According to MIT, it’s estimated that nearly 95% of new products miss the mark when they’re launched. Why is it so hard to launch a new product or feature that clicks with your consumer base? Part of it has to do with the oversaturation of products.
However, more often than not it comes down to poor product development. There’s a big difference between knowing about the basic steps of development versus knowing how to apply these steps to real-world development.
That’s why, in addition to the steps, we’ll discuss some new product development examples. That way, your product has the best possible chance of succeeding.
Table of Contents
Steps of Product Development
To have a successful product development, you need to implement a plan. And this plan should be broken down into easy-to-follow steps. Remember that different teams will have different steps and processes. However, for the most part, they should include:
- Brainstorm an idea
- Do market research
- Create a product development plan to put it into action
- Make the prototype
- Work with a production company and find material suppliers
- Calculate your costs
- Launch your new product
It’s important to keep in mind that the stages of new product development aren’t always linear. Sometimes you need to revisit steps or add new ones entirely. However, with a loose plan in place, you’ll have a good starting point.
New Product Development Examples
Just because you know the steps of product development doesn’t mean it will come naturally to your company or team.
So what’s the solution? One answer is to look at recent, new examples of successful product development from other companies. That way, you can get a better idea of how to create a product.
Stanley
If you haven’t heard of Stanley as a brand before 2024, we don’t blame you. Even though the company has been operating for over a century, the water bottle and thermos company wasn’t that huge in the past.
That’s because they mainly catered to a niche audience of blue-collar workers. However, if you have seen the news cycles recently you know that customers are lining up outside of Targets to battle each other for the new Stanley tumblers.
So what launched a modest but established company to huge levels of fame and fortune? Simple successful product development. See, Stanley tumblers are fantastic at keeping cold liquids cold and hot liquids hot. However, thermos have been doing this effectively for centuries.
What changed is the design. In short, the product development team made the product pretty. The material is colorful and wonderful to touch. And the oversized handle feels great to hold.
It’s a development lesson in understanding untapped marketing. There is a huge demand for quality water bottles, specifically amongst women. Stanley saw the potential and catered their product to that market. It paid off big.
Booking.com
We’re likely familiar with the travel site Booking.com. It’s a great resource for finding flights and hotels for your next vacation. However, the company recently expanded to include the Rides product.
This service allows you to book transport from the airport to your hotel, or wherever else you want to travel on your trip. However, the Rides team didn’t know if people wanted to book their return taxi trip at the start of the process or add it later.
So they engaged in a smart product development step: product testing. They created two different versions of the product of their app and then tested it with their audience. That way they could see not only which one people preferred, but also the overlap between them.
Typeform
Typeform is a software company that helps businesses and individuals create quizzes and online surveys. Their successful new product is an important lesson in listening to your customers and clients.
Often your customers are telling you how to innovate. One of Typeform’s customers wanted an online survey that could react to different answers from the respondents.
So the team got started on developing the Logic Map feature. They wanted this feature to be a visual representation of their respondent’s specific logic flows. That way the customers could implement it into their surveys. So they quickly developed the prototype and launched it.
However, it’s important to note that they launched it as a beta first. That way, they could gather the necessary amount of feedback before continuing. Remember that if you launch a product with severe problems people aren’t going to stick around to figure it out.
How to Make New Product Development Easier
One of the easiest ways to make product development is by taking advantage of the many government programs that encourage it. Specifically, these programs tend to give incentives like credits for businesses within the country. Just take Canada’s SR&ED credit as an example.
This credit is an acronym for Scientific Research and Experimental Development. In addition to covering materials, this program also covers 70% of your payroll and 40% of your subcontracted work (as long as they’re eligible).
However, with this program, it’s recommended that you get a consultant for SR&ED to help. The United States also offers an R&D tax credit, however, it tends to only cover between 6% to 16% of your costs depending on what state you operate out of.
Outside of making product development more affordable, you can also make it easier by creating a more collaborative work environment. When different teams aren’t afraid to put forth an idea, whether that’s good or bad, you can open up the chance for an industry-changing development.
Remember that it doesn’t matter if the new product insight comes from the CEO or a customer support representative. As long as it’s designed and implemented effectively, it will provide real value to your business.
Appreciate Learning About New Product Development? Keep Exploring
We hope this guide helped provide you with some inspirational new product development examples. Remember that even the best new product still has a good chance of failing depending on the whims of the market.
However, with research, collaboration, and experimentation you can greatly increase your chances of a new product success. Want more business advice? We have plenty of similar topics for you to learn from so keep exploring to find them.
