Introduction to Product Development Project Phases

In a previous post, I helped to define a project. With this post, I want to begin to define product development project phases. There are numerous resources on the web, magazines, books, etc. that go into very detailed discussions on the topic of project phases. A couple of these resources to whet your appetite are pdma.org and stage-gate.com. This blog will not tell you anything new or different from these sources. My intent is try and keep the approach as simple and understable as possible. Future posts will certainly take some deep dives into this topic but let’s stay at a high level for now.

I’ve been in many meetings, discussions, and arguments where phase definitions, deliverables, and terms are discussed. I once facilitated an all day meeting where we discussed nothing but what we should call the phases. For example, one contributor wanted to name a phase “research” when another wanted it to be called “investigation” (we settled on “phase - 0″). Yes, it may seem very trivial. But do not underestimate how big a deal semantics can be regarding a product development process. We all have pre-conceived notions and experiences to base our opinions on. Frankly, most of us do get too attached and hung up on words.
Remember, every project has natural phases or stages. For the sake of this foundation-laying post, let’s assume these natural phases are called “beginning”, “middle”, and “end”. Sure, your process can have more phases and use different terminology. My recommendation is that a product development process should have at least three phases and be tailored to meet your needs and culture.

The Beginning Phase
During the Beginning Phase of product development, your main objectives are to define the scope of the project, find out what you know, and begin to identify the tasks and resources that the project will require.

The Middle Phase
The Middle Phase builds upon your discoveries from the Beginning Phase. During this phase, you take what you learned during the Beginning, define requirements, prototype, and develop your product design and manufacturing processes.

The End Phase
During the End Phase, you prove your product design is correct, demonstrate robustness of manufacturing processes, and tie up all lose ends in order to introduce the product into the marketplace.

I know this may seem like an over-simplification of the product development process. However, I think this helps keep things in perspective. I also contend that every project–no matter how large or how small–should go through the “beginning”, “middle”, and “end” phases of product development. The project scope, type, and previous knowledge will dictate the amount of activity required for each phase.