Introduction
Product Development, as HubSpot defines, refers to the process of bringing a new product to the market, encompassing everything from the initial idea to reaching the end user.
Here are the 7 stages of Product Development:
- Idea Generation
- Research
- Planning
- Prototyping
- Testing
- Product Development
- Commercialization
the 7 Stages of Product Development
Idea Generation
The first stage of product development begins with an idea and new products in the market begin with idea generation.
This stage is where you brainstorm ideas or solutions to an existing problem.
In this stage, it’s also important to identify your target market.
Ask yourself questions like, “How many people have this problem (the one your product aims to fix)?
Research
Once you have your idea, the next step is to conduct research to support it. This can be done through Market Research and Competitor Analysis.
Though you’ve already done initial market research in the idea generation stage, it’s best to conduct in-depth market research.
Market Research – use Google to gather information such as historical sales in your niche market, and assess whether it’s growing or declining.
Consider sending out surveys to friends and family about the product you want to develop.
Competitor Analysis is another crucial research component. It’s important to track how many businesses sell a similar product.
Monitor their performance, locations, and logistics.
This doesn’t mean you need to know everything, just gather some initial in-depth information about the market and your competitors.
Planning
The third stage is planning. Here, you formulate different factors such as:
- Materials used
- Pricing
- Fulfillment (how it will be shipped to your warehoue and to your customers)
- Warehousing
- Marketing Strategy
Prototyping
This phase involves creating a sample product.
When developing a product for the market, it’s wise to test it first.
This helps determine the quality of the product you’ve produced.
Testing
This stage is similar to prototyping, but the main difference is that you will have other people test your product.
Share your prototype with others (friends and families) and ask for their feedback on how you could improve your product.
Once you believe your testing was successful and you’ve received positive feedback, you can proceed to the product development stage.
Product Development
This stage involves manufacturing the final product for mass consumption.
Apply the processes you planned during the planning stage.
Commercialization
In the final stage of product development, commercialization, you’ll enact your marketing plans and introduce your product to the market.
Advertise it online, create content about it, and post it on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon.
Although this is the final stage of the product development process, product development doesn’t end here.
You’ll continue to fine-tune some of your product’s features, adding tweaks to solve the customer’s problem more efficiently and provide the best possible customer experience.
Conclusion
When you complete your product development process, you’ll have brought your idea to fruition.
You’ve created a real product that helps solve real-world problems.
If you find success, you’ll have developed a valuable strategy that you can replicate for other problems.
This opens the door to new innovations, offering customers the delightful experiences they seek.
