A good product idea can be incredibly valuable, but only if its creation is managed properly. Below is everything required to make a product a reality in the most smooth and painless way possible.

Know the target audience

Plenty of perfectly good products have crashed and burned because their creators didn’t fully understand the market they would be competing in. The first stage of developing a product is to research the market you will be targeting.

Who is your product aimed at?

What about the product or business is going to make people want to part with their money?

These are important questions that need to know before you get too far into the product development process.

Start with a sketch

A preliminary sketch is an excellent way of verifying a concept. Making a detailed sketch of a product will force the inventor to think about how they will overcome the design challenges their product presents.

Once the overall design is nailed down, a more detailed annotated sketch can be made which will show more detail about the product and how the various parts will work.

As well as encouraging the inventor to think about the design, producing a sketch or blueprint also gives them something concrete to take to their colleagues and manufacturing partners to get much-needed feedback.

Research as much as possible

There’s no such thing as too much prior research when you’re cultivating a new product idea. Everything that can learnt about a product’s niche, the companies that will manufacture it, and how it will be marketed will help ensure a smooth product launch.

The need to research is just as important as the creative side and the business side of things.

If a product is to become a reality, the creator will need to find a realistic way of designing and producing it.

This might require them to think outside the box. If they are stuck for inspiration, the Engineering Big Ideas with Grant Imahara video series on YouTube is a great place to start.

Each episode covers a different concept in product design and manufacture. The four episodes and bonus features provide the information needed to get launch a new product.

Prototype and troubleshoot

Prototyping is an essential part of the product design process. It is through extensive prototyping and troubleshooting that any issues will be identified that could potentially derail manufacturing plans.

Inventors will want to have all your ducks in a row long before they think about sending their final design for manufacture. They should try to put their prototype into the hands of as many product testers as possible before the manufacturing process begins to ensure the design is viable.

Taking a product from concept to reality is a long and difficult process. Depending on the business and available resources, an inventor might only have one shot at getting things right.

If that is the case, they need to be careful and avoid rushing through the process — it is always better to take things slowly.