This article has been prompted by many of our customers asking for a ‘magic bullet’ which will easily establish a new product development (NPD) process or framework for their business.
In our opinion the process (irrespective of how good and detailed it is) is just a start. The real challenge is getting the company and all the business units to adhere to the process and follow it. But that is a topic for another post.
So for this discussion here is a fairly good new product development (NPD) process outline including some of the key deliverables for each step and milestone. In the next article we will provide all the documentation required for each of the steps in the process.
To make it easier to get you going with your new product development efforts, you can re-use our product development task list and project schedule.
Below task list is a table created in Microsoft Excel and covers all the key tasks you will be required to complete in your project across all the phases from market analysis to product launch. Please note this is mainly applicable to telecom projects but can be also adapted to other industries with some modifications.
Sample new product development (NPD) process (task list)
Task Name | Duration | Start | Finish | % |
Phase 1 – Market Analysis & Idea | ||||
Scoping Workshop | ||||
Concept Development | ||||
Market Analysis | ||||
Idea Generation & Idea Screening | ||||
High Level Project Plan | ||||
Milestone 1 | ||||
Phase 2 – Business Case | ||||
Develop business case | ||||
Approval for business case | ||||
Milestone 2 | ||||
Phase 3 – Product Requirements Document (PRD) | ||||
Project Planning | ||||
Milestone 3.1 | ||||
Product Requirements Document (PRD) | ||||
Purpose, scope & stakeholders | ||||
Project Overview | ||||
Product functional requirements | ||||
Ordering / provisioning | ||||
Change management | ||||
Support requirements | ||||
Billing model & process | ||||
Reporting | ||||
Legal & regulatory | ||||
Project Impacts | ||||
Product pricing & quoting model | ||||
Service Activation SLAs | ||||
Service Support SLAs | ||||
Training | ||||
Resource requirements | ||||
Milestone 3.2 | ||||
Phase 4 – Solution Design & Planning | ||||
Technical & Network Systems Solution Definition & Design | ||||
Design Phase | ||||
Product Research | ||||
Architecture Design | ||||
Detailed Design | ||||
Detailed network design | ||||
Business systems design | ||||
Detailed Physical Design | ||||
Network/Systems Detailed Design | ||||
Milestone 4.1 | ||||
Business Systems Solution Definition & Design | ||||
BSS Sales / Quoting | ||||
BSS Ordering | ||||
BSS Implementation / Activation | ||||
BSS Support / Assurance | ||||
BSS Billing | ||||
Milestone 4.2 | ||||
Product description & feature matrix | ||||
Contextual product description | ||||
Product features matrix development | ||||
Milestone 4.3 | ||||
Phase 5 – Development/Build & Operational Readiness | ||||
Technical Solution Build | ||||
System build & implementation | ||||
Equipment Installations | ||||
Systems and Portal connections | ||||
Technical Training | ||||
Systems Documentation | ||||
Technical & network processes for service activations | ||||
Technical & network processes for service support | ||||
Solution testing | ||||
Finalise Technical documentation | ||||
Operations Rollout | ||||
NOC Training doc & process | ||||
Review marketing docs (multiple reviews) | ||||
NOC Training Sessions (multiple sessions) | ||||
Integration time & beta testing | ||||
Technical Test with a Customer | ||||
Commercial Solution Build | ||||
Final product description/definition | ||||
Product documentation – finalise all | ||||
Process Solution Build | ||||
Finalised Business Process Solution | ||||
Sales / Quoting process | ||||
Service Activation / Implementation process incl Planning | ||||
Service Support / Assurance process | ||||
Billing & Collections process | ||||
Milestone 5.1 (PROVISIONAL BETA AVAIL DATE) | ||||
Operational Readiness Test Plan | ||||
Project planning for Ops Readiness | ||||
Develop technical readiness plan incl technical processes | ||||
Develop product/commercial readiness plan | ||||
Develop operations and business processes readiness plan | ||||
Operational Readiness Test Execution | ||||
Finalized product/marketing documents & sales training materials | ||||
Vendor support agreements/process finalised | ||||
Technical documents ready | ||||
Testing completed | ||||
Finalised training | ||||
Service activation ready incl. ordering process, planning & design | ||||
Service assurance ready incl. NOC support process | ||||
ORT Conducted & results noted | ||||
Sales & Market Readiness | ||||
Milestone 5.2 | ||||
LAUNCH BUFFER TIME | ||||
Phase 6 – Launch | ||||
Commercial Launch | ||||
All product collateral published | ||||
Sales training | ||||
Pricing published | ||||
Milestone 3.2 – COMMERCIAL LAUNCH | ||||
Phase 7 – Project Review & Lessons Learned | ||||
Project Review & Lessons Learned | ||||
Milestone 3.2 |
For a better view, you can also use project management planning tools such as Gant Charts.
New Product Development (NPD) Process Gantt Chart
Web-based and interactive versions of above process are available in our ParcusFlow product management software platform.