In this activity, participants will explore the full journey of New Product Development (NPD) and what it takes to transform an idea into a commercially successful market offering. You’ll work through the core stages of the NPD process, beginning with identifying customer needs and defining compelling value propositions, before considering concept creation, prototyping, testing, and planning for market launch. Throughout the process, we will examine key risk factors, technical, market, operational, and financial and how they influence decisions, timelines, and investment at every stage.

A crucial part of the session will focus on understanding development costs and the financial foundations that underpin product success. You’ll learn how to estimate overall development costs, break down unit economics, and assess the impact of materials, labour, overheads, and scaling. These insights will help you evaluate product margins and understand how pricing strategies must balance customer expectations with commercial targets.

We will also explore how product life cycle curves shape strategy over time, from introduction and growth to maturity and eventual decline. By analysing where a product sits on the curve, you’ll gain clarity on how to adapt investments, marketing efforts, and design decisions to maximise performance. This includes considering product payback periods and determining whether projected revenues justify upfront development and operational costs.

Finally, the activity will examine the types of consumers your product may serve and how segmentation impacts design, messaging, and value creation. By combining customer insight with financial analysis and risk awareness, you’ll learn how to assess whether a concept is truly commercially viable. By the end of the session, you’ll have a well-rounded understanding of how to balance innovation with practical decision-making to create products and services that succeed in the marketplace.

If you have any queries about this workshop, please contact Science and Engineering Faculty Student Enrichment via sefse@mmu.ac.uk for support.

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