University of Colorado Boulder
Managing the New Product Development Process
University of Colorado Boulder

Managing the New Product Development Process

Michael J. Readey, Ph.D.

Top Instructor

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Beginner level

Recommended experience

18 hours to complete
3 weeks at 6 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
Build toward a degree
Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Beginner level

Recommended experience

18 hours to complete
3 weeks at 6 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
Build toward a degree

What you'll learn

  • Learn and apply design thinking tools to the product innovation process.

  • Develop a product specification that meets critical customer requirements (CCRs).

  • Learn the tools to generate a variety of product concepts that satisfies the CCRs.

  • Learn and apply the methods to down-select the many product concepts to the critical few using prototyping and team-based evaluation techniques.

Details to know

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Assessments

8 quizzes

Taught in English

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Build your subject-matter expertise

This course is part of the Product Development for Technical Managers Specialization
When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.
  • Learn new concepts from industry experts
  • Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
  • Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
  • Earn a shareable career certificate
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There are 5 modules in this course

This course begins with an overview of topics and course structure. We then explore how to develop creativity within ourselves, as all product development efforts begin with ideas from individuals that see opportunities the rest of us don't. With a creative mindset, we can then begin ideating about product opportunities. Two methods are explored, Design Thinking, and Design-Driven Innovation. Design Thinking is all about understanding customer needs, whereas Design-Driven Innovation is all about understanding the meaning products have on people's lives. Both approaches are effective, yet both are quite different!

What's included

9 videos3 readings3 quizzes1 discussion prompt

If product development is all about solving real problems, we need to understand who, in fact, has these problems, as these people are our potential customers. In this module, we define customers, users, markets and market segments. We also define market size terms such as the TAM, SAM and SOM. Now its time to get specific, and create our Customer Persona, a detailed description of our target customer, enabling us to determine how many potential customers are in our target market.

What's included

8 videos3 readings1 quiz2 peer reviews

Understanding the customer's problems allows the product developer to begin thinking about solutions. That process starts with converting customer statements into customer needs, which become Critical Customer Requirements, or CCRs. This defines what the product must do to make the customer happy. Performance metrics are then established and a Product Requirements Matrix defines the most important CCRs, and some target values the product should meet. Finally, knowing what the product should do, it is time to be creative and come up with all the different product ways one can design a product to meet the CCRs, a process known as Concept Generation.

What's included

8 videos3 readings1 quiz1 peer review

Successful concept generation creates many possible product designs, far too many to take forward. This module covers the techniques to downselect many designs to a few. From there, the product development team builds simple prototypes suitable to obtain customer feedback. The simplest of these is often called the Minimum Viable Product, or MVP. Customers can evaluate the MVP to see if the PD Team is on the right track - as MVPs don't cost much money or time to build. With greater confidence with the product concept, the team can build even more refined prototypes, ultimately enabling the final product concept to be defined.

What's included

8 videos2 readings2 quizzes1 peer review

Thus far, the course have discussed physical products and physical prototyping. Yet many products are digital, such as digital apps or websites. Prototypes can be made for these products too, although the process is a bit different. In this module, the digital prototyping process is covered, culminating in a prototyping workshop showing students how to use online tools to create their own digital app prototype.

What's included

5 videos6 readings1 quiz

Instructor

Michael J. Readey, Ph.D.

Top Instructor

University of Colorado Boulder
10 Courses25,133 learners

Offered by

Recommended if you're interested in Leadership and Management

Build toward a degree

This course is part of the following degree program(s) offered by University of Colorado Boulder. If you are admitted and enroll, your completed coursework may count toward your degree learning and your progress can transfer with you.¹

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