Jira Software

Project and issue tracking

Content collaboration

Jira Service Management

High-velocity ITSM

Visual project management

  • View all products

Marketplace

Connect thousands of apps and integrations for all your Atlassian products

Developer Experience Platform

Jira Product Discovery

Prioritization and roadmapping

You might find helpful

Cloud Product Roadmap

Atlassian Migration Program

Work Management

Manage projects and align goals across all teams to achieve deliverables

IT Service Management

Enable dev, IT ops, and business teams to deliver great service at high velocity

Agile & DevOps

Run a world-class agile software organization from discovery to delivery and operations

BY TEAM SIZE

Small Business

BY TEAM FUNCTION

Software Development

BY INDUSTRY

Telecommunications

Professional Services

What's new

Atlassian together.

Get Atlassian work management products in one convenient package for enterprise teams.

Atlassian Trust & Security

Customer Case Studies

Atlassian University

Atlassian Playbook

Product Documentation

Developer Resources

Atlassian Community

Atlassian Support

Enterprise Services

Partner Support

Purchasing & Licensing

Work Life Blog

Support for Server products ends February 15, 2024

With end of support for our Server products fast approaching, create a winning plan for your Cloud migration with the Atlassian Migration Program.

Assess my options

new product development project plan

Atlassian Presents: Unleash

Product updates, hands-on training, and technical demos – catch all that and more at our biggest agile & DevOps event.

  • Atlassian.com
  • Product Management
  • New product development process

New Product Development - The 7-Step Process Explained

Browse topics.

Delivering innovative products can help you gain a competitive advantage, but maintaining that advantage requires continuously delivering new products that keep pace with your customers' evolving needs. New product development is the key to building and keeping market share and customer loyalty.

What is new product development?

New product development is the end-to-end process of creating a product that has never been brought to market—from idea to concept, prototyping, developing, testing, and launch. It involves building a product strategy and roadmap to successfully guide cross-functional teams and stakeholders through the entire process.

Unlike product enhancements and upgrades that modify and improve existing products, new product development addresses the unique challenges of designing and delivering brand-new products. This article discusses the seven stages of new product development, some challenges Agile teams face along the way, and how you can succeed.

The 7 stages of new product development

Successful Agile software development takes careful planning and good project management practices . The seven stages of new product development guide you through the process by breaking the work into stages or steps.

1. Generating ideas

Every new product begins with a problem and ideas to solve it. Ideas may come from within the company, such as the customer service team, or from outside via customer and market research. In this phase, it's important to gather all ideas without discrimination. The more ideas you can brainstorm, the better.

Products such as Jira Product Discovery help product teams structure the chaos of prolific ideas. Ideas can be supported by data, customer feedback, sales input, support tickets, and more to help shape what the product team should focus on, creating ongoing feedback loops. Idea generation is most effective as a team activity with the outcome of developing the essential elements for a new product. 

To help you prioritize ideas, methods such as a SWOT or Competitive analysis take the guess-work out of the process. When generating ideas, having a clear understanding of where opportunities exist and knowing how the competition stacks up can lead to brainstorming disruptive and game-changing ideas.

2. Screening ideas

Agile teams can use Jira Product Discovery matrixes to view a large number of ideas, using criteria such as impact, effort, and confidence level before scoring and selecting which ideas to move into the next phase. Gathering and organizing product ideas in a centralized tool makes it easier for product teams to prioritize which ideas or features will drive the most impact.

Scoring ideas by product development effort versus the overall impact of the solution is an excellent way to focus on those with the most impact. The SWOT and competitive analysis templates from step 1 can provide the foundation for where to place priorities. 

You can also identify good ideas that are simply not right for this new product but may be suitable for future products and the goals of the team. Screening ideas can be difficult, but aligning each good idea to your goals and comparing its impact to other ideas will help identify the most impactful opportunities.

3. Creating a product strategy

After selecting ideas to develop into a new product, it's time to create your product strategy. This is a concise definition of the need that the new product meets. A good product strategy includes the vision, target market or user, position in the industry, features and benefits, and the value the new product brings to the business. This phase involves creating a clear definition of the requirements.

Confluence offers a strategic plan template that can help you refine your strategy messaging, remove ambiguity, and clearly communicate the goal. From here, the Confluence requirements template walks you through the process of outlining your objectives and success metrics, listing assumptions and options to address them, and adding supporting documentation. These efforts include prototyping and validating with customers, ensuring the product being built will be something that customers actually want.

4. Building a product roadmap

A product roadmap is an action plan. It outlines product functionality and release schedules and helps you manage new product development. Think of the roadmap as the core communication tool for short- and long-term efforts that align with your business goals. It's a shared source of truth for a product’s vision, direction, priorities, and progress over time. Creating a great product roadmap keeps your entire team working together and moving in the same direction. They also make it easy to check in on the work at any time throughout the product development life cycle.

Product teams using Jira Product Discovery can then share their product strategy using always-up-to-date, custom roadmaps to present which ideas will be built, when, and why.

5. Prototyping

Time to market is critical for new product development, and your ability to rapidly prototype and develop products ensures viable solutions. Jira Product Discovery’s integration with software development tools like Jira Software makes it easy to seamlessly connect your entire software delivery lifecycle.

Defects and change requests are simply a fact of new product development, but concise tracking and issue management keep everyone on your team informed, organized, and on schedule. Testing can span both internal quality assurance (QA) teams as well as customers and end users engaged in alpha, beta, or user acceptance testing. Jira Software is the leading tool that Agile teams use for testing, in part because it optimizes the QA workflow by writing and managing test scripts, tracking test cases, and managing defects. 

The product roadmap template from the previous step, along with other Confluence project planning templates , also inform testing and help ensure you miss nothing.

7. Product launch

You only get one chance to make a good first impression, and launching a new product requires careful planning and delivery. Every step in the process is a building block to a successful launch. Confluence’s product launch template helps ensure a smooth launch.

Additionally, sales and marketing, HR, and legal teams are already using your product strategy and roadmap to align messaging, identify opportunities, and ensure regulatory compliance. Using Jira Work Management , they can seamlessly connect their work with the product team’s. It provides a streamlined UI and integrations with the tools they use daily, such as Gantt charts and spreadsheets.

4 main types of product development

There are four types of product development, including:

  • New product development : These are products that haven’t been released in the market before, such as software applications that solve new or novel customer problems. 
  • New product categories : These products may not be new to the marketplace, but they are new to the company developing them. For example, a software company may expand their offering to include products within the category they currently develop, such as adding tax accounting to their portfolio of personal finance applications. 
  • Product line extensions : These expand the products offered within the organization’s existing range of products, such as adding new industries within a category. For example, a company may develop accounting software for the construction industry and decide to extend their accounting software to the airline industry.
  • Product enhancements : These are new features and capabilities within existing products. Companies generally design them to provide customers with new or added value. Enhancements respond to changes in the market, performance issues, or new competitive products. 

Example of new product development

Whether creating a new product that hasn’t been seen in the market before, or expanding an existing application to address new geographic locations, understanding the time it will take to develop is essential. 

Jira Software insights help teams make data-driven decisions based on their own historical progress. Insights can come from every aspect of the product development process and provide continuous improvement opportunities with each new product development project.  

3 challenges teams encounter in the new product development process

Great tools can help alleviate the challenges of new product development. Understanding these challenges and how to address them can keep your team on track for a successful launch.

1. Defining clear requirements

When speed is important, the requirements often become an ironclad set of instructions. While clear requirements are necessary, Agile teams must have a shared understanding of and empathy for the customer. Include various members of your team in requirements-gathering activities, such as customer interviews. When designers, developers, and QA share an understanding of user stories, they can produce results more quickly and accurately without maintaining rigid rules.

Confluence’s requirements template gives you the power to capture and update assumptions, use cases, UX design, and scope together.

2. Estimating the development effort

Working with realistic project timelines is essential for bringing new products to market and gaining a competitive advantage. However, product development tasks are notoriously difficult to estimate, and new product development can be even harder. Break work into smaller tasks for more accurate estimates. In addition to giving you more flexibility with resource assignments, smaller tasks minimize the impact on your overall project when something takes longer than expected.

Many Agile teams have switched from traditional estimates to story points—units that measure the effort teams require to fully implement a user story. A user story is an informed explanation of a feature from the user's perspective. With Jira Software, Agile teams track story points, reflect, and quickly recalibrate estimates.

3. Siloed tools

Collaboration is a critical component in your team's success and the success of their products. Development teams use a variety of specialized tools, such as visual design tools for creating mock-ups and instant messaging apps for hosting team discussions. No single tool can provide the specialized functionality for all the needs of the development team. Jira Product Discovery and Jira Software integrate with a wide range of specialized development tools to easily collect and incorporate important information.

How long does new product development take?

The time to develop a new product can vary widely based on the complexity of that product. For example, developing an application that securely processes credit card payments may take magnitudes longer than developing software to track exercise statistics. But a few tips can help reduce the time to market while maintaining quality. 

Expert tips from Atlassian for new product development

Understand the customer.

Begin with the customer’s needs in mind. The time you spend early, interviewing customers and gathering input, helps create a clear product strategy. The entire team should understand the problem they are solving for the customer. It will keep the team on track when they make decisions during development. 

Foster team collaboration

When the team has the tools for seamless collaboration, generating ideas, prioritizing issues, and solving problems is much easier. Today’s product development teams include a wide range of cross-functional roles. The best way to prevent silos and keep the team working together is with collaboration, respect, and genuine appreciation for each other’s contributions. Centralized tools such as Jira Product Discovery and Jira Software help foster this.

Define the requirements

A good product specification outlines the purpose, what the client needs the product to do, the technical and functional requirements to achieve that, design mockups, and even release plans. This foundational document takes time to create, but it helps teams refine and clarify fuzzy requirements and align on the scope of the project. 

Optimize resource allocation

Resource allocation is among the hardest aspects of new product development, so the roadmap must be well-defined before you begin. Understand the tasks included in the project, their dependencies, and the resources required. Visual workflows can help teams identify when you underutilize or overcommit resources. They can also highlight bottlenecks and roadblocks to allow teams to quickly adjust and stay on track. 

Jira makes new product development easier

Jira Software provides success tools for new product development teams to collaborate on and manage work from idea to product launch. Agile teams have made Jira the leading solution for new product development.

Jira Product Discovery is a dedicated tool that aids teams in crucial stages of product development. It helps Agile teams gather and prioritize ideas and align everyone with product roadmaps. 

With Jira Product Discovery matrixes and criteria, you can easily select which ideas to move ahead with, enhancing the experience of product development.

How to Manage Scrum Remote Teams

Learn about what scrum remote teams are, as well as how to manage them. Read about benefits, challenges and helpful tools to use.

Distributed Teams: Strategies for Success

Do you work on a distributed team, maybe remote or virtual? Learn how to manage, structure and build culture with a distributed agile team.

Innovation for Everyone: Everything You Need to Know About New Product Development

By Kate Eby | May 21, 2017 (updated February 26, 2023)

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

The future of your company is dependent upon it staying relevant. In this day and age, that means that new, innovative products must keep pace with the marketplace. Product development lifecycle times are becoming shorter and shorter to keep up with customer’s expectations and needs. While perhaps daunting, a short lifecycle can optimize your company’s strengths by tightening processes and cutting out extra steps. The following guide is a comprehensive lesson on product development for both new products and those undergoing a revamp. We explain what new product development is, as well as the history and pioneers of product development. Next, we delve into all of the different process models, including product development lifecycles, and discuss the best practices for developing your own processes along with some tips from our experts. Finally, we’ll take a closer look at new product development in marketing.

What Is New Product Development?

New Product Development (NPD) is the total process that takes a service or a product from conception to market. New or rebranded products and services are meant to fill a consumer demand or an opportunity in the marketplace. The steps in product development include drafting the concept, creating the design, developing the product or service, and defining the marketing.

A new product opens a whole new market: It can completely replace a current product, take over an existing product, or simply broaden the market for something that already exists. Sometimes existing products are introduced to new markets, repackaged, or marketed differently. New products can improve the use of a company’s resources, launch a company into a new market or segment of the market, improve the relationship a company has with its distributors, or increase or defend a company’s market share.

New products generally differ from a product line extension, which are products that are slightly different to the company’s existing array of offerings. Examples of new goods include mass-market microwaves and Keurig one-cup gourmet coffee machines. In the case of microwaves, a whole new market was born when they were mass-produced and offered at reasonable household prices. In the case of the Keurig machine, the gourmet coffee experience previously only found in a coffee shop was brought into the home. Examples of product line extensions include the Infiniti automobile line and Diet Coke. For the Infiniti line, Nissan targeted the premium vehicle market by extending their auto line at a higher price point. Coca-Cola company used Diet Coke to target the market of soda drinkers that wanted a lower calorie soda than their regular Coke product. Both of these products capitalized on pre-existing products that had already garnered brand loyalty. 

What Is Fuzzy Front End, and Why Is It So Important in Product Development Processes?

Process management is a technique that ensures improvements are introduced with a consistent, structured set of activities. In your product development processes, whether for a new or revamped product, your process management strategies are critical to ensuring that your products will be continuously improved. These strategies will necessarily include your product development processes, and ensure that even very complex products make it to market consistently and improved regularly. The four phases of product development are:

1. Fuzzy Front-End (FFE): FFE, often called the ideation step, is considered one of the best opportunities for driving innovation in a company. FFE is not frequently mapped in any formal way, since this is the phase where you pitch all of your great ideas for solutions to your customer’s problems. FFE is called fuzzy because it occurs before any formal development starts, in the vague period where little structure or defined direction exists. Very few products that are originally pitched in FFE come out of it; however, this stage of pre-development is critical. Successful completion of pre-development can take you seamlessly into development.

There have been many case studies that examine how FFE is done in different companies, looking for consistencies and best practices. Some companies have idea management software or some type of regular way that they generate ideas. Some companies use integrated product teams (IPTs), a group that is responsible for defining the product. Volumes have been written about FFE because of its relative importance in product development, but the FFE process is unique to each company.  However, there are a few consistent activities that occur with every FFE approach, and provide teams with critical decision points before moving forward. These include:

  • Determining the innovation goal. This preliminary analysis is your opportunity to figure out what problem you need to solve for your customers before you make a product. For example, one big failure in the annals of product history is Google Glass. Google made a device without considering what problems they were solving for their customers. Therefore, their product was a monumental (and very expensive) failure.
  • Figuring out what your customers think about this goal. People will buy a product or service that solves a problem for them, but the problem itself must be present. Products that customers don’t need, didn’t ask for, or degrade your brand loyalty are unsuccessful. For example, in 1985 Coca-Cola Company released New Coke, a revamp of their classic Coca-Cola beverage formula. This reformulation changed a 100-year old recipe based upon market taste research. However, once New Coke was launched, consumer outcry was overwhelming. Within 79 days, the company replaced New Coke with the original Coca-Cola formula repackaged as “Classic Coca-Cola.” New Coke is now widely considered the biggest commercial marketing blunder of all time.
  • Reviewing other market segments for possible connections or technology to get ideas. When thinking about new products, it’s important to collect data on how people are using the product, how much they will pay, and whether the price for the benefit is reasonable. During your market research phase, you should also review the market size and conduct a segmentation analysis.
  • Prototyping your ideas. A prototype is a mockup of the proposed product, intended to verify your design. The extent of the product prototype is dependent upon your company’s needs. Some companies need a fully-functional model to show how the product works, while some companies will only require a 3D representation. Further, you should test your prototype in different use-case scenarios and identify its points of failure.
  • Testing your ideas with your customer base. You should conduct a customer value assessment to obtain the opinion of a sample of your target market. This assessment helps to adequately predict the response to the release of your product. Experts say that early customer involvement cuts down on uncertainty and helps make product objectives clear product. This is called listening to the voice of the customer (VoC).
  • Planning how to funnel these potential products into your product development process. Planning is the initial stage of deciding how to develop, mass produce, and market the new prototype. This is your opportunity to conduct a technical assessment, and also your source-of-supply assessment.

new product development project plan

Regardless of how your company performs FFE, there are some deliverables you should expect to create for each product that moves beyond FFE. These include:

  • A mission statement
  • The market trends
  • The customer benefits and acceptance data
  • The technical concept
  • Product definition and specifications
  • Economic analysis of the product
  • The development schedule
  • Project staffing and the budget
  • A business plan
  • An economic analysis

Regardless of how innovative they are, all new product ideas must meet certain criteria for your company. They must:

  • Fit your company skill sets.
  • Fit the interest of your company.
  • Solve a problem for someone.
  • Be something that someone will buy.
  • Be scaleable.

Use these criteria to whittle down your ideas into manageable new products for your company and keep innovation in check. Not every “great idea” is appropriate for every company to develop.

Further, when you are defining your product, there are several questions that you should ask as early in the process as possible. You can disperse these questions into your FFE process or put them into a checklist before moving to development. The intent is to ensure that all of your bases are covered prior to moving forward, and to ensure that your stakeholders do not surprise you with questions that you can’t answer. These include:

new product development project plan

Download Checklist Here

2. Design: Once a product is more than just a notion, the next step in the product development process is the product design. Some of these activities may have been started in FFE, but in this step, all of the planning goes into high gear so that you capture both the high-level design processes and detail-level requirements. This step is mostly about validating the manufacturing feasibility of the product, and how you’ll integrate the internal components of the design.

3. Implementation: During this phase of development, you will determine whether your prototype meets your design and requirements specifications from the previous steps, and you will also figure out how to deliver the product and provide support for your customers. At this point, you prepare your facilities that will manufacture, provide the supplies for, transport, and distribute the product.

4. Fuzzy Back-End (FBE): This stage is sometimes called the “messy” back-end of innovation. This process is not considered as fun as the innovation process because in FBE, fun meets the execution processes and you must be disciplined about the release. This is the true commercialization phase where production and product launch happen in a structured way. In other words, the FBE is where the product truly comes to life in the marketplace, executing a company’s strategic vision. 

What Is Innovation?

Innovation refers to any time you introduce new products, or even make changes to old products. From your customer’s perspective, ideas that become solutions to their problems are innovative. There are many different ways that you can categorize the different types of new products. Depending on how you break them down, these may include products that are only new to your company. However, there are four universally agreed-upon categories for innovation:

  • Breakthrough Products: The type of product that most people immediately think about when they think about innovation. The product may be new to the company or the world and may offer a huge improvement in performance, a great reduction in cost, or a leap in technology. Sometimes these products converge technology so that several different products come together to create something new. These products come on strong in the market, then quickly drop to a lower level of performance as other manufacturers catch up. Many of Apple’s products in Steve Jobs’ era were considered breakthrough products, such as the iPhone.
  • Incremental Products: Also known as sustaining products, they often reduce costs, improve existing product lines, reposition existing products in new markets, or are an addition to an existing platform. They generally improve the current product with new generations. Sustaining products are critical in the market because they usually perform pretty well and extend the life cycle of the breakthrough product before they taper off. Profitability is maximized in the incremental product because it generates revenue for future development without incurring huge development costs.
  • Platform Products: These products set the basic architecture for a next-generation product. They are larger in scope than incremental products. You may use the basic design of platform products for several products in a family and can satisfy a variety of markets.
  • Disruptive Products : These products have a longer initial gestation period upon release, but then have enormous growth. Disruptive innovations are those that offer simple, low-cost solutions to your customers’ problems. They disrupt market-leading products by offering low-quality products, then improving the quality until they capture the mainstream market. For example, when Netflix came out it wasn’t a disruptor because customers didn't get the immediate gratification of getting their movies like they could by going to the Blockbuster store. However, as Netflix’s service improved, shortening the time to deliver movies and eventually streaming them online, they put Blockbuster stores out of business.

The History of Product Development Processes

Product development processes started to evolve when more formalized process management approaches were applied to product development practices in the 1990’s. Companies such as Ford, AT&T, and General Electric started pioneering new ways to evolve their product development activities in more efficient ways. At the same time, many companies also took on Business Process Reengineering efforts that revamped their manufacturing and business processes. With the new approach, they found three truths:

  • Projects are completed faster when they have less going on at one time.
  • Relieving bottlenecks is critical to improving time-to-market benefits.
  • Improving processes by decreasing variation and waste allows for more creativity and better development.

Further, once companies learned that they should take and plan all of their development projects collectively, they could develop according to strategic priorities and stop falling behind in deadlines.

From the development of the formalized processes, several membership groups emerged to share ideas and concepts, and to stay on top of industry research and trends. Some of the organizations certify professionals and sponsor conferences, seminars, and coursework. These include:

  • Product Development and Management Association (PDMA): This organization is the certifying body for the New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification. As of 2017, they have about 3,000 members in 50 countries, but only have chapters in the U.S. and Canada. They have been around since 1976, and focus on the whole set of development activities, from conception to the sunset of products. They also focus on current research in new product development and partner with many commercial organizations. Membership costs about $200.
  • Association of International Product Marketing & Management (AIPMM): This organization is the certifying body for the Certified Product Manager, the Certified Product Marketing Manager, the Agile Certified Product Manager, the Agile Certified Product Manager Product Owner, the Certified Innovation Leader, and the Certified Brand Manager. The group also focus on the whole product development lifecycle. Founded in 1998, they have members in 75 countries, and they comply with the requirements of ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024:2012, for certifying bodies. Membership fees range from $125-$175, depending on the products you request.
  • The International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM): This organization started in Norway in 1973 with the intent of introducing products and tools for innovation management research. Its 400+ members reside in 70 countries, and the group hosts scientific conferences and produces publications for the product development industry. Membership fees are between about $100-$200, depending on your status as a professional or student. ISPIM is not a certifying body.
  • Society of Concurrent Product Development (SCPD): This organization bills itself as an educational society who puts out the latest information on product development. They are supporters of technology, especially for concurrent product development (CPD), or concurrent engineering. Their memberships fees range between free and $75 annually.

Product Development Process Models

Your company depends on being able to formalize your innovation process properly. According to urban legends of new product development, between 70 and 90 percent of new products fail. More conservative, peer-reviewed studies compiled by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) actually put that failure number between 30 and 49 percent. Even with these lower failure rates, however, there is still a large amount of money at stake. Therefore, a process model is critical to saving your company money and time. There are many different approaches and models for innovation, depending on the needs of your company. Most process models can be categorized according to their relative objective within your company. These include those that:

  • Describe and evaluate actual practice
  • Recommend an ideal process
  • Make a system out of  development activities
  • Simplify development activities
  • Are centered around your customers
  • Are team-based within your company

The following are the most commonly used models, with varying levels of utility and success for different companies.  

The Scorecard-Markov model : The Markov analysis model is a mathematical model that deals with the probabilities of things happening. These things are divided into the past, present, and future. The past isn’t as relevant as the present, because the present gives us the probability of something happening in the future. The Markov model is especially helpful in scenarios where there are transitions from one state to another. In this model, you develop a matrix that represents the transition states and how likely they are to go from one to another, and apply it to the Scorecard-Markov model to make new product screening decisions. Developed to act as a scorecard for new product ideas, the matrix includes your customers’ needs, the strength of your marketing, your company’s competency, the compatibility of your manufacturing, and your distribution channels. In other words, this model is used to whittle down all of your ideas from FFE to ones that make mathematical sense for your company. It is a formal, evidenced-based process for the people you report to who want “real data” on why some ideas make it out of FFE and some do not.

The IDEO Process: This model comes from a design and consulting firm of the same name, and is set apart because it is the “human-centered design process,” designing from the perspective of the user. IDEO’s designers make a point to observe real people in real situations, looking for the Form-Fit-Function (FFF) of their designs. FFF specifies the interchangeability of parts in a system and describes the characteristics of parts. Further, if a part is not needed for the fit, form, or function, it should not be added. This process targets the FFE of innovation and includes the following steps:

  • Observation
  • Prototype quickly
  • Get user feedback

The Booz, Allen, and Hamilton (BAH) model:  This is one of the earliest and most well-known models for new product development. It is considered foundational for all other models developed to the present day in any industry and is meant to be sequential. Booz, Allen, and Hamilton state that, “For every seven new product ideas, only one succeeds.” This model does not take into account the need for speed and flexibility in today’s marketplace product development. The seven steps of the BAH model are:

  • New product strategy
  • Idea generation
  • Screening and evaluation
  • Business analysis
  • Development
  • Commercialization

The Stage-Gate model:  Also known as the Phase-Gate model, this is a project management approach that divides up the process of developing new products into a funnel system. Once each stage of product development is complete, it passes through a management-approved gate prior to moving onto the next stage. Sometimes stages are processed simultaneously. In this model, companies save money by filtering out the bad concepts and ideas through a funnel by the time the process is complete. In a study in 2010 by the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), the Stage-Gate model was the most popular system for new product development in the United States - 88 percent of businesses use it. Originally, Robert G. Cooper developed this eight-step model in the 1980s, boasting a 30 percent cycle reduction time. Dr. Cooper developed the Stage-Gate model using benchmarking research, on the premise of determining why some products succeed and some fail. Benchmarking in the Stage-Gate model is evaluating your process against other processes or standards of product innovation in the industry.

The following eight stages were developed to improve the new product’s marketability and your team’s productivity once you have a product idea. After each stage is complete, you must decide whether or not to continue.

Stage 1: Generating Your company has a product idea. The first step counts on your performance of a SWOT analysis . In a SWOT analysis, also known as a SWOT matrix, you perform a basic scan of your organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal to your company, whereas the Opportunities and Threats are external. Things to consider during your SWOT analysis are the current marketing trends, return on investment (ROI), and any notable costs such as distribution. This step is where you develop the roadmap for the product. Many experts advise developing more than one road map scaled to fit different risk levels.

Stage 2: Screen the Idea

In this step, an objective group or committee reviews criteria that you developed and decides to either continue or drop a project. This step is done quickly so that you drop any ideas that do not make the cut. Market potential, competition, ROI, and realistic production costs should be part of the criteria.

Stage 3: Test the Concept  

In this step, you are testing the concept with your customers. This is after the internal screening step, so the picture itself is more firm. The customers should be able to display their understanding of the product, and say whether they want or need it. Their feedback gives your company some marketing ideas and potential tweaks to the product itself.

Stage 4: Business Case Analysis

In this step, you have a fully formed product; the concept has been reviewed internally and externally. At this time, you can develop a set of metrics and a business case. The metrics should include the development time, the value of any launched products, the sales figures, and other data that shows the utility of your process. The business case should paint a complete picture of the product, from the marketing strategy to the expected revenue.

Stage 5: Product Development

This is the step where your product takes flight. You are getting ready for consumer testing, so the technical team must complete your design. During this step, you should complete beta versions, settle on manufacturing methods, and address packaging.

Stage 6: Test Market

In this step, the whole concept is together and pitched to your consumer test group as the beta test. In this way, you validate your concept. At this time, you should work out any technical issues with the product.

Stage 7: Commercialization

This is the step that finally takes your product to launch in the marketplace. Complete final marketing and prices, and give the finalized details to rest of your company - especially the sales and distribution teams. Set up technical support to monitor customer’ needs.

Stage 8: Launch!

The launch plan should be comprehensive for maximum impact. At a minimum, include these seven things in your launch plan:

  • Market research including who will buy your product
  • A competitive analysis outlining how your product is different and similar to the competition, why customers may buy elsewhere, and how you will lure them to your product
  • A marketing strategy and the test of the strategy with your focus group
  • A public relations program
  • A complete product
  • A marketing plan timeline
  • A trained and ready sales team

It is important to understand this model, as many firms still adhere to the traditional eight-step process. The APQC revamped this eight-step model and consolidated into a five-step, five-gate model. This also aligns with traditional process mapping. Stage zero of this consolidated process is your innovation process with all of your company’s great ideas. Stages one and two could ideally be categorized under the same screening step. Also, after you launch the product, you should perform a review of your process. The steps in this consolidated and slightly reworked model are:

Stage 1: Discover new product ideas

Stage 2: Build your business case

Stage 3: Development

Stage 4: Test

Stage 5: Launch

The following picture illustrates where the stages are in the new model. Decreasing the number of steps also decreases the number of decision points, which streamlines your process.

new product development project plan

What Is the Product Development Lifecycle?

All of the previous processes outlined had aspects of new product development in them. However, the Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC) encompasses every phase of a product, from the idea to retirement. You should approach product planning with an organized, thoughtful process, so that you don’t have poorly implemented products that are either unnecessary, unwanted, or overly expensive.

Many different PDLCs have been produced for product and service development, including separate ones for new software development. However, experts recommend that your cycle reflects your company’s unique processes and needs. Some example follow.

You can view PDLC at a high-level, including the four stages of the fuzzy front end, messy back end, commercialization, and retirement.

new product development project plan

You can also look at PDLC in a quite detailed way, such as the following cycle:

new product development project plan

There are many methodologies that have been incorporated into product development. Many of these are familiar to business professionals, as they have roots in Business Process Management concepts. These include:

  • Lean Product Development (LPD): Lean product development uses the lean principles of innovation, shortening development time, and redevelopment cycles, and employs low development costs, low production cycles, and low production costs to develop new products. Allen Ward, who wrote Lean Product and Process Development states that Lean principles increase innovation by a factor of ten, and increase the introduction of new products by 400 to 500 percent. Lean divides new product development into what customers wish for, want, and need.
  • Design for Six Sigma (DFSS): DFSS is a process management technique that is related to the traditional Six Sigma (SS) methodology. However, it differs from the traditional methodology in that DFSS does not focus on improvement of an existing process or processes, but on preventing process problems at the beginning. DFSS, like SS, focuses on measurement. Implement DFSS by performing these steps: define, measure, analyze, design, verify (DMADV). By contrast, the steps in SS are define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC).
  • Flexible Product Development : This methodology for product development is counter to many popular development methodologies such as LPD and DFSS. This method encourages the company to continually make changes, even late into development, by remaining agile. The techniques used to produce this agility (which keeps the cost of change low) include modular architectures, experimentation and using an iterative approach to design, set-based design, and allowing new processes to develop as the product develops. In Flexible Product Development: Building Agility for Changing Markets , Preston Smith says that innovation only declines when using processes like Six Sigma and Lean because they are much too rigid for breakthroughs to happen.
  • Quality Function Deployment (QFD): This methodology is a concurrent engineering approach where quality is designed into products, not discovered as missing or present later. Quality is defined as when a product meets the needs of the customer while providing value. QFD pays special attention to the “voice of the customer” through interviews, surveys, focus groups, reports, and observation. This data is then put into a matrix for product planning and designed from their inputs. QFD includes the whole company in product development, including departments such as marketing, quality, engineering, and finance, which makes the approach more balanced and realistic.
  • User-Centered Design (UCD): Also known as user-driven development (UDD), this methodology places usability at the core of each design step. You must validate each usability assumption in real world testing. The biggest difference between UCD and everything else is that UCD optimizes how people already do things. There is no movement toward changing their experience.
  • Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA): The manufacturing industry uses both DFM and DFA, and are examples of concurrent engineering design. DFM designs with the idea that manufacturing is easier to achieve, while DFA designs intentionally for the ease of assembly. Both have specified rules to accomplish them.  

No discussion of process methodology would be complete without acknowledging the more recent capabilities that technology has to offer. Virtual product development (VPD), especially in markets where competition is fierce and the lead time for new products in necessarily short, is a great alternative to developing physical prototypes before production. VPD is the production of prototypes in a digital 2D or 3D setting. You can design, test, stage, and plan the manufacturing of a product in a digital environment. VPD is now done in almost every industry from fashion to manufacturing, although it was traditionally used in construction. Aside from the speed to manufacturing, it allows teams to work remotely, decreasing the general and administrative costs of personnel, and considerably decreasing the development cycle time. Before VPD, a 24-hour development cycle was unheard of. Now, it’s a reality.

How to Create a Product Development Process

Especially in a tough economy, innovation may be necessary because it makes companies more competitive. Even though the natural managerial response to an economic downturn is to reduce spending, it would be ill-advised in development. Innovation can reposition a company in the marketplace and grow it for the future. Whether you are looking to improve your current processes or build new ones, there are some best practices and mistakes to avoid.

Best practices to improve your product development processes:

  • Put your customer’s needs and wants first.
  • Be readily manufacturable.
  • Price fairly, not greedily.
  • Consider your profit margins early.
  • Your quality should be “high enough.”
  • Introduce at the right time.
  • Anticipate your competition.
  • Use a process management approach.
  • Integrate new product development within your company, not as a separate entity.
  • Audit your projects.
  • Develop databases for your projects, including notes and the processes used.
  • Have your engineers use development notebooks.
  • Develop a central collection of results.
  • Use market research and test market results.
  • Develop a project management database.
  • Develop technology and marketing databases.
  • Create job performance reports on each of your projects.
  • Follow up projects with seminars and workshops on any issues encountered.
  • Publish in technical journals, at least occasionally, to move industry standards.
  • Use cross-functional teams.
  • Develop a model of product development for your company.
  • Develop metrics for your product development process.
  • Record snapshots of your design at major points during the process.
  • Be consistent with your naming conventions.
  • Where possible, minimize iterations of your products.
  • Get team buy-in sooner, rather than later.

Some additional best practices for those companies dispersed in different countries:

  • Involve your overseas subsidiaries in your development process.
  • Create cross-national teams for new idea generation.

Many decisions are made and practices are built at the highest levels. Sometimes we do not realize that our carefully crafted practices can lead to bad decisions in the future, or down the hierarchy of our company. The following are ways to head off bad decisions in product development:

When possible, standardize your decision-making criteria.

For many companies, decision-making is based on experience and may be difficult when you are creating a new development process. However, you should still give your teams the benefit of knowing what information management needs to make a decision, and give management the “real” picture that includes risks and problems without the fear of punitive action. With clear information requirements, your teams can give management a clear picture.

Make your timelines realistic. Are your timelines already based upon a launch date? It’s tough when there is already a deadline before your team understands the customer needs or the product’s technical challenges. If your timelines are too aggressive, your team may be forced to put out ideas that are half as good or that don’t really meet your customer’s needs.

Be willing to take a stand. Decisiveness is a trait of a good leader. It is absolutely appropriate to want as much information as possible before you make a decision, but in short development cycles, it is critical to weed out the additional options quickly so your team can focus.

Pull down any functional silos. A cross-functional development team has the advantage of having the perspective of your full company. It would be frustrating and time wasting if you didn’t consider downstream stakeholders or missed significant opportunities simply because a representative from manufacturing or sales was not on your team. Further, with a cross-functional team, you ensure that your company objectives are cohesive.

Ensure that your product is the best it can be.

Some companies struggle with the idea of pushing back a launch. Remember: launching a product that is inferior to what you first projected is not better than pushing your launch back or even cancelling it. Should you find yourself in the unfortunate position where you have to decide to either push your launch back, cancel your launch completely, or launch what you have, run a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) . Your CBA should especially take into account those items you noted on your risk register as possible if you skimp on quality or any step. It is true that sometimes rushing to market is necessary, even critical to securing your product’s rightful place. But at the end of the day, you must ask yourself: Is it worth alienating your customers with a sub-par product?

How Fast Can You Get a Product to Market?

In this guide, we’ve covered the idea that a quality product shouldn’t alienate your customer base, and that it’s better to have a quality product than a fast-to-market product. However, what if fast-to-market is the most important criterium for your business model? And for that matter, do speed and quality have to be mutually exclusive? For many entrepreneurs, speed is the answer. The shortened development cycle is critical when you have only a small window to keep your customer’s attention. To continue to shorten your development cycle, you need a few things:

  • High-functioning management
  • Extremely talented creatives
  • Excellent distribution channels
  • Targeted advertising
  • Reactive customer-service
  • Expertise in the marketplace
  • Customer need

If you have all of these things, the time it takes to get to market is only dependent upon whether your products satisfy your company’s strategic goals. Your core products will maintain a competitive edge regardless of their quality.

Another way to keep your development cycles short is to work in a parallel approach, which can work in two ways. In the first option, you have multifunctional teams working in parallel. In the second, those teams can complete as many tasks as possible in parallel. This is where your process maps become critical, as well as senior managers whose support is guaranteed. Some other aspects of fast parallel product development are:

  • Teams that are empowered to make good decisions
  • Tasks assigned in parallel
  • Path project management
  • Assigned managerial champions for every project
  • Defined products
  • Pre-production testing

Experts Weigh in on Product Development.

Our experts have a lot to say about product development. We interviewed two experts with experience in software and new product development.

new product development project plan

According to Sarah Meerschaert, PMP, Research and Development, CenTrak :

“I have been the Project Manager for R&D for three and a half years. I consider myself a bit like a midwife, helping the development team bring new products into the world. The newer or how unique a new product is as compared to your current offerings, the more risks associated with it. Often small improvements over time can be the safer option. Emerging technologies and emerging markets can open up opportunities where it is worthwhile to build a new product farther outside the wheelhouse. Development of something truly new can offer a greater reward, but also more room for error! “The world of software is quickly moving and iterative. The world of products cannot adapt as quickly. That being said, 3D printing and other quick prototyping innovations have allowed for quicker turnaround times in product development. With less time needed, more innovation is taking place. However, patent law is no small boundary and many upstart inventors can find themselves in legal trouble because of unintentional infringement, or with other companies quickly copying their ideas before patents are securely in place. “As development processes improve, I see product development happening quicker and at a lower cost point for entry. At the same time, I am encouraged by the collaborative efforts made by development teams, often on open source products which are created purely for the joy of creation. “Newbies would be well served by spending time learning about product development methodologies. It is also important to remember that product development is a journey of discovery. There is no point at which you will know less about your final product than at the outset of development; be flexible in your approach.”

new product development project plan

Our expert Dean Geraci, with more than 25 years of product development is the General Manager at  ProMation Engineering,  Inc. 

He tells us, “The most important aspect of new product development for newcomers it to follow the steps needed for any new product in a development pipeline. While called different things, each level needs to be completed before the next. First is Concept – What is the product and can it be made? Here customer requirements meet technical details. One might not have all the answers at this stage, but the essence is that can the product be made that meets market or customer needs.

“The next stage (they are also called gates – because you need to pass through to get to the next) is Feasibility. This is probably the most important and takes considerable thought. Can and how do I make the product at the price point I need? Market research, component identification, capital requirements, initial business plan (including marketing) as well as many other aspects need to be fleshed out in this phase. Development/Qualification is the next phase. Sometimes these two aspects are combined, but many times are separated, especially if there is a regulatory need or extensive field testing of the product after making the initial run of products or first articles.

“The Development phase defines the processes and operating procedures to make the product efficiently. Qualification is the testing required to ensure that the developed product meets the market or customer needs. The last phase is Launch where all the elements come together – business plan, go to market strategy, pricing, customer/market segmentation, promotion/advertising to name just a few – to bring the product to market. Skipping any of these steps can lead to failure of the product or worse: recalls, lost opportunity, retreating from the market. The key is to fail early and fix the issues at hand before the product is in the customer's hands.”

What Is Product Development in Marketing?

Your product development marketing strategy helps you generate interest around your new or revamped product. Your product marketing strategy incorporates your new product introduction process (NPI), which comes into effect after completing the design and testing. This is the stage where manufacturing takes over. In other words, this is where the prototype goes to full production and into a sale. NPI takes over where NPD leaves off.

A product marketing strategy should include your customer analysis, product development, pricing, branding, and sales and distribution plan. The following are a list of things you should do to be effective in your product marketing:

  • Get Your Strategy Ready Early: Your customers should be able to understand what your product does, how it compares to the competition, and what distinguishes it. You should be working on your marketing plan before your product leaves the FFE, and firm it up through development.
  • Use Social Media: Your should build your product’s landing page as soon as it is out of development and vetted by your consumer test groups. Use your site’s available features to collect even more consumer information for your launch. Continue to keep your product momentum going by building a Facebook page and opening a Twitter account for your product.
  • Get Internal Buy-in: Everyone in your company should be a cheerleader for the newest product. Further, anyone in your company can have an idea about its promotion, so listen to all of them - gems can turn up in the most unexpected places.
  • Designate Your Goals and Budget: As your product is making its way, you will want to designate a team responsible for its launch. Your team can put together a comprehensive marketing project and budget.
  • Develop Your Marketing Materials : It's time to put together your product marketing support with content, and your advertisement package. Internally, you will need to determine the product needs for customer support, warranty, and repairs.

Streamline New Product Development Processes with Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

  • Product development process: The 6 stag ...

Product development process: The 6 stages (with examples)

Alicia Raeburn contributor headshot

The product development process is a six-stage plan that involves taking a product from initial concept to final market launch. This process helps break down tasks and organize cross-departmental collaboration. Find out how to implement a process of your own.

Product development is both an exciting and difficult endeavor. From initial ideation to research and prototyping, no two product launches are the same. However, there’s a general process that can help you get started with the product development process. 

The product development process describes the six steps needed to take a product from initial concept to final market launch. This includes identifying a market need, researching the competition, ideating a solution, developing a product roadmap, and building a minimum viable product (MVP).

The product development process has evolved in recent years and is now commonly used by dividing each step into six separate phases. This helps better organize the process and break individual deliverables into smaller tasks.  

What is the product development process?

What is product development?

Is product development the same as product management.

Though they sound almost identical, there's an important difference between product development and product management. Product development describes the process of building a product, where product management is the overseeing of that work. It's a slight difference, but an important distinction. A product manager, who often oversees a team that is in the product development process, will lead product management.

The 6 stages of product development

Not only does the product development process help simplify a launch, but it also encourages cross-team collaboration with teamwork and communication at the forefront of the process. 

Let’s dive into the product life cycle and define the six product phases. All of which can help you successfully launch your next product. 

The six stages of the product development process

1. Idea generation (Ideation)

The initial stage of the product development process begins by generating new product ideas. This is the product innovation stage, where you brainstorm product concepts based on customer needs, concept testing, and market research. 

It’s a good idea to consider the following factors when initiating a new product concept:

Target market: Your target market is the consumer profile you’re building your product for. These are your potential customers. This is important to identify in the beginning so you can build your product concept around your target market from the start.  

Existing products: When you have a new product concept, it’s a good idea to evaluate your existing product portfolio. Are there existing products that solve a similar problem? Or does a competitor offer a product that doesn’t allow for market share? And if yes, is your new concept different enough to be viable? Answering these questions can ensure the success of your new concept.

Functionality: While you don’t need a detailed report of the product functionality just yet, you should have a general idea of what functions it will serve. Consider the look and feel of your product and why someone would be interested in purchasing it.

SWOT analysis : Analyzing your product strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats early in the process can help you build the best version of your new concept. This will ensure your product is different from competitors and solves a market gap. 

SCAMPER method : To refine your idea, use brainstorming methods like SCAMPER , which involves substituting, combining, adapting, modifying, putting to another use, eliminating, or rearranging your product concept.   

To validate a product concept, consider documenting ideas in the form of a business case . This will allow all team members to have a clear understanding of the initial product features and the objectives of the new product launch. 

2. Product definition

Once you’ve completed the business case and discussed your target market and product functionality, it’s time to define the product. This is also referred to as scoping or concept development, and focuses on refining the product strategy. 

During this stage, it’s important to define specifics including:

Business analysis: A business analysis consists of mapping out distribution strategy, ecommerce strategy, and a more in-depth competitor analysis. The purpose of this step is to begin building a clearly defined product roadmap.

Value proposition: The value proposition is what problem the product is solving. Consider how it differs from other products in the market. This value can be useful for market research and for developing your marketing strategy.

Success metrics: It’s essential to clarify success metrics early so you can evaluate and measure success once the product is launched. Are there key metrics you want to look out for? These could be basic KPIs like average order value, or something more specific like custom set goals relevant to your organization. 

Marketing strategy: Once you’ve identified your value proposition and success metrics, begin brainstorming a marketing strategy that fits your needs. Consider which channels you want to promote your product on—such as social media or a blog post. While this strategy may need to be revised depending on the finished product, it’s a good idea to think about this when defining your product to begin planning ahead of time. 

Once these ideas have been defined, it’s time to begin building your minimum viable product (MVP) with initial prototyping.

3. Prototyping

During the prototyping stage, your team will intensively research and document the product by creating a more detailed business plan and constructing the product.

These early-stage prototypes might be as simple as a drawing or a more complex computer render of the initial design. These prototypes help you identify areas of risk before you create the product.

During the prototyping phase, you will work on specifics like:

Feasibility analysis: The next step in the process is to evaluate your product strategy based on feasibility. Determine if the workload and estimated timeline are possible to achieve. If not, adjust your dates accordingly and request help from additional stakeholders.

Market risk research: It’s important to analyze any potential risks associated with the production of your product before it’s physically created. This will prevent the product launch from being derailed later on. It will also ensure you communicate risks to the team by documenting them in a risk register . 

Development strategy: Next, you can begin working through your development plan. In other words, know how you’ll be assigning tasks and the timeline of these tasks. One way you can plan tasks and estimate timeline is by using the critical path method . 

MVP: The final outcome of the prototyping stage is a minimum viable product. Think of your MVP as a product that has the features necessary to go to launch with and nothing above what’s necessary for it to function. For example, an MVP bike would include a frame, wheels, and a seat, but wouldn’t contain a basket or bell. Creating an MVP can help your team execute the product launch quicker than building all the desired features, which can drag launch timelines out. Desired features can be added down the road when bandwidth is available.

Now it’s time to begin designing the product for market launch. 

4. Initial design

During the initial design phase, project stakeholders work together to produce a mockup of the product based on the MVP prototype. The design should be created with the target audience in mind and complement the key functions of your product. 

A successful product design may take several iterations to get just right, and may involve communicating with distributors in order to source necessary materials. 

To produce the initial design, you will: 

Source materials: Sourcing materials plays an important role in designing the initial mockup. This may entail working with various vendors and ordering materials or creating your own. Since materials can come from various places, you should document material use in a shared space to reference later if needed.  

Connect with stakeholders: It’s important to keep tight communication during the design phase to verify your initial design is on the right track. Share weekly or daily progress reports to share updates and get approvals as needed. 

Receive initial feedback: When the design is complete, ask senior management and project stakeholders for initial feedback. You can then revise the product design as needed until the final design is ready to be developed and implemented. 

Once the design is approved and ready to be handed off, move onto the validation phase for final testing before launching the product. 

5. Validation and testing

To go live with a new product, you first need to validate and test it. This ensures that every part of the product—from development to marketing—is working effectively before it’s released to the public.

To ensure the quality of your product, complete the following:

Concept development and testing: You may have successfully designed your prototype, but you’ll still need to work through any issues that arise while developing the concept. This could involve software development or the physical production of the initial prototype. Test functionality by enlisting the help of team members and beta testers to quality assure the development. 

Front-end testing: During this stage, test the front-end functionality for risks with development code or consumer-facing errors. This includes checking the ecommerce functionality and ensuring it’s stable for launch.

Test marketing: Before you begin producing your final product, test your marketing plan for functionality and errors. This is also a time to ensure that all campaigns are set up correctly and ready to launch. 

Once your initial testing is complete, you’re ready to begin producing the final product concept and launch it to your customer base. 

6. Commercialization

Now it’s time to commercialize your concept, which involves launching your product and implementing it on your website. 

By now, you’ve finalized the design and quality tested your development and marketing strategy. You should feel confident in your final iteration and be ready to produce your final product. 

In this stage you should be working on:

Product development: This is the physical creation of your product that will be released to your customers. This may require production or additional development for software concepts. Give your team the final prototype and MVP iterations to produce the product to the correct specifications. 

Ecommerce implementation: Once the product has been developed and you’re ready to launch, your development team will transition your ecommerce materials to a live state. This may require additional testing to ensure your live product is functioning as it was intended during the previous front-end testing phase. 

Your final product is now launched. All that’s left is to measure success with the initial success metrics you landed on. 

Product development process examples

Now that you understand the six stages of the product life cycle, let’s look at real world examples of some of the most successful product development strategies of iconic startups to inspire your own.

Example 1: How Figma expanded their product features

Originally started in 2012, Figma was the first professional-grade UI design tool built entirely in the browser. Today, Figma has grown into the leading competitor for design web applications.

Their mission is to make design accessible to more people and help them bring their creativity to life. They’ve shown this by continuously adding new product features—like multiple flow capabilities, a brainstorming timer, and an interactive whiteboard—coordinating successful software releases, and building trust through transparency.

Read our case study to learn how Figma uses Asana to manage development backlogs. 

Example 2: How Uber solved a market gap

While today we think of Uber as the biggest ride-sharing service, that wasn’t always the case. They too started with a compelling product strategy that made them into the innovative company they are today. 

Uber’s strategy began by solving a gap in the existing taxi industry: creating an easier ride-hailing process with simplified payment processing. But they didn’t stop there: they continued to innovate their product portfolio by developing ride tiers ranging from luxury to budget-friendly. 

While each situation varies slightly, with the right product strategy, you too can create an innovative portfolio. 

Who is part of the product development team?

There are many stakeholders and various teams that assist with the product development process. The main leader is the product manager, who oversees all product tasks related to ideation, research, development, and product launch. 

Who is part of the product development team?

Additional important stakeholders include:

Product management: A product manager oversees all areas of the product life cycle and works to bridge communication gaps between various internal and external teams. The product manager works to initiate new product launches and initiates product ideation and market research.

Project management: A project manager may be involved in the product development process to assist with cross-departmental communication. They might also assist with task delegation and goal tracking.

Design: The design team helps during the prototyping and designing phase to support the visual product concept. It’s important to connect product designs with brand guidelines and UX best practices. 

Development: The development team helps with the implementation of the product on your website. Most commonly, a team of developers will work together to build the new product offering depending on the complexity of the concept.

Marketing: The marketing team will assist with developing the marketing strategy and testing it before the product goes live. They will also measure the success of the marketing initiatives.

Sales: The product manager works with the sales team to come up with an effective strategy and report on success metrics after the product has been implemented. 

Senior management: Senior stakeholders may need to give final approval before the product can go to launch. 

In addition to these important roles, other teams that may be involved are finance, engineering, and any other related stakeholders. All of which can play a role in the process depending on the complexity of the concept. 

The process that simplifies product development

The right product development process can help you streamline each step with organized tasks and team collaboration. The six stages outlined above will get your team through all steps of the process, from initial idea screening to the development phase. 

But you might need help along the way. Coordinate tasks and organize your product development process with Asana for product management . Asana can help get your products to market faster by tracking workload and simplifying planning.

Related resources

new product development project plan

How to build a best-in-class project intake process

new product development project plan

Proof of concept (POC): How to demonstrate feasibility

new product development project plan

What is a Scrum master and how do I become one?

new product development project plan

Project management software and tools: Your best picks for 2023

Logo

Product Development Project Plan Template

Product Development Project Plan Template

What is a Product Development Project Plan?

A Product Development Project Plan is an actionable roadmap for product development teams in any industry planning and managing the development of a new product. It includes focus areas and objectives that define clear goals and measurable targets (KPIs) to help track progress and effectiveness of a product. It also includes related projects that teams can implement to achieve their targets and ensure success.

What's included in this Product Development Project Plan template?

  • 3 focus areas
  • 6 objectives

Each focus area has its own objectives, projects, and KPIs to ensure that the strategy is comprehensive and effective.

Who is the Product Development Project Plan template for?

This Product Development Project Plan Template is designed to help product development teams in any industry create an actionable roadmap and achieve success with their product launch. It includes the necessary steps and suggested measures to ensure that the product meets customer needs and is delivered in a timely manner.

1. Define clear examples of your focus areas

Focus areas are the main topics or categories that you will be focusing on for your product development project. Examples of focus areas could include product design, product testing, product delivery, customer feedback, and more. It is important to define these focus areas as they will provide the foundation for creating objectives, projects, and measurable targets (KPIs).

2. Think about the objectives that could fall under that focus area

Objectives are the goals that you are aiming to achieve in each focus area. For example, under the focus area of product design, an objective could include designing a product that meets customer needs. It is important to think about the objectives that could fall under each focus area as they will help you decide what projects and measurable targets (KPIs) are necessary.

3. Set measurable targets (KPIs) to tackle the objective

Measurable targets (KPIs) are the measurable goals that you are aiming to reach in each objective. For example, under the objective of designing a product that meets customer needs, a KPI could be to gain qualitative insight into customer needs. This KPI can then be tracked to ensure that the objective is being achieved.

4. Implement related projects to achieve the KPIs

Projects (actions) are the initiatives that need to be completed in order to achieve the measurable targets (KPIs). For example, under the KPI of gaining qualitative insight into customer needs, a project could be to research customer needs. It is important to identify and implement related projects to ensure that the KPIs can be achieved.

5. Utilize Cascade Strategy Execution Platform to see faster results from your strategy

Cascade Strategy Execution Platform is a powerful tool that helps teams achieve success with their product development project plans. It allows teams to easily track progress, set measurable targets (KPIs), and ensure that the product meets customer needs and is delivered in a timely manner. With Cascade, teams can see faster results from their strategies and ensure their success.

  • Integrations
  • Learning Center

What is Product Development?

Product development typically refers to all stages involved in bringing a product from concept or idea through market release and beyond. In other words, product development incorporates a product’s entire journey.

Standard Stages of Progress in Product Development

There are many steps to this process, and it’s not the same path for every organization, but these are the most common stages through which products typically progress:

Identifying a market need.

Products solve problems. So identifying a problem that needs solving (or a better way of being solved) is where this journey should begin. Conversations with potential customers, surveys, and other user research activities can inform this step.

Quantifying the opportunity.

Not every problem is problematic enough to warrant a product-based solution. However, the pain it causes and the number of people or organizations it impacts can determine whether it’s a worthy problem to solve and if people are willing to pay for a solution (be it with money or their data).

Conceptualizing the product.

Some solutions may be obvious, while others may be less intuitive. Here’s where the team puts in the effort and applies their creativity to devising how a product might serve its needs.

Validating the solution.

Before too much time is spent prototyping and design, whether the proposed solution is viable should be tested. Of course, this can still happen at the conceptual level. Still, it is an early test to see whether the particular product idea is worth pursuing further or if it will be rejected or only lightly adopted by the target user.

Building the product roadmap.

With a legitimate product concept in hand, product management can build out the product roadmap , identifying which themes and goals are central to develop first to solve the most significant pain points and spark adoption.

Developing a minimum viable product (MVP).

This initial version of the product needs just enough functionality to be used by customers.

Releasing the MVP to users.

Experiments can gauge interest, prioritize marketing channels and messages, and begin testing the waters around price sensitivity and packaging. It also kicks off the feedback loop to bring ideas, complaints, and suggestions into the prioritization process and populate the product backlog.

Ongoing iteration based on user feedback and strategic goals.

Get the Product Development Roadmap Checklist ➜

Product Development is Not Product Management

When you understand product development this way, you can see that it is not synonymous with product management , although many people mistakenly use the terms interchangeably. Indeed, product development does not refer to a single role at all.

In some organizations, “product development” may be shorthand for the implementation team, comprised primarily of developers, engineers, and possibly quality assurance.

But, when it comes to the house’s personnel side, it should instead view it as more of an overall process or method for bringing products to market, which involves many teams across a company, including:

  • Product management
  • Product marketing
  • Project management
  • Agile management (Scrum masters, product owners, etc.)
  • Architecture
  • Development/Engineering
  • Manufacturing
  • Testing or QA
  • Shipping/Distribution

Essentially, it encompasses everyone involved, from idea generation through to customer delivery. Each of these groups plays an essential role in the process, defining, designing, building, testing, or delivering the product.

How to Create a Product Development Plan in 3 Steps

Not to be confused with a project plan, a product development plan encompasses the overarching journey from idea to market. It should include and engage as many stakeholders as possible to ensure all of their specific needs, requirements, and concerns are being considered (if not addressed).

1. Start with a product vision.

It begins with a product vision, which aligns everyone around the shared objective for this product. This is followed by a product mission—the ultimate purpose of the product, who it is for, and what it does for them. Finally, it establishes some guiding principles for the work to come.

With product vision and mission statements in hand, primary goals for the product can be established. These may be a little fuzzier in the early stages, such as finding product-market fit, but they can rapidly evolve into measurable KPIs or OKRs. These measurable targets help shape which features, enhancements, and capabilities the product needs to achieve them.

2. Craft a roadmap.

Download the Product Roadmap Kit ➜

3. Implement the roadmap for maximum impact.

Once the product roadmap is agreed upon, it’s time to make things happen. Implementation teams can create schedules, break down significant themes into sprints, and generate iterations of the product. This creates a feedback loop from customers, the sales team, and support, identifying new opportunities, pointing out shortcomings, and shining a light on areas to hone, improve, and expand.

From here, it’s a cycle of reviewing data, synthesizing feedback, and continually updating the product roadmap while grooming the product backlog to ensure every development cycle is utilized for maximum impact.

How Do Product Roadmaps Fit Into Product Development?

Whether you start at the conceptualization stage or first try to identify and validate a market need—you will want to have a system in place for prioritizing, summarizing, and capturing your product’s key objectives and significant themes.

The ideal tool for this early-stage planning is a product roadmap designed to strategically and visually convey your high-level product. So why is it essential to build your roadmap visually? There are several reasons to do so, but here are the two primary benefits:

1. With a visual product roadmap, you and your team can more easily refer back to the product strategy you agreed on and quickly reacquaint yourself with those high-level objectives to make sure you’re still on track.

ProductPlan-kanban-style-roadmap

Contrast this visual, easy-to-review roadmap with a typical spreadsheet-based roadmap loaded with features and to-do items arranged in no particular order, and you can understand why dedicated roadmapping software makes all the difference.

A visually appealing roadmap can also help a product manager present its strategic goals and plans more compellingly to the company’s executives and other key stakeholders.

Earning this buy-in is often necessary to secure organizational approval to move ahead with new product development. Therefore, it makes sense to give your product roadmap every advantage you can before presenting it to your stakeholders.

What is Agile Product Development?

Agile product development is another term you might hear often. This refers to the familiar product development concept we described in the introduction—all steps involved in delivering a product to the market—including agile software development principles, such as rapid iteration based on user feedback.

Download the agile product manager's guide to building better products ➜

The benefit of the agile framework is that it allows an organization to shorten the cycle from brainstorming through actually launching a product—because the product team intentionally pushes out versions of the product (starting with its early-stage MVP) much more quickly and with much fewer updates and improvements in each release. In addition, this allows the team to enlist the feedback of actual users to make the product better incrementally.

A More Literal Definition of Product Development

Finally, you might also encounter a far more narrow definition of product development, describing the product’s actual development: This would be the coding stage in software or manufacturing in a physical product).

When it comes to software, development teams can create and maintain their product development roadmaps to prioritize, summarize, and communicate their plans to build and ultimately release the product. For example, below is a product development roadmap template that your team can use to stay on track during the development process.

Product Development Roadmap Template by ProductPlan

Takeaways: Where the Magic Happens in Agile

Product development is the hard part. It’s where bright ideas collide with reality and where utopian visions of the future crash into the limitations of technology and headcount that separates dreamers from doers.

To avoid a promising product vision from faltering in the face of challenging work and difficult hurdles, roadmap strategies should be tightly coupled with Agile planning to optimize the work being done. To learn more about how rapid iteration can stay true to long-term objectives, check out this webinar .

Safe Agile ProductPlan Large Organizations

A Product Manager’s Role in SAFe®

Agile started with software development. Although many organizations have found the principles beneficial. The ability to quickly assess, adjust, and...

Scrum Master

4 Key Responsibilities of Outstanding Scrum Masters

A scrum master's responsibilities extend far beyond serving as a bridge between product management and development.

minor missed details

Missed Details That Can Cause Huge Product Reputation Ramifications

Product managers are all about prioritization. The items that deliver the most value to a product’s reputation, help the product...

Continue exploring

You can search or explore specific categories.

Prioritization and Backlog

Company news and updates, templates and workbooks, remote product management, product metrics and analytics, product strategy example, product managers, tools and resources, customer-centricity, product leadership, product management, roadmap and roadmap management, product strategy, agile & product development, career and interviews, try productplan free for 14 days, share on mastodon.

new product development project plan

Cart

  • SUGGESTED TOPICS
  • The Magazine
  • Newsletters
  • Managing Yourself
  • Managing Teams
  • Work-life Balance
  • The Big Idea
  • Data & Visuals
  • Reading Lists
  • Case Selections
  • HBR Learning
  • Topic Feeds
  • Account Settings
  • Email Preferences

Creating Project Plans to Focus Product Development

  • Steven C. Wheelwright
  • Kim B. Clark

With an “aggregate project plan,” companies map out and manage a set of strategic development projects.

The Idea in Brief

Could anything else go wrong with your company’s product development efforts? You’re running out of money. Products are late. Panicked team leaders are cutting corners. Most alarming, people are squandering scarce resources on “the squeakiest wheels” rather than tackling strategically important products.

How to halt the chaos? Approach product development more systematically—with an aggregate project plan . No single project can define your firm’s future; rather, the set of projects does. An aggregate project plan helps you manage your company’s project mix and allocate scarce resources shrewdly. It categorizes projects based on their contribution to your firm’s competitive strategy and the resources they consume. And it highlights gaps in your development pipeline.

After building an aggregate project plan, most companies eliminate the lion’s share of their existing projects—freeing up resources for their most strategically valuable efforts.

The Idea in Practice

To build your aggregate project plan:

Classify existing projects according to five categories. Each category entails different degrees of product and manufacturing change. The greater the degree of change, the more resources the project consumes.

  • needed incremental changes to existing products such as cheaper, no-frills versions, new packaging, or more efficient manufacturing. Relatively few resources .
  • needed major changes that create entirely new product categories and markets. Significant resources .
  • plan fundamental improvements in cost, quality, and performance over previous generations of products. Though these projects entail more extensive changes than derivatives—and less than breakthroughs—they require considerable upfront effort from numerous functions. Offering significant competitive leverage and the potential to increase market penetration, they should form the core of your aggregate project .

Example: 

Sony dominated the personal audio system market with 200+ Walkman models based on three platforms. The models offered something tailored to every niche, distribution channel, and competitor’s product.

  • products creation of new materials and technologies that eventually translate into commercial developments. These projects compete with commercial efforts for resources. However, a close relationship between R&D and commercial projects is essential for a balanced project mix and smooth conversion of ideas into .
  • resources relationships formed with other companies to pursue any type of project. Many companies fail to include them in their project planning or to provide them with enough .

Estimate the average time and resources needed for each project type based on past experiences. For example, how many engineering months does each project type typically require?

Identify your existing resource capacity.

Determine the desired mix of projects. Include some from every category needed to support your overall corporate strategy, paying special attention to platforms. Example: 

Scientific-instrument maker PreQuip strategically allocated 50% of its resources to platform, 20% to derivative, and 10% each to R&D and partnership projects.

Estimate the number of projects your existing resources can support. Allocate available resources according to your strategic product mix.

Decide which projects to pursue. Example: 

PreQuip reduced its number of development projects from 30 to 11 (3 derivatives, 1 breakthrough, 3 platforms, 3 R&D, and 1 partnership). Fewer projects meant more work got done; more work meant more products. The company’s commercial development productivity improved threefold.

The long-term competitiveness of any manufacturing company depends ultimately on the success of its product development capabilities. New product development holds hope for improving market position and financial performance, creating new industry standards and new niche markets, and even renewing the organization. Yet few development projects fully deliver on their early promises. The fact is, much can and does go wrong during development. In some instances, poor leadership or the absence of essential skills is to blame. But often problems arise from the way companies approach the development process. They lack what we call an “aggregate project plan.”

new product development project plan

  • SW Steven C. Wheelwright is the Class of 1949 Professor at the Harvard Business School, where he specializes in product development. His most recent book, coauthored by Kim B. Clark, is Leading Product Development (The Free Press, 1995).
  • KC Kim B. Clark is the Harry E. Figgie, Jr., Professor of Business Administration and Dean of the Faculty of Harvard Business School. They are coauthors of Design Rules: The Power of Modularity (the first of two volumes), to be published by the MIT Press in 1998.

Partner Center

Project.co

A Beginner’s Guide to Project Management for Product Development

Last updated on 24th November 2023

Whether you’re developing a brand new product from scratch or you’re planning on adding a couple of updates to an existing product, project management is vital. 

Great project management can be the fine line between finishing on time and missing your deadline. Coming in under-budget or blasting through your budget. 

There are lots of different models for product development, each with their own phases or stages outlined. 

In this article, we’re going to break the product development process down into 5 stages and cover how you can manage each step effectively with the help of a project management tool .

Article Contents

1. Ideation

First thing’s first: you need to come up with an idea, a problem to solve or an improvement to make.

This could be for a brand new product, or it could be a new feature or update that you want to add to an existing system. 

Whatever the task at hand, ideation involves a lot of research and team collaboration. And if you don’t have a good handle on your project management, this can quickly become chaotic. 

If you’ve got one team doing market research, someone conducting customer surveys, and another team brainstorming – how can you be sure that none of that hard work will be lost or miscommunicated when it is shared?

At Project.co , one of our biggest aims is to keep everything simple by keeping everything in one place! 

Our embeds feature allows you to add your live documents – be they spreadsheets, vision boards, or even prototypes – to your projects so that everyone involved can see what’s happening.

Think of it as a joint folder that everyone can access. This ensures that nothing is lost in emails or private folders, and it also allows everyone to collaborate together on ideas in real-time. 

new product development project plan

2. Screening

Regardless of whether your ideas are for a brand new product or an update to an existing one, it’s still important to whittle your ideas down so that you’re left with the best couple. This is usually referred to as idea screening .

Idea screening at this stage is crucial because from here on out the product development costs start to creep higher and higher. It’s important to make sure you only go ahead with ideas that will generate profit. 

Short sprints are a great way to screen your ideas. Split your team into groups and send them away for a few days, each managing a handful of ideas. 

Then bring the groups back to present the positives and negatives of the best idea that was allocated to them. At the end, the entire team can input to decide which ideas should move forward and which can be put aside for now. 

If you want to find out more about successfully managing sprints, read our article: What is a Sprint – and How to Manage One .

Or jump right in with our free Development Sprint template .

3. Design & implementation

After deciding on an idea, it’s time to put it into action. This is where the wider team gets involved, such as designers, engineers, and developers. 

At this stage, costs start to become involved. So it’s important to ensure that everyone is working in the most productive way possible. 

A project management tool allows you to keep track of all of the people working on your project, and gives you oversight into what they are doing. 

The Project.co tasks feature makes it easy to organise everyone’s individual duties, while at the same time giving you a clear view of the bigger picture. 

Tasks can be assigned to a team member, given a date, and even given a status. When looking at tasks on the Kanban view, it’s easy to see where progress is being made and also if there are any potential bottlenecks in the development. 

new product development project plan

You can add as many people as needed to each project via the People tool. This includes internal team members, clients and even freelancers.

new product development project plan

And everyone involved can collaborate and communicate.

By creating one centralised place for managing the development of your product, you can reduce costly and timely errors that could be caused by miscommunication.

4. Marketing

The next step in the process is to develop your marketing goals. This will involve further research of your target market and an outline of your planned sales and profit goals.

With Project.co, you aren’t limited to managing all aspects of your product development on just one project. You can create as many projects as you need to. 

When it comes to marketing, you could create one project to manage your ad campaigns, one for your PR stuff, one to keep on top of influencer marketing – you name it!

By creating different projects, you can ensure that your team members aren’t being bombarded with irrelevant messages when they’re trying to get on with their work. 

And, if you ever need to add someone to a project, all it takes is a couple of clicks.

5. Launch (& celebrate!)

Finally, when everything is done it’s time to release your product to the world, sit back, and relax…

…okay, maybe not! 

After your launch, it’s important to keep monitoring the performance of your product and make sure you’re hitting your goals.

You can also use Project.co for this. You could set up a project specifically designed to review product performance, adding tasks to remind you. 

You could also use tasks to manage any future updates that you plan to add to your product – the possibilities really are endless!  

Final thoughts

Product development is never really over. There’s always a new update to manage, a new feature to add. 

With a project management tool, you can make product development a whole lot easier. And with Project.co you don’t even have to worry about setting up your projects.

Our Product Development templates come ready-made, with pre-set tasks, project details, notes, and more. 

See one that fits your needs? Click on it to get started.

  • Feature request template
  • Website development template
  • Development sprint template
  • Product roadmap template
  • Bug tracking template

Create your FREE account

Conceptboard Logo black

7 ultimate templates for every stage of the product development process

Product Development Template

This post is also available in: German

What is product development?

Product development is the driving force of any product-driven company. From conception, to design and ultimately execution, a great new product helps you stay one step ahead of the competition, capture new markets and drive profits.

However, new product development is not a simple process. With multiple stakeholders involved throughout the process, it can quickly get messy. Following a clear, systematic approach will help maintain control and efficiency, creating less friction along the way.

To help you structure your ideas and create a clear, strategic overview, we’ve created templates for each step of the new product development process.

What is an example of new product development?

Apple inventing the iPhone is an example of new product development. Nike’s new Go FlyEase shoes that can be put on without using your hands is another example of new product development.

What are the 7 stages of product development?

To help you navigate this complexity, it helps to break the product development process up into seven stages. The seven stages are:

  • Concept/Ideate – Generate new ideas
  • Feasibility study and design planning – Making the right choices
  • Design & development – Building the vision 
  • Testing & verification – Prototype, iterate, rinse, repeat 
  • Validation & produce collateral, validate against customer needs
  • Manufacture/launch – Building your product
  • Continuous improvement – Feedback and review

7 free Product Development templates 

To help you navigate each stage, our free templates will help you focus on the big picture, visually organize your ideas and work collaboratively with your team. They are perfect for teams following Agile methodologies , or models such as Waterfall or the Stage-gate process .

And of course, as they are all available on our collaborative online whiteboard, they are suitable for remote or distributed teams.

So let’s take a look at the seven product development stages and corresponding templates.

1. Concept/Ideate – Generate new ideas 

The product development process begins with extensive ideation brainstorming sessions . This stage involves all stakeholders and participants engaging in ‘ Blue sky thinking ’- brainstorming without limits! The objective of this stage is to spark inspiration. 

Given the sheer volume of ideas generated, it is important to have the right tools to facilitate this. The   Crazy 8s template is an excellent technique to produce a wide range of diverse ideas from the whole team. Give each team member eight minutes to sketch out eight ideas on a Crazy Eights template.

T he frenzy that follows can produce some pretty wild, unfiltered ideas, and one of them might just be your new product. Simply click on the image below to use the template now.

crazy 8's template

Use template

2. Feasibility study and design planning – Making the right choices

After extensive brainstorming and idea generation, product managers look for actionable insights that can translate into products and features. This stage in the product development process is perhaps most critical to the product’s long-term success. 

The sheer volume of ideas generated can be overwhelming for product managers, so how do you choose the right product that matches the set goals?

This simple Priority Matrix template helps prioritize from within a list of possible product ideas and organizes them in a convenient matrix. Prioritize products with greater product/market fit and shelve low-priority ideas with this simple yet powerful tool.

Simply click on the image below to use the template now.

Priority Matrix template Conceptboard

3. Design & development – Building the vision 

Envisioning the purpose of a product, the intention behind creating it and how customers will use it prior to building it will ensure everyone starts off in the right direction. 

The Product Vision Board is a simple template that focuses on five key components of the desired product: The overarching vision for the product, the Target Audience , why their needs, the key functions of the product and how it achieves the business goals. 

By completing this before, you get too far down the process, you will ensure you are designing a product with customers in mind. Simply click on the image below to use the template now.

4. Testing & verification – Prototype, iterate, rinse, repeat 

Now it’s time to put your hard work to the test. Take the prototype to your customers and collect their feedback to identify any possible issues or roadblocks. Whether it’s a new website, or a new piece of technology, it’s important to show, not tell. 

By putting it to the test in, you can gather real feedback. Don’t be afraid of feedback, both positive and negative, will help you continually refine your product. 

A useful template to compile the feedback of each test phase is the Retrospective canvas . It prompts you to answer: What went well? What was bad? Further ideas? Possible actions?

Quick retrospective template

5. Validation & collateral production

User panels help you better understand product-market fit and make last-minute tweaks to the product. A customer journey map not only captures feedback during test panels, but also helps you garner a deeper understanding of your customer’s motivations, needs and pain points. 

Use this opportunity to understand preferred touchpoints and refine the go-to-market strategy for the product launch. Simply click on the image below to use the template now.

new product development project plan

6. Manufacture/Launch – Building your product

Now that all stakeholders are aligned on the project milestones and responsibilities have been assigned, it’s time to get down to business! It falls to the Product Manager to ensure all deliverables adhere to projected timelines. 

The sheer number of moving parts in this stage can make it a project management nightmare. The Product Management Canvas is a product manager’s best friend. Designed to act as a checklist when undertaking product planning, but it’s also the perfect tool to capture the current state of an evolving product, especially when multiple departments are involved.

Product Management Canvas Template

Use template now

7. Continuous improvement – Feedback and review 

While we’ve outlined the important stages in the product development process, the process itself is by no means linear. Constant user feedback and analysis of usage data should feed into the development at every stage. This is especially true post-launch. Once the product has been launched, it is time to revisit the process and understand opportunities for future optimization. 

While it is important to recognize and acknowledge what went right, it is equally important to understand and analyze what went wrong. 

The Lessons Learned template is one of our most popular retrospective templates to capture feedback. It promotes positivity as it places equal emphasis on documenting the failures as well as the wins, so they can be replicated for future projects. Alternatively, check out one of our other popular retrospective templates here .

lessons learned template

The templates outlined are extremely useful in the product development process as a means of organizing, prioritizing and presenting complex information. Feel free to explore our entire template library to see what other templates can help you, or read some of our recent articles:

  • 11 best retrospective templates for sprint & project retrospectives
  • 15 brainstorming techniques & templates for 2023
  • 3 collaborative product roadmap templates that drive agile principles
  • 9 virtual icebreaker games for remote teams & meetings

Conceptboard is an online-whiteboard that helps you collaborate visually and seamlessly with your team, regardless of location. Discover how to simplify your product development workstream on a daily basis using Conceptboard here . 

Give Conceptboard a try by signing up for a free 30 day trial now.

More interesting articles for you

Christmas Game Template on Online Whiteboard with Santa, Reindeer and snow falling

Unwrap the Joy: Elevate Your Team’s Holiday Spirit with Our Exclusive Christmas Game Template!

A person next to a board with a prototype or wireframe template

Wireframe Template – A structure to build something great | Free Template

Onboarding journey template

The Complete Guide to Hybrid Employee Onboarding in 2023

11 comments . leave new.

This was a very meaningful post, so informative and encouraging information, Thank you for this post. on demand home service app development

I was very pleased to find this web-site.I wanted to thanks for your time for this wonderful read!!

The more we read the more we learn and blogs are the most efficient ways in today’s time to enhance your learning. They are short and yet provide brief details on the topic. Amazing blog written.

Totally agree with you. Thanks for your comment, we are happy you like it and are working hard to provide you with more blog articles that offer real value :)

Well Explained blog

Happy that you liked it!

Your blog got me to learn a lot,thanks for sharing,nice article

Thanks for the good blog

Good and informative blog

What an invaluable resource for product development teams! These templates are a game-changer at every stage of the process. Thanks for sharing these ultimate tools that streamline and elevate product development. Let’s create exceptional products together!

Glad you found the templates helpful! Collaboration makes exceptional products happen—happy innovating! 😊

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post Comment

Experience the power of visual collaboration

Experience how Conceptboard boosts your team’s hybrid collaboration and communication.

No credit card

No commitments

Start right now

New Product Development Vs. New Product Introduction: What’s the Difference?

Emily Suzuki

Learn the difference between new product development and new product introduction, two important phases of the product lifecycle.

Tousek new product development

As a product designer, you will undoubtedly experience both the new product development and new product introduction phases of a product’s lifecycle at some point. After all, seeing your designs through from prototype to physical product is part of the job. While these two terms may be used interchangeably by some, understanding their differences is critical. 

Read on to learn about both stages, what they are, and how Autodesk Fusion can support teams throughout the product lifecycle.

What is new product development?

New product development is best defined as the design phase of product development where a product is designed from scratch. Within this, the new product development process includes the ideation, research, design, prototyping, and testing of the product. 

Being extremely intensive and important to the product lifecycle, new product development can often take several years to complete. It generally requires a significant investment of time, money, and resources. Overall, the goal of new product development is to create a product that meets the needs of the desired target market and provides a competitive advantage to the company.

3D model in Autodesk Fusion

As part of the New product development process, product designers are generally among the most important members of the team. Here, product designers are responsible for the product’s appearance, functionality, and user experience. They work closely with engineers, marketers, and other stakeholders to ensure that the product meets the needs of the target market and is viable for manufacturing.

For new product development, an important tool for product designers is Autodesk Fusion . The software provides a complete set of design and engineering tools that can help teams create and test product designs more efficiently. Fusion enables designers to create 3D models, simulate designs, and collaborate with team members in real time. The software also includes tools for prototyping , which can help designers refine their designs and ensure that the final product meets the needs of the target market.

What is new product introduction?

New product introduction is the phase in the product lifecycle where a product gets prepared for introduction to the market. This is essentially the final step in the new product development process. During this stage, the product is introduced to the market and made available for purchase. Ultimately, the is to bring the product to market as quickly and efficiently as possible.

There are many different elements of new product introduction that must be addressed and accounted for by product designers. For example, this stage can encompass manufacturing, marketing, and sales considerations.

Generally, the focus of the product designer during new product introduction is to ensure that the product design is successfully be manufactured, otherwise known as design for manufacturability (DFM) . DFM involves working closely with manufacturing teams to ensure that the product is produced according to the design specifications. Some designers even play a critical role in marketing the product, creating packaging, and developing branding strategies that will help the product stand out in the market.

For the best results, product designers need powerful tools like Fusion at their disposal. Fusion provides designers with a complete set of design, engineering, and collaboration tools that can help them create and manage product designs more efficiently. Fusion even includes manufacturing tools that can help designers optimize the manufacturing process, reduce errors, and minimize costs to prepare for new product introduction.

Ready to develop a new product? Explore how Fusion can help:

Tags and Categories

  • Thought provoking

Get Fusion updates in your inbox

By clicking subscribe, I agree to receive the Fusion newsletter and acknowledge the Autodesk Privacy Statement.

Privacy | Do not sell or share my personal information | Cookie preferences | Report noncompliance | Terms of use  |  © 2023 Autodesk Inc. All rights reserved

New Product Development

New Product Development

The key to launching a successful product is careful planning and flawless execution. With ClickUp's New Product Development Template, you can get it all done—without missing a beat!

This comprehensive template helps you:

  • Organize the product development process from concept to launch
  • Align teams around milestones and deliverables
  • Manage tasks in one place for seamless collaboration

Whether you're launching a software product or manufacturing a new type of widget, this template has everything you need to make sure your launch is successful. Get started today and let ClickUp help you hit the ground running!

Developing a new product requires a lot of time and effort. But having a reliable template to work from can help make the process easier. With a product development template, you can:

  • Ensure your team is on the same page when it comes to product design and development
  • Streamline the development process and improve efficiency
  • Reduce the risk of errors and omissions
  • Stay organized and on track with your product launch timeline

ClickUp's New Product Development Template is designed to help you design and launch a new product. This List template includes:

  • Custom Statuses: Mark task status such as Blocked, Complete, In Progress, and To Do to keep track of the progress of the product development
  • Custom Fields: Use 6 different custom attributes such as Duration Days, Task Complexity, Impact Level, Team, Phase, to save vital information about the product and easily visualize the progress
  • Custom Views: Open 5 different views in different ClickUp configurations, such as the Project Summary, Process Board, Timeline, Gantt Chart, and Getting Started Guide so that all the information is easy to access and organized
  • Project Management: Improve product development tracking with time tracking capabilities, tags, dependency warning, emails, and more

Developing a new product can be a lot of work, but with the right tools and processes in place, you can make the process much easier. Use the New Product Development Template in ClickUp and follow these steps to make sure you’re on track:

Before you begin, you need to decide on the goal of the project and what you want to achieve. This could include a timeline for completion, as well as any other metrics or KPIs you want to track.

Use Goals in ClickUp to set clear objectives and track metrics.

Outline the process you’ll use to develop the product, including the necessary steps, resources, and timelines.

Use the Gantt chart view in ClickUp to plan out the product development process and keep track of progress.

Once the process is outlined, assign tasks and responsibilities to the relevant people.

Create tasks in ClickUp and assign them to the relevant team members.

Monitor progress regularly and make adjustments as needed. This could include adjusting timelines, shifting resources, or changing tasks.

Set recurring tasks in ClickUp to regularly monitor progress and keep the project on track.

Product developers can use this New Product Development Template to help everyone stay on the same page when it comes to tracking progress and managing the product development process.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

add new template customization

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to develop a new product:

  • Use the Project Summary View to get an overview of the entire process
  • The Process Board View will help you visualize the progress of tasks
  • The Timeline View will help you plan out when each task should be completed
  • The Gantt Chart View will help you keep track of task dependencies and deadlines
  • The Getting Started Guide View will give you a checklist to help you get started
  • Organize tasks into four different statuses: Blocked, Complete, In Progress, To Do, to keep track of progress
  • Update statuses as you progress through tasks to keep stakeholders informed of progress
  • Monitor and analyze tasks to ensure maximum productivity

Get Started with Our New Product Development Template Today

  • Bug Report Template
  • Basic User Story Task Template
  • Product Launch Checklist Template
  • Sprints Template
  • User Story Template

Template details

Free forever with 100mb storage.

Free training & 24-hours support

Serious about security & privacy

Highest levels of uptime the last 12 months

  • Product Roadmap
  • Affiliate & Referrals
  • On-Demand Demo
  • Integrations
  • Consultants
  • Gantt Chart
  • Native Time Tracking
  • Automations
  • Kanban Board
  • vs Airtable
  • vs Basecamp
  • vs MS Project
  • vs Smartsheet
  • Software Team Hub
  • PM Software Guide

Google Play Store

IMAGES

  1. The Best New Product Development Process [Definitive Guide]

    new product development project plan

  2. New Product Development Plan from MS Project

    new product development project plan

  3. New Product Development Process: 12 Steps to Excellence

    new product development project plan

  4. A Complete Guide to New Product Development Strategy

    new product development project plan

  5. New Product Development Plan from MS Project

    new product development project plan

  6. New Product Development (NPD)

    new product development project plan

VIDEO

  1. Product, Project, Program Management: Are they really that different?

  2. Lecture 57: New Product Development

  3. Sound Bites Vodcast: Jennifer Robertson, QMS

  4. Supercharge Your Projects: Expert Tips for Effective Planning

  5. Sound Bites Vodcast: Iain Waddell, Tayside Contracts

  6. Sound Bites Vodcast: Pupils taste test, part 1

COMMENTS

  1. New Product Development Process [7 Stages]

    New product development is the end-to-end process of creating a product that has never been brought to market—from idea to concept, prototyping, developing, testing, and launch. It involves building a product strategy and roadmap to successfully guide cross-functional teams and stakeholders through the entire process.

  2. 10 Best Product Development Templates to Outline Activities

    Top 10 Product Development Templates in ClickUp and Excel 1. ClickUp New Product Development Template 2. ClickUp Product Development Roadmap Whiteboard Template 3. ClickUp Product Strategy Template 4. ClickUp Development Schedule Template 5. ClickUp Product Gap Analysis Template 6. ClickUp Product Positioning Template 7.

  3. Product Development Process 101

    Learn what new product development (NPD) is, how it differs from product line extensions, and the four phases of NPD: fuzzy front-end, design, development, and marketing. Explore the best practices for each phase, from ideation to launch, and the tools and tips from Smartsheet experts.

  4. What is Product Development? The 6 Stage Process [2023] • Asana

    1. Idea generation (Ideation) The initial stage of the product development process begins by generating new product ideas. This is the product innovation stage, where you brainstorm product concepts based on customer needs, concept testing, and market research.

  5. 7 Stages of the New Product Development Process

    Some of the successful New Product Development examples include — Trello for task management and tracking, Zoom for video communication, Dropbox for cloud storage, Figma for designers working remotely, Airtable for relational data management, and so on. Here is an insight into each of these stages for understanding how to develop a new product:

  6. 7 Key Stages Of New Product Development Process (+ Examples)

    Below are the seven key stages in any new product development process, but keep in mind that new product development is not a linear process. You will go through these phases, multiple times, while building a new product. I also included some product development process examples to help guide you. 1. Customer Research.

  7. New Product Development Process

    TCGen is trusted by these brands and organisations December 30, 2023 John Carter A new product development process is a series of stages to turn an idea into a product that satisfies customer needs.

  8. What Is Product Development? 7 Steps to Making a Product (2024)

    New product development (NPD) specifically refers to creating a new product from scratch and bringing it to a market. The process doesn't end until the The information compiled from doing product validation and market research will gauge the demand for your product and the level of competition before you start planning.

  9. Product Development Project Plan Template

    A Product Development Project Plan is an actionable roadmap for product development teams in any industry planning and managing the development of a new product. It includes focus areas and objectives that define clear goals and measurable targets (KPIs) to help track progress and effectiveness of a product.

  10. How to Advance your New Product Development Process

    The Stage Gate Innovation Performance Framework consists of four key drivers to give organizations a competitive advantage in new product innovation, and you need all four to have a thriving innovation practice within your company: Discovery-to-Launch Process. Product + Technology Strategy. Portfolio Optimization.

  11. How to Create a Product Development Strategy

    For every step in your product development strategy, you will want to create a structure, a plan. You might organize your work into the following 3 steps: 1. Write down every user pain point you've identified. 2. Distill these into a shortlist, just a handful of pain points.

  12. What Is Product Development? Definition & Examples

    Definition & Examples What is Product Development? What is Product Development? Product development typically refers to all stages involved in bringing a product from concept or idea through market release and beyond. In other words, product development incorporates a product's entire journey. Standard Stages of Progress in Product Development

  13. Creating Project Plans to Focus Product Development

    Strategic planning Creating Project Plans to Focus Product Development by Steven C. Wheelwright and Kim B. Clark From the Magazine (March-April 1992) The long-term competitiveness of any...

  14. A beginner's guide to project management for product development

    1. Ideation First thing's first: you need to come up with an idea, a problem to solve or an improvement to make. This could be for a brand new product, or it could be a new feature or update that you want to add to an existing system. Whatever the task at hand, ideation involves a lot of research and team collaboration.

  15. Developing A New Product Prototype Project Plan Template

    1. Define your project goals and objectives 2. Break down your project into tasks and subtasks Get Started with ClickUp's Developing A New Product Prototype Project Plan Template Use the Doc View to create and store all the necessary documentation related to the project, such as design specifications, technical drawings, and user requirements.

  16. New product development

    The New Product Development (NPD) process we have implemented at Harris Corporation, Broadcast Communications Division is based on the Stage-Gate TM (Cooper 2001) process. Using that as an outline we will review tools that range from portfolio management through project planning to performance tracking.

  17. 7 Ultimate Templates for Product Development

    1. Concept/Ideate - Generate new ideas The product development process begins with extensive ideation brainstorming sessions. This stage involves all stakeholders and participants engaging in 'Blue sky thinking'- brainstorming without limits! The objective of this stage is to spark inspiration.

  18. 10 Free Product Strategy Templates & Examples for Product Teams

    ClickUp Project Strategy Template 8. ClickUp Production Tracking Template 9. ClickUp Website Production Plan Template 10. ClickUp Feedback Form Template New Product Strategy Examples. Navigating an ocean without a compass is as risky as it sounds. Your product strategy is that compass, providing direction amidst the choppy seas of the marketplace.

  19. New Product Development Plan from MS Project

    15-Day Free Trial Learn how to create, track, and present a new product development plan using a simple Microsoft Project schedule and a chart created with OnePager Pro presentation software.

  20. Project Management in Product Development

    Based on research by Antoinette Jetter and Fatima Albar, this research investigates (1) how existing project management frameworks complement product development practice; (2) how product development projects are managed with standard vs. project-adapted management practices; and, (3) what challenges arise in the context of project adaption. Distinct streams of literature on product innovation ...

  21. New Product Development Vs. New Product Introduction: What's the

    Within this, the new product development process includes the ideation, research, design, prototyping, and testing of the product. Being extremely intensive and important to the product lifecycle, new product development can often take several years to complete. It generally requires a significant investment of time, money, and resources.

  22. Project Plan Template for Product Development

    Free project planning templates like the one in ClickUp make sure all of this is in one place, so you can stay organized and on track. How to Use a Product Development Project Plan Template. Developing a product can be complex and overwhelming. Creating a project plan is an essential step in making sure that your launch goes smoothly.

  23. Team6 Risk Management Plan 2

    The Risk Management Plan is created by the project manager/team in the Planning Phase and is monitored and updated throughout the project. The intended audience of this document is the individuals involved in business management, product development, and project management within the context of COLIN CORPORATE. 1 THE PROJECT BACKGROUND

  24. New Product Development

    New Product Development Project Plan is a readily-available ClickUp template that will help project managers keep track of different project milestones and deliverables. The key to launching a successful product is careful planning and flawless execution. With ClickUp's New Product Development Template, you can get it all done—without missing ...