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You’re brainstorming with some colleagues about an idea for a brand new product. Before you go any further, you might want to consider whether the thought even makes any sense. What would it not cost to provide? Is it something people would buy? At what price? That is when product development research may also help.
What’s product development research?
Product development research is the strategy of collecting and assessing details about a brand new services or products. It involves each qualitative and quantitative research—every little thing from surveys to market evaluation. Research begins with the initial product idea and continues through the stages of development to product launch.
Doing research helps you discover market trends and which form of customers you expect to achieve. You should use this information to forecast product demand so you’ll be able to plan a marketing strategy and sales strategy. Research also helps you understand which features customers value most and the way you’ll be able to differentiate your product from the competition.
Forms of product development research
Recent product development research is finished in several ways, including:
Market research
Market research starts with scoping out the scale of the marketplace for products much like yours. Among the many universe of consumers, who would buy your product? Where would it not slot in? Market research is about determining your audience.
You would possibly start pondering of your goal market in geographic terms—for instance, it is advisable to sell nationally, or perhaps just within the Northeast or the West Coast. More likely, you’ll think in demographic terms, resembling targeting the 25-to-49 age group, singles versus married couples, or households with an annual income of $100,000 or more. Identifying your goal market also involves demand evaluation: Would your product attract enough customers to justify the expense of the brand new product development process?
Market research may also include a review of the final economic and regulatory environment. The health of the economy will influence consumer demand for all products, and the extent of regulatory and tax burdens may impede your online business goals.
Concept testing
Concept testing involves surveys and focus groups within the goal market to evaluate whether your product idea is appealing, then adjusting the thought and its features as needed.
Concept testing should probe goal customers about how they’d use your product, and whether the product solves an issue for them. Cofounders of Heyday Canning Co. Kat Kavner and Jaime Lynne Tulley found a distinct segment within the canned foods market by canning beans with sauces and flavorings.
In an interview on the Shopify Masters podcast, Kat explains how they checked out the canned foods in the marketplace and didn’t see anything particularly revolutionary, exciting, or flavorful. “It got us pondering that there appeared to be a chance,” she says. They desired to mix the convenience and shelf lifetime of canned food with novel flavorings. A typical consumer, Kat says, “doesn’t at all times have time to cook completely from scratch.”
Competitor research
It’s essential to have data about your product’s industry, including the scale, value, and variety of competitors. Research and evaluation of competitors establishes a basis for comparing and differentiating your product, providing you with insight into how one can promote any unique features that make your product stand out from the competition.
“We had this hypothesis that the canned food category as a complete was able to be reimagined,” Kat says. “We desired to validate that and have some good insights and data to back that up.” Her team went out and did a number of research on the large canned food firms, identifying gaps available in the market.
Pricing research
As your product takes shape and also you make any modifications after customer feedback, your next research challenge is to work out an optimal price. Surveys, focus groups and customer interviews will help determine a price customers will accept. Pricing research helps you discover which of your product’s features are valued most. The challenge is to set a price that’s not so low you miss out on sales revenue, and never so high as to discourage customers or to cause them to later regret paying such a high price.
User experience
This involves giving potential customers a dry run of the product, letting you observe how they use it, and collecting their feedback via emails, text messages and social media. Do they appear satisfied in handling the product or navigating your website? User experience research should validate the success of your product development. If it doesn’t, chances are you’ll must reassess your product development research process in addition to the product itself.
Product development research process
The product development research process has three stages:
1. Exploration
That is where you toss around ideas, resembling how a product might appear and feel, and the way it could work. You’re also searching for data about your audience—their buying habits, their preferences, and their desire for a product that solves an issue. In product development, these customer wants and wishes are known as their pain points.
This stage includes preliminary screening of an idea or ideas. You and your collaborators can accept or reject an idea after weighing its feasibility: Would the product attract a sufficient number of consumers? Do you will have a budget and the technical resources to make the product? Would it not be relatively easy or difficult to enter a market due to high startup costs, tough competition, or regulatory constraints?
2. Evaluation
Once you compromise on a product idea and judge to maneuver forward, you start the evaluation stage. It is a more rigorous assessment of a product’s probability of success. You progress beyond internal discussions together with your collaborators, to external validation methods, resembling surveys and concept testing with consumers. This involves surveying a bigger sample of potential customers and collecting more detailed data from their responses.
The evaluation stage also can include further evaluation of competition and the way your product would fill a market area of interest. As you progress, it’s best to get a more specific picture of your product and its features, and the way it would appeal to customers.
3. Iteration
At this stage, the main target is on getting product details right. Use additional surveys and customer testing to make any final refinements—a process referred to as product iteration. Customer testing and feedback are essential because your product can have modified during development, so you wish customers to see the most recent iteration. You would like as much feedback as possible because the product gets closer to final shape and market launch.At this stage, the main target is on getting product details right. Use additional surveys and customer testing to make any final refinements—a process referred to as product iteration. Customer testing and feedback are essential because your product can have modified during development, so you wish customers to see the most recent iteration. You would like as much feedback as possible because the product gets closer to final shape and market launch.
Suggestions for product development research
Product development research has many moving parts. Listed here are just a few suggestions to assist keep you heading in the right direction:
Keep customers involved
Continual feedback through the event process can validate your product while letting you adjust and proper in order that the product fulfills user needs, ensuring customer satisfaction. Use concept testing to get user input early in the method.
Learn from mistakes
The research process is supposed to allow you to correct mistakes quickly and get back heading in the right direction. “We had gotten some complaints about our ecommerce packaging not being durable enough,” Kat says. “So we did a durability test with a brand new box, throwing it off the roof of my house to see if it was strong enough to face up to all the pitfalls of shipping.”
Use your experience
Most entrepreneurs don’t step into product development cold. They often have some experience or familiarity with products much like the one they’re developing. “We each spent a couple of decade within the natural food consumer packaged goods world,” Kat says of herself and her cofounder, Jaime. “My background has been more on the marketing and innovation strategy side of the industry, and Jamie is trained as a food scientist but has spent most of her profession on the manufacturing side.” Leverage your expertise and consider working with a partner who has experience in a relevant field that’s unfamiliar to you.
Product development research FAQ
What’s the difference between research and development and product development?
Research and development is how businesses search for brand new ideas that may result in recent products. It’s step one in product development, which incorporates designing, creating, testing, and marketing products.
What’s the meaning of product development research?
Product development research means assessing the necessity for a product, and understanding the pain points of your audience and how one can make adjustments to the product to satisfy customer needs.
Why is it essential to conduct product development research?
Research gives a product team information to make decisions in the event process, resembling demand evaluation, concept testing, and marketing and sales strategy. It ensures that product development is data-driven and never based on assumptions or guesswork.
