The basic product development process can be broken down into eleven steps, beginning with the idea and concluding with shipping orders to your customers. Depending on your background, experience, and resources, it can be difficult and often prohibitive to complete this process on your own.

One option, which allows you to essentially avoid the entire process, is to license your idea to an existing brand. This may be the most appropriate solution in product categories that are dominated by large, global brands. These brands have the design, manufacturing, and distribution resources already in place to launch your product. However, it can be very difficult to get a deal in these situations and you will keep less than 6% of the revenue.

If you want to keep a larger share of the revenue, typically 20-50%, then you need to maintain control by building your own brand and developing your product. This does not require you to hire employees or build your own factory. There are only three critical steps which require your involvement.

The first of these steps is rather obvious, you need to start with your own original idea.

The second critical step requiring your involvement, which may be less obvious, is the testing phase. Brand owners are responsible for understanding, developing, and executing a product testing plan. This may be as simple as using the prototype yourself and determining that it meets your expectations during use, or it may be as complex as hiring third-party testing laboratories to certify compliance with government regulations. When you work with CDM to develop your product, we are able to provide assistance during this testing phase. However, the important notion to understand is that you must take responsibility (and liability) for ensuring that this is done correctly. As the product creator and brand owner, you are the top expert on your product.

The third step, and arguably the most important, is sales. Not only do sales provide critical funds to payback your initial investment in development and manufacturing your product, but sales provide the only real-world validation of your idea that matters.