If you are either inventing a new product or considering developing a new product to add to your existing product lines, there are a number of critical factors to consider in assessing how practical this is. The following is a listing of several factors you should consider.
Technical Factors
| Function | To what limits will your product function as you have designed or intended it to do? |
| Production | Can your product be produced at a reasonable and beneficial cost? |
Societal Factors
| Legality | Is your product subject to any laws that limit, restrict, control, regulate or ban such things as production, ownership, distribution, or operation of the product? |
| Safety | Is your product dangerous; even if it is used properly? |
| Environment | Will your product contribute to degradation of our natural resources? |
| Quality of Life | Will your product generate a net benefit to society? |
Marketing Factors
| Potential | Is your share of the total market adequate for viable business activity? |
| Price | What degree of price stability can be reasonably anticipated for your product? |
| Penetration | Is there adequate revenue potential in a reasonable time frame to justify the effort required? |
| Predictability | Will changes in market demands be evident in time for adequate management decisions? |
| Dependence | Does your product depend on the sale of other products to be a success? Would demand for your product fade if other products were removed from the market? |
| Demand Curve | Will the demand for your product last long enough to enable you to make a reasonable profit? |
| Development Potential | Can your product result in a family of products from which you can profit? |
| Compatibility | Does your product harmonize with current behaviour patterns and ways of doing things? |
| Learning | Can customers easily understand the correct use of the product? |
| Need | Does your product solve a pressing problem or fill an urgent need for the customer? |
| Visibility | Are the advantages and benefits of your product self-evident when the customer hears about your product? |
| Promotion Cost | Will the cost of promoting your product be reasonable in relation to production cost? |
| Distribution | Will your product fit easily into established distribution networks, or will it stand alone? |
Business Risk Factors
| Appearance | How does the customer judge the appearance of your product versus the alternative? |
| Function | Does your product work better than the alternatives? |
| Durability | Will your product last longer than others? |
| Service | Will your product require less routine service than the competitors? |
| Price | Do you have a price advantage? |
| Existing Competition | Is there a serious competitive threat in the market already? |
| New Competition | Can you anticipate significant, new competitive elements in the near future? |
| Protection | Does there appear to be a potential to protect your product through patents, trade secrets or other means in a way that is commercially worthwhile? |
| Stage of Development | How much additional effort and resources are required to bring your product to a marketable or a license ready state? |
| Research and Development | What magnitude or complexity of applied development will be required to sustain your product in the marketplace? |
| Marketing Research | What magnitude of effort will be required to define the product, place, price and promotion that the whole marketing channel finds acceptable? |
| Marketing Investment | Is a much larger investment required to bring the product to market? |
| Payback Period | Is the time required to recover your investment shorter than the peak demand threshold? |
| Profitability | Is there real potential to generate adequate profits to make the venture viable? |
Commercialization
| License | Does your product have more potential and greater returns in the form of royalties or assignment fees? |
| Existing Business | Can your product be suitably commercialized from within your own existing business? |
| New Business | Would commercial advantages be served if your products were used to establish a new business? |
| Part-Time | Could you effectively manufacture and sell your own product on a part-time basis? |
Prepared by: Government of Saskatchewan