So you have this great idea for a new product. Maybe it’s an app, or maybe it’s a physical device. Either way, you know that bringing this product to market will be challenging. You’ll need expert engineers to help you design the product and produce it in volume. Where do you find such services? And how can you make sure they won’t bankrupt your company before your product even hits the market? Finding the right engineering services is critical to the success of any new product release. The wrong vendor, on the other hand, can lead to costly mistakes and unsellable products. Here are some points to keep in mind as you search for the right product engineering services provider:
Set realistic price expectations up front.
Before you even begin the search for product engineering services, you need to know what you can afford to pay. Many new product engineers will tell you that no project is too big or too expensive for them. This is not to say that all product engineers are dishonest, but you should always be skeptical of pricing for engineering services that seems too good to be true. There are a few ways to guard against this. First, be sure to understand the difference between engineering and product design. Design is relatively easy to do, and can be done by almost anyone with minimal tools. Engineering, on the other hand, is a highly specialized skill that takes years to master. A good rule of thumb is that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Be wary of pricing that seems unreasonably low or high.
Find escrow services and retain final approval on deliverables.
Since you are dealing with a third-party engineering company, there will be some risk of non-delivery. To offset this risk, you should find an escrow service. An escrow service will hold, and only deliver, the funds once the engineering services have been completed to your satisfaction. You should also retain the right to review, and reject, all deliverables before you release the remaining payment to the vendor. This will help to ensure that you don’t pay for work that you don’t want. While it may seem at first like this will increase the cost of your engineering services, it’s usually less expensive in the long run. By adding an escrow service to your terms of engagement, you will reduce the risk that you will not receive the product. This will help to ensure that you don’t end up with nothing but a heap of debt.
Run a background check on your product engineering services provider.
A background check on your product engineering services provider can reveal a lot of information about their current and past clients. This is important to do because it will help you to avoid bad eggs in the engineering services industry. Avoid companies that have a history of issues with clients, including those who have been sued for non-delivery or poor workmanship. To get the most thorough results, you should run a background check on your product engineering services provider, and then ask for references from those same customers. This will give you an inside look at the types of projects that the vendor has worked on in the past. You can also ask them about their experience with the vendor. This will help to ensure that you don’t end up with a vendor with a poor reputation.
Ask for references from former clients, and run your own due diligence.
You can use the same process that you used to find references to find product engineering services as you run your own due diligence. This is important because engineering is a very specialized field that changes with every project. Even if two similar products are designed, they will each have unique challenges. This means that two projects done by the same company with the same engineers will have very different timelines and costs. For this reason, asking for references from former clients is a good way to find out what you can expect from the vendor. It will also help you to avoid vendors that have a reputation for being dishonest with clients. By asking for references from previous clients, you can also get insight into pricing. You can then use this information to make an informed decision about which engineering services vendor to hire. It’s also a good idea to ask for references from the engineering services industry in general as well. This will give you insight into the vendor’s culture, schedule, and general ability to meet their commitments.
Run your own due diligence.
No matter how many references your engineering services vendor gives you, it’s still your job to do your own due diligence. By running your own due diligence, you can make sure that the engineering services vendor is reliable and that they can actually do the job. There are a number of ways to conduct due diligence on your product engineering services vendor. You can do a Google search on the company and their owner to see if there are any red flags. You can also run a credit check on the engineering services vendor to see if they have any outstanding debt or judgments against them. You can also look for engineering services scams on forums and review sites to see if the vendor has been flagged for questionable practices. To be thorough, you should do all of these things and more.
Summing up
Product engineering services are critical to bringing new products to market, but they are also costly. By setting realistic price expectations up front, finding escrow services, retaining final approval on deliverables, running a background check on your product engineering services provider, asking for references from former clients, and running your own due diligence, you can make sure that you have the best product engineering services possible.
