Many disciplines are in involved in successfully bringing a product to market. Developing products is not simply a matter of requirements definition, nor is it just an engineering problem, a quality assurance problem, a design problem, a marketing problem or a consumer research problem alone. Product Development is a multi-faceted endeavor that requires the single-minded cooperation of all of the essential core competencies, forming a powerful interdisciplinary balance.
In accord with the latest thinking in New Product Development, we view the essential core competencies as:
- Marketing
- Design
- Engineering
- Research
The proper balance, of course, varies according to the type of product and its target market. The balance is quite different for developing an enterprise software system than it is for creating a new carbon fiber violin or designing a new medical instrument.