Product Planning

Product Plan
• It identifies the portfolio of products to be developed by
the organizations and the timing of their introduction to
market .
• Part of Marketing Plan
• Aligned with the overall vision and mission of the
organization
 Lack of Good planning ???
• Inadequate coverage of target markets with competitive products
• Poor timing of market introduction of products
• Mismatch between aggregate development capacity and the number of
projects pursued .
• Poor distribution of resources with some projects over staffed and others
understaffed
• Frequent changes In the directions of the projects
Four types of Product development
Projects
• New Product Platforms
• Derivatives of existing product platform
• Incremental improvements to existing products
• Fundamentally new products
 Planning Process
1. Identify Opportunities
2. Evaluate and prioritize projects
3. allocate resources and plan timing
4. Complete pre project planning
5. Reflect on the results and process
 1 ) Identify Opportunities
• Idea for new projects and services from
several sources such as :
1. Marketing and sales personnel
2. Research and technology development organizations
3. Manufacturing and operations organizations
4. Current or potential customers , third parties such as
suppliers inventors and business partners
2) Evaluate and prioritize projects
1. Competitive Strategy ; Technology , cost , customer
focus ,imitative
2. Market segmentation –
3. Technological Trajectories- When to adopt the new
basic technology
4. Product Platform Planning –
5. Product process change matrix
 Allocate Resources and Plan
Timing
• Resource Allocation
• Project timing –Timing of product introductions ,
Technology readiness , Market readiness .
• The Product Plan
Complete Pre project Planning
Core team :
• Vision
• Mission
• Assumptions and constraints
• Staffing and other activities
• Reflect on the Results and the process