When a company needs a new product to shake up the market, they turn to product development managers who assess gaps in the marketplace and find niches to market new products to. Working with market researchers, they identify how to reflect a brand's attributes in a new product, ensuring customer value and satisfaction with that product.

Throughout the development cycle, they manage customer opinion of a product, testing the product in focus groups and receiving feedback. They then work with teams of other developers to adjust the product's design until they reach perfection.

Product Development Manager Tasks

1. Manage the product development project pipeline and assignment and prioritization of resources.

2. Assist in scale up to commercialization.

3. Collaborate with sales and marketing to develop new business.

4. Research and development specialist job description

Personal requirements

1. Interested in research

2. Able to analyse and collate information

3. Good oral and written communication skills

4. Able to work as part of a team

5. Able to manage workload and meet deadlines

6. Good organisational skills.

Education

Research and development managers must have at least a bachelor’s degree in a related and relevant experience.