Service management includes a wide range of management activities, ranging from the time that there’s a new idea for a product to eventually providing ongoing support to customers who have purchased the new product. Every organization conducts product development, whether it’s done intentionally or unintentionally.

This module provides a wide overview of considerations in developing and managing a product. How a product is developed or managed is depends very much on the nature of the organization and its products, for example, retail, manufacturing, wholesale, etc. Note that different people might even have different categorizations for the activities described below.

NOTE: Nonprofit organizations often provide services in the form of “programs”, rather than “products” — although the services from the programs are certainly “products” to groups of clients.

Businesses can generate revenue from selling more of the current products to more of the current customers (customer maximization), more of the current products to new customers (customer development), new products to current customers (product development), or new products to new customers (diversification).

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