Product Development
“In business and engineering, new product development is the complete process
of bringing a new product to market.” Wikipedia, September 2006.
Services
Incorporating the latest business thinking, technology and skills into your
business is key to continued success. Gateway for Business provides
‘in-house’ guidance and information as well as working with partner
organisations to ensure that you have access to information and expertise that
ensures your company is one step ahead of the marketplace.
Our advisers can work with your staff to produce a product development plan and
provide advice throughout the lifecycle of the project. We can also
direct you to sources of funding for product innovation and put you in touch
with the best development advisers in your particular field.
Information
Product Development
Creativity
Concept Development
Product Testing
Product Launch
Protecting Products
Product Development
There are many stages involved in getting a product from the mind of an
individual to the shelves of your local store. Understanding and planning
these stages is an important part of ensuring that the process works as
effectively as possible for your company.
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Creativity
Creativity is the first skill involved in developing a new product. Ideas
can often come from talking to your customers about which services they
require. Or perhaps there is a flaw that you’ve identified in an existing
product.
However you come up with the idea for a new product the important thing is to
think about the customers that may some day be buying the item. Try to
focus on how the product will improve their current situation?
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Concept Development
This stage involves developing your initial idea to a stage where you visualize
and analyse the product or service. Once this visualization is committed to a
plan, it may be time to build a prototype or pilot service.
In reality the design can have many changes after this stage, but getting the
initial design right is often the greatest challenge.
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Product Testing
This stage involves testing your product/service in a number of ways. Some
products will require testing for safety at a laboratory. It can be
provident to test your products marketability at a focus group. This
gives you the opportunity to see what your potential customers think of your
product, collect feedback and use it to refine your designs.
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Product Launch
This stage can be the most difficult to get right. It involves developing
the market, identifying the correct sales channels, increasing the level of
sales and supporting the product.
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Protecting products
Once you have developed your product it is worth taking the time to see if you
can protect it from imitation thus protecting your sales revenue from being
captured by someone else. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), are defined
as rights granted to creators and owners of works that are results of human
intellectual creativity.
Some questions that may arise at this point include: Can I protect my product
through patenting?; How much will this cost me?; How long will legal protection
last?; Where will the legal protection apply to?
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