you read, or a statistical event you found.

Let’s say you got the idea while you were in the shower. Your first step will be to write down how you understand the idea. This about everything you want this product idea to provide you if you were the first buyer of this new product idea.

2- Market research and analysis

Next figure out how big this market is and what kind of people want your new product. It’s an important task, and financial partners will always ask for it, but it shouldn’t be what the product is all about. You have to have a future vision of what other new markets it can create and how it will make people’s life easy..

If Henry Ford had done market research before making new products, he would have found that people wanted bigger horses. Instead, he made a vehicle that drove itself, even though there was no clear demand for it at the time.

3- Business Plan

The business side of a product launch is very important. Even though you don’t need a full-fledged business plan for a product, you do need a business plan that covers all the economic factors involved in making and selling the product.

This includes all of the investments made during product development till the product is ready to go on the market along with marketing budget. Figure out the variables for the required sales pipeline and the costs that come with it. The break-even analysis will show you when your product business can start to make money. This can help to improve your product definition.

4- Design and Development

Product development involves creating a new product from concept to commercialization. Brainstorming starts product development. Creativity and strategy can clash without clear organization. The product development process—a six-step framework—helps standardize and clarify your work. The steps are: Ideation, product definition, prototype, initial design, validation and testing and commercialization.

In terms of design, the target audience determines product design criteria. The product must be compact, fast, compatible with the latest versions of common operating systems, and eliminate user pain points.

The second alternative requires client product design requirements (as a rule, they are presented in the form of requirements specification). For the customer to choose the best design, the development business usually submits many wireframes that meet all specifications.

5- Prototype

Every inventor will need a prototype to validate their product invention. In some cases, your prototype will be a digital mock-up of a physical or digital product. When you get to this point, your product starts to really take shape.

A prototype, also called a “beta,” which is a final version of your product that you can use to test your usage hypotheses, show to investors, and market.

There are different types of prototypes for different stages. This includes:

–          3D modeling allows you to create product visuals for sales and marketing

–          Aesthetic product prototype aims for product appearance, size, feel and ergonomics.

–          Packaging prototype is specially for the product you are planning to sell online or in a retail store.

–          Functional prototype is created to test and prove that your product functions well which can also include electronics and software.

–          Electronic prototype aims to make sure all the electronic components can fit inside your product as well as functions the way it should.

–          Electromechanical prototype includes electronics and mechanical functional parts

–          Manufacturing a prototype or a production quality prototype is a cost-effective solution to test and verify your product before investing in mass production. This type of prototype is also used for low volume production needs.

6- Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is not just about getting money: It’s a way to find out what people think of your product before it’s ready to sell. It can be a very valuable experience because it gives your product a real place in the market and lets you talk to your first customers.  At this point, the product isn’t quite done, but through your crowdfunding exercise, you’re already getting better at your sales pitch. This is also a chance to get more money at a time when you have invested the most but still have a long way to go before you can sell on the market.

Through crowdfunding, you can see how real people react to the first version of your product, which will help you figure out how to position it. This would give you cash before the product development cycle is over.

7- Product Production

Your prototype is ready, and it should help you write the technical specifications, along with what you learned from crowdfunding. Depending on what kind of product you’ve made, you may need to hire outside designers to give you the design specs you need for the final product. The more detailed the specs are, the less you’ll be surprised. At this step, you might be subcontracting to an outside company, maybe even in a different country if your product is physical. For the design and production process to go well, project management will be very important.

8- Marketing

One of the hardest parts of this whole process is getting sales and marketing right for a new product. A go-to-market strategy is an extra step in the process of making a product, but a product launch can’t happen without it.

In this step, you’ll decide how you’ll reach your target audience, how much your new product will cost and how it will make money, what it’s conversion funnel will look like, and what sales techniques you’ll use. You will also have to conclude on  how it will get to the end user and the crowd you’re trying to reach. Whether it is through email marketing campaigns or social media marketing ads (Google ads, Instagram ads, Facebook ads etc) or SMS message campaigns. All of the marketing channels and tools can come in handy in making sure your product launch reaches the right people at the right time.

 

 

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