A product development specialist is a specialist who specializes in creating new products or reworking existing products in her field of expertise. Someone working in this position for a skin care company, for example, would work to develop new products, incorporate new skin care ingredients or popular skin care ingredients into her company’s product line, or rework the formula of existing products to make them more effective. Green tea in skin care products has become very popular, as this product specialist may discover. Because of the popularity of this ingredient, a skin care expert might work on developing a line of products or just one product that included green tea.
A product development specialist, in most cases, is someone who has extensive experience or training in the field for which she is developing products. Someone in the skin care industry may have spent years as an aesthetician or dermatologist in the field of skin care. She could also have been a member of a product development team overseen another product specialist.
To be able to specialize in a certain type of product, one must spend a significant amount of time learning about it, which can take years of training and experience. This person may decide to take additional courses and attend conferences and seminars in addition to on-the-job training to broaden her knowledge of the products in the field. As a result, she’ll be better equipped to work as a product development specialist.
To develop products, many industries hire specialists. In addition to those working in the skin care industry, there are those who design new bicycles, create new clothing and accessory lines for department stores, and develop new beer flavors, to name a few. A product development specialist may work alone or lead a large team, depending on the size of the company for which the specialist works — or, in some cases, the size of the industry itself. She could be in charge of the development of a few products or dozens of products per year.