A Step-By-Step Guide to Product Creation
Product development is a multi-step process that starts with a single idea. Conceptualizing the type of product you want to make typically comes from meeting a need in a given market. Once you determine what type of product you want to create, the next step is to actually put it into production. Creating a product isn’t as simple as 1,2,3. It requires product design, engineering, sourcing, acquiring suppliers, partnering with the right manufacturing teams, aligning with the right factories, and so much more. Read on to learn how to create a product that will capture market attention and bring you the ROI you’re looking for.
7 Steps of Creating a Product
Before creating a product, the first step is to assess the market and determine if there is demand for it. This requires doing market research and involves getting to know your target audience. Once you identify what their wants, needs, and priorities are, you’ll be better able to meet them with your product creation.
1. List Out Your Prospect’s Needs
It’s imperative that everyone on our team understands your business from the ground up. Creating a bestselling product requires knowing how the product itself works but also why it is being created in the first place. Never forget the “why” with product development. Get specific with this and write it out. This will help guide your marketing strategy and overall business plan. Afterwards, update the product specifications as you progress through product development and manufacturing.
2. Conduct Market Research for Your Product
Understanding your target audience is key to product development. Conducting market research will help you, your product designers, and your engineers design a product that gives the people what they actually want. Research and development (R&D) involves doing a deep dive into the market, your competition, and historical accomplishments early in the product creation process.
3. Design Your Product
The product design stage of product creation is where the “how” comes into play. This is where you’ll illustrate how your product works, what it looks like, and what it does. The design stage could start with simple drawings and progress to 3D renderings. Conceptual, preliminary, product, and industrial design are all involved in the design stage.
Creating a product is a collaborative process that often requires the involvement of several parties, product designers and engineers included. Partnering with a full-service product design and manufacturing firm like East West Basics is one of the most reliable ways to ensure that this process starts off on the right foot and that the aesthetics match the functionality.
Designing a functional product requires meticulous planning and specificity. Every product creation process is different based on the industry and type of product being manufactured. Some things to keep in mind include:
- Shape
- Size
- Components
- Materials
- Colors
- Surface finishes
- Software
- User interface
- …and more
4. Find the Right Manufacturers to Create Your Product
Sourcing the right manufacturers will make all the difference in how sellable your final product is. The right manufacturer and factory can make or break the creation of a product and may impact its long term success. To find the right manufacturer, you’ll need to explore capabilities, cost, working conditions, and several other factors. Not having experience in this field can result in costly mistakes. This is why many first-time product manufacturers partner with experienced sourcing and manufacturing agencies like EWB.
5. Prototype, Test, and Iterate
After defining your concept, your team will need to start constructing prototypes. A physical model of your product will address design questions and enhance market research. You can see it, test it, obtain client feedback, and try other solutions with the prototype.
6. Plan for Production
Production planners, manufacturing engineers, quality engineers, and supply chain experts turn the whole product specification into a supply chain map, production plan, and quality system. All off-the-shelf components are sourced, unique tools like injection molds are designed and ordered, each manufacturing step is detailed, and a quality inspection and tracking system is set up.
7. Manufacture Your Product
Once the aforementioned stages are complete, manufacturing can finally begin! Still, just because the initial design stages are complete, that doesn’t mean the product development team’s work is done. Proper production is iterative and interactive. Lean manufacturing may enhance and eliminate waste from every link in your supply chain and production plan. Measure and track quality to improve your product. Your major responsibility as the person at the wheel of this operation is to ensure that you achieve the set targets for budget, time, and quality.