We help you (and insist that you) set specific objectives for your New Product Development (NPD) project so that your new products or services are actually launched in the market (and on-time). But even before this stage, and within the first 6 weeks of us working together, you will begin seeing results, including these four deliverables:
A list (of several dozen) truly innovative ideas – not simply cheaper/smaller/faster ideas – that have passed preliminary market and feasibility filtering
4-8 prioritized concepts that have been fully elaborated on by the multi-functional team during the core workshop sessions, and which have been turned into proposals for new product development projects
An action plan for implementing your new products or services, organized as a pipeline
Prototypes or MVPS, validated internally and/or externally
It’s true that ideation sessions for new product development can be stimulating and motivating, especially when the group is on a roll, generating ideas one after the next, and the facilitator is making everyone feel excited about innovation. But is this all you want to get from a Product Pipeline Development program?
SIT offers a radically different – and highly effective – strategy for NPD. We begin with an analysis of your existing product or system. Then, we jointly apply the SIT thinking tools to create what we call virtual situations. These virtual situations may be novel variations of the existing product, or completely new – even breakthrough – concepts. We test these ideas by passing them through preliminary filters – a rigorous set of questions and analyses designed to separate the truly viable ideas from the merely interesting. In the case of NPD, only ideas that the team identifies as having high market potential and a very good chance of implementation pass to the next stage. Many of our new product development projects also have a module of customer participation during the ideation to capture the Voice of the Customer in a dynamic and productive manner.
After the convergence stage, we lead you through a process of internal and external validation of your ideas, through prototyping, or creation of MVPs (Minimal Viable Products) and experimenting with them, inspired by the lean Startup Methodology.
Elements of Design Thinking are used when needed, especially in the initial phases of observation and insight gathering, but a rigorous method for ideation replaces the common Brainstorming and other fluffy techniques.
Projects often lead to the creation of new business models or other comprehensive changes in the way the company conducts its business. These stages may be accompanied by SIT or developed independently.
Next, learn about enhancing your productivity.