What to do with that next great idea.

The scope of new products in the contemporary world is seemingly unending. A lot of companies and people look at getting data from other people who are a repository of information as well as ideas. It is possible to look at getting new product ideas based on exposing, recombining and surfacing data, with the internet being a fast and vast new medium of sharing and utilizing the data in a manner that helps cultivate new innovations.

Companies generally have a well set manner for laying out new product innovation. Ideas get sent from the business manager to the strategic committee that conducts the preliminary feasibility test after which regular reviews by the engineering team is conducted to make progress on the project.

The inputs from the developer or the development team are quite important as new product development is a tough task. It needs conversion of complex ideas into practical products which means that applied research is used as the input with development being the throughput and the finished marketable product being the output. Developers also take into account the kind of costs that are required to bring the product into fruition.

Past research is an indicator of what has already been done and not necessarily of what is needed for the future. It is also possible to use computer aided design (CAD) to visualize the product and also propel it towards better execution and implementation. Research teams can help, as they do a good job in predicting trends that will become big in future. They also test out ideas or concepts so that one may be able to access the chances of a product succeeding.

Some people are fast to take on and use new products. These people are called early adopters. There are others who take a little more time to adopt it and are known as the early majority. The late majority are those who are averse to risk, while there are the laggards that are quite resistant to change. These laggards may even take on products that have become the norm and quite well entrenched in the market.

You can use market research to ascertain the demand for a product and the kind of price that would be acceptable. A prototype may also be used to visualize the product (which we had made numberous times with our drink holder). Market research helps in factoring in the trends in the market too.

It is always better to make a product in the early life style stage of a product to maximize the potential of the product. Product design takes into account engineering, style and cost constraints too. Patents involve legal hassles that need to be factored in also.