Understanding the Value of Customer-Centric NPD

New product development is a misleading term. Despite having the word “development” in it, NPD is a multifaceted process with many stages. Essentially, it starts with recognizing an opportunity and ends with delivering a product to the market, so the key steps commonly include:Outlining the strategyGenerating ideasFleshing out the conceptGathering business intelligenceDeveloping the productTesting and refinementAs you can see, the actual development is only a fraction of what you’ll need to do. So, full cycle product development companies are increasingly relying on the study of customer expectations and communicating these expectations to all the involved teams. Fortunately, once established, the customer-centric culture can yield many long-term benefits to business operations.What Makes a Successful NPD?Because of its complexity and the number of people involved, NPD needs to be strategically aligned to achieve success. First, it should be systematic, in that the flow of ideas should be coordinated and promoted through innovation management. This can be anything from using common tools such as product lifecycle management and brainstorming to appointing innovation managers. This approach is necessary for creating a culture of innovation crucial for long-term success.Second, new product development has to be team-centered. That is, the teams involved in the process should ...


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