How to create an innovative product? These are the 10 steps you must follow

Companies cannot sit still or rest on their laurels when one of their products is successful. They have to keep moving forward and innovating. Only in this way will they remain competitive in 2021. But it is not something that can be done lightly. You have to knowwhat can be sold that is innovative. In addition, it is necessary to knowwhat is needed for a product to be innovative, andhow I can create an innovative product. It is not enough to sit back and wait for inspiration to come to you. You have to follow a process with specific steps to achieve it, as everyone who studiesproduct designknows .

Before creating a product: market research

In order to create an innovative product, it is first necessary to know the market well. Therefore, it is important to carry out a market study. In this way, its status will be known, and the context in which the company’s products and services can be moved. Both current and future. What steps must be taken for this? Well, you have to collect information about the market in which the company has a market, or about those it wants to attack with new products.

Once this is done, you have to organize the information collected, study it and prepare a report with it. This report will show all the relevant data about the context in which the company’s products are sold. Both current and future. Its function is to serve as support to identify what unmet needs remain in the analyzed markets. Also serve as support and guide in the design phase of a new product.

Steps to create an innovative product

With the market study in hand, it is time to follow the necessary steps to illuminate an innovative product with guarantees. They are the following:

1. Identify the needs and niches in the market. The examination of the market study will allow you to identify your needs. This way you will be able to know how to respond to what consumers are looking for. But also find market niches not covered by any product or service, and in which there are opportunities.
2. Come up with the right idea. When you are going to create an innovative product, having a good idea is almost the main phase of its creation. But that it arises spontaneously is very complicated. That is why the right one is usually found after one or several brainstorming meetings. In them, always with the market study carried out in mind, the participants in the meeting present their ideas, always related to a main theme, to create an innovative product.
3. Selection of ideas. After the brainstorming phase, it is time to choose the most outstanding ones. Then you have to discard those that are going to have less chance of resulting in a successful innovative product. For those that remain, you have to ideas slogans, names, titles, etc.
4. Specify the advantages of each idea. Whether the idea that will lead to a definitive innovative product has already been selected or if a final selection has to be made, it is time to determine what advantages the product resulting from this idea will have. So you can also, if necessary, make a final selection of the best or best ideas.
5. Determine the target and potential audience of the product. At this point it is essential to have a market study. With it you can detect the preferences of the general public, as well as more specifically: by sex, age group, special needs, etc. In this way, the public to which the innovative product would be directed can be identified, and the best way can be found not only to address it, but also to market it so that it is successful.
6. Identify and study the competition. In addition to knowing who the target audience of the innovative product is, it is also important to know your competition. It is a good way to find some characteristic, or several, that differentiate it from the rest and can provide advantages.
7. Creation of the business model. At this point you have already decided what the innovative product that you will launch on the market will be. In it, you must necessarily include several of the data that you already have and that you have collected in previous phases. For example, the target market. But also others, such as the positioning of the innovative product in it. Also the channels through which it will be sold, the costs of its manufacture and distribution, the suppliers that will be counted on for it or the times of going to market, among other data.
8. Prototyping and development. After the approval of the business model, it is time to shape the product. First with a prototype or test version. It will serve to test its operation or reception, for example, among groups of consumers to which it can be presented. This way you will also get the first impressions of your potential target audience. And valuable information to be able to make some improvement or modification in it. Once the prototyping and testing phase has passed, you can proceed to the manufacture of the product.
9. Marketing plan and commercialization of the product. The innovative product is now ready to be shipped to points of sale. But before doing so, you must have a tailored marketing plan for the first steps of your marketing. In addition, the plan must be prepared to collect the first impressions that the target audience of the innovative product will have when they see or try it for the first time.
10. Final launch of the product. After the commercialization of the product, when the public has already begun to adopt and accept it, comes the last phase of the creation of an innovative product. This is its large-scale launch. For this you also have to have a plan, which must be prepared to make it known as widely as possible, and that your target audience is aware of its release.

These are the steps you have to take to create an innovative product. If you like to work in positions that require creativity and bring your ideas for new products and services to life, go ahead and prepare to be a product design professional!