Proven Leading Practices for Product Development Operations
Product Development Best Practices Guide
Learn MoreUse Front-Line Staff and Customer Feedback to Generate New Product Ideas and Product Solutions
Best Practice (Good)
Cast a wide net when searching for both new product ideas and solutions for problems in new product development, or issues with existing products/services. Use both internal staff members (even those that are not in the product development and/or engineering and design functions) and customers to solicit feedback and gather ideas. Rather than using a "blue ocean" method to solicit ideas in this manner, provide targeted questions, constraints, anecdotes and problem descriptions related to the company's new product development efforts; this will ensure that submissions are at least generally in line with the problems that must be addressed. Develop a formal process to aggregate data received through these submissions and assign a team to combine submissions and develop more formal idea treatments and specifications.
Typical Practice (Bad)
Task product managers and other senior management staff with developing new product ideas and outlining solutions to issues that the product development function is facing. Allow them to present new product ideas and potential solutions to executive management, who will then determine which items to devote additional resources to.
Benefits:
Involving customers and front-line staff in the search for new product ideas and related solutions will help in both identifying new ideas and building consensus on certain ideas that may have previously been floated by product managers and/or executive team members. This method may also mitigate risk related to the concentration of decision-making authority within a small group of managers or executive team members, who at times may be out of touch with the issues of the end users (i.e., customers) and/or the teams who sell and service the company's products.
Develop Product Packaging With Retailer Requirements in Mind to Ensure Proper Setup & Display
Best Practice (Good)
Ensure that there is an established understanding of how products will be displayed and stored within retail locations when designing packaging for retail products (i.e., those that will be shipped to and sold directly in retail locations). Conduct interviews with selected retailers and visit certain retail locations to document packaging-related requirements. Design product packaging based on these requirements, ensuring that the product can be quickly and accurately setup for display once unpacked by employees at retail locations. Retailers tend to focus on certain packaging attributes, such as ease of setup, ease of restocking and packaging waste disposal.
Typical Practice (Bad)
Use only market research (customers interviews, market data, etc.) to inform retail product packaging design and development. Ensure that packaging is designed to move items off the shelves as quickly as possible, regardless of ease of display/ setup/management within retail locations.
Benefits:
Developing packaging with requirements from retailers in mind helps to ensure that products are setup, stocked, and displayed properly (and promptly) within retail locations. Practical (from the retailer's point of view) package design is an often overlooked competitive differentiator. In conjunction with customer-focused package design research, retail-friendly package design may help products outperform other similar products within retail locations.
Appoint Select Employees as "Gatekeepers" to Standardize Product Development Decision-Making Processes
Best Practice (Good)
Establish and empower employees whose role is to act as a "gatekeeper" across various selected R&D and new product development processes. These individuals are entrusted by senior leadership to make kill/go decisions at each stage gate during the product development process. Gatekeepers are also responsible for determining stage gate assessment criteria (i.e., kill/go decision criteria) and scheduling formal stage gate meetings with key project members. In some cases, the "gatekeeper" may change based on the project's risk profile (e.g., high risk projects may appoint a senior executive team member to act as the gatekeeper), or the progress of the project (e.g., final stage gate(s) prior to product scale-up or launch may be overseen by a senior executive leader).
Typical Practice (Bad)
Allow senior leadership to make all decisions as to whether or not to continue development for a given product/ project. Senior leaders typically participate in periodic product development reviews with project teams, and subsequently make decisions behind closed doors regarding whether or not to continue to devote resources to the development efforts.
Benefits:
Appointing selected employees as "gatekeepers" ensures that the decision-making process (i.e., product stage gate kill/ go decisions) is formalized and built into the overall R&D/new product development process. Appointing these gatekeepers based on project risk also ensures that the most important decisions are made by senior leadership with their finger on the pulse of the company's strategic aim. Furthermore, developing defined stage gate assessment criteria (i.e., kill/go decision criteria) helps R&D teams push towards the milestones required for the product to move onto the next stage in the process.