You need a complete range of relevant skills. As well as the technical skills involved in developing the product, these include:

  • Market research skills to ensure that your product meets customer demands.
  • Design skills for the product and its packaging.
  • Purchasing and production skills.
  • Financial skills for project budgeting, costing and product pricing.

You may need to involve people from outside your business for some of these skills. For example, it’s common for businesses to use external designers, though you must take care to ensure that you retain the intellectual property rights.

As well as the skills, you need to commit sufficient resources to the project, in terms of both money and people’s time. A personal commitment to the success of the project is also important to drive it forward.