Your product defines your business. Do you create a product without any plans? Certainly not. What do you mean by product planning? Why product planning is imperative? What are the stages involved in the process of product planning? Get all the answers in the following lines.
What is product planning?
A product is not made overnight. Before you make a product, you go through careful planning of the product. So, what is exactly a product planning? A specific plan is made based on the product you are about to create. The product planning does not take place in a day. A lot of pivotal factors such as the financial part, target audience, deadline, and many other things have been taken into consideration. In other words, product planning is a long process and it calls for the attention of a person who has got the requisite expertise. In the product planning, one must keep tabs on all the phases.
Phases Involved in A Product Planning
Generally, product planning is a bit taxing. There are five phases in the product planning.
1. Have an In-Depth Knowledge On What You Create:
You will have to decide the concept of the product which is the tough phase of product planning. You should be vivid about the product you are about to create. In case you do not understand how to go about it, then you should figure out the reason for creating a product. Once you get the answer, you should know that you have done with the first stage of product planning.
2. Figure Out the Customers’ Requirements:
You need to figure out and understand the requirements of your customers for whom you are designing the product. Have a review of your competitors’ products.
3. Analyze the Market:
Look for the suitable possibilities which would help grow your product. Researching on the market will help you know the things that will work best for your products.
4. Introduce the Product:
When your market analysis and other researches are over, then it is the time to present the product in the market. If the product is appreciated by the customers, then you can work further on it and develop your product.
5. Life Cycle of The Product:
The product life cycle is a compilation of all the above four stages. The objective of these stages is to keep tabs on the longevity of the product.
Importance of Product Planning
There are various reasons which prove that product planning is imperative. Let us know the reasons below.
1. Gather Different Ideas:
The product planning helps you gather various ideas from the shareholders, sales team, management team, and customer care team. When you are occupied in gathering ideas, you should not overlook the feedback of your customer. You can ask your customers about specific elements they want to have in your product. Such feedbacks and ideas help your product grow.
2. Assess the Best Ideas:
It has been observed that people come up with many ideas about a product. The ideas vary from one person to another, as you may find some ideas are impractical, some ideas are not up to the mark and some ideas are contradictory. Assess, choose and hone the best ideas. The ideas that are honestly will be the best design for your product.
3. Evaluate the Market:
One of the vital parts of product planning is to evaluate the market. Look for the product details, functions and features that are preferred by the customers. Make a note of the features or product details that might miss in your product. If something is missing out in your product, then you will be able to re-design the product again before the production process starts.
4. Set Up A Timeframe:
The production of a product takes a lot of time. It is essential to set up a timeframe in the product planning so that you can launch your product at the right time.
Keep the aforementioned points of product planning in mind to make the product successful in the market.