How does concept development fit into the product innovation process?

Grasping the importance of assembling the right team is key in the journey of product innovation. It's not just about the structured steps from brainstorming ideas to launching in the market; it’s about the unique blend of skills and viewpoints each team member brings to the table. Every stage, be it crafting the concept or navigating the technical and marketing challenges, requires specific expertise. It's the synergy in the team, their ability to work together and adapt, that turns great ideas into leading products. Indeed, choosing the right team members is not just important – it's the deciding factor in the quest to innovate and excel.

I feel concept development is the key step in the product innovation process. This requires lot of thinking, planning and cross questioning before a concept starts taking a material form in ones mind. This is the stage where multiple ideas are evaluated based on mental mapping and zeroed down to a bare few, preferably two to three ideas that can be taken forward to the next phase of product innovation process, that is the product development phase. One thing I always put emphasis on the development of appropriate model to establish the proof of concept (PoC). If the PoC model is not reliable & validated, its difficult to ascertain the feasibility of the concept, and validate it. Proper PoC is rquired for successful Product Development.

L’innovation est une démarche organisationnelle complexe dans laquelle l’incertitude est un catalyseur. Il faut osciller entre une phase de génération des idées dite de ? divergence ? (partie créative) et une phase de sélection dite de ? convergence ? qui recentre sur la réalité des besoins, des usages et des contraintes

Product Innovation is Classified into 2 Categories either Innovating through existing product to enhance it's Operating , Pricing , Distribution Models or through Creating a new Feature or service that end user need , Both Categories work to achieve a common goal which is adding more Value to the end user to make it more appealing and fulfilling customer's need with faster , easier or a cheaper way , the process involves different phases from discovery to understand customer needs and pain points , Testing , Building the product and launching the product . This process is an endless process as long as product is live

Concept development has more than one element as is somewhat of a process. First, there are usually many versions of a concept and many concepts so sorting and prioritizing what to go after in development is step 1. Second, often concepts are fuzzy and only talk about the new product benefit but become much more solid when the benefit and product concept have a realistic and credible technical product story and reasons to believe that new concept offerings and in reach and not strictly aspirational. Third, some feedback such as conversations within the team and with customers and with consumers to get a common sense feedback on the concept. Net, concept is more tangible idea with the up front homework and discipline.

Sourcing new ideas always involves a level of creativity, however there are some frameworks that help structure the approach. User experience practitioners often begin with the underlying need - a "Job To Be Done" - and then build the concept as a solution to that Job. A Job is a need or activity that people are trying to solve, but lack a good solution due to an unresolved tension. Jobs are usually specific to a particular user segment. Structured ideation sessions and primary research tools can help identify and prioritize these Jobs so that innovators can develop focused solutions.

Product innovation starts and ends with the customer. If you are not not engaging your customers to lead the process, how do you define innovation? Your wonderful team doesn’t buy anything. The customer is always the center of innovation.

In the invention process, the discovery of the problem is actually often, the most significant portion. Even if your proposed, innovative product or service isn’t the right product market fit, that doesn’t mean that you are completely off track. If the problem still persists, and there is an adequate market need for a solution, it simply means you need to go back to the drawing board, rethink your solution, or rethink your approach to the problem. A great example of this is when you propose a product that has an issue with cost or manufacturing, often it takes some extra thinking to solve the obstacles you’ll meet in route to providing a solution, but as long as the problem continues to exist in the market a solution is still needed!

In my view, the discovery phase should embrace a more agile and iterative approach, rapidly testing and adapting to real-time feedback and data. It's about blending traditional research with advanced analytics and AI tools for deeper insights, moving beyond just understanding customer needs to uncovering emerging trends and unarticulated desires. This dynamic and data-driven process allows for continual refinement and innovation, ensuring our products are not only customer-centric but also at the forefront of market evolution.

The discovery phase in product development is crucial for laying a strong foundation. It involves understanding the problem, market, and user needs. This phase includes market research, competitor analysis, and gathering user feedback. Through interviews, surveys, and observation, teams gain insights to shape the product's direction. The goal is to define the problem clearly, establish objectives, and create a roadmap. The discovery phase sets the tone for subsequent stages, guiding decision-making and ensuring alignment with user expectations and market demands.

The concept development phase is critical, that is the step that will define the success of the product. It is important to validate the potential user's appetite for the targeted market.

Stage that is commonly ignored or taken lightly in the industry, generating costly engineering reprocessing or launching to the market a solution that does not enhance the opportunity. It must be approached in a systemic, holistic, objective and integrative manner to "get closer" to a successful solution.

Concept Development is how the new product will address the consumer insight and need. Usually it is here where most NPD fail either because of a faulty Concept Development or an insight misunderstanding.

With the latest advances in AI and powerful technology getting released at fast pace, concept development should be an “Always-On” state that isn’t limited creatively or technologically, but needs to follow common goals and unified principles. Technologists, individuals gravitating at the intersection of business, design and technology are best placed to work on such concepts to ensure best outcomes.

A critical step often missed in projects is creating a rapid proof of concept (PoC). You can make one in just a two-week sprint. It doesn't need to have everything planned for the final product. A good PoC should prove something useful for the final version. For example, it could just show how to gather data from different places and put it together in a helpful way for users, even if it only outputs to a spreadsheet at this stage. PoCs are great for getting a quick win. They help build excitement, bring a team together, and start the project with a focus on shipping. In most cases, do not let a PoC take more than two sprints at this stage.

When dealing with innovation in hardware solutions, procurement becomes a critical aspect in the product development phase. Make sure all your suppliers are aligned and committed to your agreements and don't overlook the risks related to the supply chain. A creative solution to address said risks involves design and manufacturing variations to account for the possibility of having similar components from multiple suppliers.

In this phase, one of the often overlooked power moves is to collaborate directly with manufacturers — for innovators it’s easy to assume you understand the problem you’ll run into in the future of progression with the product. But tragically this is often misguided. I prefer to work directly with manufacturers for a few reasons. The first is that they have industry specific knowledge about the capabilities of a product design, and will save you months or years on troubleshooting on your own. The second is because many of them have establish channels for selling the product directly to organizations or to the open market. by working directly with a manufacturer in a collaborative way, it can save you a lot of time and wasted money

Mon expérience m’a appris que, dans la phase de développement, il est critique de savoir prendre des décisions dans un environnement incertain. Même si les test , les version bêta, les canvass etc … sont des bons moyen pour réduire l’ inconnu, il faut du courage manageriale pour faire avancer le projet sans le retarder plus que nécessaire. Et le courage ( comme disait à.Manzoni à propos de don Abbondio) soit on l’a naturellement, soit on ne peux pas se le donner !

Product development is not only to create a product, it is more to propose to consumers a unique product experience. One of the best way to do it is to put in place a cocreation process with your community. For example before launching our new range of body products, we selected more than 60 people involved during 4 months into our product development process from ideas to products launch. Week after week we can understand better consumer expectations and be able to improve products based on their positive and negative feedbacks. During this iterative development way, we created fully optimized products along the key experience drivers. Without working directly with consumers, we would never achieve to develop such performing products.

Whats exciting right now is that tech team execution is undergoing a shift into radical collaboration across disciplines - PMs are doing their own research and designers are coding. They key here is to understand how your team works and make sure everyone is aligned on what you are building.

Pour être efficace, le lancement doit s’appuyer sur la compréhension du processus d’adoption par le consommateur : 1-La connaissance : Le consommateur découvre l’existence de l’innovation. 2-La compréhension : Le consommateur identifie le service apporté par l’innovation. 3-L’attitude : Le consommateur évalue le pour et le contre. 4-La conviction : L’individu est convaincu de valeur du produit et de la réalité de ces avantages. 5-L’essai : Le consommateur décide de procéder à un achat d’essai stimulé par une promotion, par un prix ou par un échantillonnage. 6-L’adoption : Sur la base de son expérience le consommateur décide d’adopter ou de rejeter l’innovation. A ce stade c’est la qualité du produit qui parle.

The product launch phase is the climax of innovation, involving meticulous planning and execution. Final preparations, including packaging and inventory readiness, precede a well-crafted marketing strategy. Communication plans, potentially including a launch event, aim to create buzz. Ensuring widespread availability and customer support readiness is critical. Post-launch, continuous monitoring, adaptation based on feedback, and sustained marketing efforts contribute to long-term success. Success metrics, including sales and customer feedback, gauge the effectiveness of the launch.

Designing the optimal launch plan is best done with the cross-functional commercial team. I have found that Brand can lead the national launch plan, but it is crucial to have input from Shopper Marketing and Sales for the channel/customer level activities. Having clear KPIs (e.g. ACV, Awareness, Trial, Repeat, U/S/W, $ and unit sales, share, etc) in a live tracker will help teams more quickly identify risks and opps to pivot where needed. The fact is most launches fail so being agile with launch plans provides a higher probability for a new product to stick.

Remember that you will only get one chance to lauch your product. If something isn't right, hold off. People will always remember the launch that was a car crash!

Based on the prioritized user flows selected, you need to bring the experience to life. The vision and UX concepts will be concretized with partially clickable prototypes that will focus on the core experience of the selected flows. The prototype will make the digital customer experience vision come to life for stakeholder validation

In the Concept Development Phase, it is important to remember that possibilities are endless. The more concepts generated, the more options available to solve the problem. Keep the net as wide as possible and allow innovation, creativity and analytics to merge. Often times, those on the side of defining the problem get very close to a defined solution, leaping into limited methods of solving. The more we welcome diversity of thought into concept development, the higher the potential to solve the problem the first round. Allow third party data and testing to validate assumptions and properly filter concepts, removing bias. The stronger the concepts, the better the chances of streamlined and effective product development.

El desarrollo de conceptos es crucial en el proceso de innovación de productos, ya que sirve como puente entre la ideación y la ejecución. Permite refinar ideas, evaluar viabilidad y alinearlas con las necesidades del mercado. Este paso facilita la comunicación interna y externa, asegurando una comprensión clara de la visión del producto. Además, fomenta la creatividad al explorar diversas soluciones antes de comprometer recursos significativos en el desarrollo completo. En resumen, el desarrollo de conceptos actúa como cimiento estratégico, maximizando el potencial innovador y minimizando riesgos.

A good concept note also helps a lot in aligning stakeholders at an early stage which subsequently makes it easier to get resources for the project from top management, including funding, manpower, prioritization in integration with other systems and processes etc.

One aspect that is often overlooked in the development process is the continuous engagement of the customers aiming to receive constructive feedback, minimize blind spots, avoid assumptions and use customer’s feedback as a compass. This should be an iterative process and the team should learn from the feedback, adjust and repeat the process!

Considero que el Concepto de producto es lo más importante de la innovación porque en esta fase determinamos teóricamente: 1. ?Por qué mi producto será relevante para el consumidor? Determinar rangos de valor percibido por el publico. Es decir mapear porque Sí, y en que rangos van a pagar por mi producto. 2. ?Que solución brinda en la cadena/mapa de valor? Rentabilizar una parte de la cadena, cubrir un segmento de clientes que no tenia cubierto, generar nuevas restricciones de entrada, abrir un canal de comercialización emergente en mi industria, entre otros. 3. Determinar las habilidades/capacidades futuras a desarrollar. 4. Confirmar que el producto (y sus fases de innovación) están alineados con la estrategia de la compa?ía.

Hoy los procesos de innovación de productos se vuelven exitosos no por las prestaciones inmersas o por la captación y entendimiento de necesidades, es parte, si, pero la velocidad de implementar y plasmarlo define el éxito del valor entregado al mercado. Tecnología y conocimiento conceptual + el saber como e mercado reacciona al producto nos da el momento exacto en el cual debemos impactar. Si no aprovechamos el conocer cuando no podremos generar el impacto deseado.

Depending on your industry the product development process can be more standardized versus more fluid. For example, at a consumer packaged goods company concept development often has the resources, time, and need to do this project by project. When you are developing software, however, concept development has a much different definition. In software, because product development is very iterative in many regards, you are constantly gathering feedback on your product concept and refining it consistently and continuously even after launch. So...the operational definition of concept development is fluid and you should treat it that way depending on your business circumstances

Product development should always be an interdisciplinary task: involve core people from multiple teams across the whole process. Your quality team, your developers, your manufacturing team, product research, design. I guarantee each of these sets of people have an idea that you will not have thought of. Not only will this help to weed out potential problems from the ‘over the fence’ approach to development, but can genuinely lead to ideas and concepts that had never considered.

En 1500 le terme ??innover??etait juridique, il désignait des clauses qui introduisaient un changement radical et ce n’est qu’en 1970 que le terme ? innover ? a été associé aux domaines technologiques. De nos jours, le terme va au-delà du changement (innovation incrémentale), voire du changement radical (innovation de rupture). Les typologies d’innovation sont multiples (innovation de service, d’usage, d’organisation, d’approche marketing ou commerciale..). Toutes ces innovations sont des composantes de l’innovation en modèle d’affaire qui réorganise la structure des revenus pour délivrer la valeur différemment.

It's important to think simple during each phase of product management. Complexity is the bane of a organization, It strangles growth.