In this blog, let’s make certain that your hard work on a product idea turns out well.
My four-decade experience in new product development underlies the certainty. A limitation is that my experience is with business-to-business ideas, not business-to-consumer.
My NPD experience includes …
- Successful completion of 400+ b2b market research projects … as an inventor, manager, and consultant.
- Two decades as a member of the Editorial Board of JPIM … The Journal of Product Innovation Management
- Building a reliable interviewing approach for finding out why a product idea really appeals to prospects.
At the heart of my approach is acquiring skill in elicitation. This skill is an art as well as a science. People acquire it by a lot of real-world practice.
“Elicitation is a technique used to discreetly gather information. It’s a conversation with a specific purpose … collect information that is not readily available. The conversation can be in person or over the phone.” … FBI
Elicitation digs out digs out valuable information missed by customary market research tools. This information guides needed changes as the idea moves through the NPD process.
- Skilled elicitors place the interviewee in the role of the Professor.
Professors will volunteer little-known information to intelligent pupils. - Elicitor remains in the role of the Intelligent Pupil.
Intelligent Pupils use open-ended questions driven by an agenda.
In NPD, there are six tasks.
Two pre-funnel tasks. 1. Create and screen product ideas and 2. Meet management’s guidelines.
- CPAS’s 2012 report shows that the best firms do far-reaching, pre-funnel homework.
- Best firms place no more than 4 product ideas into the NPD funnel.
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- Best firms have product success rates of up to 70%.
- Rest firms place up to 11 product ideas into the funnel.
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- Rest firms have product success rates as low as 40%..
- An impressive competitive advantage for the best firms ... their cumulative cost to produce one successful product is 45% lower than the rest firms
Four funnel tasks. 1. Business analysis, 2. Business development, 3. Test & validation, and
4. Commercialization
Best firms …
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- Identify the real value a product idea creates for customers.
- Identify early adopters and latent needs.
- Identify unexpected competitors’ dynamics and potential partners.
At the heart of my interviewing approach is strong skill in elicitation. I focus on the whole message a Professor is sending. I analyze what that message means for product success. Do so, and hard work on your product idea will turn out well.
