How to Use the New Building Products Development Resource Guide
This Help Page introduces each of the Activities contained within this Tool. It
also explains how the other two Tools (Collaboration Forum and Lead-User Panel)
can be used in the process of documenting the development a new technology.
As you begin navigating through these Tools, try to keep the following points in
mind:
- The Tools are designed particularly to assist smaller manufacturers/innovators to
develop new-to-market technologies, but all are encouraged to view the Tools' content.
- Regardless if a user's product is in its advanced stages of development, previous
Activities can be accessed to ensure that no preliminary "steps" may have been omitted
during development.
- These Tools are not exhaustive or comprehensive. They are intended to get users
thinking at a "deeper" level of detail than they would without the Tools, but the
research does not stop here.
- These Tools are intended to extend your network and not to "re-create the wheel,"
so you will be accessing much work already done by other sources as you navigate
through the Resource Links.
- Larger manufactures may be particularly interested in technologies of smaller manufacturers/innovators
that use these Tools - especially Tools 1 and 3 - to produce a better product, so
do your best to document how you use the Tools.
The following definitions are what you will see first when opening each respective
Activity. You can click on any of these Node titles to link directly to that Node.
This activity refers to "new-product portfolio" management rather than existing-product
portfolio. Here, parameters are established that help define and rank acceptable/preferred
new-product projects on an ongoing basis - that is, throughout the New product development (NPD) process quarterly,
monthly, annually or on another basis. This helps companies prioritize NPD expenditures
and resources to assure the best overall corporate outcome. Important criteria may
include:
- alignment with strategic direction of the company (new products shape/define the
future of the company)
- value (profits) to company
- likelihood of success
- maintain a balanced product portfolio—long-term vs. short-term opportunities, high
vs. low risk, and innovative vs. declining products
A business or technology gap that exists between the current situation and an envisioned
future in order to capture:
- competitive advantage
- respond to threat
- solve a problem
- improve upon a difficulty
Opportunities are the seeds of new product ideas. When ideas are combined with a
form and technology, they become a concept. However, before an idea or concept has
merit, they must respond to some opportunity.
"The most embryonic form of a new product or service. It often consists of a high-level
view of the solution envisioned for…the opportunity."
A product is a concept that possesses form or attributes, based on technology, and
provides benefit. Concepts often are developed using the ideas selected and ranked
from earlier stages.
- See Activity 3 (Section 3) - New Idea Generation: for an example of converting opportunities
into a new product idea, and a new idea into a full-fledged concept.
- Evaluate concepts to assure they meet corporate objectives and are a good fit with
capabilities (as outlined in Portfolio Planning stage).
A business case is typically expressed as a formal document whose purpose is to
justify funding - to both internal and external sources - for the development of a
new product or service. Overall, the business case establishes costs vs. the benefits
of the new product development and launch. It:
- consists of revenue and cost projections
- outlines evidence supporting the recommendations made in the document used to justify
development and launch of new products/services in existing companies
This activity uses the funding resulting from the Business Case to develop a prototype
product ready for rigorous full scale field-testing and evaluation in cooperation
with the customer. Formal bench- or laboratory-scale testing and limited field experiments
with the customers are expected to point to and define the characteristics of the
field prototype.
This activity is used to ensure that the product intended for delivery is being
produced by the production process on a continual and reliable basis. It ensures
the entire commercial viability of the project:
- the product
- production process
- customer acceptance
- financial outlook
Customers, technologists, manufacturers, and investment partners are all intimately
involved in this pivotal stage.
Launch is the phase of NPD when the new product or service is taken to market for
the first time. Most successful launches entail the development of a multi-disciplinary
plan to maximize the likelihood of a successful introduction, including:
- Building-code compliance
- Marketing strategy: target market, characteristics & purchase drivers
- Pricing strategy
- Distribution: how do I get this to market?, who installs it?, who services it?,
etc.
- Messaging: how do I promote awareness (PATH Tech Inventory)?, what is my message?, what is the value
proposition that appeals to my target audience?, etc.
- Sales: what is the process in use to convince my target market to purchase?, how
I take (purchase) orders?, what marketing support I supply?, etc.
- How do we obtain feedback and monitor success so we can make adjustments along the
way?
This activity is defined according the stages that a product goes through from inception
to when it no longer is produced. The stages are: Development, Introduction, Growth,
Maturity, and Decline. The reasons that a company wants to manage these stages are:
- The competitive landscape and how a company becomes successful varies over the product
life cycle (PLC), so the marketing mix (pricing, product, promotion, and distribution)
will need to change over a product’s life to remain successful.
- Sales volume varies widely over the PLC.
- Profitability is greatest in the Growth and Maturity Stages.
- To assure the long-term viability of a company—want, a mix of products in various
stages of the PLC is desirable (e.g., don’t want all products in the Introductory
Stage or Decline Stage).
- Stages of the PLC should not be viewed as fixed because they can be extended by
the efforts of a company.