NPD & Product Development Lead

NPD & Product Development Lead

Location: Gurugram/ Dharuhera

Function: New Product Development / Brand

Reports to: Leadership

Experience: 3 - 5 years, preferably in D2C, consumer brands, retail, home, lifestyle, furniture, textiles or adjacent categories.

About the Role:

We are looking for an NPD & Product Development Lead who will be responsible for identifying consumer and category opportunities, finding whitespace, developing product concepts, translating them into commercially viable products, working closely with vendors through sampling and production, and partnering with Brand/Marketing to ensure every product has a clear reason to exist and a strong market proposition.

The ideal person is an equal parts consumer thinker, product builder and operator.

You should be able to move seamlessly between:

- Understanding what consumers actually need

- Studying categories, competitors and emerging trends

- Identifying whitespace and building product concepts

- Writing detailed product briefs and specifications

- Finding and managing the right vendors

- Developing materials, fabrics, finishes and construction

- Driving sampling and multiple rounds of iteration

- Working through costing, feasibility and pricing

- Managing production timelines and quality

- Defining product positioning, naming and claims

- Working with Marketing, Creative, Growth, Retail, CX, Operations and Finance to launch

- Looking at post-launch data and customer feedback to improve the next version

What You Will Own:

1. Consumer & Category Discovery:

- Conduct consumer, category and competitor research to identify unmet needs and emerging opportunities.

- Identify white spaces worth building for, rather than simply copying what already exists in the market.

- Understand category trends, price points, consumer behaviour, competitive products and market gaps.

- Translate research into clear product opportunities and business cases.

- Build a strong understanding of the consumer across online, retail, marketplace and customer-service touchpoints.

2. Product Concept & Product Strategy:

- Own the development of product concepts from initial opportunity through product lock.

- Define the product proposition, target consumer, use case, key features, differentiation and expected price point.

- Develop product architecture across categories, including how products should ladder by price, functionality and consumer need.

- Create detailed product briefs covering specifications, dimensions, materials, construction, functionality, aesthetics, packaging and quality expectations.

- Work closely with Brand/Marketing to ensure the product has a compelling and differentiated reason to exist.

- Challenge product ideas where the consumer proposition, commercial viability or differentiation is weak.

3. Vendor Discovery & Management:

- Identify, evaluate and onboard appropriate manufacturers, suppliers and specialist vendors.

- Build a reliable vendor ecosystem across different product categories and materials.

- Brief vendors clearly and manage the development process end-to-end.

- Negotiate costing, MOQs, timelines, development charges and commercial terms.

- Maintain strong visibility on vendor commitments and production timelines.

- Identify alternative vendors where quality, timelines or commercial viability are not meeting expectations.

4. Sampling, Testing & Iteration:

- Own the entire sampling cycle from first prototype to production-ready sample.

- Review samples critically against the product brief and identify gaps in construction, material, functionality, finish, aesthetics and quality.

- Drive multiple iterations with vendors until the product meets the required standard.

- Coordinate product testing and validation wherever required.

- Develop and document specifications and quality benchmarks so the final production product matches the approved sample.

- Ensure products are genuinely ready for scale before PO/production sign-off.

5. Materials, Fabrics & Product Development:

- You should be comfortable going deep into the actual product.

This includes:

1. Exploring new materials, fabrics, foams, fillings, finishes and construction techniques.

2. Evaluating material combinations and their impact on comfort, durability, cost and aesthetics.

3. Understanding technical specifications such as GSM, composition, dimensions, construction and performance.

4. Working with vendors to develop materials/products that may not exist as an off-the-shelf solution.

5. Balancing product ambition with manufacturing feasibility and commercial viability.

6. Packaging, Naming, Claims & Product Story:

- This role works closely with Brand, but should be capable of translating product development into a compelling consumer proposition.

- Develop product names and naming architecture with Brand.

- Define key product benefits and differentiators.

- Develop product claims based on actual product specifications and substantiation.

- Work on packaging requirements, information hierarchy and product communication.

- Translate technical product features into simple consumer-facing benefits.

- Ensure the product being marketed is exactly what has been developed and approved.

- Build on product and brand positioning cohesively tied together, for socials, ads, integrations and performance.

7. Launch Readiness & GTM:

- Partner with Marketing and cross-functional teams to take every product from production to market.

This includes:

1. Product positioning and messaging

2. PDP/product listing requirements

3. Photography and creative requirements

4. Launch content and campaign inputs

5. Marketplace requirements

6. Retail/store requirements and training

7. CX/product knowledge requirements

8. Inventory and launch readiness

9. Go/no-go checks before launch

- You will act as the bridge between what we built and how the consumer experiences it.

8. Post-Launch Product Ownership:

- NPD does not end at launch.

- Review customer feedback, returns, reviews, CX tickets and product performance after launch.

- Identify recurring product issues and improvement opportunities.

- Work with relevant teams to diagnose root causes.

- Feed learnings back into product development.

- Own the roadmap for product improvements and Version 2 developments.

- Evaluate whether products should be scaled, modified, repositioned or discontinued based on evidence.

Cross-Functional Leadership:

You will work closely with:

1. Brand & Marketing: positioning, naming, claims, messaging, creative and GTM

2. Creative & Content: product storytelling, photography and launch assets

3. Growth: performance, demand signals and product-market response

4. Operations & Supply Chain: production, inventory, timelines and fulfilment

5. Vendors & Manufacturers: development, sampling, costing and production

6. Finance: costing, margins and commercial feasibility

7. Retail: store readiness, product training and customer feedback

8. CX: customer objections, complaints and product insights

9. Leadership: category opportunities, investment decisions and launch sign-offs

What Success Looks Like:

- A strong and continuously evolving NPD pipeline based on genuine consumer and category opportunities.

- Products that are differentiated rather than incremental copies of existing market offerings.

- Clear product briefs and specifications that vendors can execute against.

- Faster movement from concept - sample - production.

- Fewer sampling and production quality failures.

- Strong vendor accountability and predictable development timelines.

- Products that hit their target cost and commercial requirements.

- Every launch has a clear consumer proposition and reason to buy.

- Post-launch learnings consistently feed into product improvements.

- A repeatable NPD process that allows the company to launch more products without compromising quality.

The Person We Are Looking For:

You are likely someone who:

1. Has strong consumer and commercial instinct, not just project-management skills.

2. Is naturally curious about products and obsessed with figuring out how things are made.

3. Can identify a market gap and turn it into a tangible product.

4. Is comfortable getting into the weeds of materials, specifications, samples and manufacturing.

5. Can speak to a vendor one minute and discuss consumer positioning with the Brand team the next.

6. Has strong attention to detail and will notice when a sample is almost right but not actually right.

7. Is comfortable pushing vendors and holding people accountable to timelines and quality.

8. Can balance creative ambition with manufacturing and cost realities.

9. Doesn't need a perfectly defined process to operate effectively.

10. Is highly organised and can manage multiple products and vendors simultaneously.

11. Has excellent written and verbal communication skills.

12. Thinks commercially: a great product that cannot make money is not a great NPD outcome.

13. Thinks like a brand builder: a product without a clear consumer reason to exist is not worth launching.

Ideal Background:

- 3 - 5 years of experience in NPD, product development, category management, buying/merchandising, sourcing or consumer product development.

- Experience working with physical consumer products is strongly preferred.

- D2C, retail, home, furniture, bedding, textiles, lifestyle, apparel or adjacent consumer categories are particularly relevant.

- Experience working directly with Indian manufacturers/vendors is highly valuable.

- Strong understanding of sampling, manufacturing, costing and production processes.

- Experience taking products from concept to commercial launch.