New Product Development (NPD) Is a Process

New product development (NPD) is a process that designates the complete process of bringing a new product or service to market. There are two individual parts involved in the NPD process. One part of NPD involves the idea generation, product design, and engineering. The other aspect of NPD involves market research and marketing analysis. The way in which these two parts come together varies by industry or with individual strategic plans. However, organizations almost always view new product development as the first stage in creating and developing new products while also considering product life cycle management which can subsequently be used to maintain or grow their market share.

In this era of globalization and international outsourcing, organizations are increasingly focusing on redesigning the product development process to adapt to changing capacities. New business strategies, organizational structures, business processes and technology are being implemented by many companies to continually improve their product development process over supply chains that are increasing with complexity. As a result, organizations take totally different directions in the evolution of their product development process. While some of these differences are the result of legitimate reasons, a frequent problem that is prevalent is the lack of a common framework of the best practices of product development in changing business environments.

With extensive investment of time, an organization could develop the mature internal expertise necessary to produce an effective set of capabilities for product development. During the entire process, from the initial concept to the launch of new product, the activities of the production and marketing functions are usually just as critical as those of the product development design functions. Nearly all of these activities are interdependent is some way or another. The new product design must be suitable, not only with the production and marketing functions of the company, but also with a company's marketing and operations strategies. If a new design demands change in these strategies or systems, then this can never be taken lightly since the interdependence of all the business functions require a high level of coordination.

It is a common mistake for organizations to either not include marketing or include this function late in the product development. There have been a plethora of great products that were designed without the assistance of marketing that never gained a foothold in the market place. Design for the sake of design may not consider the needs of the consumer or their perception and consequently even though the design is great, nobody wants or desires the product. The role of marketing is to identify a niche that is consistent with consumer demand and product design. Then the design process can begin with the end user in mind. The will ensure that once the product reaches market that fills a consumer need.