Idea Generation For new products

Idea Generation

The success of product-driven companies is directly tied to new product development, which is generated through innovative ideas.

Idea Generation

Ideas for new products can be obtained from basic research using a SWOT analysis. Market and consumer trends, R&D departments, competitors, focus groups, etc. may also be used to get an insight into new product lines or product features. New product innovations are responsible for employment, economic growth, technological process, and high standards of living. Innovation is crucial for the development of successful new products. Described below are different sources of innovation that lead to the generation of ideas for new products.

Sources of Innovation that Generate Ideas

While innovation is crucially important to any forward-thinking organization, developing and evaluating innovations is a challenge. Where do innovative ideas come from? Discussed below are five crucial sources of innovation: technical breakthrough, non-technical idea development, environment, serendipity, and purposeful development. These are discussed in turn below (see ).

Different Sources of Innovation: A summary of different sources of innovation, as described in this section. Being innovative is key to generating new ideas in product development.

Technical Breakthroughs

Technical breakthroughs refer to product innovations that result from technical developments. New brands that have emerged from this process include MP3 players, GPS navigation devices, and cell phones. Technological breakthroughs are often born in R&D departments or through government funding of research, which ultimately lends itself to commercial uses.

Non-technical Development

This approach involves finding a niche in the market without making radical changes to the basic product category (i.e., in terms of the underlying technology). “Build a Bear Workshop” provides a good example of this style of innovation: Unlike other conventional stuffed animal manufacturers, the Build a Bear Workshop allows customers to choose their bear’s body, sound, clothing, stuffing, and heart. For example, a customer can choose a lower-priced paper heart with their wish, or they can invest in a higher-priced electronic heart. After customers make choices, they then observe the production process in the shop. In this way, customers create their own custom-designed toy. This business model does not rely on developing new technology, but a modified production process and a unique idea that draws the consumer in.

Environment

Certain ideas developed in one environment or geographical location have the potential to do well when imported into new environments. Good examples of this style of innovation are Wal-mart in China and IKEA in the United States–ideas that proved a big hit outside of the cultures that they were traditionally employed in. Large-retail stores are now achieving success in Asian nations, through importing the idea of economies of scale, which in turn enable one-stop shopping and lower prices. Similarly, IKEA achieved great success in the United States through importing the idea of a warehouse-type retail setting from Europe.

Serendipity

Serendipity plays a role in product innovation. The word serendipity derives from “serendip,” which means “Sri Lanka” in Persian. The fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip, tells the story of three men who continuously discover something that is completely unrelated to what they originally set out to find. Thus, the term “serendipity” describes a situation where one accidentally discovers something fortunate, while looking for something else entirely. For example, penicillin was discovered quite by accident when Alexander Fleming discovered that a mold contaminating one of his experiments possessed powerful antibacterial properties. While not exactly a strategy that can be purposefully conducted by companies attempting to come up with a specific product, the process of serendipity frequently occurs due to government funding of general and scientific research, causing technological and other spillovers into the commercial realm.

Purposeful Development

Purposeful development occurs when there is a strong need for certain goods or services. As Plato once said, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” In other words, this type of innovation occurs when existing product lines cannot satisfy current needs or current demand. As a result, organizations are willing to invest considerable funds to create a successful innovation. Thus, purposeful development occurs when there is a need that requires satisfaction, as opposed to when demand creation is required for a new product for which there is no initial desire in the marketplace. A good example of purposeful development is the heavy investment that pharmaceutical firms make to discover new prescription drugs.

Screening

During screening, the company evaluates whether to devote further resources to the development of a product at various stage gates.

Screening

It is important for businesses to continually devise new products, as products do not last forever. While there are millions of products available to consumers, many more products do not make it to market at all. As it is expensive to bring a product to market, products go through a product development process where they are evaluated at every stage before they are brought to commercialization. For example, of the 5,000 drug ideas that go through the screening process of the Federal Drug Administration, only 10 end up getting approved, and of these only 3 become profitable. With an average cost of $1 billion to bring a drug to market, it would take several billion in sales to recoup the cost.

Screening: This figure illustrates the long process it takes for a drug to enter the market.

Screening Objectives

The objective of the screening stage is to eliminate unsound concepts prior to devoting resources to them. The screeners should ask several questions: Will the customer in the target market benefit from the product? What is the size and growth forecast of the target market? What is the current or expected competitive pressure for the product idea? Is it technically feasible to manufacture the product? Will the product be profitable when manufactured and delivered to the customer at the target price? By answering these questions, the company can get a better idea of the likelihood of a product becoming a commercial success.

The screening step is a critical part of the new product development process. Product ideas that do not meet the organization’s objectives should be rejected. Two problems that may arise during the screening stage are the acceptance of a poor product idea, and the rejection of a viable product idea. In the former case, money and effort are wasted in subsequent stages until the product idea is abandoned. In the latter case, a potential winner never sees the market.

Screening Techniques

There are two common techniques for screening new product ideas. Both involve the comparison of a potential product idea against the criteria for acceptable new products. The first technique is a simple checklist. For example, new product ideas can be rated on a scale ranging from very good to poor, in respect to factors such as value added, sales volume, patent protection, and effect on present products. Unfortunately, it is often very challenging for evaluators to define what is fair or poor in any given category. Also, this system does not address the issue of the time and expense associated with each idea, nor does it provide instructions with regard to the scores.

The second technique goes beyond the first in that the criteria are assigned weights based on their importance. These scores are then multiplied by their respective weights and added to yield a total score for the new product idea.