No Comments Written by Robert on July 4, 2008 – 9:56 pm

Think of product development as a steeplechase horse race, with each of the horses trying to get over the hurdles to the finish line. Some will fall along the way. It is a game of probabilities. Your goal  is to place your bets (resources) on the horses (ideas) that get over the hurdles (development milestones) and have the greatest likelihood of finishing the race and being successful. The best way to ensure winners is to make sure that you have a lot of “horses” (good ideas) at the starting gate.

It is fairly standard practice at most large companies to have a “stage gate model” to manage their product innovation. This is simply a process of tracking products through various stages of development to see if they are meeting their financial and performance “hurdles,” and making decisions at these milestones to either kill or further support the development of the product. The first stage of this process is often called the “fuzzy front end,” because this is where insights are gathered and all the wacky ideas get thrown into the innovation funnel.

TIP

The source of good ideas may be outside your company. To get new ideas, look at as many different sources as you can. There was at time when companies felt they needed to do all their own R&D and develop all their own ideas internally. This has changed dramatically. Procter & Gamble now seeks to get at least half of its new product ideas from outside of the company.

Outside vendors, suppliers, customers, outside inventors, your ad agency, and design shops can all be good sources of ideas.

TIP

A concept is the cheapest form of prototyping. The first milestone might be a strategy and feasibility check on an idea. Does it fit into where you are trying to go with the brand? Is it something your company could successfully manufacture, license, and market? At the end of this stage, you may concept test the idea by putting it in front of consumers for feedback.

It is much cheaper to understand the appeal of your concept than to spend money to develop a new product that has an unappealing concept. It is important to screen out ideas early that have little consumer appeal. Even if you don’t have the resources to do a quantitative test on your concepts, take the time to write a headline and some descriptive copy for your idea and show it to some potential customers. Do they understand it? Do they find it appealing?

The next phase is often called development, in which prototypes are developed and tested. If successful, the idea may move into production and launch. In these final phases, the big investments are made, as machines are ramped up for production and the product is launched onto the market. As you move through the feasibility, development, and launch stages of innovation, try to stay true to the idea embodied in the winning concept. It is very easy to get off track along the way. R&D may tell you they can’t quite deliver the benefit described in the concept. The ad agency may tell you they have a completely different idea for how to sell the concept. If you have identified a winning idea in the concept testing, stick to it.

Innovation is not just the job of your marketing and R&D departments. Innovation is not just about new products and services. Finding new, more efficient ways to manufacture a product or deliver a service is an important part of every business. You can and should innovate in your selling strategies, your brand communication, and the way you go to market. The market is always changing and your business needs to stay relevant.