In case you are an entrepreneur, creating or developing a new physical product, your first thought may be a large product design firm. They will be able to develop your product from beginning to end, while you wouldn’t need to worry about the details.
In case you aren’t technically oriented, the illusion that a company will magically turn your ideas into a finished product will be more appealing. However, this lucrative stance that sounds too good to real rather has its downsides. There are several outsourcing companies, however, which ones would be best you need to consider before you make a decision.
Check these five tips while considering the development of a new product:
Gain control of your product, and learn constantly
Your product is like your child and when consider giving it to a large firm, you will no longer have control. You developed your baby idea by passionately pursuing your vision, now you are ready to give it real shape. If you remove yourself from this endeavor at this critical stage, your vision would be short-lived and you would rather regret having done so.
You have to remain the guide of the project, take it forward, and always look into it. This doesn’t mean you will need to do everything all by yourself, however, you would need to monitor each step.
To remain on top of the matter, to be able to remain in control, you can’t hand over everything to a design firm. This way you won’t understand the process of development and you can’t build the skills needed for the future.
Fortunately, you are now able to develop a product, even though you have no technical background. The best method is adding a technical expert to your team. This also signifies that you must be the person who tackles the non-technical side in your project, signifying the sales mainly.
Implement balances and checks so that risks can be reduced
Some of the big designing firms or product developing companies handle each step of the product during its development as they have many engineers as staff to check and rectify your issues. However, this kind of service has a huge price tag that you need to handle.
As a result, many freelancers get hired by entrepreneurs. This means you would rely on one person for your product development, where none will check their work. You can resolve this issue if you hire multiple engineers who are freelancers.
In case a doctor told you that you required major surgery, you will rather go for a second opinion. In the same way, getting a second opinion on your product and its design will reduce the risk during the process of development. This is one standard process all major companies adopt for developing new products.
Almost all the time, other developers and engineers would look for issues. No matter how skilled the engineer is when there is high complexity, there is a risk of high errors. To lower the risks, we need to use a review process.
By implementing a review process for design might also open the options where you could hire offshore developers. Normally, I won’t recommend offshore developers if you don’t come with the skills needed to review their works accurately. But, when you hire an engineer who is a freelance consultant, this risk could be mitigated to a great level. This strategy could give you savings worth several dollars.
Hiring specialized engineers
You don’t need an engineer who knows everything; instead you wish to hire specialists who understand each aspect of your project. After all, you don’t want your work all messed up.
When you want to introduce a new electronic to the market, you need to be highly involved. Complex electronic items mostly need highly skilled engineers. For instance, if you are designing electronic products, you may need highly specialized engineers. For instance, for any electronic product you will need to hire people like:
- Circuit design engineer – one who designs circuit diagram
- Layout engineer – designs the PCB on the basis of schematic diagram
- Test engineer – Programs all micro controller and tests all electronics
- Mobile app developer – can develop customized mobile apps
- 3D design engineer – develops all enclosures or cases
- Mechanical engineer – required in case your product needs moving parts
Don’t rely on one product development company for all works
There are other risks of placing your project in one project engineer or freelance consultant’s hands. Your freelancer may not be able to complete the project on time, also take all of your valuable project details with them. Freelancers can leave your project midway for a better project.
A design engineer if controls all aspects of your project may come as a huge setback. When you are hiring many engineers, there’s lesser possibility of losing. It is rather easy to replace one from a group of engineers that you starting from scratch.
Managing product development for money saving
Hiring a single freelance consultant or a single firm for developing your product can be costly. The rates for the engineers may vary based on their specialties. For instance, circuit designers could charge you more than your consultant programmers or layout designers.
Hiring a single engineer or a single firm may charge you an exorbitant rate. In case you use specialized engineers, you would end up paying lesser fees and in return save thousands of dollars.
A successful product developing process outsourced to a product development company must have you in the development cycle. You need to push beyond your comfort zone and learn. Don’t ever ignore this valuable opportunity towards developing new skills, always challenge your ears. The rewards that you would receive are esteemed that is improved, higher business savvy aptitude, better profits and high chances of success.
