Four Questions Product Development in Financial Services Should Answer
By: Mathew Greenwald | August 20, 2026
Many new financial services product development research efforts just focus on the product, and this often leads to sub-optimal success. The ultimate goal of developing a new product is not confined to just building an excellent product, but to design a product that will sell at high levels. To achieve high levels of sales, better product design on its own is not sufficient. Financial professionals must be convinced the product can help them meet client needs better than the products they are currently using, they must feel they know enough about the product to present it to clients and, in some cases, the product must be supported by point-of-sale materials that help the financial professional present the product to clients. Research can, and should, address those post-product design issues.
Product Development Research Should Answer Four Main Questions
At Greenwald Research, we believe effective product development research for financial services should answer four questions:
- What combination of features and benefits will make the product most attractive?
- How should wholesalers optimally present the product to financial professionals?
- How should financial professionals be educated about when and how to use the product?
- What information and point-of-sale materials will help financial professionals present the product effectively to clients?
The Value of Answering All Four Questions During the Product Development Phase
There are three reasons that addressing all four issues at the same time is so important.
First, the goal for each issue is how to make the product more successful. For example, constructing the best wholesaler presentation focuses on showing the value of each product attribute. Thinking through that issue and the others can provide insights on how to revise or enhance those features. Each issue looks at the product from a different angle and can lead to innovative ideas about the product and how to present it.
Second, the process of getting input on product design with a financial professional requires their detailed education about the product. Once financial professionals receive that education, they are most able to provide guidance on wholesaler presentations and the other issues.
Third, addressing each of these issues at the same time is the most cost-effective and time-efficient method of getting this information.
I want to make one last point about what topics to cover during product development research. There is a tendency to not conduct sufficient research in this area. Many non-financial services companies would not dream of developing a product without a rigorous product development research process. But many financial services firms do very little research at all. Some limit their research to discussions with a small number of their biggest producers who tend to be non-representative of their overall distribution force. The result is a higher-than-necessary risk of introducing a product that will not do well. Some companies simply copy successful products and only make minor tweaks that they do not feel require research. But this overlooks the potential that a research-produced input will add significantly to product success.
It is our experience that a comprehensive new product research regimen costs little and can produce big results.
