Turning an Idea into a Product
How do you take an amorphous product concept and turn it into something tangible? It is a question that plagues innovators the world-over. I believe combining design thinking principles with strong cross-functional collaboration is the key to launching a successful consumer-centric product.
Get Buy-In Early
Innovation dies in a silo. If you don’t get cross functional buy-in during ideation you will struggle to get it to production. Engaging teams across the organization during ideation not only allows each team to feel ownership over the new product, but research has shown collaboration is a key success factor for developing novel ideas. By facilitating workshops with representation from all critical production departments, you will unearth product functions and features that wouldn’t have been possible without other perspectives and build some much-needed goodwill as you move from idea to production
Talk to Your Consumers
By the very nature of being a person who sells the product rather than the person who buys the product, your point of view is skewed towards features and processes that benefit you. Budget-permitting, a great way to engage consumers early in the process is through qualitative research (such as focus groups and online communities), to test your first round of ideation. This will help you to explore features and functions from the consumer’s perspective, thereby allowing you to understand how to make interacting with your product easier and providing more benefit. It’s the first step in developing a customer-centric product.
During the qualitative testing phase, it is important to have a moderator who can help you understand the thought process for liking or disliking specific product features. If you can understand why certain aspects of your product derived a positive or negative response in consumers, you and your stakeholders can refine the product to maximize consumer satisfaction.
In my experience, I have found the qualitative consumer research phase can present challenges. If the feedback is strongly positive, some stakeholders may assume the product is a winner and want to skip the rest of consumer research. If the feedback is negative, they want to scratch the project and create something else. I implore you, IMPLORE YOU, not to look past quantitative consumer research. While the information you receive in the qualitative round is absolutely true for those consumers, we have no way of knowing if these opinions are true for all consumers. The purpose of this phase is to explore consumer sentiment so you can determine if it is true for your consumer population.
Crunch the Numbers
This is the part where we get to the math. I know, it hurts, but we’ll get past it quick. In new product development I recommend two rounds of quantitative research one to understand what features will drive satisfaction and one to understand pricing and market sizing.
For this type of research, you want to make sure you are targeting people who are likely consumers of your product. You will also need to ensure the survey methodology you’re using allows for choice analysis. Once you complete your analysis, you’ll understand who your probable consumer population is, if those are the kind of consumers you want, and the expected revenue to be generated from the product. Remember to share these results with your stakeholders.
Determine What Can Be Executed
Research and ideas are great but will get you nowhere without an ability to execute. Partner with your stakeholders to review the research results and pressure test the likelihood of execution. There is likely wide range of effort involved in delivering on the feature list. Understanding the cost side of each feature will support you in developing a product that is well-vetted. Work with stakeholders to build out a high-level implantation plan, as well as the cost side of the product pro forma. Remember to use your consumer research to build out the projected income, using conjoint analysis.
Once you’ve built your proforma, you will have to make the go/no-go decision. If your expected profits aren’t compelling or don’t meet your margin requirements, you’ll want to talk with your executive sponsor to determine if this is something to present to your board or not.
Get the Execs to Say Yes
As with any large-scale initiative, most new product innovations require executive/board approval. Depending on the initial investment, some pitches may need to be a bit more convincing than others. Tell the board your entire development journey. Show them who in the organization contributed to the product development process, what consumers said and how their input changed the product. Walk them through the experience of using the product. Finally, show them the money.
Get it to Market
Once you’ve gotten executive/board approval you can start executing. In getting the product to market, you will want to rely on your consumer research when you invariably have to make compromises to meet budget or speed requirements. By putting in the work early in the development process you have given yourself and your company the best possible probability of success. Good luck!
WRITTEN BY:
Ashley Allen
Ashley has spent her career in consumer and market intelligence, she uses this knowledge and skill to help businesses apply advanced analytical modeling to develop targeted solutions to solve business problems, and likely wrote this blog over a dirty martini.