Choosing the right design partner is not an easy thing since it involves making a big decision. The future of your business depends on whether you made the right choice or a wrong one. If you get it wrong, then it is frustrating, damaging and costly to your business. When you are looking into design engineering, you are essentially seeking inventiveness, and  it’s necessary for the substantial enhancement of what you have planned. Do not rush into making decisions that are very crucial and delicate.

The tips below are designed to guide you make the selection process easy.

Ensure that your selection criteria is clear

Have clear selection criteria organised before you begin putting down the names of the prospective design partners around you. This will not only make the short listing process easy, but it will also ensure that you select the consultants or companies who are probably the excellent fit for you. Your criteria should be based on the following: the proven success and experience in a particular design discipline, the track record of the company in providing commercial success, affordability, location, able to meet deadlines and more. 

Decide on design help you require

It is interesting that sometimes we jump directly to the design outcome we want, which can include website product development, or even styling, and then you have to go and look for the right consultant to do it for you. In whatever you do, make sure that you employ the strategic approach to your selection of the design specialist if you are looking for a design answer that will be beneficial to you in the long term. Draft briefly what you really want before you approach any consultancy agency to ensure that you provide a consistent and clear brief design.

Shortlist the most potential companies

You may be having at hand three to four consultancy companies that you would likely approach to examine your design requirements or needs. At this stage ensure that the selection formula is crystal clear and very simple to scale down the number of design partners to a small size. Contact all the shortlisted companies to set up a discussion and offer them a chance to present their credentials as well. If possible, send them a brief overview to make the firms prepare well prior to the discussion.

Meeting the potential design partners 

Advise your shortlisted prospects in advance regarding your expectations. In every meeting you arrange make sure you take notes and see if they meet your selection criteria. You may also consider how the design engineering company has demonstrated the ability to find more information about you than you provided in your design brief.

Making the choice 

Before you can make your decision or choice, ask yourself a few questions and answer them sincerely. For instance, ask yourself whether you can afford them, can they do the job or can you work with them. It is the most crucial criteria because it does not select the consultant or company based on how good the product design is, when interests’ clashes or either one of you dominate the correlation to the disadvantage of the other party, then such a company should be avoided.