
What is product development?
Product development describes the process of creating a product. It begins with the analysis of future trends and customer needs, through technological idea generation and idea development, to technological implementation and market launch.
Product development with a high degree of novelty is referred to as innovation. Depending on the degree of novelty, it is an incremental innovation (improvement and optimization of existing products) or a radical innovation or disruptive innovation (development of a revolutionary new product). In companies, this is implemented through innovation management. A product development process is often referred to as an innovation process.
Product Development Tasks
The task of the product development is to maintain and increase the long-term competitiveness of a company through innovative products and features. The responsibilities of the product development therefore include not only the technological implementation, but also the support of the entire product development process.
Depending on the organizational structure, the analysis of customer needs and trends in some companies is the responsibility of marketing, while in others it is part of product development. In some companies the market launch lies with sales, in others also with product development. These structures may vary from company to company.
The Innolytics® innovation management software supports the entire product development process and thus supports the activities of product development. Customer needs and trends can be submitted, discussed and analyzed, ideas can be submitted, evaluated, developed into concepts and implemented.
The concrete tasks of product development include:
Product Development Stages
Product development can be divided into different stages. These stages build on each other, but are not necessarily linear and rigid. With new findings and changing market conditions, product development can jump back one stage, for example from the concept stage back to idea generation. These stages can be defined in the Innolytics® innovation management software. This provides companies with a transparent overview of which product idea is in which stages of product development.
It makes sense to divide product development into different stages. Especially when several product concepts are pursued at the same time, it provides the possibility to develop products in a transparent way.
Product Development Software
The Innolytics® innovation management software supports the entire product development process. It is currently in use as product development software in numerous companies. The product development process can be defined by the so-called “process manager”. Different evaluation procedures with different criteria can be set up, customers can be included in the development. The Innolytics® software is a powerful tool for companies to support their product development.