In business and engineering, Concept Development is the term used to describe the complete process of bringing a new product or service to market. There are two parallel paths involved in the process: one involves the idea generation, product design and detail engineering; the other involves market research and marketing analysis.
Companies typically see new product development as the first stage in generating and commercializing new products within the overall strategic process of product life cycle management used to maintain or grow their market share.
The ''fuzzy front end'' of the Concept Development process.
Analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to existing products or services.
Observe consumer patterns and habits.
Brainstorm new opportunities based on analysis and observation.
The ''not so fuzzy back end'' of the Concept Development process.
Develop the marketing and engineering details
Investigate intellectual property issues
Determine the target market
Define product features
Test the concept by asking a sample of prospective customers what they think of the idea.