What Is the New Product Development (NPD) Process?

What is the new product development (NPD) process? It’s the umbrella term for all the steps in product development starting from conceptualizing, through designing, planning, and commercializing, up to bringing the product to the market. It’s especially important when you are creating something completely new, either for your company or for the whole world. In this article, we look at this in more detail. Read on to find out more!

Table of Contents

• Key Takeaways
• What Is the New Product Development (NPD) Process?
• What Are the Steps in the New Product Development Process?
• The Takeaway

Key Takeaways

• The new product development (NPD) process is an approach towards creating completely new products that you haven’t developed as a company before or that the market hasn’t seen yet.
• How many steps are in the new product development process? We can see 7 key steps, namely:
  • idea generation,
  • idea screening,
  • conceptualization and testing,
  • marketing and sales strategy creation,
  • product development,
  • market testing,
  • final product launch.
• This process is well-structured to ensure that you only pursue the creation of new products with maximal potential and that you use up this potential most effectively.

You might also read: How well-crafted mobile app design can enhance your revenue stream?

What Is the New Product Development (NPD) Process?

The new product development process involves every step you need to take to create a completely new product and put it into the market. It involves the technical side (product development and design), finding out the commercial values and bringing them into the product (product design), creating a roadmap and planning the whole process (strategy), promoting the product (marketing), and putting it into market (sales). Why is it important?

Whether you create a banking chatbot or develop a mobile app, if it’s something completely new, you need a thorough plan. Following the NPD steps helps you create a framework that will enable you to ensure (or at least maximize the possibility of) success with your new product. Therefore, this is an approach mostly recommended in two scenarios:

• The product is something completely new, a type of product you haven’t ever developed in your organization.
• The product is something completely new in the market, a type of product customers haven’t had access to before.

What Are the Steps in the New Product Development Process?

How many steps are there in the new product development process? Seven. It all stems from the fact that it is a well-organized process, a structured approach towards new product creation. Let’s look at them now.

Idea Generation

The first step is idea generation – the process of brainstorming, comparing ideas, and examining market trends (along with the users) to come up with something fresh that will bring value to your clients and provide a steady return on investment for your business.

Idea Screening

In this step, you take all your ideas, compare them thoroughly, and select those that are most likely to turn into success. Take into account not only the market but also your internal capabilities. For example, you need to have a budget for outsourcing AI development services if you plan an engine operating on artificial intelligence, and if you don’t have them… you might not be able to succeed with your product.

Conceptualization and Testing

At this step, you create product concepts: detailed descriptions or blueprints of your product, along with resource estimates for the development of each concept. You can also use them for market validation: see how potential users react to them and which they find most appealing.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

Afterward, you focus on creating your promotional strategy. You should analyze business data to determine potential sales, create KPIs, and narrow down cost estimates. It’s also a final validation step, at which you determine whether the product is worth investing the time and money.

Product Development

Once all of the above is done, you can proceed with the technical side of the product. Develop an MVP and keep working on the final product since both will be important later on.

Test Run

The sixth step is why you needed the MVP. Launch the product to a small group of potential users, see how they respond to it, and gather feedback. Once this is done, you can add improvements to maximize your product’s potential.

Final Product Launch

Once you have validated and upgraded your product after the test launch, you can finally put it into the market. This involves distributing the product, sales-related activities (e.g., closing leads if you sell software as a service), and all the marketing activities around the release.

The Takeaway

The new product development process is a comprehensive approach toward the creation of completely new products that enables you to maximize the effectiveness of your efforts. It’s a 7-step framework targeted at finding the best ideas, testing them, and building a final product that resonates with the clients and generates a steady flow of return. It might be difficult to put into practice, but don’t worry – at Ailleron, we’re ready to help you with our business experience and software development expertise. Contact us now!

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