A sound product development strategy is essential to make an impact in today’s competitive market. Here is how to create a successful strategy that aligns with your company’s goals and objectives.
Key Takeaways:
- Businesses should establish clear, concise product mission and vision statements reflective of the company’s goals.
- Setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals helps achieve relevant product development strategy milestones.
- Designing an effective product development strategy requires thorough research and consideration.
Achieving strategic decisions on new product development methods best suited for your unique situation can be accomplished with careful evaluation of resources and potential offerings.
A well-thought-out product development strategy is essential for a company’s growth and success. Developing one for your business can be challenging, since detailed strategic planning may feel like uncharted territory.
How do you create a successful product development plan that resonates with customers and drives tangible results? Following these five key considerations will help your process.
- Ideal product mission and vision
A successful product development strategy begins by establishing product mission and vision statements that reflect your company’s goals. These statements should include the core aspects of the intended product – its purpose, target customers, and competitors. Know your business’ SWOTS (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths).
Businesses can create an efficient product development process to help them deliver quality results in less time when they understand the organization’s objectives. They can then adopt a creative approach to scaling its resources accordingly.
- Set clear goals
This might seem obvious, but one of the most critical elements to consider when creating a new product market entry strategy is setting clear goals to focus your efforts and mesaure progress against.
Setting SMART goals will help create achievable milestones relevant to your product development strategy. A strong strategy should focus on revenue projections or targeted success metrics and provide deep insight into the development process that will bring new products to life.
A goal-setting process should include:
- Projected sales levels
- Crucial action items and timeframe for attaining them
- Target market
- Goals for growth
- The exact service or product to develop/update
- Budget and existing resources
When setting goals, it’s essential to involve all relevant stakeholders to obtain insight into user needs and new offerings in the market landscape. Doing so ensures your team is always in sync and well-prepared to execute the objectives.
- Research your market
To obtain the best results, research begins by:
- Gathering insight into what products your target market seeks
- Understanding current industry product trends
- Researching customer sentiment on similar products for valuable information, including product features that work well, or areas of improvement
This information is critical to identify market gaps that can be filled by your product. Understanding what draws people to a product helps design an irresistible offering. In addition, this research will establish the foundation for making informed decisions about product pricing, packaging, promotion, and more.
A meaningful product development strategy will give your product its best chance for success. With an expected compound annual growth rate of 5%, the market is projected to expand from around $75 billion in 2021 to a staggering $90.79 billion by 2025.
- Identify your target audience
Identifying your target audience is essential for success. Researching customer demographics and psychographics will help determine exactly who your customers are and what they expect from your product or service. Understanding who you’re trying to reach is important in creating a product that truly resonates – and sells.
Once you have determined your audience, accounting for their preferences should be at the heart of any new product development strategy. Knowing what potential customers want, you can devise a development strategy to address their problems and meet their expectations.
A recent report from Zendesk says that 76% of customers want their experiences to be personal. This means they want to feel like the companies they buy from understand them and care about them as individuals. Success can be assured with the right approach and a well-considered new product market entry strategy.
- Pick your market entry mode
The chosen mode of entry is crucial when it comes to new product development and strategic product market entry. Potential options include:
- Utilizing the services of an agent or domestic distributor
- Maximizing sales potential by leveraging another company to export or incorporate your products into their services to offer them to a larger target market – Joining forces with your local business comes with endless benefits, including franchising, licensing, a joint venture, co-production, or cross-manufacturing
- Initiating direct sales via online platforms
- Selling via digital marketplaces
- Inheriting an existing local business
- Establishing a physical presence may be essential – using a rented or owned office space, or hiring a local representative
Any of these options will enable you to break into new markets with fewer risks and better outcomes than going it alone. Carefully evaluating resources and potential offerings can guide you in making strategic decisions best suited for your unique situation.
Create a winning product development strategy with Shockoe
With Shockoe, new product market entry and strategic product development are a breeze. Our innovative platform, backed by an expert team, makes crafting new product development strategies easier.
We offer comprehensive toolkits to help you chart new territory, define marketing tricks that work best for your needs and predict the kind of success you can expect from new product launches. Our industry-leading technology solutions ensure your new long-term product strategy pays off and allows for better visibility into data-driven decisions. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to learn more about how Shockoe can help you.
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