Sneak Peek
Self Paced 20-hour course to help you develop products
This course sharpens your awareness of tasks and processes involved in developing any type of products. Products can be either goods or services. Developing any type of product always begins with a concept which may come from an individual person or a group. There are always choices to be made in developing the concept, and those choices can either make it a better product that is easier to sell, or a more problematic product that is harder to sell.
This course teaches you how to make better decisions about product development, and helps you to avoid overlooking aspects of product development that might make or break the success of that product.
CONTENTS OF THE COURSE
LESSON 1 NATURE AND SCOPE OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
What type of product is it?
Who is your customer?
The development process
Research and development
Product planning
Prototypes and testing
Pre-production phase
Commercial release
Product lifecycle
Lesson 1 additional reading
Review what you have been learning
LESSON 2 VIABILITY ASSESSMENT
Product concept analysis
Supply and demand
Product validation
Competitor analysis
Product differentiation
Lesson 2 additional reading
Review what you have been learning
LESSON 3 DEFINING THE PRODUCT AND THE PRODUCTION PROCESS
Generating ideas
Brainstorming
Product planning
Production and plant equipment
Sourcing raw materials and components
Staffing requirements
Getting others involved in product planning
Product planning for lone wolves
Product roadmap
Outsourcing
Lesson 3 additional reading
Review what you have been learning
LESSON 4 PRODUCT LEARNABILITY
Learnability factors
Important considerations
Learnability for the right audience
Children and learnability
Evaluating learnability
Testing learnability
Review what you have been learning
LESSON 5 COSTING
Cost of development
Cost of packaging design
Cost of certifications
Cost of manufacture
Marketing costs
Product delivery
Product pricing
Pricing strategies
Review what you have been learning
LESSON 6 PRESENTATION AND PACKAGING
Packaging design
Packaging supply
Lesson 6 additional reading
Review what you have been learning
LESSON 7 TESTING THE PRODUCT
Useability
Reliability
Process of testing
Rapid prototyping
Ongoing market research
Lesson 7 additional reading
Review what you have been learning
LESSON 8 PRODUCT LIFECYCLE
Development and introduction
Growth phase
Maturity phase
Decline phase
Rebirth
Review what you have been learning
LESSON 9 FUTURE PLANNING AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Success metrics
Product evolution
Predictive product development
Considerations on product marketing
Online marketing
Social media
Search engine optimisation
Direct marketing via email
Advantages and disadvantages of being first to market
Protecting your product
Lesson 9 additional reading
Review what you have been learning
Final assessment
Learn to Develop Products
If you are going to develop a successful product, in any industry, you need to appreciate the likely lifecycle of that product.
Product lifecycle looks at how a product moves from its initial introduction to market to its decline and obsolescence. It is typically broken up into four stages
- Development and Introduction
- Growth
- Maturity
- Decline.
There may also be a fifth stage of "rebirth"; but not always. Knowing what stage your product is in, can help decide when it is appropriate to increase advertising, reduce price, expand to new markets, or redesign packaging or the product itself. Each of the lifecycle stages will now be discussed in more detailed.
Development and Introduction
This phase generally includes a substantial investment in advertising and a marketing campaign focused on making consumers aware of the product and its benefits. At this stage, sales tend to be slow as demand is created. This stage can take time to move through, depending on the complexity of the product, how new and innovative it is, how it suits customer needs and whether there is any competition in the marketplace. A new product development that is suited to customer needs is more likely to succeed, but there is plenty of evidence that products can fail at this point, meaning that stage two is never reached.
Depending on the nature of the product, it will either have a premium price, so that its development costs can be recouped quickly, or be priced low to encourage widespread adoption and achieve "market penetration".
Growth Phase
If the product is successful, it then moves to the growth stage. This is characterised by growing demand, an increase in production, and expansion in its availability. During this phase, marketing spend is still likely to be high, whilst return from goods sold is likely to be lower whilst the product initially establishes itself in the market and sales are at lower levels (and starting to grow).
At this point competitors may enter the market with their own versions of the product – either direct copies or with some improvements. Branding becomes important to maintain your position in the marketplace as the consumer is given a choice to go elsewhere. Product pricing and availability in the marketplace become are also important factors to continue driving sales in the face of increasing competition.
Maturity Phase
The maturity phase sees the product at its sales peak and is the most profitable stage, while the costs of producing and marketing decline. It is at this stage that a company is likely to introduce more variants of the product in a bid to maintain sales volumes. This could either be expanding the market of the product into new segments (either demographic or geographic) or diversifying the product family.
Towards the end of the maturity stage, the producer should have a revised product waiting for release to maintain the popularity of the product. There will have been costs associated with developing the revised product and there is likely to be an increase in marketing spend around the time of its launch.
Decline Phase
The final phase of the lifecycle is the decline of the product to obsolescence. This may be due to increased competition from similar products, and/or market saturation. Marketing spend may be high at this time and falling sales along with inducements for purchase may mean that unit profits start to fall. Whilst the product is being sold during this latter phase, the company should have planned for its replacement, or where funding is going to be placed to focus on their next product or other areas of their product portfolio. It is best to think of this stage as freeing up some resources and creative energy to work on something new.
Once the viability of the product is deemed to be no longer cost effective, the company will aim to cease production. There will be factors to consider here such as the costs involved with ceasing production (plant, equipment, human resources, costs of materials if shared with other areas of the business – unit costs may increase if the business purchases less materials which may affect viability/costing of other products).
Why do Businesses Sometimes Fail?
One reason can be that the goods or services offered, have not been developed properly.
A well developed product can sell itself; or at least is far more likely to succeed. Product development is not manufacturing or marketing. It is more about choosing what a products (goods or services) you will offer, then changing aspects of what they are and how they are presented, in order to make them serve their purpose better, be more attractive to buy, and be more satisfying to the customer.
There are many different tried and proven techniques that can be harnessed for product development. There are many aspects of product development that can be overlooked. This course helps you to avoid overlooking what is important, and have the tools to do what is most important to succeed when developing products.
Who is this Course For?
- Product Developers
- Innovators and Inventors
- Managers and Business Owners
- Production Supervisors
- Marketing Professionals
- Anyone involved with product or service conception, design, development or marketing (in any industry),