CITY COLLEGE OF ANGELES

Teaching
Common
Competencies in
Industrial Arts Arnie S. Simbillo
 • Product development
• Key concepts in developing a product
Agenda • Finding Value
• Innovation
What this session will cover:
• Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
 Product
Development
First Definition Second Definition Third Definition
Product development typically refers to Product development, also called new Product development is the processes
all stages involved in bringing a product product management, is a series of steps required to bring a product from being a
from concept or idea through market that includes the conceptualization, concept through to reaching the market.
release and beyond. In other words, design, development and marketing of
product development incorporates a newly created or newly rebranded goods
product’s entire journey. or services
Standard Stages
of Progress in
Product
Development
There are many steps to this process, and it’s not the same
path for every organization, but these are the most common
stages through which products typically progress:
• Identifying a market need.
Products solve problems. So identifying a problem that needs
solving (or a better way of being solved) is where this journey
should begin. Conversations with potential customers, surveys,
and other user research activities can inform this step.

2. Conceptualizing the product.

Here’s where the team puts in the effort and
applies their creativity to devising how a product
might serve its needs.
3. Developing a minimum viable product (MVP
This initial version of the product needs just enough functionality
to be used by customers.

4. Releasing the MVP to users.

Experiments can gauge interest, prioritize marketing channels
and messages, and begin testing the waters around price
sensitivity and packaging. It also kicks off the feedback loop to
bring ideas, complaints, and suggestions into the prioritization
process and populate the product backlog.
5. Ongoing iteration based on user
feedback and strategic goals.
With a product in the market, enhancements, expansions, and
changes will be driven by user feedback via various channels.
Over time the product roadmap will evolve based on this
learning and the objectives the company sets for this product.
This work never ends until it’s finally time to sunset a product
at the end of its lifecycle.
 Key Concepts in
Developing a Product
1. A new product’s problem/solution fit considers what problem exists and
how/why we would want to solve it. Key questions for determining a good
problem/solution fit are:

• What problem are we solving?

• Who are we solving it for?
• Why are we solving it?
• How are we solving it?
• What does solving it mean for our company?
• What are we doing to realize our solution?
 Key Concepts in
Developing a Product
2. And then there’s the market/solution fit—the perfect solution to a problem
is useless if customers don’t want to buy it. Key questions for determining a
good market/solution fit are:

• Is our solution repeatable?

• Is our solution scalable?
• Have we factored user retention into our customer journey?
 Key Concepts in
Developing a Product
3. What are some assumptions we should be aware of—and avoid?
• We already know what our customers want—we just need to
build it
• We’ve got to create this product since our competitors have
one
• We can begin by defining the solution instead of the problem
to be solved
 Key Concepts in
Developing a Product
4. Some specific recommendations for product development are:
• Create the lowest-possible fidelity wireframes to prototype the
smallest-possible product iterations
• Start product planning with the small viewport and add
progressive enhancements to larger views
• Plan for content flow, not screen flow—expect to chunk the
experience differently for different views
 Key Concepts in
Developing a Product
5. Tips for “failing fast” and learning:
• Don’t overcommit to the first solution; let it go if it doesn’t
prove viable
• Test very early, very quickly, very cheaply
• Create small, data-driven experiments to validate interest
• interview customers
 Finding Value
Important pricing formulas

Product selling price

To calculate your product selling price, use the formula:

Selling price = cost price + profit margin

The cost price is the price a retailer paid for the product,
while the profit margin is a percentage of the cost price.
 Finding Value
How to calculate average selling price

Before calculating your selling price, it’s important to

understand the average selling price of existing products
already available in the market.

Average selling price can be calculated using the

formula:

Average selling price = total revenue earned by a product

÷ number of products sold
Innovation
People talk about product innovation every day without even
realizing it. Whether they refer to their smartwatch and its latest
features, the top performing cars or the latest app that helps them
unwind, they bring up product innovation.

But what makes these products innovative – and why are 95% of
new products failing? How are some companies succeeding at
bringing these innovations to the market and why others fail? Today,
we’ll try to answer these questions and see what the factors
contributing to successful product innovation are.
What is Product
Innovation?
One of the more widely accepted
definitions for innovation is the
introduction of something new. That
something could be anything from
new services to products, processes
and even incremental improvements
to something that already exists.
 Why more companies should
consider product innovation?

1. Competitive advantage
• Develop new products that answer the needs of their consumers or create new
demand for them.
• Continuously improve on their core products and make incremental innovation
their second nature.
• Redefine the competition by taking existing products to new channels or
markets.
 Why more companies should
consider product innovation?
2. Encourages resilience
It is common for companies that miss the innovation train and lag behind their competition to
eventually disappear altogether. Product innovation is the chance to bounce back. If you create
the right circumstances and strategize around this decision, product innovation can help you
pivot.
Consider Nokia, a company famous for its numerous innovations and strategic pivots. They
started as a wood pulp mill, then moved on to rubber boots and of course to their most
recognizable products, the Nokia cell phones.
......Continuation on the next page......
 Why more companies should consider
product innovation?

2. Encourages resilience
When Apple took the world by storm with their smartphones, Nokia was not able to catch up. They were close to
bankruptcy but once they sold their cell phones business to Microsoft, they pivoted their business once more and
turned to high-end networking and software products. This helped them in the past 10 years to increase their
enterprise value 20 times.
However, Nokia phones haven’t died. They returned to the market in 2016. The Finnish company HMD bought
the brand license to produce and sell Nokia phones and have recently launched six new models.
The complicated and complex story of Nokia perfectly depicts that the action you take on product innovation can
make or break a company. It can easily become your worst enemy or the most powerful tool that keeps the
business afloat and supports their growth.
 Why more companies should
consider product innovation?
3. Drives growth
Product innovation allows companies to grow, turn higher profits and conquer new markets.
There are several contributing factors that enable growth and those that get product innovation
right reap the benefits on a long term.

When the market is oversaturated and companies don’t find their way out, they could turn to
product innovation. We’ll explain how this works when we get to the processes and
frameworks, but in short, it is about creating new demand.
 Unique Selling Proposition
(USP)

A unique selling proposition, more commonly referred to as a USP, is

the one thing that makes your business better than the competition. It’s
a specific benefit that makes your business stand out when compared
to other businesses in your market.
 Unique Selling Proposition
(USP)
Forming an opinionated and deliberate USP helps focus your
marketing strategy and influences messaging, branding, copywriting,
and other marketing decisions. At its core, a USP should quickly
answer a potential customer’s most immediate question when they
encounter your brand:

“What makes you different from the competition?”

Unique Selling Proposition
(USP)
Thank you!
Feel free to approach me
if you have any questions.