People who that spark of imagination for a new product do not always know how to develop their ideas. After a little research, however, they realise they must find a product development company to start making their inventions marketable, and of course – profitable. This article looks at the various processes these firms go through in order to bring ideas to life.
The first stage is of course idea generation. In many cases, the initial idea comes from someone who does not necessarily have a background in product development. In other cases, teams within companies are kept on the payroll in order to come up with new product lines or invention. In both cases, they are likely to go to a product development company to help them. In many ways the idea is the most important part of the process.
The next stage implemented by the product development company involves sounding the idea out in appropriate ways, so that lots of cash is not wasted in terms of developing an idea that will now ‘fly’ and will not ultimately solve a problem in a manner that is likely to generate a profit. Many people will recall the BBC television show Dragon’s Den, in which people come to long established entrepreneurs to see if they like their concepts enough to invest their own money into it. While this is quite a terrifying way to have one’s idea ‘sounded out’, there are other ways such as market research and seeing if it is technically feasible to make the product for a small enough sum to turn a profit.
Concept development and testing is the next stage, which as it sounds, involves testing the product of prospective customers, in order to gain a genuine reaction to the product – tom see if it is regarded as popular or is likely to solve a particular problem – in the eyes of those testing the product. Again, the product development company will be well positioned to organise this part of the process. Even at this late stage, a new product might be deemed too risky or costly to go ahead with, and be scrapped.
After this, it is likely that everyone involved will think that the idea has real potential, and the next stages will be entered into. Business analysis, Beta testing and Market Testing, Technical Implementation and finally commercialisation are all crucial stages that are, again, organised by the product development company in question.
With luck, the hard work of the inventors and the people in the product development company will pay off, both in terms of satisfaction – and hard cash!