The key for new product development is to create products your customers will truly love. These 3 tools can help put you on the right path.
OCTOBER 01, 2013
It's an understatement to say that new product development is a challenge for startups and small-business owners. Entrepreneurs are naturally creative, forging their own paths and finding new opportunities. Good ideas are a dime a dozen, and the ones that succeed are the ones that can move past the idea stage.
"It's important to always keep your mission and your customers' priorities in mind or you risk drowning in ideas that may be excellent but do not ultimately benefit your company or target audience," explains Elad Israeli, co-founder at analytics startupSiSense.
Smart Tools For New Product Development
Startups and small businesses need smart tools to create the strongest possible product to bring to market. The following three can help put your product on the right path to success.
1. KISSmetrics: KISSmetrics helps organizations understand consumer demand at the consumer level. Rather than presenting analytics data in the form of clicks or page views, KISSmetrics humanizes the information to show how prospects and customers engage with brands.
KISSmetrics collects data to help organizations understand what actions their highest value customers are taking. This market intelligence tool can help companies invest in more website features, products and resources that customers love.
KISSmetrics offers a two-week free trial for business owners. Plans begin at $150 per month.
2. InVision: New product development is resource intensive and time consuming. Startups and small businesses can't afford to chase the wrong decision. The most important way to validate a new idea is to share it with the world and gather feedback. The problem is sketches in PowerPoint are limited in their capacity to articulate a vision.
That's why Clark Valberk and his team built InVision—an app that helps product owners and designers create high fidelity prototypes of their ideas.
InVision can be used for wire-framing, feedback collection and user testing. It breathes life into new product ideas and takes collaboration to new levels.
InVision offers free plans to users with one active project. For designers and product owners who need more features, plans begin at $15 and cost up to $100 per month.
3. UserTesting: Rule No. 1 of new product development: You are not your user. Unlike your target customers and prospects, you spend 50 hours a week, or more, on building your company.
Your audiences? Not as much.
You'll be lucky if they give you a few minutes. That's why it's so important to catch mistakes on your website before they happen—mistakes that you may not notice.
UserTesting is a tool that helps website owners overcome tunnel vision in new product development. The company provides access to software as well as a participant panel of target consumers. In tandem, these features help website owners collect feedback about what they can do better.
UserTesting provides website owners with screencasts of consumers completing actions on a specified website—it can be yours or a competitor's. You can run as many or as few tests as you would like. You can even run tests on new product features before they've officially launched.
Tests are priced per piece at $49 per user.
Be Stealthy And Innovative
For new product development, creativity is only half the battle. What's key is that your organization is empowered to create products that your customers will truly love. Don't jump in blind. Rely on tools and technology to help make the most educated, informed and intelligent decisions for your brand.
Ritika specializes in business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and quantitative analysis. She's written for Forbes, Investopedia, CrazyEgg, Unbounce, the Contently Blog and the SAP Innovation Blog.
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Photos: Accelerant Research
Original Article Can be Found Here:
Ritika Puri
Chief Story Wrangler, UserGrasp
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