Time required
Never enough. In this fast-paced global market, companies are endeavouring to get new product to market faster and faster, to capitalise on current trends. You need to beat your competitors to market if you want to stand a chance of establishing yourself.
On the other hand what you get out of product development is often directly related to what you put into it. If development is too rushed and stages are skipped or truncated, you can fine yourself with a product that is unsuitable and quickly overtaken.
Balancing these factors is a decision personal to each business and the complexity of the project. On average though, you would want to set aside at least a year to go from start to finish.
Difficulty level
As a product design consultancy we have worked with clients at every level of experience, from seasoned developers with a large established company and a household name, to first-time inventors and startups.
If development is not something you have done before, you will want to familiarise yourself with the general stages to aid your planning and forecasting.
Phase 1: Conceiving
This is a process of discovering and defining which includes idea generation, market research and concept development.
- Idea Generation: A problem is identified and the idea for a solution is conceived of. Every product should start with a problem it is trying to solve, whether this is easy to define like a bottle that solves the problem of transporting liquids, or harder to define, such as a toy that is aiming to engage and entertain a child.
- Evaluation, Assess the merits and risks of an idea. During this stage a brief and specification should be written to define the problem and allow it to be communicated to others.
- Market Research: The potential market for the product is assessed; who is the target audience, what competitors are available, where is the gap in the market?
- Concept development, concepts for potential solutions are refined from the original idea, brief and market research. These define the main features of the product. Multiple concepts are considered and the best is chosen.
Phase 2: Learning
The concept is further developed ideas from the previous phase are tested to ensure the assumptions are correct.
- The chosen concept idea is refined with elements such as general functionality, size, materials, overall shape and form becoming set.
- Prototypes are made to test the product idea to ensure development is progressing in the right direction and addressing the needs of the brief and gain feedback from the target market.
- Iteration: learning is taken from the tests and used to re-design elements of the concept, improving it.
Phase 3: Engineering
Now that the design concept is set, it needs to be engineered for effective function and efficient manufacture.
- Design for manufacture and assembly (DFM/DFA): the product is optimised for production. This will be heavily dependant on the materials and forms required, the factory facilities and the quantity of units being made.
- Full engineering packs are made containing all the information required for manufacturers to work from.
- Protection: Patents, design rights and Trademarks may be sought out to protect the design from copy-cats.
- Sourcing is completed to find manufacturing partners or to acquire parts and materials. A unit cost is agreed.
- Pre-manufacturing prototypes or Alpha prototypes may be made as a final test of the design.
Phase 4: Manufacturing
Investment is made into any tools required for production or any staffing, or material orders needed.
- Tooling: many products will require some level of tooling, from simple inexpensive jigs and templates, through to complex moulds. There tools will often be designed with the durability to produce tens of thousands of products.
- Beta/Final Engineering Pilot (FEP): The first product is produced off the production line but in small numbers to test the tools and process. Once this is approved, this will be signed off by all parties and used as a sample to which future products will be compared.
- Quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC): Quality control checks are designed and implemented including safety tests.
Phase 5: Production
The product is ready to hit the market.
- Orders and distribution: the product is made in quantity and transported to where it will be sold.
- Market launch: Developing a marketing strategy, creating promotional materials, and launching the product to the target market.
- The performance new product is monitored closely with stakeholders gathering user feedback and planning for future updates and iterations.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Rushing development: when time crunches and delays happen it can be very tempting to rush ahead, to skip a phase of prototyping, testing or market feedback. This is very high risk. Too many projects have done this in the past only to miss a fatal flaw that has ended up costing more time and money in the long run.
- Not setting a clear specification and brief at the start of the project, The start of a project is one of the most frantic, development can move quickly and it can be easy to get lost. Whilst it can feel like a dose of cold water, having a detailed and thorough evaluation of the idea and resources at the beginning of a project, with all key parties involved, is crucial. It prevents you from investing in the wrong path and opens up opportunities that you may not have considered.
- Understanding what you need when and moving sub-stages around if need be, unfortunately the best development path for the product, is not always the best for the business and sometimes investment goals need to be considered and prioritised. If these are understood at the beginning of a project, the two needs can be integrated much better. For example, you may need a good-looking prototype for crowdfunding before the design is fully finalised. This always comes with its own risk and costs of course.
- Knowing when the product cannot be compromised for business goals, on the flip side, it is important to know the limitations of the design. When making a physical product, we are ultimately constrained by real tangible properties that cannot be overcome. As frustrating as it is for all involved, sometimes the launch date does need to be postponed to do one more test. The worst product PR disasters in history have ignored this fact. Build in contingency for this in your plan.