can we afford it?
We understand that companies, both small and large, ask themselves sometimes whether they can afford hiring a design firm. Maybe the question should be whether you can afford not to do it.
hiring a design firm
The problem is that a company may be inexperienced with the design process and the reasonable costs that come with it.
And let’s be honest: it is hard to understand how many hours should be spend on a design and development process to come to the desired result. Hiring a single freelance designer may solve the problem and get a result. Hiring a design team may also solve the problem, and might get a higher quality result.
strategic or not?
We recommend to try to estimate the complexity of the job. Sometimes companies hire a junior designer for a job that demands an experienced design team. You could consider working with an inexperienced designer in the case of a simple packaging or a very simple product, which is not strategically important to your business.
If the product is more complex and of more strategic value, then hiring a design team is definitely recommendable. The question is not really about if you can afford to do that, but if you can afford not to do so.
bad product launch?
Sometimes companies take a short cut to just get some quick sketches and skip the design process. Or they go with the inexperienced on a project that is strategically important and complex.
Mostly what follows is a bad product launch, costing the company tooling, promotional materials, web services, sales teams, logistics, material purchase. And damage to the brand.
An established design firm will not skip the design strategy and development process and will not just deliver design sketches. Like a doctor will not skip the diagnostics and just deliver medicine.
insight in budgets
It might be a bit uneasy to talk about money early in the process. But it is important to understand what kind of budget we could expect to work with to complete a product design project. This helps us to meet your needs. You can compare it to building a sailboat or an ocean liner. Both will be seaworthy.
If you are new to product design and development, then it is good to give you some rough idea’s about project budgets.
Tier 1 projects are in the range of 30 – 55.000 EUR for single products like a squash racket design. Secondly the Tier 2 projects are in the range of 55 – 120.000 EUR for more complex products like a set of ski boots. And finally the large Tier 3 projects are over 120.000 EUR for complex products with many parts, like an ebike.
principle
When you stick to the principle that you will
need an experienced design team for the development of strategically important products for your business, then you will greatly reduce risks and be able to create high quality products.
Products that are meaningful and relevant, today and tomorrow.
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