Traditional food NPD is typically a long and tortuous process including review, costing, market research, product redesign, a marketing campaign and then lots of praying as it’s launched!
Whether a startup product or new product for an established company the quick and agile will win every time. It’s about time the food industry copied the software industry and started getting products out there on a small scale and then rapidly iterating the products until they understand the customers needs.
Chuck Templeton of venture fund S2G “noted an overarching movement of food emulating software in terms of spending the first year as a food startup testing your product and being agile by making updates as you go…. In my opinion, food is moving towards software through the lessons learned… It’s not about doing a $10,000 marketing study of what’s out there; it’s about getting your product out there and testing...Your first year should be about learning what the consumer wants and trying to meet those needs in a unique way that others can’t.”
Imagine an NPD cycle of a few months at a fraction of the traditional costs. It can and will be done, and sooner than you think!
