Up to now, we have presented a general strategy for the design of chemical products. This strategy centers on a four-step template of needs, ideas, selection, and manufacture. In the needs step, the project team converts marketing information into specifications. These specifications, which should be as quantitative as possible, are the first major application of science and engineering in the product design process. In the second step, the project team generates and assembles ideas which can potentially meet this need. Professionals suggest that many ideas, perhaps about 100, are needed for successful development.

The third step, selecting the best idea, is often the most difficult in applying the template. Normally, the team will be choosing among three or four product ideas, all of which look good. Usually, the science underlying these good ideas will be incomplete, and so testing the ideas will include risk mitigation. Often, choosing among the ideas will involve factors like environmental legislation and public response, which may reflect incomplete science. The last step in the template, manufacturing, is less disquieting not because it is easier, but because it often has more technology and less public relations. Throughout this process, the organization's management will review the process. These reviews, or gates, should be critical, because many studies show that most product failures can and should be identified earlier than they are.

This product development template works well, but it is applied differently to different types of chemical products.