Creating New Foods. The Product Developer's Guide - Product Strategy Development: Idea Generation and Screening

CREATING NEW FOODS
THE PRODUCT DEVELOPER'S GUIDE

CHAPTER 3
Product Strategy Development:
Idea Generation and Screening

3.6 PRODUCT IDEAS SCREENING

The aim in idea screening is to retain the successful ideas and eliminate the ideas which could be failures - much easier to write than to carry out in practice! If in doubt, keep the idea until more information is obtained. Idea screening can be based on tacit knowledge of the individual and of the company, with little new explicit information sought in or outside the company. But the aim in successive screenings is to build up the necessary information for the decisions to be made in a quantitative, objective way. Screening is both a reiterative and a progressive process, so there is a need to relate to the first screening even in the last screening in case the product description has changed and it no longer fits the screening criteria first set out.

The components in idea screening are product idea descriptions or concepts, screening factors and screening techniques. There is a need to have product idea descriptions that everyone involved in screening understands and is evaluating in the same way. The choice of screening factors is of course fundamental - obviously the direction of choice is strongly influenced by the criteria. Lastly the people who do the screening, and the techniques they use, affect the screening results.

3.6.1 Product idea descriptions

These must be clear and concise. They include:

a clear description of the product;

the use of the product;

the target market segment;

the relationship to the company's present products;

the relationship to competing products.

For example, the new product idea in an ice-cream company could be a range of liqueur ice-creams. What is meant by a liqueur ice-cream - is it a liqueur flavour, or does it have drops of liqueur embedded in it? Is it targeted at sophisticated diners at home or in restaurants? Is it to be the top of the company's ice-cream range? Is the nearest competitor the specialty ice-creams made in high-class restaurants? Should problems be anticipated from sections of the community such as teetotallers or religious groups or will there be legal difficulties with excise duties?

The initial description is usually kept broad so that ideas on the product, the market and the technology can be continually studied, but there is a need to focus the idea in a certain direction so that the people involved are not taking off in too many directions at once. As the product idea builds from a product idea description, to a brief product idea concept, to the final product concept, to the product design specifications and to the product specifications, the focus is being narrowed all the time.

One product idea description for the liqueur ice-cream was: ‘a line of plain based ice-creams with little jellies containing concentrated liqueurs, aimed as a gift to be taken to dinner parties, sold through higher-class supermarkets’

3.6.2 Screening factors

The strong screening factors, with which the product idea must agree, arise from the project aim and the project constraints.

The overall aims of the company always take precedence over other factors. No matter how brilliant a product idea is in isolation, it is rejected if it does not fit with the company's business strategy, in particular the product strategy. There may be an outstanding product idea which may change the direction of the company's business strategy, but it has to be taken from the project ideas and directed back into the top management area. This product idea has to be viewed in its scale and suitability for the company, and decisions within the company must be taken at top management level.

The constraints identified at the beginning of the project are also important screening factors. A product may be dropped for many reasons: it does not meet the food regulations; there is not sufficient money to develop or to produce it; the managing director does not like it! The factors used in screening should be as objective as possible, but sometimes subjective decisions are made.

Significant factors are many and these are just a few that often occur. The choice of screening factors depends on the type of ideas, the company and its resources, the company's environment and the level of innovation. There could be many factors but it is not humanly possible to use them all, so that the factors are ranked in importance and only the most critical chosen in the first screening, although others may be checked later. Factors can be rated as crucial, most important, important and minor.