Before Development
Developing a product can be challenging.
It requires a pratical idea, thorough analysis, and plenty of time and resources.
Careful preparation is the first step to developing a product successfully.
generate ideas
Product development starts by generating ideas.
This involves brainstorming possible new products and features.
Good ideas comes from knowledge of the consumer, the market, and current technology.
conduct concept screening(筛查) research
Next, select the best idea through concept screening research.
Find out if the product would meet customers' needs and identify the gaps in the market.
You also need to determine how to position your product to give it an advantage.
carry out competitive research
Then, carry out in-depth competitive research.
Identify and assess the strengths and weaknesses of competitors within your market.
This allows you to develop different strategies to give your product a competitive advantage.
carry out a risk assessment.(进行风险评估)
As you conduct your research, you should do a risk assessment.
Identify the potential risks and how they would impact your product.
These include technical problems, financial risks and operational difficulties.
plan actions
Finally, plan a path forward by determining your next course of action.
Set parameters including budget, objectives and time frame.
Once you are prepared, you can implement your plan.
Developing a product
Transforming ideas into sellable products is a challenge.
build the prototype
Start by building a prototype of your product.
A prototype is the first version of a product, and is used to develop its future forms.
Building a prototype helps you estimate the development costs, time frame, and resources needed.
A product is which version of product
test the prototype
Once a prototype has been built, it should be tested to evaluate the quality of its design.
Feedback on its appearance, function, and user friendliness can be collected from potential customers.
improve the prototype
A prototype should be improved based on its feedback.
Once its original issue has been fixed, another round of testing will be conducted.
The testing will continue until the product is ready for the market.
Develop marketing strategies
When the product is ready, it will be made available for sale.
A company will develop a strategy to build demand for its product.
This may include a launch event, advertisements, and social media marketing.
Holding a launch event is one way to market a new product.
monitor the product
After the product is launched, a company monitors how the product perform in the market.
Sales figures, profitability and customers' feedback should be monitored.
Furthermore, expect changes in the market and always be prepared to improve your product.
product lifecycle
product lifecycle
a product lifecycle is the four stages of a product's life.
Each stage has its own unique characteristics and challenges.
the market introduction stage
The first stage is the market introduction stage.
At this point, a new product has just been launched and its market share may be small.
Businesses can invest in marketing and promotion to build demand.
the growth stage.
Products that make it through the introduction stage reach the growth stage.
In the growth stage, product sales grow as consumer demand increases.
As a result, competition may increase as more businesses look to share the market.
Companies often need to update their products to stay competitive.
the maturity stage
In the maturity stage, the market becomes crowded due to fewer new customers and stronger competition.
As a result, sales growth peaks and begins to slow down.
At this point, a business may lower its prices or explore new market to increase sales.
the decline stage
In the decline stage, product sales decrease as competition becomes stronger.
Since the popularity of a product falls, making a profit becomes more difficult.
As a result, a business may cut production costs or discontinue the product.
Improving a product
Improving products allows businesses to stay competitive and increase their market share.
Here is some advice for improving products successfully.
collect customer feedback
Customer feedback can be used to find out how to improve a product.
It can be collected through customer questionnaires or interviews.
Feedback can help measure customer satisfation and discover problems.
conduct a lost customer analysis
A lost customer analysis examines why customers have stopped buying a product.
The results can be used to eliminate sources of customer dissatisfaction.
People may stop eating a certain brand of food because of negative publicity(负面报道).
carry out a cost-benefit analysis
A cost-benefit analysis compares the costs of a project against its potential benefits.
Benefits may include increased revenue or faster production.
If a product's cost are higher than its benefits,it may not be worthwhile.
run tests
Testing is a major step both in product design or improvement.
Frequent tests determine(确认) whether a product is performing well.
After a product has been developed, it will be tested to ensure its quality.
improving an app
A:Hey,You wanted to see me？
B:Hey,Jim, yeah,I did.I just got the user data from the latest testing version of FitBot.I thought you would want to see it.
A:Oh, definitely. Have you found anything interesting
B:Well, it seems the user engagement rate isn't as high as we would like it to be.Look over here.It's been found that many users stop using our app after a couple of tries.
A:So they don't feel motivated to keep using it. Why do you think that might be.
B:Well, according to the feedback, our users like how our app tracks how far they've run.But they don't think it's a strong enough reason to keep on using it.I feel that the app doesn't have enough functions to keep users engaged.
A:Do you have any ideas on how to go forward?
B:We could improve how users track their progress,.Rather than just listing the amount of time they run, we could let them set some challenges.For example, users could set weekly or monthly fitness challenges.And we could try to quantify their progress by using progress bars. That way, they can use our app to realize their fitness goals rather than only logging their results.
A:I like that idea.And we could allow users to share their progress on social media like me chat. By sharing it online, they can get encouragement form their friends.
B:Yeah, adding a social component is a great idea.
A:Could you have a proposal made for me by Friday.I have a meeting with the CEO and would like to share the ideas with him.
B:Yes, I'll get started on it today
A:Great, make sure doing a cost-benefits analysis in your proposal.If I'm going to get the proposal approved, I only need to show the costs of the investment will be worth it.
B:Sure thing, will do