What Is Product Planning? (Definition, Process & Tool)

What Is Product Planning?

Improvements to existing products and eliminating unproductive or marginal products are all part of product planning. It also includes product development, which includes product design and engineering. 

Product planning encompasses all activities between the genesis of a product idea and the product’s full launch onto the market.

“In any organization, people hook to the outmoded – things that should have functioned but didn’t, things that were once useful but are no longer.”

Product managers must understand that grand plans and even greater tactics are required to succeed and leave your competition behind in product management.

Clearly stated goals and an objective approach to rating opportunities in terms of how effectively they assist us in reaching our goals account for a lot of the magic of selecting the proper stuff to work on. 

Once we’ve established our priorities, a product roadmap becomes a more straightforward procedure, based on available resources, market conditions, and internal timeliness, among other factors.

To be implemented efficiently, you must connect production planning and production control.

Why Is Product Planning Important to a Business?

A perfect recipe for managing and building a great product has never existed. Having a talented product manager and the necessary resources are just a few factors that can help you turn your product into a market winner. However, product planning is similar to preparing things so that you get the desired taste!

Product planning is critical for businesses that produce, manufacture, and sell things. 

Companies can examine their present consumer demographics, identify expansion opportunities, and define product development goals to help them gain, retain, and help their customers by having a product development plan.

Every product’s implementation journey is incomplete without product planning. It enables secure product development by assisting in assessing potential risks and hazards. Project managers apply product planning assumptions to their work to attain best practices and outcomes.

For various reasons, product planning and development play a critical role. To begin with, every product has a finite lifespan and must be improved or replaced at some point. 

Second, consumer requirements, styles, and preferences vary, necessitating product revisions.

Third, new technology opens up possibilities for better product design and development.

Product planning is a reliable instrument in a marketing manager’s toolbox for achieving this final goal.

It is pretty accurate. Product planning examines the customer’s demands, requirements, aspirations, likes, and preferences and directs the firm’s resources and efforts toward fulfilling these desires.

Product Planning Process

Markets, customers, and company priorities shift so quickly that a product manager might grow dizzy, and even the most strict product plans can suddenly become obsolete.

It takes an art form to create adaptable product plans that give your team structure and the capacity to respond to changing conditions.

Development of a Product Concept

It is the most enjoyable and creative stage of the product lifecycle and the most important.

Businesses generate a plethora of concepts, and as a result, only the most promising ideas require attention and resources.

Product discovery is an important stage in this phase. The product team gains a far better grasp of the difficulties that potential customers experience and the user personas so that the solution comes to light.

Analyze the competition

The purpose is to learn about the various possibilities available to potential clients. Occasionally, there will be a direct competitor with a very similar product to yours. There could be broader solutions available that offer similar capabilities to the product in issue.

This involves using spreadsheets to create product roadmaps, writing code in a plain text editor, and creating PowerPoint animations.

Research into the market

Both qualitative and quantitative research are present in market research. Surveys and aggregated data can reveal trends, assist in calculating the total addressable market, and provide helpful information for prioritization.

Development of a Minimum Viable Product

The development of a Minimum Viable Product may be required towards the end of the market research phase. An MVP is to gauge the reaction and interest of potential buyers. 

Based on the company’s understanding of which user stories clients require the most, it only offers the essential features and capabilities. It is laser-focused on resolving fundamental issues.

It acts as a guide for making revisions to essential activities before launch, and the value proposition and messaging are appropriate for the product.

Introduction and launch

Raising awareness and demand often begins long before the “download” link is activated.

In the run-up to the release, the product marketing team should generate demand and create excitement for the offering.

The lifecycle of a product

Mature products move into a new development stage, usually a cycle of incremental improvements and changes.

The product roadmap becomes critical at this time.

Therefore, the strategic phases of the product planning process are a series of steps that cover the whole life cycle of a product. Ideation is the initial stage, and the final phase is to plan how to retire a product.

The Team Involved in Product Planning

A product manager is a person who develops a product’s internal and external vision and oversees its development from start to finish.

This person identifies consumer needs and collaborates with stakeholders and teams to develop the required product.

Representatives from six functions typically comprise the core product development team: innovation, product management, project management, product marketing, engineering, and operations.

What Is a Product Planning Example?

Have a look at a couple of instances to assist you in understanding.

Blue Hibiscus Beauty is an online company that sells makeup, skincare goods, and hair accessories. It delivers questionnaires to each consumer who purchases from its shop as part of its market research approach. 

The survey includes various demographic questions and an open-ended response section in which participants respond to describe what goods Blue Hibiscus Beauty should carry. The company learned from the survey results that it’s essential demographic of female buyers aged 18 to 25 needs long-lasting, easy-to-apply eyeliner, so it began manufacturing this product.

Tilly’s Knitting Supply Store sells craft supplies and is a small business. 

The company wants to expand to include a custom photo framing service. The company intends to make the custom frames in-store, working with consumers to design and build each one. 

Tilly’s Knitting Supply Store conducts rigorous research as part of its product plan to determine how many customers would use the service each quarter. It then develops a budget to determine how much to spend on supplies and how much to charge for benefits to earn a profit.

Garden Fleece Market is a tiny neighborhood grocery store that sells locally grown food. 

Despite having a loyal client base, the store intends to gain new consumers by 25% during the next fiscal year. 

To attract new customers, the business decided to add a butcher, a bakery, and a selection of locally created care products such as lip balm, lotion, bar soap, and essential oils to its product lineup. 

Contacting local businesses to offer these things is part of its strategy to broaden its product selection. The store seeks to attract new customers by providing a more comprehensive range of products.

Plans are nothing; planning is everything, as the saying goes. Do you believe that to be true?

Why is Chisel the Product Planning Tool?

So, do you want to create products that users love? Chisel’s goal is to assist you in creating exceptional products. Product managers can manage their roadmaps with various product management softwares available in the market. 

We have seen a lot of products in the market for project managers. However, having a single place to manage all the happenings in the company is difficult without a good product management tool. 

Hence, Chisel has arrived to save the day. Chisel has been created to provide a unified platform to manage all the components of product management. 

It’s critical to have a complete view of a product’s lifecycle, and our time line view gives you knowledge in an easily accessible style. You can set your priorities straight using our prioritization matrix and align the team regarding the same. Hence, it effectively helps with product planning, product development, and product launch.

Deliver the appropriate product at the right moment! Try Chisel today!