From Product Idea to a Thriving Business

I'm so happy you're here!

If you are working on a new product idea, you want to make sure that you deliver the correct product on time at the right price to your customer. Taking into account the travel from the manufacturer to the warehouse to your customer. There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of things that need to be taken care of.

Some tips I'm going to share with you today is how I'm managing the development of new products myself when I work for corporate companies. And they can be translate to a smaller product-based businesses as well in a much leaner way.

Follow the same principles and the same way of working but make it practical and easy to do. 

I also have a free template for you to get you started. It's a free Excel adjustable product development planning template for you. 

Hey there, and welcome to a new episode of my show. And today, I'd like to talk to you about why it's important to have systems and processes in place in a new product development when you want to scale or grow your business.

And even if you don't have a product business yet, still, it is still wise to have project and management processes and product development systems in place. It will save you a lot of time during development and your processes are professional from the start of your business. Who doesn't want to do spend less money and waste less time if possible?!

I love to help you get started fast. Download my FREE Adjustable product development planning in Excel on my website

For those of you who are doubting whether you should start a physical product-based business, keep listening because I’ve got you. I know that it's sometimes scary to start something new and to invest a lot of money in your new business idea or your new product idea.

Because new product development can be complex and has a lot of moving parts, you should always create a project plan. Because when you have a well-thought-out plan, you feel confident and in control. You have a clear overview of all your resources and all the activities that need to be done from product idea, through specification, development, manufacturing, and launch. And this makes the chance of a successful product launch so much higher. And this is what you're looking for, right?

In addition, it's very important that you use tools and templates that help you really master your new product development, be in control and feel certain that you can do a good job in managing the project team working on your new product. 

I love to help you get started fast. Download my FREE Adjustable product development planning in Excel on my website

When you want to determine the selling price of your new product, you need to consider the production cost, the competition, and the target market.

There are many factors that influence your final selling price and profitability of your new product. 

If you want to have a profitable product you need to carefully calculate the total costs to get from product idea, through, development, manufacturing, shipment and launch.

Let’s dive in how you can determine the selling price of your new product.

Are you thinking about manufacturing your own product idea? That’s amazing! There are various ways to do this. Outsourcing the manufacturing to a third party or manufacturing it yourself. White labeling your product or private labeling? It depends on objectives and resources which way is the best one for you. Let’s get into more of the details on how to develop and manufacture your own product.

Developing your own product refers to the process of creating a new product or service from scratch. This involves identifying a need or problem in the market, designing a solution, and then bringing that solution to life through research, development, and testing. 

Developing your own product can be a lengthy and challenging process, but it can also be incredibly rewarding if the end result is successful. It requires a combination of creativity, technical skills, business acumen, and perseverance to see a product through from concept to launch.

Tune in to grab all the details and get tips to help you make decisions and get started with a new product idea.

Product-based businesses can scale and grow through a variety of strategies. One approach is to expand your product offerings to appeal to a broader customer base. 

If you want to expand your offerings as product-based business owner you need to come up with new product ideas. New product idea generation is crucial in this phase for various reasons. 

Firstly, it helps you stay competitive and relevant in your market by continuously offering innovative and unique products that meets your customers' changing needs and preferences. 

Secondly, it allows you to expand your product line and cater to a larger customer base, which can increase your revenue and profit margins. 

Additionally, new product ideas can also help you differentiate from your competitors and establish a distinct brand identity. Therefore, investing in new product idea generation is essential for the long-term success and growth of your product-based business.

Tune in this episode to get more tips and strategies.

STEP-BY-STEP PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS IMPLEMENTATION

Setting your new product development team up for success requires careful planning and execution.

First, you need to establish clear goals and expectations for your team. Whether your team consists of your own staff or external hires or contractors, clarity here is key.

This includes defining the product vision, target market, and desired outcomes. let’s dive into the details on how to set your new product development team up for success.

Do you like to get the show notes of this episode? Click the link below and head over to my blog article with all the nuggets.

Having systems in place is crucial for scaling your product business. Without them, you may face various challenges such as inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and errors. This can hinder your growth. 

Systems help automate processes, standardize procedures, and establish clear workflows. They provide structure and organization. And enable you to increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. 

Additionally, systems allow you to delegate tasks, freeing up your time to focus on strategic initiatives. This is why you need systems to scale your product business. 

Ultimately, having systems in place can help you achieve sustainable growth and success in your product business.

Tune in to learn more!

If you like to get the show notes of this episode, head over to my blog for the full article by clicking the link below.

The specific product samples required to move from prototype to final product will depend on the type of product being developed.

However, some common samples that may be needed include materials samples to test for durability and quality, prototypes to test for functionality and design, packaging samples to test for protection and presentation, and user testing samples to gather feedback on the product.

It is important to identify the necessary samples early in the development process to ensure a smooth transition to the final product.

Tune into to this episode to learn more!

Free guide for you!

When you are developing a new product, it’s important to consider various resources that can help ensure its success.

Some of the resources to include in new product development include customer insights, market research, product design and development teams, funding, and manufacturing capabilities. It’s also important to consider the availability of raw materials and the potential for intellectual property protection.

By carefully considering these resources, you can increase the likelihood of developing a successful new product.

Tune into this episode to learn more.

FREE GUIDE FOR YOU!

When you’ve got a great new product idea in mind and you’re ready to start with the development and manufacturing, there are a few important actions to do first before jumping full in. I like to share 4 tips with you how to organise your product-based business.

You want to make sure you can always find the documents relating to your new product idea quickly. Spending minutes searching for documents or for the latest version of a document is not how you want spend time. Especially in the beginning of your product development, documents will be shared, reviewed, and updated multiple times. This process should be done efficient and in a structured way, so everyone is working with the latest data.

Tune in to this episode to learn more.

Looking for more information on how to do this? Join me in my free monthly project management training for product-based business owners.

When I worked as product manager and project manager for large organizations, I was often wearing the ‘product creation hat’ and at the same time the ‘project management hat’ during a new product development project. 

When you’re a business owner of a product-based business, you’re probably wearing these two hats as well. Here are some tips on how to apply project management as a product-based business owner when you’re developing new products.

When you start new projects, you often can carry out your activities based on routine and experience. You know very well how to start a new project, how to create overview and how to organize your daily project activities and the ones of your project team.

But when you’re starting something completely new, it can feel a bit vague at the beginning. I’ll give you some tips on how to start a project in an area that’s completely new to you to create structure and overview form the beginning.

It’s easier to have a smooth project start when you can rely on your experience in managing projects. But if you start with something completely new, it can be helpful to create a high-level overview of what you think should be set-up and structure of this new challenge.

Tune in to learn more!

I have a FREE Excel template for you to get started with your project action list.

When you’re managing multiple projects, your to-do list can be overwhelming long. To make sure you don’t overlook an important action point, I have 3 strategies to make sure you keep overview on all your project actions.

Tune in to hear the details!

Hope these strategies to make sure you keep overview on all your project actions, are helpful to you!

Go get organized!

I have a FREE Excel template for you to get started with your project action list.

When you have a great new product idea, you probably can't wait to get started with the development and introduce it to your customers.

Before you go full speed ahead, it's wise to spend some time writing a project briefing. In this briefing you define how you're going to execute this project from start to finish. How much time it takes, how much budget you need, but also which disciplines you need to make this project a success. 

In this episode I'll share some tips on what to include in your project briefing, so you'll be better prepared and equipped with the right resources when you start developing your product.

Tune in to learn more and get some hands-on tips!

To make your project management activities more efficient and easy, I've created a FREE template for you to help you manage multiple projects. By using this template you can see in once glance which project is behind schedule or over budget.

Click the link below to get your free copy!

There are lots of moving parts in going through the product development process of a new product. It can be very complex in going from product idea through defining your product specifications, getting your product developed, manufactured and in stock. 

Having a solid, hands-on and practical project management system in place, will help you reach your project goals and contribute to the overall business goals.

Tune in to learn more and get some hands-on tips!

To make your project management activities more efficient and easy, I've created a FREE template for you to help you manage multiple projects. By using this template you can see in once glance which project is behind schedule or over budget.

Click the link below to get your free copy!

Are you growing your business by developing multiple products and expanding your product range but you don’t know where to begin?

Maybe you need to hire some people in your business to make sure that you go from idea through definition, development, manufacturing, and launch in an efficient way.

And if you've always done everything on your own, it can be difficult to get your new team members to operate in a similar manner.

Here are the 3 Strategies To Teach Your Team How You Want Them To Work In Your Product-Based Business.

In this episode, we're going to talk about five tips on who to involve in the product requirements process. 

First, let's start with some explanation of why it's so important to have a product requirements process in place. First of all, if you do not have this process in place, you run the risk that during development, product requirements keep on changing, because you didn't involve the right people on time when you were specifying your new product requirements. 

And of course, this disrupts the development process and is causing cost increases and delays of your product launch. And this is not what we want. So, therefore, it's important at the beginning of a new project to involve the right disciplines and the right experts in defining your new product requirements. 

In this episode, we're going to talk about all the Intel you need to define, market and scale your product based business in a professional way. So you can expand your product portfolio and grow your business. To start with, I have some keywords words for you. And these keywords are:

1. Processes. 
2. Structure.
3. Overview.
4. Control.

Tune in to learn more and apply directly in your daily activities.

This episode is for those who want to start a product based business. And of course, it's so exciting if you have a new product idea in your mind and just starting out or you already have been developing and selling products for a while. It's a very exciting beginning of a new product journey. And the main question I often get is where do I begin? I have a great idea, I want to start a product based business. But how do I start in a proper way?

In this episode we're going to talk about how to go from Ideation to a successful product launch. And as you know, there are a lot of things to do from the moment you have a new product idea until you can finally launch it to the market and introduce it to your customers. So today, I'm going to guide you through 10 steps to develop your product idea into a successful product.

In this episode we're going to talk about using a digital or a paper planner for managing your new product development projects. And I can imagine everybody has his own preference in this.

I use a digital planner to really plan my new product development project in detail. I use Excel or Microsoft Projects for this because then I can easily adjust when we're going to deviate from the schedule.

I use the digital planning tool Asana to allocate tasks to different team members with a deadline. It allows me to manage people in my team, and manage deliverables as well.

In my paper planner I note down per project what are my weekly goals on a high level? What's my to-do list, who should I call,  who should I email. 

Are you a project manager and working on new product development project? get my project planner via Amazon and work structured, with focus and efficient on your projects. 

Defining a new price for your new product or for an upgrade of your product can be a tricky one. You have to do some research, of course, to see what your competitors are asking for a comparable product. And you also want to check at what price point your current product portfolio is positioned so you can determine the correct price point for your new product. And to do this in an objective way, it's best to use a spreadsheet. 

Tune into this episode to learn more!

Like to read more on creating new products? 

First, let's talk about why you should create a competitive benchmark of view for your new product. The first reason is you need a clear overview in order to be able to position your products correctly compared to your competition in the market and also compared to your current product portfolio. And second, it helps you also define the benefits and your value proposition. So two important reasons why you should do this, you get a better insight into:

- your product positioning  

- positioning of your features, and the benefits of your new product compared to competition and within your current portfolio.

Tune into this episode to learn more. 

Like to read? Check out my blog for interesting topics on product & project management.

Bringing structure and processes in your projects and your business, maybe that doesn't seem like a very sexy topic to you. But it's still very important if you want to run your projects smoothly and efficiently. So let’s talk about a few steps you can take right now in your current daily activities to make your work in your project much more easy and much more structured so you feel confident and in control.

One of the most important input files in new product development is the Product Specifications Overview. 

You know the saying “garbage in, is garbage out”. If you don’t have your product specification clear, validated and aligned, chances are your end-product does not meet your customer requirements or isn’t technically feasible. 

I have 3 tips for product managers on how to define their product specifications, so they can develop products their customers are thrilled about.

A few basic principles to start with when defining your product specifications comes down to knowing your customer requirements well, having a good insight in market and technology developments and documenting your product requirements and signing off on them with your team.

Tune into this episode to learn about my 3 tips Product Managers on How to Define their Product Specifications.

If you like to get my free download on 3 Tips How to Boost Your Project management skills click on the link below. You’ll also receive my free weekly newsletter with tips on Product & Project management directly in your inbox.

Do you ever feel stressed when you can’t find the document you’re looking for on your computer? Or do your hands get sweaty when you see various planning files but can’t tell which one of them is the latest version of the project you’re working on?

In this case you might like to learn more on Organizing Your Projects and How to Become a Master.

Tune into this episode and let me take you through this step-by-step so you can implement what you learn right now and never feel stressed around organizing your projects.

If you like to get my free download on 3 Tips How to Boost Your Project management skills click on the link below. You’ll also receive my free weekly newsletter with tips on Product & Project management directly in your inbox.

We're going to talk about three great systems to use when you are creating new products. Do you carry the hat of product manager or project manager in your new product development projects? It's a challenge to be responsible for creating and maintaining a product portfolio and managing the development and manufacturing of your new product idea. 

I have three great systems for you to use when you're creating new products in the manufacturing industry, and need to efficiently manage their development. Let's talk about how to realize new profitable product ideas. This is easier said than done. You've got a lot of tasks on your plate in your roles. You are a product manager, a project manager, maybe you are even the business owner, and you need to work efficient to realize new profitable products. Having systems in place to support you in all your roles is essential to keep up with all your responsibilities and be in control.

Tune in this episode to learn about the 3 system

Feeling like your head is exploding with all kinds of small project  tasks, issues that you need to solve, team members that need to be  motivated and some firefighting to keep your project on track? Keep  scrolling and check out the 3 Important tasks every project manager  should schedule in her calendar.

I hear you; it can be overwhelming and tiring to ‘run’ all day,  handling lots of different tasks but not feeling fulfilled when close  your laptop at the end of the day.

Do you wish you would feel confident and in control when managing  your projects? I know I love that feeling and thrive on smooth running  systems and processes.

Just like you I need to have some systems in place, to comfortably manage new product development projects.

To move fluently through my working days and feel fulfilled at the  end of the day, I have 3 important tasks that I’ve scheduled in my  calendar. I believe these 3 Important Tasks Every Project Manager should  Schedule in her Calendar.

Tune in to find out what these tasks are.

Often have I carried the  ‘product management hat’ and at the same time the ‘project management  hat’ during a new product development project. Was this difficult to do?  No, not really, as the responsibility of both roles was very clear and I  had a lot of experience in both roles. Was there ever a friction in  time management between both roles? Did one role sometimes get priority  over the other? Yes, definitely. That’s why I want to share the 3 daily hacks to combine the role of product manager and project manager.

It can be so exiting when a very important package arrives at your  desk containing your first prototype! When you open the box and take out  ‘your baby’, you’re thrilled, happy and proud of the result of hard work and putting all your energy in this new product.

But it can also be a big disappointment…….

Your prototype looks far from your amazing product concept drawing.  The plastic or metal parts don’t have the right dimensions, the  construction is weak and the graphics on your product are not positioned  correctly. The electronics do not function properly, and the colors are  totally off the color scheme.

If you’re in the cosmetic industry you may have experienced that your  product smells bad and the composition doesn’t feel nice. The cream  feels too solid or too light, the products look weird, and the sample is  not even a little bit close to what you had in mind.

It’s a flop.

Now, there are ways to avoid this unclarity and disappointment around prototyping.

I have 5 proven steps you can take to move successfully from product concept to prototype.

Whether you’ve been developing products for some time or start your  business from scratch, there are some actions you can take at the start  of your new product development that bring efficiency and speed in your  process.

You probably experienced it yourself or heard stories from others  about new product development projects that costed a lot of money but  were put on hold or completely stopped because the new product was going  to be unsaleable or not profitable.

There are many factors that can cause projects to be put on hold.  From specifications that cannot be met, product costs that are too high,  difficulties in transferring the product concept into a working  prototype, successfully moving into mass production, to end customers  not buying your product.

By implementing some practical process steps, the above  hurdles can be overcome, and your new product can be successfully  developed, manufactured, and launched into the market.

If you feel you can make some improvements in your new product  development or this topic is new to you, please continue reading this  article. I hope you can benefit from the tips I share with you the same  way I do. Before pouring tons of money in your new product idea, check  out the tips below.

Tip 1: Product Idea Evaluation With Your Team

Tip 2: Perform Customer Research on Your Product Concept

Tip 3: Request for a Product Cost Price and a quote for Development Costs

Tip 4: Appoint A Project Manager To manage Your New Product Development Project

Tip 5: Create A Clear Project Briefing Right From The Start

Tip 6: Implement A Weekly Core Project Team Meeting Structure Including Project Checklist And Action Plan.

Tip 7: Implement a supplier selection process in your business

With the above 7 tips, you’ll be well prepared when developing new products for your business.

It’s quite a challenge to keep the review process of these materials smooth and efficient.

When reviewing marketing materials for your new product, usually  there are a lot of opinions involved…..because who doesn’t have an  opinion on a commercial or ad?

Team members from different disciplines review and give comments in  multiple review rounds. And often new comments pop-up all the time,  because of new insights, changes in the technical specifications of the  product during development or because team members did not really review  thoroughly enough during the first review round.

It is wise to start involving your marketing communication expert early in the development of your new products. Parallel  with the development of your new product, you’re also working on your  product launch to make sure that all deliverables for your product  launch are ready when your final product is on stock and ready to be  sold.

One aspect of a product launch are the marketing materials like brochures, leaflets, movies, teasers, social media campaigns.

There are usually lots of moving parts here and a lot of opinions involved. Because anyone has an opinion on marketing, right? There a so many elements that are combined in the marketing strategy.  For example, the branding, the colors used in the materials, the images,  the copy, the look and feel. And mostly anyone has a slightly different  opinion.

Even in the same team, people tend to express their personal taste,  even when it comes to professionally created materials. And their  opinion might change during the review process. Resulting in going back  and forth in adjusting copy and imagery.

Lessons learned the hard way; I can now share a review strategy with  you that worked for me and hopefully you can benefit from it too.

If you like to receive weekly updates on product development directly  in your inbox, click the link below to sign-up for my free weekly tips.

When you start up for the day it is so tempting to quickly check your email. Before you know it, you are drawn by all the urgent topics waiting in your inbox. Your focus is away from the priorities you have set yourself and the day flies by…..

Do you recognize this?

To break with this bad habit, I’ve created a morning routine that works for me. Perhaps you’ll love it as well!

Tune in to this episode and follow the 5 steps I'm teaching your to stay productive during the day and work efficiently on your projects.

I created a blog article with a free guide on this topic as well for you.

Are you also looking to optimize your work processes and to work more efficient?

When you are active in a technology-oriented, tangible product-based business, there are a lot of moving parts in new product development.

No matter what stage you’re at in your business, the right tools can:

• Save you dozens of hours per week and a whole lotta stress.
• Automate new product development activities like project planning, product development, and managing your team.
• Save you thousands of dollars or euros or any other currency on firefighting in your product development activities and doing things the hard way.

The trick is knowing the right ones to use.

When managing multi-disciplinary, international product development projects, I love to automate as much as possible in my daily activities.

These kinds of projects often take a lot of time and there are a lot of moving parts that complicate things and need to be managed well.

Do you want to read about this topic as well? I've also written a blog article.

Are you an entrepreneur and do you have a great new product idea? Of course, you have a vivid picture of it in your head. And it does look amazing, right?  But a picture can say more than a thousand words. That’s exactly why you need to show your great idea in the form of a picture as well. Lots of people have a visual focus and grab the content better when they can see what you mean instead of only hearing you explain it.

That’s why it is so important to put pen to paper and create a drawing of your product concept. There are agencies who have specialized in this and can help you create astonishing product concept drawings. But when you are tight on your budget, I have a few tips for you to get started. Even when you’re planning to hire and agency to do this for you, you can benefit from these tips as well, as you can use the concept drawing, which you have created yourself, to brief your agency.

Tune in my podcast episode to learn more!

If you like to read about this topic, you can also find it on my blog.

As it is quite a challenge to brief marketing communications on a project that is still in the first phase of the development process, and a lot of aspects are still unknown or unclear, some guidance might be helpful.

When you are developing a new product, your focus is first on the technical, financial and commercial feasibility of the project. When all those boxes are ticked, and product development is taking of, it is time to involve the marketing communication responsible as well.

The three main benefits are:

1.  Marcom people tend to look very critical at your product proposition, which is a good thing!

2.  You are challenged by them on the features and benefits compared to your competition, which is also a good thing!

3.  They help you identify when product samples and communication materials are needed in the project planning.

I teach you 12 tips that helped me doing this job. Hopefully they will come in handy for you as well.

Listen in!

If you would like to read about this topic, check my blog article.

Do you recognise the sad feeling of having to update your project planning every week? Moving your milestones further and further away because of unexpected time consuming activities? Activities which you might have overlooked? Then you might like this 9 step approach that enables you to include all the important deliverables of your project team and helps you to create a reliable planning for tech-oriented tangible products right from the start.

1.  Divide your new product development planning into 5 phases.

2.  Add actions & deliverables in every development phase.

3.   Add these actions and deliverables in your project planning and set the number of days needed to complete them.

4.   Add the name of the responsible team member behind every action.

5.   Close every phase with an official ‘move-to-the-next-phase-date’.

6.   Find yourself a steady project planning.

7.  Built-in experience from previous projects right from the start.

8.  Include holiday periods.

9.  Verify your planning with your team members on a regular basis.

Listen in for more details and tips per step!

Also find a link to my blog post on this topic if you like to read about it.

I hear you thinking: “my calendar is already fully booked, if I need to add a regular core project team meeting in my busy schedule, I’m going nuts. Why not only meet when there is an issue?”.

And here is the truth…. you’ll prevent going nuts, feeling stressed or overwhelmed if you align with your core project team on a regular basis. That’s why core project team meetings are a must.

By checking in on the status of your new product development on a weekly basis, you’re more in controlbecause you’re on top of things and can quickly intervene when things are moving in the wrong direction. Your team members can more easily indicate if their deliverables seem to go off track and endanger the project budget or timeline.

Adjusting this detour and taking corrective action can be done much faster, instead of needing to do a lot of firefighting

By meeting with your core project team on a weekly basis, you’ll be more in control which gives you peace of mind, even if this weekly meeting takes up thirty minutes or one hour per week in your busy schedule. It’s worth it!

There are a few more habits that will improve your life in managing new product development activities and take your project meetings to the next level.

I’ve three tips for you to use in managing your project meetings. Listen in!

If you like to read about it, you can find this content as well on my blog. 

When preparing for the selection of new product ideas, one thing you need to know is how big the investment into this new product development is going to be.

Making money on a new product is one of the key parameters in the decision to start a new product development.

The required investment money you need, to realise your new product idea, is needed to calculate the profit and the pay back time.

As nothing is for free in life, there are many items which need to be taken into account when defining the project budget. The risk of forgetting lots of small items is definitely there in the busy lives of business owners, product & project managers :-).

If you recognize yourself, you might want to take a peek at my Project Budget Planner.

I have 3 tips for you to help you define a realistic project budget.

1. Check predecessor products.

2. Organise a brainstorm meeting.

3. Follow-up and adjust the budget.

If you like to read about this topic, you can head over to my blog post.

Running a product-based business comes with lots of moving parts. It can be complex and challenging sometimes. If you want to stay in control, keep overview and be focused on your business goals, you need structure in your new product development.

Structure brings overview, control, and efficiency and that’s exactly what you’ll benefit from when you’re defining, developing, manufacturing, and launching new products. When you implement the three tips that I’m sharing with you, you’ll experience small wins immediately in your daily business.

Tip one: Always make sure to create a solid product concept definition.

Tip two: create a checklist with all deliverables needed for this new product development and assign team members to each task.

Tip three: organise your project documentation in a structured way.

Product development doesn't need to be complicated.

Let me show you how you can transform your new product idea into a thriving business.

Sign up for tips on how to define, develop, manufacture and introduce your new products and receive updates directly in your inbox.

Have you ever experienced that product samples and communication materials are missing on crucial moments during the development of your new product? That you need to show a sample of your new product online or on a show and that you are empty handed? Or that when your product is ready to sell and people want to know more before they buy, but you have no leaflet or brochure to show them.

That’s is such a pity, and you miss a great opportunity to show off with your new product!

Do you want to know how to prevent this? Involve your communication expert earlier in the development process. In this episode, I am sharing what I have learned from involving the marcom expert very early in my new product development and what the right timing is.

Listen in to learn more about the 3 main benefits of having the marcom people join early in the development process.

Follow along and subscribe to my podcast so you will not miss any tips and tricks in new product creation.

If you would like to receive new podcast or blog updates, directly in your inbox, head over to bureauflo.com/blog. Or click the link below. You only need to register with your name and email address and you’re good to go.