Consider the product level models of New Product Development - Essay Example

These factors make the approach to new product development a critical one (Ribbens, 2000, p. 1). The process thus requires management support; it must also benefit from the experience of new product development teams composed of people from all affected activities; it has to follow distinct phases with extremely well defined activities in order to enhance understanding, greater accuracy and reduce risks and failures that are eminent in new product development. Key elements in new product development The process of new product development takes into consideration seven distinct elements, stages or phases.

The first element is idea generation. This is the most critical aspect of all the elements in new product development because without idea generation it is difficult to come up with new products. Here ideas are gathered which present possible product options. Many companies conduct idea generation as a continuous process with contributions from within the organization and outside the organization. A number of methods are used and these may include focus group discussions with consumers, comments suggestions and feedback from customers and research from secondary sources.

Creative problem solving technique such as brainstorming is used in this case that enables creative minds to come up with new ideas about an existing problem or a gap in the market. In the brainstorming session, first individuals are told about the problem as a creative challenge. This is important in order to come up with ideas that are viable for a new product. After this, people are given a time limit to think and come up with ideas. When the session begins, the people voice out their ideas and the facilitator lists them down with no criticism made.

The best ideas are selected by the facilitator and which all group members agree with. The ideas are then evaluated on a scoring criteria and the idea with the highest score becomes the solution to the problem. Another model, the creative problem solving process model advanced by Osborn-Parnes can also be used here if a feasibility analysis has been carried out to identify problems upon which ideas are generated and solutions sought (Blythe, 2006, p. 50). The model is composed of six stages that can be compressed into three with distinct activities at each of these stages.

They include: exploring the challenge which involves identifying the goal, gathering relevant data and clarifying the problem at hand; generating ideas involves coming up with options to solve the problem; and preparing for action which involves solution finding and preparing a plan for action. The process is lauded for its involvement of convergent and divergent thinking that can be used at each of these three stages. The second element is screening and this involves the careful and critical evaluations of the options presented by the new product development team to isolate the best idea or attractive options.

This could be done in rounds depending on the number of ideas and may also involve a number of techniques. As the ideas are being evaluated, other considerations are also made in terms of potential sales, the costs of production, profitability, competition. Only the accepted ideas