Creating and assessing new product concepts is a vital skill for product R&D professionals. It involves generating, evaluating, and refining ideas that solve customer problems and meet business goals. In this article, you will learn some practical steps and tools to help you create and assess new product concepts effectively.
Before you start brainstorming new product concepts, you need to understand who your target customers are and what problems they face. You can use various methods to identify customer needs, such as interviews, surveys, observation, or data analysis. The goal is to uncover the pain points, goals, and motivations of your customers and how they currently solve their problems. You can use tools like personas, customer journey maps, or problem statements to synthesize and communicate your findings.
Once you have a clear picture of your customer needs, you can start generating product ideas that address them. You can use different techniques to stimulate your creativity, such as brainstorming, mind mapping, sketching, or prototyping. The key is to generate as many ideas as possible without judging them at this stage. You can use tools like sticky notes, whiteboards, or online platforms to capture and organize your ideas.
After you have a pool of product ideas, you need to evaluate them and select the most promising ones. You can use various criteria to evaluate product ideas, such as feasibility, desirability, viability, or alignment with your vision and strategy. You can use tools like scoring matrices, SWOT analysis, or lean canvas to compare and rank your ideas. The goal is to narrow down your list to a few concepts that you can test and validate with your customers.
Once you have selected your best product ideas, you need to refine them and make them more concrete and specific. You can use different methods to refine product concepts, such as storyboarding, wireframing, mockups, or prototypes. The goal is to define the features, benefits, and value proposition of your product concepts and how they will solve your customer problems. You can use tools like user stories, feature lists, or value proposition canvas to document and communicate your product concepts.
The first thing in creating a product is understanding of the need in a particular environment, that will guide you in developing the right product for the right people. Answering the What and Why question is the first. Product acceptability is based on the current needs or situation of the intending customer. Afterwards, is to bring the right team to actualize the need or solving the problem by engaging your team with the How question.
After you have refined your product concepts, you need to test them and get feedback from your customers. You can use different methods to test product concepts, such as interviews, surveys, usability tests, or experiments. The goal is to validate your assumptions and hypotheses about your product concepts and measure their performance and impact. You can use tools like feedback forms, metrics, or analytics to collect and analyze your data.
Based on the results of your testing, you need to iterate and improve your product concepts. You can use different techniques to iterate product concepts, such as prioritizing, adding, removing, or changing features or elements. The goal is to optimize your product concepts and make them more appealing, useful, and valuable for your customers. You can use tools like roadmaps, backlog, or sprint planning to plan and execute your iterations.