How To Come Up With New Product Ideas? (2021)

Introduction

Today, every business operates in a competitive environment. It requires continuous innovation and improvement in the products marketed by the companies. The competitive stage present in every industry has a strong influence on how the business develops, formulates product strategies and the development of new product ideas.

The core competencies should focus on customer satisfaction. Product managers need to be continuously updated about the market situations and their expectations. They need to possess a different skill set for the success of the product in emerging markets. Controlled implementation and frequent monitoring of the product strategies will assist in the success of the product in the market. 

Product Managers and New product ideas

Product Managers are responsible for evaluating and forming suggestions on several aspects of a companys’ products throughout its life cycle. They analyse various factors present in the market and assist in the improvement of the product. 

New development product Ideas are frequently required to achieve the goals of the company, along with gaining profitability in the industry. New Product ideas are developed after determining business goals, evaluating the market needs, and establishing key features and differentiators by the product. 

Let us understand the various aspects considered by product managers while developing innovative new product ideas: 

1. Define your goals
2. Establish Product Initiatives
3. Crowdsource new ideas
4. Prioritize your ideas

1. Define your goals

The product manager needs should be aware of the vision and mission of the organization. It is essential to set the goals, as they are sources of new product ideas based on the objectives defined by the strategic level management. 

The goals are set-up on the grounds of the strategy followed by the company. It can follow stability, expansion, retrenchment, or combination strategy that will be the basis for the product development ideas. A company can have the goal to increase the profitability or increase the market share where it compromises over the profits. Goals should be clearly defined, measurable, time-bound, and focused on customer needs. 

2. Establish Product Initiatives

Product Initiatives are efforts taken up by the product managers in achieving the defined goals. Initiatives are a setup that specifies the work which should be fulfilled to achieve the business objectives. This will enable us to accomplish the vision of the organization. 

Initiatives are focused on achieving the product goals by investing in the program’s setup for the product’s success. Product initiatives set up a clear connection between the goals to be achieved and the work that is planned. 

3. Crowdsource new ideas

When the product is ready, it is time to introduce it to the market. The market can teach and open the various loopholes present in the product that are the barriers to product success. Let us study the effect of crowdsourcing the ideas: 

• Obtain the recommendations: 

What kind of review is given by the customers? Is the product able to meet the needs of the consumers? What is the limitation of the product? 

The answers to the above questions will help the product management analyze the necessities and expectations of the customers. Obtaining feedback from customers is an essential part of product development. Feedback can be obtained through surveys and ratings on the portals. This feedbacks provided individually can assist in understanding the consumers to a great extent. 

• Brainstorming sessions with the product development team: 

Sitting with your product development team will enable them to understand the demand of the consumers. Understanding the problems faced by them while they develop the product will tend to increase their effectiveness and efficiency. 

The involvement of the product development and marketing team in framing the strategies will enable them to incorporate their suggestions into the policies. This will give rise to the feeling of belongingness towards the organization, together with increasing the success rate of the strategies. It will strengthen the internal relationships, increase the generation of innovative ideas, and formulate growth plans for the company. The involvement of creative university students in the strategies will help to achieve new heights through new product ideas for students. 

• Financial and marketing analyses: 

Analyzing the recent market trends with experts helps to evaluate the requirements of the consumers. It helps to analyze the movement of the market. Several key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to confirm whether the consumers are comfortable with the new product. 

Data analysis helps to understand the technological or economic changes in the market that help keep pace with the market trends. 

An Electronic company needs to conduct a market survey to get in-depth insights on whether the buyers are willing to pay for the expensive technology or are satisfied with the affordable items. 

• Competitors in the market: 

As the options available for the consumers are increasing, they analyze and evaluate the benefits of almost all the alternatives to get worth for their earnings. Therefore, it is essential to keep track of the key developments in the product of the competitors. 

It is vital to integrate and develop the core competencies to give a competitive edge for the competitors. It is crucial to study the adjacent industries as well since they can often provide affordable alternatives, which can affect the success of the product. 

4. Prioritize your ideas

After collecting various new product ideas for design from the innovative personnel and some past evaluations, it is necessary to prioritize the ideas that will award the highest success rate. 

There should be a consistent mechanism that evaluates the ideas and accordingly provide them scores as per the market trends, alternative solutions, purchasing power of the consumers, and many other factors. 

The ideas with a low rating can be kept for future references. There is purpose-built software that serves to collect, manage, and prioritize the ideas used by highly-developed product teams. 

Conclusion

Product managers cannot essentially possess a degree in product development. It comes from their experience, background, and various other factors that help them craft new product launch ideas. Continuous interactions with consumers and staying updated after the market requirements are some key aspects considered while developing business new product ideas. These factors will reduce the chances of failure of the product and increase the chunk of the profits of the company.

Interested to learn all about Product Management from the best minds in the industry? Check out our Product Management Course. This 6-month-long program takes place online through live instructor-led sessions. It is the only program in India that offers the ‘Bring Your Own Product (BYOP)’ feature so that learners can build their product idea into a full-blown product, and go through an entire Product Development lifecycle. Not only this, but this is the only program in India with a curriculum that conforms to the 5i Framework. Post completion, learners receive a joint certification from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore, and Jigsaw Academy. 

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