The 7 Strategic Phases of the Product Planning Process

Published:  

Dec 10, 2024

Product planning is the process of coming up with a new product concept and determining all of its specifications, including its features, pricing, advertising, distribution, and more. Product planning strives to coordinate the strengths of the operational and business variables while concentrating on efforts in product development, design, and engineering. Its goal is to provide the highest chance of success in attaining company objectives through an effective product strategy.

Companies utilize the product planning process, which is a rigorous and planned strategy, to find, create, and introduce new goods or to enhance current ones. Idea generation, idea screening, concept development, business analysis, product development, market testing, commercialization, and post-launch assessment are some of the phases that are involved.

Before releasing a product on the market, the procedure enables businesses to assess the viability, profitability, and possible success of the offering. By assessing the market and ensuring that the product satisfies customer demands and desires, the product planning process helps companies ensure the competitiveness and success of their offerings.

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Strategic Phases of the Product Planning Process

Recognize the significance of having a strategy


Understanding the need for a plan is the first and maybe most crucial step in the planning process. In terms of management, this implies that you must be knowledgeable about the market context in which the company works so that you can spot growth prospects. Additionally, you must be familiar with the inner workings of the company so that you can identify when problems need to be addressed.

Generating ideas

When it comes to creating a new product, there is only one place to start: idea generation. This step of the process entails coming up with a variety of concepts and recommendations for either brand-new goods or methods to improve an existing one.

In order to build a product that can address a problem that people are currently facing, this preliminary effort is essential.

Planning

Since product development may quickly become challenging, it is essential to organize ahead of time before beginning to design your prototype. A comprehensive product plan is usually helpful at this stage.

A hand-drawn mockup of your finished product is the best location to begin planning. The drawing should include labels that describe each feature and function in as much detail as feasible.

Analysis and research

The market research and business analytics phases of the product management life cycle are among the most crucial. You will identify your target market and ascertain their demands in this stage. To ensure that you are creating a product that people desire, you will validate user personas and user stories from several sources.

Product managers should discuss their ideas with other teams inside the organization, such as engineering or marketing. The end-user should be identifiable to your staff.

Marketing approach

You will need to develop a preliminary marketing plan for your product. The positioning, price, and advertising of your new product will be guided by this. You will be in a better position to judge how appealing the idea is once the marketing approach has been created.

Your target market and the current channels they utilize to find new items should be taken into account when developing your marketing plan.

Investigate various approaches of achieving goals

A goal may often be accomplished in a number of various ways. You'll need to spend some time considering several strategies your team may use to accomplish a certain goal. It's crucial to look at several ways to accomplish a task since it allows managers some leeway while leading their staff.

Putting the strategy into action

Implementing the plan is the last stage of the strategic planning process. Depending on the goals you've established, this can be the part of planning that requires the greatest effort. Managers rely on their knowledge base and past experiences to ensure a seamless implementation of a strategy.

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The Straightforward Guide to Product Strategy

A product strategy is a broad plan that outlines the objectives that your business wants to accomplish with a new product and the specific processes needed to get there.

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Conclusion

A company's overall strategy must include a procedure for product planning since it ensures that products are created and introduced in a way that optimizes their chances of success and helps the business grow and succeed overall. Companies may enhance productivity, better match with consumer wants, boost competitiveness, lower risk, and more accurately predict future sales and revenue by going through a systematic product planning process. Producing items that will be popular in the market and help the business develop and succeed overall is the ultimate aim of the product planning process.

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