Dr. Harrison Sachs
Published: 2022-08-18
Total Pages: 32
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This essay sheds light on what is the product development process, identifies the stages of the product development process, explicates the benefits of companies developing new products, and demystifies the problems with companies not developing new products. Succinctly stated, the product development process refers to all of the stages of the product development process which commences with the idea generation stage and ends with the commercialization stage. The product development process is inclusive of all the stages that the product goes through from its inception in the chasms of the human mind as a product concept to its release in retail stores. The product development process can vary from product to product. The product development process is a far less long-winded process for simple digital products and is a significantly more long-winded process for intricate tangible products. Even though not every product has to go through all the stages of the product development process to be released in the market, such as a song being released in the market for commercial purpose after it has been developed without it having received feedback from stakeholders before it was released in the market, most tangible products however go through a long-winded product development process. It is easier to release a digital product, such as a digital course, digital song, or mobile application, then it is to release a tangible product. This is because there are typically no upfront costs associated with releasing digital products on digital distribution platforms. If you do not own a digital distribution platform and if your digital products earn product unit sales on a digital distribution platform, then you will typically need to be pay the company who owns the digital distribution platform a percentage of the sales revenue that was generated on its digital distribution platform from your product unit sales. It is an extraordinarily lucrative business model to own a digital distribution platform since it allows the company who owns the digital distribution platform to reap a percentage of the sales revenue every time digital products generate product unit sales on its digital distribution platform. Since the company who owns the digital distribution platform did not develop the digital products that are available for sale on its digital distribution platform, it is able to have an exorbitant amount of product offerings available for sale on its digital distribution platform without even having to had expended research and development dollars to be able to do so. Since entrepreneurs develop the products that are available for sale on digital distribution platforms, entrepreneurs incur the product development costs to be able to bring their products to fruition. It can take a tremendous amount of time and capital to develop products. Companies who own a digital distribution platform have a vast variety of product offerings on their digital distribution platform and are able to not only reap a percentage of the sales revenue every time digital products that they did not develop sell on their digital distribution platform, but are also able to sell these products without having to had expended capital to develop these digital products. In stark contrast to retailers who own brick-and-mortar retail stores and who have enormous inventory carrying costs, companies who own a digital distribution platform do not have any inventory carrying costs since their product offerings are digital products. It is significantly easier to develop digital products and expeditiously commercialize them than it is to develop tangible products and release them in the market at retail brick-and-mortar retail stores. Copies of digital products can easily be distributed to customers via a digital distribution platform and are summarily accessible on their devices after the customers order them. On the other hand, copies of tangible products need to be manufactured and subsequently shipped out to customers so that orders for tangible products can be fulfilled. It is time-consuming for products to go through the ample stages of the product development process. The product development process commences with ideation with the product being relegated to the form of a product concept in the bowels of the human mind. The product development process ends with a product launch in which the product is released in the market. The product development process sheds light on how a product is developed.