There are 8 steps which increase the likelihood that a product will successfully enter the market, though the order of the steps makes logical sense, in practice it is normal to move back and fourth between steps; a two steps forward, one step back sort of situation. This is due to the fact that as the product team moves from an idea through to a prototype they gain valuable insights into the market, the technology, the value and looping those insights back into previous decisions only makes sense. The primary objective is to launch a successful product, whatever pragmatic approach maximises that goal is only beneficial
Conception
Product innovation begins with initial conception, during this phase the initial idea or ideas are explored and shortlisted, the aim is to align business value with innovation. During this phase the goal is to identify business stakeholders, align on a single mission statement, and identify a potential market.
Validation
A business case needs to be created, its aim is to clearly articulate the value of the product, the market need, a competitive analysis if applicable, and a clear vision of how the product has the potential to generate value for the organisation. This business case is not a guarantee that the product will be a success, it is a sales pitch to leadership to show that the proposed product's value outweighs any opportunity cost.
Investigation
After the business case is validated, customer research needs to be conducts, how this is accomplished depends on the target audience and the organisational capabilities. The goal is to contrive a customer value proposition.
Design
Once the product manager understands what the value to both the business and market should be, the design process can proceed. This process generally follows the double diamond design thinking methodology, in short it's an iterative process which follows a divergent and convergent pattern of thinking; iterating over investigation, synthesis, exploration, design. this phase bleeds between the previous investigation and subsequent prototype phases.
Prototyping
After a rigorous design process, the product should be qualified before launch, a or multiple prototypes should be built and used to beta test the product with real customers, to get real feedback and qualify that the product will be adopted by the market.
Goto market
In parallel with the prototyping phase, a marketing strategy as well as a product roadmap need to be defined. The product roadmap lays out at a high level which epics/features will be developed and delivered, often times product rollouts are planned 2 to 5 iterations into the future. These iterations may not be 100% qualified, however they provide a broad brushstroke as to the direction of the product, the planned epics/feature for these iterations can, and should change as the organisation learns more from the market and their customers.
Build
Assuming the prototype phase went successfully it is time to produce the real thing, during this time as production capabilities are being ramped up, the product manger works on a launch plan, reviews the marketing strategy, focuses all their energy on the introduction of the product into the market.
Launch
It is important to remember though the product manager is responsible for all of the various plans and strategies throughout the innovation process, they are not the ones who actually produce all of theses artifacts. Product managers rely on change managers, marketing manager, logistics experts, designers, SMEs, etc; they are responsible for everything coming together.
Conclusion
In conclusion the steps above will not ensure success, but they will increase the likilihood of it. It is also important to keep in mind that regardless of how much capital has been spent, on product innovation, it is infinetly cheaper to fail before building and launching a product than after, always ask yourself does this realistically have a chance of success?
