Product development is crucial in the continuity of a business, but at times it can be too demanding for an entity to complete. Soliciting help from a product development partner becomes a solid alternative for the company to keep thriving.
However, you should check a few attributes of a product development partner before signing on the dotted line to seal the contract.
This approach protects you from incompetent industry individuals or entities that may derail your progress and waste your time and money. Here is what you shouldn’t compromise on when outsourcing a product development partner.
Field Expertise
The primary question is how many years of expertise the company has, especially in your niche. Does your chosen product development partner have all the resources required to complete your order? Do they have the human and machine resources to handle your demands?
Such particulars allow you to know what level of productivity, development efficiency, and quality to expect from your potential partner.
Check out the customer review section for honest reviews about their service and deliverability. The longer they’ve worked as product development partners, the better it is for you. Such attributes tabulate to an easier understanding of your requirements.
Experienced development partners even provide insight into what you should do to achieve a particular goal, which is a plus.
Technical Expertise
At times, you may need a technical expert to jump into the process seamlessly and help with particular technical bits, more so when you’re steer-heading a project with high-level technical complexities. Determine if the team has dedicated technical experts at their disposal.
This eliminates any project-related stress that may result from you having to source for experts when it gets to the tech-involving session of the project. It also becomes easy to map out what’s expected of you and adjust your budget where necessary.
Meet Budget Requirements
Before outsourcing a project development partner, you must set up a budget to guide your interaction. Therefore, finding a partner who understands your financial abilities and adheres to them is critical.
One way to determine if the development partner can work with your budget is to ask for a quotation. In most cases, they have a one size fits all quote that may be better for some companies. If this is the case, ask for a custom quotation to see how your funds will be spread to facilitate production.
Not only does this secure you from additional costs along the way, but it also helps you determine the quality of the service versus the money you spend.
Quality Assurance Compliant
Compliance with quality assurance standards is the holy grail of any partnership in your development process. Failure to comply with local and international standards can result in the termination of a project and the disposal of the products. This is especially true with the medical and food-production industries.
A slight mistake can contribute to the contamination of an entire production unit. Look for certification that ascertains they have the ISO seal and take regular ISO audits for quality assurance.
Outlined Product Development Strategy
A ship without a captain can’t move forward; the same applies to a company without objectives. The first thing to ask for is the entity’s strategy to determine if their goals align with yours. And it’s not enough to check out the objectives. Ask for a product development strategy for your collaboration.
This lets you know what key milestone to look out for and how long the company will take to complete the production process. Additionally, you have a solid overview of what is required from you from the get-go.
Most importantly, it allows you to see gaps in the production process that need addressing beforehand to avoid any stalling.
Effective Communicator
Timely and effective communication is a vital aspect of any collaboration. It weeds out assumptions and eliminates delays linked to late or ineffective communication. A dedicated communication team should be implemented to help the company with such partnerships.
You can determine the level of compatibility between you and your prospect development partner through their communication style. Frequent communication involving all stakeholders and other critical managerial parties in the company allows you to see the value they place on clients.
Of course, the communication should have the right content and be clear and straight to the point. It should be void of any jargon, timely, and motivating you to take the following steps to achieve those production goals.
Our Take
You must be cautious when outsourcing a product development partner, especially if you’re spending lots of money. Read the fine print to ascertain you aren’t missing anything, and only work with trustworthy entities. Most importantly, pick one known to have effective communication methods and a clear-cut strategy for completing your order.
