Step one in the sport product innovation process therefore seeks to cultivate an abundant, diverse and rich platform of potential concepts from which to conceive new value. It is important that the ideas are remain unconstrained from the usual practicalities associated with convention, resources and preconceived assumptions about what sport consumer’s want.

The second step in product innovation involves sifting through all the ideas that have been collected and only keeping the ones that fit with the marketing objectives of the sport organisation. It is also helpful to consider how well the new product ideas fit with existing products, and how they relate to current trends. This is not the stage to be concerned about financial realism. However, by the end of this step, new product opportunities should be ranked according to priorities determined by marketing objectives. In short, the lengthy set of ideas from step one need to be reduced to a workable handful.
A range of methods can be employed, including voting and weighting systems, predetermined priority areas, expert advice, panels and workshops, and the capability product champions have to quickly develop their ideas into testable prototypes. Subsequently, product and service innovations should be tested as quickly and inexpensively as possible.

Step three of the process involves a more careful assessment of the ideas that were retained following step two. In fact, the highest ranking options should be identified and piloted to determine their potential in the market. This is the time to check feasibility by undertaking cost and financial estimates, and to conduct additional market research, or concept testing. Concept testing involves giving potential customers a description of the new product, and asking them if they would be likely to buy it. It may also mean providing a prototype of the new product for customers to try.
One powerful option at this stage involves creating a ‘rapid prototype’. Recently popularized and infused into marketing and business circles, rapid prototyping is a method of quickly testing an idea to see whether it could work before significant resources are expended on creating it for the market. Because rapid prototyping has been appropriated from designers, the process reflects the fluid and iterative methods they use in testing their nascent ideas.
A prototype can range from a basic sketch or flowchart to a mock-up product of an unrefined but fully functional technology. The key is not in the finish but rather in the start. Most innovations never make it to the market because they take too long to develop or require too much investment without really knowing whether it will pay off or not.
Rapid prototyping attempts to sidestep the development lag that most product innovations face. By quickly converting an idea into something tangible that can be tested – preferably by the same kinds of sport users and consumers who might buy it in the end – and subsequently refined and re-tested, the innovation process can be radically shortened.
Often, the result is the choice to abandon the innovation. This is sometimes referred to as ‘fast failure’ or ‘cheap failure’, but reflects a positive outcome where resources have been protected from wastage in the light of early trials. In rapid prototyping, experimentation remains central, which leads to better design, faster.
It is important to understand that the rapid prototyping method does not seek to create fully functional products or services. However, they do need to evoke an experience in users that will provide them with a first-hand insight into what it is like to try the new product.
By working with users to test the idea, the marketer can quickly ascertain whether their consumers have an appetite for the actual product. A prototype could range from the low fidelity, like a series of sketches on paper, to high fidelity, like a working application with limited functionality. The important issue is that users can be exposed to the kind of experience that the ultimate product seeks to elicit. Better prototypes duplicate the final product experience with greater precision than lesser prototypes. But even a poor prototype can be enough to provide sufficient feedback for a successive, refined version.
Most consumers find it difficult to imagine their responses to product innovations in the absence of any tangible experience in which to base their expectations. Prototypes vastly amplify the productivity of market testing, and have therefore become a pivotal tool in the sport product development arsenal.