Developing a new product may seem difficult in light of the digital acceleration that affects not only product functionalities but also the viral spread of their news, making the process of keeping up more complex and stressful. What is the solution then? Let us recall the great scene from one of Disney's most famous movies, “Alice in Wonderland”; after a long run by the Queen of Hearts and Alice, Alice, catching her breath, said to the Queen: “In our country, you'd generally get to somewhere else—if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing.” The Queen replied in an arrogant tone: “A slow sort of country! Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

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From this metaphor, it becomes clear to you that keeping up is not everything, but rather “how” ideas are generated to become pioneering ideas amidst the flood of innovative products around us. 

In fact, future studies indicate that every new product development we witness today is still just the tip of the iceberg compared to what we will witness over the next thirty years. What we find “amazing” today will turn into “ordinary” in the future, and the crucial skill for human survival will be the skill of utilizing ideas and constantly turning them into new innovations. 

You will find hundreds of articles about developing a new product, but few of them give you more important keys, such as how to develop your products with an innovation mindset? What skills must you have so that innovation is actually valuable? How do you transform an ordinary product into a useful and amazing one? How do you effectively contribute to developing a new product and achieve sales and profits?

The Six-Stage Approach

This approach is considered a circular model, because the innovation process does not follow a linear, sequential system, but is rather punctuated by obstacles, challenges, barriers, and dead ends. Consequently, you will need to move forward and backward through the six stages before taking a significant and valuable step, keeping in mind that (the goal) will be the link between all stages, which will maintain their harmony and consistency when developing a new product.  

This approach consists of the following:

1. Identifying opportunities (to understand trends and areas of potential growth).

2. Generating ideas (to come up with new solutions).

3. Investigating (for prototyping, testing, and research ideas).

4. Investing (to have courage and persuade others to support ideas).

5. Implementing (to turn the idea into reality and benefit from it).

6. Developing (to leverage success and failure, and to measure and learn from them).

All these stages are linked by (the purpose) that guides performance and helps think and solve problems in its light. For the stages to be practical, realistic, and effective, each stage has skills, behaviors, and a mindset that reinforce it, which can be explained as follows in the “riding a bicycle” example:

Skills | Pedaling and coordination between feet movement.

Mindset | Determination and perseverance.

Purpose

We all know The Body Shop retail chain, and we can easily feel the “value” of the brand because it was the founder's purpose from the beginning. It stemmed from her deeply-rooted personal values regarding the environment, the cosmetics industry, and the intention to create natural alternatives to what is common and dominant among consumers. Her purpose led her to establish an organization that became a vehicle for passing on her values, which has grown to become a global company. 

Tip | When thinking about purpose during new product development, think about what you are trying to achieve, and what kind of value you want to provide through your product and store. Make sure to use simple language that someone who knows nothing about your field of expertise can understand when writing down your purpose. Here are some types of values that can be considered when defining product purpose during new product development:

Financial value: Monetary or material value.

Strategic/competitive value: The advantage a brand gains when offering a value available among competitors but at a better quality or lower price. Here is: How to price a product in 7 steps

Social value: Refers to consequences, such as the well-being of individuals and communities.

Environmental value: Benefits derived from positive practices on the natural environment.

Personal value: Refers to the value derived on a personal level.

Identifying

The person skilled in identifying can foresee the future based on the (curiosity) mindset they adopt in their decisions, which is difficult for others to imagine and understand. Therefore, the person skilled in identifying must possess strength and confidence to focus on their destination, and invest their effort and energy in aspects of long-term strategic importance that positively serve the brand during new product development.

The most important skills to have:

1- Envisioning and imagining the future.

The skill of envisioning requires discovery skills, which have become highly accessible with technological advancement and online search tools, making access to knowledge around the world much easier.

2- Seeing and understanding trends.

Those skilled in identifying can connect events like overlapping threads weaving a single pattern. They possess a broad and open mind receptive to major novel developments that affect their field of commerce, and the constantly changing trends around them when developing a new product. 

3- Having a positive outlook for the future, and exploring opportunities.

Insights are generated by observing people and the problems they face. The more you can identify needs, the more possible it is to know where real opportunities lie. Be observant before developing a new product.

4- Expanding personal relationships and networks.

Expanding networks means opening our minds to different perspectives and diverse angles, as well as accelerating implementation when we reach the right people.

5- Empowering others to look for new opportunities.

Today's world thrives on the principle of interaction and overlapping on a global scale. You are both influencer and influenced, and so are opportunities; not all of them can be achieved by individual effort. This mutual effort also contributes to refining opportunities, improving perspectives, and achieving cooperation.

6- Providing strategic direction to others to explore capabilities.

You have to direct your energy and effort along with all of the above, because without focus you will scatter your energy in multiple directions, and end up being just interested rather than influential.

Tip | A curiosity mindset makes you welcome risk and challenge, and works brilliantly and perfectly in unstable and unpredictable circumstances.

Generating

This is an essential phase in development and innovation, because it involves—under the influence of the (creativity) mindset—generating many new ideas and challenging your way of thinking. It is important to search for connections between different and unrelated ideas, from which great ideas always emerge.

The most important skills to have:

1- Generating many options and possibilities.

One of the most famous ways to generate ideas is using “brainstorming” without judging the ideas. The greater the number of ideas we reach—no matter how strange—the more likely we are to find a useful solution or answer.

2- Challenging assumptions.

When we were children, we understood the world by creating connections; thus, these nerve cells grow and branch out with learning. As we age, the same neural pathways are repeated, so the flow of new ideas decreases while the flow of information accelerates. Therefore, we need to stimulate ourselves with new experiences to increase innovation efficiency.

3- Seeing how ideas merge or relate to each other.

The time we spend practicing specific tasks and relationships promotes a certain way of thinking and hinders our ability to make connections between ideas, whereas working in more creative fields like the arts, daydreaming, and inspiring conversations can positively shift this path.

4- Broadening horizons regarding learning new things.

Being asked to think outside the box means stepping out of our perceptions, experiences, and knowledge. If we want to develop a new product, we must know what is actually available and then innovate what is unfamiliar using the same inputs.

5- Encouraging others to contribute their ideas.

When you innovate, share and listen to people around you, from the specialist, the customer, and those interested, because realistic opinions will improve the quality and efficiency of the developed product so that it is practical and useful, since it is a (solution) to a real problem.

Tip | Creativity—or using imagination to develop unique ideas—is the fuel of innovation.

Investigating

This is a core stage because it saves a lot of time, resources, and money by not rushing to implement an idea. A new product development should be built on a systematic search, analysis, and evaluation of ideas to ensure that they are practical and useful, not just new ideas. This is reinforced by the (critique) mindset.

The most important skills to have:

1- Following an analytical and organized approach.

2- Dealing with things carefully and systematically.

3- Engaging customers and beneficiaries of the idea.

4- Making sure that the idea has the ability to meet a real need.

Tip | Critique is often viewed as a negative behavior, synonymous with making accusations and passing judgments on others and on ideas. However, critique actually involves a rational, detailed, and in-depth examination of ideas, or the quality of a thing rather than the thing itself, and it is very important when developing a new product.

Investing

After innovating and confirming the effectiveness of the product, comes the process of persuading others—including investors—of your product and its quality and effectiveness, which is reinforced by the (courage) mindset at this stage.

The most important skills to have:

1- Critical evaluation and decision-making regarding business plans.

2- Maintaining calm and making decisions despite difficulties.

3- Knowing where and when to provide resources.

4- The ability to persuade others to cooperate.

Readiness to venture into the unknown despite the challenges.

Tip | No doubt, doing new things causes stress, not only in yourself, but also in the social environment in which you live and work. However, the brain adapts, learns, and changes in response to new stimuli and experiences, so be brave even if you do not know the consequences.

Implementing

Without the ability to implement an idea for developing a new product, value is not created and innovation does not happen. This involves completing tasks, planning, risk management, and organizing. The mindset required for implementation is (commitment).

The most important skills to have:

1- Knowing what needs to be done.

2- Taking responsibility until tasks are complete.

3- Anticipating potential problems and knowing how to minimize risks to the maximum.

4- Collaborating and building partnerships with others.

5- Assembling teams whose members complement each other's skills and knowledge.

Tip | Commitment requires flexibility and intelligence, which can be learned in only one way: “gaining experience.” You must face disappointments and emerge strong, solid, motivated, and determined, because you believe in what you do.

Developing

In development, lies a Shortcut toward extracting more value from what already exists, because it includes finding many ways to improve the idea and reaping more fruits and benefits from it through experimentation, observation, and asking users. Therefore, the active mindset here is the (intelligence) mindset, since it is a stage that requires a keen, alert, and quick-witted mind.

The most important skills to have:

1- Analyzing factors that led to success or failure.

2- Gathering customer feedback.

3- Expanding the scope of the idea to include other areas of opportunity.

Tip | Think of how Apple leveraged its existing product lineup by diversifying color options, memory capacity choices, multiple sizes, continuous incremental development, and periodic radical shifts, thereby reaping great rewards from “the same idea.”