Product Development Process #3: Development

In the third stage of the product development process, you’ll continue to design and develop your product or service to prepare for testing and full-scale production.

The Execution of the Plan Developed in Stage #2

During Stage 3, you’ll physically develop the bulk of your product. After creating a detailed plan in Stage 2, this stage is the complete execution of the plan. Typically, Stage 3 is the most cost intense phase due to the length of the development process. All products and services will differ in the length of their development phase and final cost.

Stage #3: Design & Development of the Product or Service

During Stage 3, you’ll not only complete the design and development of your product or service, but you’ll also design the operations or production process to prepare for full-scale production. Here’s what you can expect to encounter during this stage.

• Quality and process planning: You’ll complete both your quality and process plans. A quality plan outlines the product or service’s standards, specifications, resources and more. A process plan outlines the steps required to achieve the full development of the product or service.
• Prototype creation: An initial prototype will be designed to fit those quality and process plans.
• Testing: The prototype will undergo initial testing internally, in accordance with the test plan you created in Stage 2.
• Summary updates: As you continue to develop your product or service, you’ll update your financial summary with new information gathered from manufacturing including parts required, tooling, capital and more. Updates will also include supply chain, marketing and product support information as your design evolves.

Upon approval at the end of this stage, you’ll need to order tooling and long-lead items to prepare to move forward to Stage 4: Testing and Validation.

The RFA and Matrix product development process is a derivative of the Stage Gate® process.

Develop Your Product With Confidence With RFA & Matrix

To give your product or service the best chance of success, you must follow the development process from start to finish. If you’re struggling with any stage of the process, RFA offers product development support. Or, take advantage of Matrix’s engineering consulting. To learn more about our services, give us a call at 952-843-2700 or send us a message.