My 3 Biggest Tips for Industrial Product Developers

Pivot International  |   December 08, 2016

Product development is always something of a race against your competitors. You want your product to hit the market as soon as possible, before your competitor’s does, so that you’re able to capture the largest market share.

At the same time, you want your product to operate perfectly, with a minimum of glitches, so that it outperforms your competitors in quality as well.

While this is certainly true for consumer products, it is especially applicable when you’re developing industrial products. To succeed in this highly competitive arena, you’ve got to develop new products that are reliable, cost-effective, and high-quality – and you’ve got to be able to get them to market and scale up production quickly.

This can be a challenge even for established industrial product development companies, to say nothing of small businesses or individuals venturing into this industry. If you fit into one of those categories, these tips can help you ensure that your product development process goes as smoothly and successfully as possible.

To keep costs under control, conduct necessary studies as early in the product development process as possible.

Industrial products are subject to a stringent set of rules and regulations, and are highly resource-intensive to develop.

Therefore, if you want to keep your costs under control, it’s to your benefit to do your homework as early on in the product development process as possible.

The first thing, of course, is to see that there’s a market for what you want to develop. This can be done through thorough market research, either by your company’s marketing department or by an outside firm. Then, you’ll have to conduct whatever studies are necessary. That could include environmental impact studies, safety studies, feasibility studies, etc.

No matter how confident you are in your product idea, there’s always a chance that there’s no viable market for it or that it’s not workable based on industry standards. If that ends up being the case, it’s far better to find it out before you’ve spent the time and money on a design, rather than after.

Be aggressive in seeking out materials that are both high quality and cost effective.

When you reach the manufacturing stage of production, it’s easy to accept the list of materials that’s been established for your product without searching for ones that could be just as high quality, but more cost-effective.

Indeed, sometimes the problem is simply not knowing how to go about finding other possibilities. In these cases, it can be beneficial to work with an outside consultant that has experience developing industrial products.

At Pivot, for example, we’ve worked with many companies and entrepreneurs to improve their existing products. Often, this includes analyzing the materials that are being used to manufacture the product, then identifying and sourcing better alternatives.

Realize that industrial product development is a cyclical process.

When it comes to industrial product development, you’re never truly “done.” One product may be completed, but if you want to continue succeeding in the product development business, you’ve got to go right back to the drawing board as soon as possible.

There are several reasons for this, but one that is applicable to many industries – high-tech industries, for example, or the medical industry – is that your product begins becoming obsolete as soon as it hits the market. This will become true for more and more products as the speed of our technological advances continues to pick up.

For that reason alone, it’s vital to get to work on the next thing – be it the next iteration of a single product, or something entirely new – as soon as you can. That way, you won’t be behind the curve if or when your current product is rendered out-of-date by a competitor’s advances.

Industrial product development is a complex, ever-changing field. I hope these tips help you with your next industrial project.