Product development trends for 2022

Product Development Trends for 2022

Innovation continues to drive product development trends in 2022 but continues to be closely linked to customer needs so the innovation solves a real pain point for customers. Even after extensive development and testing, it is estimated that 40% of new products fail when launched. Only one in approximately ten products based on a new concept is a huge commercial success, and only 13% of firms report achieving their annual profit objectives based on new products.

In his research paper on the drivers of success in product development, Robert G. Cooper sets out to review several research studies to identify the success factors in the product development of some companies. His work delves into why the products of some companies consistently surpass those of others. The paper defines five categories: tactical, organizational, strategic, systems, and methods.

Under the tactical category, a company concentrates on the execution of its new product development project. They listen to their customer voices, enhance their processes with front-end work, and work toward successful commercialization projects. In the organizational and strategic categories, at the business level, the company concentrates on its organization and leadership at the VP level and within teams. In the strategy category, they include heavy investment in innovation and early-stage R&D. Specifically, in culture the company must cultivate a tolerance for failure, risk-taking, and team-level accountability. Finally, new product development (NPD) requires a system and method – such as a new product development process.

Trends for 2022

Product development trends closely follow consumer demand and behavior. For example, consumers are increasingly concerned about the environment and ethical issues.  For example in the consumer category, it drives the need for textiles made from bast fiber crops like hemp flax and jute. Consumers are also increasingly interested in waterless washing.

Product development trends in 2022 include integrating AI-driven features into products, meeting consumer demands for products with added voice assistance, natural speech recognition, and intuitive operation based on location.

Product innovation does not only include physical products. Trends in 2022 include tapping into the cryptocurrency world with reward systems (like crypto-back credit cards) and increasing interest in virtual reality such as Facebook’s Metaverse product announcements.

Product development consulting in 2022

For any company developing products, product developing consulting offers solutions for many product development challenges. These include getting the entire team to work together on an idea with clarity, meeting customer expectations, meeting the financial objectives, and ensuring the product launches on time.

Product development consulting firms specialize in helping industries overcome all the above issues by fostering an agile environment.

What does a product development consultant do?

Perhaps you have wondered: “What does a product development consultant do, and how can my company benefit from their services?”

There are several aspects that product development consultants can do to assist product development processes and product strategies in all industries. Their services are invaluable to improving the effectiveness of an organization and driving innovation – typically by identifying changes in definition, late decision making, and insufficient team empowerment.

An effective product development process must go through the correct stages. These start from discovery, then move on to the definition, design, and development, ensuring the process is improved, predictable, accelerated, and effective.

The job of the product development consultant is to ensure the strategy leverages the company brand, meets the corporate strategy, remains on track, and meets profit margins.  Often this is done by reducing time to market.

Approaches used by product development consulting firms

Most product development consulting firms work on the principle of developing a unique approach. Companies should be wary of one-size-fits-all strategies because each organization is different. Product development consulting is essentially based on having both the knowledge and experience to develop the correct approach to help power new products succeed in today’s demanding marketplace.

TCGen is a product development consulting firm founded by John Carter. He has hands-on experience after years of heading product developments for BOSE, Apple, Bio-Rad, and HP. The approach used for product development consulting at TCGen is customized to each organization’s needs, prescribed after a thorough assessment to highlight the pain points in product development.

After agreeing with ownership and management on goals and KPIs, the TCGen approach identifies levers of improvements associated with a metric. The emphasis is on listening and guiding by an experienced product management consultant throughout the process.

Conclusion

As industries, markets, and consumer demands continue to change unprecedentedly; product development trends will also evolve. However, one thing is sure; we will continue to see winners and losers among new product developers.

Ensuring success in the context of the global marketplace requires improved product strategy, innovation, and product portfolio management. Product development consultants are trained to provide the mechanism to take a product from an idea to a successful outcome.

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