What questions should I ask a product prototyping/design firm? -

[NQ 952]

Fam, I have several initial consultations with product prototyping/design firms. Does anyone know what questions I should be asking them? What issues should I be aware of?

I'm diving into this head first and I really don't know what I'm doing, other than I have an inventors notebook and a crude but functional prototype of what I want built.

Halp

 

[The Fool]

you could look this stuff up bro

http://steensolutions.com/2016/03/6-questions-to-ask-a-product-design-firm-before-you-hire-them/

 

[NQ 952]

google for me, faggot.

 

[The Fool]

google for me, faggot.

I used DuckDuckGo because I don't want the jews to suck my brains out

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

That moment when someone is looking for useful help from the Farms.

 

[NQ 952]

That moment when someone is looking for useful help from the Farms.

Would you prefer I asked Moviebob? Because I could ask moviebob and get worse advice than someone telling me to kill myself.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Would you prefer I asked Moviebob? Because I could ask moviebob and get worse advice than someone telling me to kill myself.

In all seriousness, there's probably no better place for you to ask about this. Maybe @AnOminous knows?

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Ask them what notable inventions that they have designed.

 

[AnOminous]

Talk to multiple businesses. In addition to the normal questions, ask who they'd hire if they were in your situation. If the same names keep cropping up those are probably good.

There are also some unscrupulous companies that seek out people who have invented things to rip them off.

 

[LazarusOwenhart]

"Can you build this and how much will it cost?" would be my opener.

 

[JustStopDude]

I would give them the general idea of what you are looking for in terms of a final product. From there, you should discuss price and budget. Its very important that terms and conditions are figured out immediately between you and the design firm.

The important thing, and this will depend on the size of the product, is agreed upon delivery stages and qualifying points for payment. Generally when I prototype something, I expect something like roughly 10% for the basic designs and drawings. 35% for the mechanical deliveries. 25% for the electrical deliveries, and then the rest of payment for final site delivery and payments. Failure of me delivering these stages on time result in a penalty on my payout.

However, design changes, failure to secure delivery conditions (import regs/inspection standards/just whatever the fuck that is not covered in contract, the end users eat the cost as shown in the terms and conditions).


This is the general path when I proto-type shit like below.

This is not my image or product, but it is the general size of the electrical and mechanical systems design and build.

I'm not sure the size of what you are trying to get created. But no matter the size, the most important thing is the terms and conditions, because this is what protects both parties.