Breakthrough product is a product that is naturally more sophisticated or technologically advanced compared to the existing product in the market. In simple terms, a breakthrough product is one that meets the specific needs of consumers in a better way compared to the rest of the products.
Today, most companies are looking forward to staying ahead of the stiff competition in different markets by coming up with the most sought breakthrough products such as CNC machine, software, and high-tech equipment.
What challenges do companies face when creating breakthrough products?
Coming up with a breakthrough product is never a walk in the park for most upcoming companies or startups. In most cases, companies have to conduct extensive market research and invest a lot of time and money in designing the products to ensure it meets the unique specs of the target market.
Here are some other challenges that any company should expect when looking forward to creating a breakthrough product.
1. Being unique
Creating a breakthrough product takes a lot. A company has to dig deeper into finding out the problems that customers could be having that they are not yet aware of, then capitalize on inventing a product that solves those challenges.
A successful breakthrough product is one that meets the unique needs of target customers. In most cases, the customer is not even aware of such problems.
2. Time-consuming
For a company to come up with a unique breakthrough product, it must invest a lot on time. The process of concept generation and theorizing the actual product is time-consuming. Most tech companies take years or even months to come up with a single breakthrough product.
Apart from designing the product, it also has to go through a series of test to establish its efficiency. All this takes time.
3. A lot of risks is involved
When coming up with a breakthrough product, a company must be ready to bear all the risk that comes in the process. Most breakthrough products are not always successful when launched on the market at first.
Therefore, a company must adopt the most appropriate risk management to ensure it bounces back even if their product does not get a breakthrough in the market.
Once a company has come up with a product, it has to invest in customer awareness. Because customers are not aware of what problems the product or service is solving, the producer must invest some resources in educating the target customers on how to use the product. If the consumers are not made to understand how to use the product, then it is bound to fail.
Final Thoughts
Designing a breakthrough product takes time and resources. Sometimes, a company may opt for financing elsewhere to fund their projects. Given the risk involved in creating breakthrough products, most companies shy away from them.
However, the reality is that most successful companies of the 21st century, such as Samsung, Apple, and Microsoft, have been able to climb at the top by coming up with a breakthrough product.