New Product Development

Basically new product development process involves following steps:

  1. New product strategy
  2. Idea generation
  3. Screening and evaluation
  4. Business analysis
  5. Research and development
  6. Formulation
  7. Testing, and
  8. Commercialization

New product development is a very time consuming and complicated process until you get your perfect formulation needed to get the perfect product you desire. Various steps that required during research and development of a product reaching the goal are:

  1. Understanding customer’s idea and need about the product
  2. Product type (therapeutic, topical or oral, cosmetic etc.)
  3. Nature of product (ointment, cream, serum, drops etc.)
  4. Functions of product (pain relief, moisturizing, removing wrinkle etc.)
  5. Product attributes (appearance, feel, color, texture, viscosity based on the container type such as jar, bottle, pump, spray etc.)
  6. Customer’s desired ingredients, certifications or claims on product
  7. Review and recommendations on customer’s desired ingredients
  8. Research on available and suitable ingredients (clinical trials, research papers, Health Canada guidelines, regulatory requirements, licensing requirements, hot listed products etc.)
  9. Browsing information on ingredients
  10. Studying properties of ingredients
  11. Studying adverse effects of ingredients
  12. Selection of ingredients based on functions and claims
  13. Selection of associated ingredients required in making a product
  14. Evaluation of ingredients (compatibility, safety etc.)
  15. Sourcing the ingredients from the authentic supplier who can provide MSDS and COA
  16. Mathematical calculation for active ingredients required in formulation
  17. Formulation of product
  18. Experiment –making the product and reformulating until satisfied with desired characters (appearance, color, smell, viscosity, texture, and feel)
  19. Problem solving – Rejecting unsuitable and selecting suitable ingredients
  20. Prototype product development
  21. Testing – physical and organoleptic characters
  22. Stability test-physical characters
  23. Repetitive sample production to validate the formula and the process
  24. Post formulation – receiving feedback and improving product ((reformulation if necessary)
  25. Making the final product, product sample approval and sign off
  26. Microbial and heavy metal testing, cosmetic product testing, clinical trials, preservative challenge testing etc. if desired
  27. Licensing , certification and notification of product if needed