The design thinking process from Stanford University is an excellent tool.
Having understood the company & who the target audience is, we observe as to what they do. We define our product or service. We now ideate as to which product or service would best suit the brand. From here we filter down all the ideas for each project, marketable, ethical. cost of manufacturer, ease of use, desirable, price, durability & maintenance. I would also add another one on if there were after sales or would there be add on products or licencing agreements.
The next stop in choosing the product should in my opinion come down to the economic logic of the product, or in other words is it financially viable and can we make a profit. If we are happy that our product will make a profit, we must now test the product or service. Use prototypes so all the members of the team can look at what the final product will look like, or to make sure we are all singing off the same hymn sheet.
The next stage is to project manage the product or service to make sure that all the arenas, vehicles, staging & differentiators have been thought out,, planned & they are being managed through every process.
Throughout my career I have managed several projects, Anything from €20k to €1m. What I have learned is to well plan all of them as in most cases I also had my normal duties to conform with. Planning was everything, I include risk management in the planning as you never know what could go wrong, it was always essential to have contingency plans in place.
The most enjoyable part of any project is the launch of the product, service or even a new branch. Choosing what forms of media to use to suit you market segmentation is always the "fun" part of project. I went with many variations, Mail shots, Leaflet drop, inserts in newspapers, magazines, Digital mail shots, radio, celebrity openings, Google ad words, Ad placements on web sites, Facebook, local newspapers & national newspapers. I have been very lucky as we always had great success. This was down to meticulous planning & in choosing which media suits your target audience.
Below is a picture of Niall Quinn & myself who cut the ribbon at one of our openings.
Regards,
BIP/ SO'D
No comments:
Post a Comment