What You Need To Know Before Outsourcing Your Product Design
Companies, whether they are small startups or huge enterprises, keep changing and evolving while adapting to the realities of the modern business world. When mapping out a product development process, a dilemma regarding whether or not a company should outsource product design often pops up. The thing is, sometimes it is simply impossible to keep all the processes in-house due to various reasons. Such things as a limited budget or tight deadlines may push companies to delegate some part of the work. But, here's the deal, if you want your business to stay aboard and benefit, you need to know when it is better to outsource product design and development. In this article, you are going to learn all the important information about product design outsourcing. Keep reading!
When Is It the Most Appropriate Time to Outsource Product Design?
Chances are the process of deciding whether product design outsourcing is right for your company seems to be intimidating right now. To make things easier for you, we have rounded up a list of situations when outsourcing your product design project to someone else is best. Here they are:
The Lack of In-house Resources and Skills
Does your in-house product design team have the necessary skills to deliver all the work? It is one thing to come up with an idea for product design, and it is a completely different thing to bring it to life. Below you will find a shortlist of required skills your in-house team should possess in order to work on product design:
- A full cycle of product design
- Deep analysis
- Proper documentation
- Prototyping
- Production
If you feel like your team has a lack of knowledge, skills, and expertise in some of these areas it is better to outsource your product design to an external company.
Need product design outsourcing? Reach out to us to get a free consultation.
Aggressive Deadlines
Let’s say your in-house team has what it takes to manage all the product design stages successfully. Yet, if the project has to be implemented in a very tight schedule, you might need external assistance of a company that provides outsource product design services. By delegating some chunks of product design work, you will be able to meet project deadlines as in this way it is possible to work on several stages at the same time and complete them faster.
Tight Budget
It won’t come out as a huge surprise that it is more cost-effective to outsource product design and development to external vendors. A lot of companies, like ours, offer effective outsource product design services at a low cost. So, even if all the needed resources are available internally, a company with a small budget will be looking for the way to save up money and outsource will become the perfect match.
Software Issue
Not only do professional software programs product design requires cost a lot but they also have a steep learning curve. That is why, unless you deal with product design projects on a regular basis, it will be more logical and productive to outsource the piece of a project that needs special software to a qualified vendor company. On top of that, there won’t be the need for your team to spend precious time learning complex software from scratch since an outsourcing company will take care of everything for you and save your time and money.
What Mistakes to Avoid When Outsourcing Your Product Design
After having read the first part, the hesitations regarding whether you should be outsourcing your product design project to a professional firm may be getting fainter. However, we wouldn't recommend jumping into conclusions. It doesn't matter whether you want to hire an external team to complete a certain project task or let them do all the work, you should first get acquainted with the most common mistakes companies make when testing the waters of product design outsourcing. This will help you to avoid these mistakes.
Miscommunication
All members of the product design team must establish clear communication in order to succeed. When you outsource product design work to third-party engineering teams, there's a decent chance of misunderstanding due to the absence of clear communication channels. While it may seem obvious, quite a few projects have failed because of the gaps in communication between a client and a services vendor. It is required that a client company keeps being engaged in the product design process as much as it is possible. To make things happen, it is suggested to find a single point of contact between a client and an outsourcing team. In this way, there won't be any confusion and misunderstandings and both sides will be involved in all the product development steps.
Choosing the Lowest Price
When it comes to choosing an outsourcing company, don't fall for the bait of cheapness. After all, if a company's services are the cheapest on the market, there has to be a reason for that. At the same time, we're not telling you to go with the highest bid thinking that the more you pay the better results you will get. Don't go to extremes. All you need to do is to find a happy medium in pricing when looking for product design outsourcing offers.
Want to know the costs of outsourcing your product design to Yojji? Get in touch with our consultant.
Opting for a Team with a Limited Set of Skills
While looking for an engineering services company to which you can outsource design work, a breadth of knowledge and expertise is a must. Even if you need external help for only one small piece of your project development, you will want members of a hired team to have broad expertise in various industries, platforms, tools. The thing is, firms you reach out to might not have built products just like the one you need, but the diverse skills and expertise they have can help you figure out whether or not they are suitable for your project.
Picking from Local Product Development Companies Only
Another common mistake a lot of companies make when outsourcing their product design is limiting the range of choices to local engineering services firms only. Back in the day, such restrictions made sense since face-to-face meetings and personal control over the task completion were crucial. Things are different now. Thanks to a wide array of different tools like CAD software, cloud-based technologies, and video conferencing platforms it is possible for development teams to work efficiently even if they are located in different counties.
Underestimating Thorough Planning
A strategy isn’t a place to lag behind. While it seems like an obvious thing, a lot of companies underestimate the importance of mapping out a clear plan with well-defined goals and ways to achieve them. Before the development process begins, make sure that both teams have become acquainted with your strategy.
To Conclude
Outsourcing has become a powerful strategic instrument that allows companies to achieve great results in a highly competitive environment of the digital market. Not only is this approach cost-effective, but practical as well. But as with other business models, outsourcing works only if a company conducts thorough research and calculations and builds a clear strategic plan. Decide whether your in-house resources are enough or not, think about them in the long run. If you feel like there are certain gaps in resources or knowledge of your in-house team, it is time to consider outsourcing product design and development.
In case you have any questions regarding the process of outsourcing product design to our company, feel free to get in touch with us.
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