Developing successful new products is a little like playing high stakes poker. The trick is to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. Having a system to reduce your risks is essential. Our approach is based on these principles:
Most new products are new only to the company introducing them.
Concepts are easy to develop. The hard part is identifying good ones.
Every new product must substitute for something now being bought and used.
The main criteria for success: how different is a new product and how important is the need it fills.
Creativity is a mainstay of the process from the start, not to be grafted on later.
Research is most valuable when it helps you decide to do something you ordinarily wouldn’t, or not to do something you otherwise would.
THE
PROCESS
There are five stages in our approach to creating new products
1.
Focus
What do you want to achieve? What are you good at and
what are you perceived to be good at?
2.
Create
Hypotheses based on peoples’ needs, wants, problems,
vulnerabilities of competition and available technologies.
3.
Screen
Evaluate candidate concepts based on preset criteria.
4.
Execute
Create prototypes with “bundles” (name, graphics, package,
position) which together with price, can be tested.
5.
Evaluate
Candidate products are evaluated on scorecard according
to performance on strategic objectives and preset criteria.
Contact us if you would like examples of our scorecard.