A new product development manager is a professional who is responsible for the managing of new product development in an organization from the initial concept until the time the product is finally introduced into the market. The concept of new product development applies to both physical objects like goods and material items as well as other objects like services. As such, a new product development manager can manage the development anything from a new brand of perfume to a new addition to the services offered by a courier company.
One of the responsibilities of the new product development manager is the generation of different concepts or ideas for new products. This may be done in consonance with a team of carefully selected talented and creative individuals. The manager must sift through the ideas in order to find really good ones through the result of surveys and other market research techniques aimed at finding a gap in the target market. This part of the development of a new product can be quite intense due to the large volume of ideas that must be carefully sorted through and weighed for credibility as well as to identify if they have the needed attributes.
Part of the process of choosing a new idea for a product by a new product development manager is to find out if the new product can be designed and produced in a cost-effective manner. Even if the idea is very good, it will likely be discarded if it is way above the budget given to the team. Sometimes when the idea is a little over budget, the new product development manager might be able to petition the management for extra funds to implement the new idea. The determining factor will be the identification of the expected benefit from the application of the idea.
Once the idea has been selected, the new product development manager must work with the designers to ensure that the prototype is a true representation of the expectation of the company. After this stage, the new product development manager must organize a sort of test-drive for the product to gauge the type of reception it receives from the target demographic. Based on the result of such a test, the new product development manager might either decide to make some adjustments to the product or to go ahead with a full-scale production of the product.