The goal of the Project Business Plan is to give insight in the business case and convince stakeholders in your organization or business why this new product is such a great idea.  Let’s dive in more details on why you need to create a project business plan and what should be inside.

How to keep your projects on track

My experience is that there are 3 Standard Project Management Templates You Need to Create to Keep Your Projects on Track.

The sooner you have control over your new product development projects, the better. Your chance of successfully delivering a new product to the market increases by the minute. That’s maybe a little too exaggerated, but you get my point.

To prevent you feeling lost and out of control in managing your team and getting your new project of the ground, I recommend creating 3 templates, that will help you proactively steer all activities in the right direction.

Once you’ve created these templates, you can use over and over again in every new project. You only need to tweak the content here and there. This will save you hours of work creating everything from scratch. Sound good right? Let’s dive in!

Prefer listening to my podcast on this episode? Hit the play button below.

Like to learn more hands-on tips, Strategies and Action plans? Subscribe to my podcast From Product Idea to a Thriving Business where ever you listen to podcasts.

The Project Business Plan template

The first template I advise you to create is the Project Business Plan. The goal of the Project Business Plan is to give insight in the business case and convince stakeholders in your organization or business why this new product is such a great idea.  So now you know why you need to create a project business plan.

When you have this Project Business Plan approved, everyone is on board of your new project and you can start with the actual product development, appoint resources and organize the project kick-off.

Topics to cover in the plan

• Short description of the new product idea
• What the project will deliver. For example, product A, product B, an App, a SW program.
• The estimated cost price and sales price. Want to learn more on how to determine the sales price of your new product idea? Click here.
• What you expect to sell in the coming years and the ROI.
• Your target market, distribution channel.
• What would happen in the business if you don’t develop this new product.
• Constraints
• Opportunities and Threats of this new project
• Assumptions with this project, as there are unknowns at this early stage.
• The resources you need to get this product from idea to mass production and introduction.
• Resources in terms of people. Which expertise do you need to be successful. And for how long do you need these experts.
• Resources in terms of the project budget expenses on samples, R&D costs, certification costs, user documentation, translation of materials, marcom materials. Shipment costs.
• A high-level project planning. Want to get tips on creating a reliable project planning? Click here.
• Meeting and communication plan. How often do you plan to meet with the core project team, with the suppliers, how do you communication on the progress of the project to stakeholders.

Here you have it, why you need to create a project business plan and what should be inside.

Free Monthly Project Template Training

Because I know you’re busy, I’ve created something special for you. A free monthly project template training. Because I know from experience, using easy to work with templates as project manager brings efficiency, overview and more control. My free monthly training will support you in using ‘done for you templates’ to manage your projects, so you don’t have to invent the wheel.

In this free monthly training, you’ll learn:

• How and when to use the ‘done for you’ template in new product development
• FREE download of the templates
• Every month you’ll learn a new project template

Free training: every 4th week of the month on Friday at 15:00 CET. You’ll receive the invite via a separate email after signing-up.

You can apply what you learn immediately in your daily activities. 

Sign up here!