Description Individual Project: The purpose of the individual project (no more than 10 pages) is t ...

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Description Individual Project: The purpose of the individual project (no more than 10 pages) is to have you design a plan for a new product/service or business. Furthermore, I want you to take the new product/service or business through the ‘15 Step Development Process’ and how you would accomplish/handle each stage: The Fifteen Step Development Processes: Idea Generation – this stage involves brainstorming or creative sessions being used to help facilitate new and provocative ideas. Focus groups and current customers are used to help generate new and distinguished ideas. At this stage the company also needs to do patent searches and check with government regulations to stop any conflict that could derail the project. Project Screening – is the process of evaluating all the ideas that currently exist and trying to reduce them to a smaller and more profitable set of potential new products. The desired effect of this stage is to eliminate those ideas that do not have much chance of achieving a profitable return on investment. Technical Assessment – is the third stage of new product development. In this stage technical assessment is used with concurrent engineering methods in the development process. The technical individuals (engineers) can help to facilitate the best design practices to help push the idea into a practical, definable product. Marketing Assessment – during this stage the business wants to try and licenses any new technology that may be proprietary or innovative to the market. The organization will also want to line up any possible outside suppliers and investigate the cost of outsourcing some work. The third sub-section involves the use of putting out pre-launch information to the customer base, to try and perceive their feelings about the idea. The final aspect is to set up a special distribution arrangement with dealers or retailers to help energize this new product even before it has been produced. Detailed Market Research – this research should involve the use of opinion leaders in the field where your new idea is being generated. Try to educate these leaders and your potential customer base to the new product and/or new technology. The organization should consider a special promotion to its best customers when the prototype is finally developed. The idea is to make your largest customers feel as if this new product was designed and produced especially for them. Financial Analysis – after the technical and pre-market research is complete the company needs to do a preliminary financial assessment of expected sales, cost and profitability of the product. This stage would involve the product category elasticity. The elasticity measurements would provide important estimated information on the price that customers would feel comfortable paying for the new product. Research would be attempted at this stage to try and distinguish a brand market share for the product. The financial side would put forth a preliminary cost structure to bring the product to market. Prototype Development – this stage involves bringing the idea and making it into an actual product. This new product can now be used to conduct further tests in controlled environments and in external applications. The cost structure for the new product begins to increase during this stage because of the development cost associated with the new product. By using show room visits, advertising, articles, and word-of-mouth, the business can push this new prototype into the spotlight for its customer base. Internal Product Testing – this new product needs to be internally tested to be able to evaluate the product and attempt to rectify any problems before the external customer get the finished product. This stage is very important because this is the last stage before the customer gets his/her hands on it. Customer Product Testing – this stage involves putting the product in the hands of the organization’s best customers and asking them to test it in the field. The use of the product, promotion, price and place are viable variables for this category. The organization needs to allow the customer to remove the product from its safe and secure environment and operate or use it in a place of actual field study. The business runs the risk of the product failing the field study and costing even more money to bring it back to market again. Trail Production Phase – the organization has decided that the prototype has achieved success in the actual field study; therefore, they have decided to produce a limited number of units for commercial distribution. The business needs to sell their new product to try and recoup some of the expenses involved with bringing the product to market. Test Marketing Phase – this phase encompasses the marketing of the product to the total market. The product needs to be marketed towards the customers who may be confused over the benefits of the new product or just lack all the relevant information. This stage is important because it is the beginning of the total market launch. Detailed Business Analysis – this stage of the new product launch deals with the final assessment of all financial material. This stage should help the upper administration to develop an understanding of the cost structure and profitability of this new product. Sales forecasts and price estimates are critical to the long-range financial success of the new product. There needs to be an analysis to help establish economies of scale, which could result in lower costs and higher productivity. Economies of scale is the reductions in minimum average costs that come about through increases in the size of plant and equipment. Product Quality Assurance – this stage sets up clear goals and a strategic direction that the business wants to examine regarding the new product. There needs to be clear criteria and methods for evaluating the entire process. The business needs to assure the customers, dealers, and shareholders that the product is going to be the best product in its field. Product or Market Launch Stage – this is the most critical stage in the new product development process. The business is going to introduce the product on a full-scale production schedule. During this stage the business must get its product introduced and accepted into the entire market. The business needs to target their existing customers, as well as late adopters who may be waiting and watching to see how the product operates. Post-Launch Profit Management – the business must be ready to implement new changes on the product and fix all existing problems that may arise. The company needs to keep the excitement going with new products thereby extending its growth stage to maximize profits for as long as possible. The longer the product is seen as a superior value, the larger the profit margin for the business. NOTE – The project can be anything that is entrepreneurial in nature. It does not have to be a completely new product or service. Bill Gates did not invent the computer; he just found a way to utilize a product that was already available to make it more ‘user friendly’ and make him wealthy. Try to make it related to something a 22-year-old man in a graduate level class would choose to create.