Innovation and Recommended Techniques For Product Designers To Conceptualize Ideas

Innovation is what drives product designers to infuse creativity in the new product development process. This is important because there are thousands of other products in the market. If you cannot design product that innovate, then you might as well expect them to rot in the shelf without anyone daring to pay for them. As a product designer and manufacturer, you are aiming to grow your profits and so it is vital to implement creative techniques in the process of conceptualizing product ideas.

Brainstorming is the simplest and most common form of idea conception. This is performed by sharing of ideas and what other ideas that can be generated from it. However, brainstorming is limited only within a limited group, such as 3 to 6 people. Ideally, it should be a relaxed environment such that everyone is able to share whatever ideas that come to mind and anyone is free to provide their feedback. There should be someone who is designated to take note of all ideas and points raised during the brainstorming session for final evaluation later.

Another notable technique that product designers can use for coming up with ideas for a new product is called SCAMPER. It is an acronym that stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other use, Eliminate, Reverse/Reorder. This technique therefore follows a step by step process wherein the initial idea is thoroughly evaluated to ensure its validity and value before moving onto the next phase in product development.

A proven method for generating product ideas is to conduct a research. Look at existing designs and evaluate what makes them valuable as a product. Also, examine them closely to assess what their flaws or faults are and how you can offer improvement to them. This is one way for your product to excel even if you might already have similar products in the market. But instead of trying to simply outdo your competitors, use this opportunity as a learning acceleration so you can set a new standard in the specific niche in your new product development process.

The Concept Fan technique is one more method that you can use for designing products that is sure to bring in applicable concepts. It works by taking out ideas and then evaluating them in a greater scope by looking at it in the finest detail. A designer must formulate a hierarchical tree where in the general concept branches out to even smaller concepts and make it easier for you to examine the idea further. You can also take advantage of this method to come up with smaller but newer ideas to build up on.

For a more functional approach, you can use problem decomposition. The goal is to break down problems into manageable chunks and explore how you can leverage them to produce new product ideas. Explore all these concepts individually and then recombine them so you can have a more potent product concept in hand.

Indeed, there are a number of techniques that you can use when you design product for the market. But the most critical step is to organize and filter those ideas to determine what is most practical to implement for your business. Ideas is just the start and you need to spend as much time to evaluate each of them according to the needs of the intended user.

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Getting The Most Mileage

When creating info products, it's possible to take basically the same content and create multiple products from it.

Keep in mind that different people have different preferred learning modes. Some people like to read, some like to listen, some like to watch and some like to experience something live (like a seminar). There is nothing wrong with taking the same content and repurposing it into different formats (audio, video, print). This allows people to pick the format that they like best - and if they happen to buy the same content in more than one format, then the different formats can help them to retain the information better. Studies have repeatedly shown that multiple modes of learning results in greater information retention. Also, within each format, you can create different levels of depth. As the information becomes more detailed (or more "niched") the price goes up.

Another idea is to go through content you've already created, pull out one specific piece and then create a new product out of that. You can also see if some of your content would lend itself to being a series.

Gaining Leverage

When creating content from scratch, it's a good idea to do your keyword research before you start writing anything. Then, you can map out different formats and decide on the level of depth for each one.

For example, let's say you wanted to create a piece of content about managing stress. A quick look in the Google AdWords keyword research tool reveals the following monthly search numbers:

- stress management 250,000

- managing stress 42,200

- manage stress 24,500

Obviously, it would be a much better idea to use the term "stress management" as your keyword than the much less-searched term "manage stress".

Once you know your main keyword and have the basic idea for your new content, you can then write the following pieces:

- an in-depth article for your website

- a blog post containing a summary, referencing and linking to the article

- a video on that topic you can post to YouTube to drive some traffic to it

- an audio recording of the article you can upload to podcasting sites

...and so on.

Clever Conversions

If you have an audio program on CD, give it to a sound engineer to combine all the tracks into one file and make an MP3 for you. If you have a DVD, have the video converted to an MP4 file. Have your audios and videos transcribed and turned into printed or electronic transcripts. Maybe pull some pieces from the transcriptions and make a downloadable special report or create an e-book.

With a little creativity and some careful planning, you can often squeeze more from an idea than you may have thought possible, while at the same time expanding your line of info products.

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