Products development: The different types

When talking about the different types of product development projects. There are four different types. There are new product platforms, derivatives of existing product platforms, incremental improvements to existing products, and fundamentally new products. All these projects are different stages but all work together in a sense of building a products reputation.  

The new product platforms are a project of making several new products that could work together. It is not just one product being created but a family of different products. An example of these projects would be the electric cars. This new platform has several different accessories that work together. There is the car itself, and the other thing like the charger, the charger cord, and the station. Professions working in this type of product development would be auto mechanics who have to make the car itself. It is a different job due to there being no gas powered engine. The car must be powered by electricity.

Electric Cars at a Charging Station

https://www.greentechmedia.com

Derivatives of existing product platforms are projects that already exist but are looking to make improvements. They then make new products that fit into that platform so it can extend within familiar markets. An example of this is the Xbox adaptive controller. Xbox, an already existing product with its own controllers and headphones were looking to expand their types of controllers. They then came out with a new controller to allow people with disabilities or missing limbs to play. Professions working in this type of product development would be an designers working on designing the controller and engineers who have to build the controller for testing.  

Xbox Adaptive Controller

https://www.microsoft.com

Incremental improvements to existing products is the stage of modifying products that already exist. They would do this to make them better or include something to help compete within the market. An example of this would be Wilson footballs taking an already existing product and adding more stitching to it. Them doing this gave the ball better grip making it easier to throw. This allowed Wilson to put a better product to put out on the market to compete against other companies like Nike and Under armor. Professions working in this type of product development would be a designer that shares ideas with the workers who make the product.

Wilson Football

https://www.eastbay.com

Fundamentally new products involve very different products and technologies that and very risky. They can fail very heavily in the market but can also have long term success. They can open up new windows and ideas that can lead to something bigger. An example of this would be new Samsung phones that are full screen and do not have any buttons on the front of the phone. This was a risky product because they did not know how costumers would react to having no buttons on the front. This soon led to apple doing the same thing. A profession that would work on fundamentally new products would be engineers who make the phone and also the graphic designers. For the new product like the phone below the engineers need to be able to make it but the designers have to know how wide and tall the screen needs to be for the pictures and all the stuff a phone does on the screen.

Samsung Full Screen Phone

https://www.samsung.com

               In conclusion all of these projects are similar and different. They are similar because they all work together. They are like stages that in a way that can involve any type of product. They are different because all of them not all of them take place at the same time frame of a products life. for example, the fundamentally new products in right at the beginning stage of a product while Incremental improvements to existing products is in the middle or end of a products life. if I had to choose to work in one of these product development projects, I would want to do fundamentally new products because although there is a high risk of failure, they success is all worth it if you are able to make great new products.

Sources:

- “Galaxy Note10 5G 256GB (T-Mobile) Phones - SM-N976UZKATMB: Samsung US.” Samsung Electronics America, www.samsung.com/us/mobile/phones/galaxy-note/galaxy-note10-plus-5g-256gb-tmobile-sm-n976uzkatmb/.

- GST Football, www.eastbay.com/product/~/1103000.html?SID=7726&inceptor=1&cm_mmc=paid%20search-_-google-_-g-_-PLA-_-DPA-_--_-P-_-Prospecting-_--_-6535577247-_--_-79214172179-_-PLA-_-1103000-_--_--_-&gclid=Cj0KCQiAvJXxBRCeARIsAMSkApq6ygltwrNjTM2_gTXm6EogBdpH7Fsjpjl8qN8YH03De_lpwAC1OOYaAqrTEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds.

-Microsoft - Official Home Page, www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/xbox-adaptive-controller/8nsdbhz1n3d8.

-  "Startup Aims to Prevent EV Charging From Overloading the Grid." Greentech Media | Clean Tech & Renewable Energy News, 21 Aug. 2018, www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/startup-aims-to-solve-electric-car-power-overload-problem.