Revista industriei de textile si confectii din Romania

The Work:

A Product Development Manager has a strategic overview of the whole company with the aim of moving the company forward by spotting new trends and areas of growth which will be profitable. For example, fashion stores are now branching out into travel goods and this new product range is likely to have been initiated by a product development manager;

take a global perspective when developing a season's collection. They conceive and develop a product taking into consideration design, commerciality and technical issues. Product Development Managers need to have an understanding of marketing factors as well as garment construction and design;

will work very closely with the marketing team who research into what customers want (looking at loyalty cards etc.) This information will be communicated to the design team;

it is their job to formulate a collection based on trends and market research, and present it to senior managers and the buying team who will then decide how they want to package a collection. For example, the Product Development Manager will decide a style of trouser for that season and the buyer's will decide on the colours and combinations of product and then source the best manufacturers for production of these garments;

they need to be able to reinvent designs to suit their customer. For example, they may look at how to re-cost a garment through its production process in order to meet the needs of the customer. This may mean liaison with fabric agents to look at the yarn, dye, cloth, breaking down the process to redesign a product. Sometimes the product will not change but by re-looking at the production process a company can reduce costs and so offer the customer better value for money.