Startups: How to find the right product development team for your success

If you are a startup or a small business, you will hire a product development team at some point. This task, which seems easy, has put many business owners out of business. There are sharks in the water, well-meaning experts who will do the wrong thing really well, people who want to learn on your dime, and a lot of people who don’t know that product development for big companies is different from product development for small businesses. It’s not surprising that most projects don’t meet their budget or revenue goals. Peer-reviewed studies collected by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) show that up to 49% of product development projects fail, and anecdotal evidence suggests that this number is much higher in small companies and startups.

As with most business tasks, the success of product development depends a lot on the decisions made by the team, and t’s important to find the right team.

What to avoid when hiring a product development team:

Avoid the sharks. There are people, groups, and companies in the world of product development that don’t want to add value but want all your money. They mostly play on the dreams and wants of people who aren’t careful. All of them do the same thing, which is to tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Most scams involve unrealistic budgets and schedules or the promise that “someone will buy your idea.”

Some experts can be dangerous: There are “experts” out there who mean well but really know how to do the wrong thing. Sometimes, these experts have a list of Fortune 500 companies that will vouch for them. Most of the time, they are very smart and know a lot about one subject. “But if you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” as the saying goes. They do well with big companies because the big companies already have the people and skills to run them.

Avoid full-time engineers for a startup. It’s hard to find good engineers, and only a small number of them can work in an unstructured startup. Most likely, the business will move away from what they are good at. Most of the time, you have to give them stock to make up for the risk, which can cause a lot of problems down the road.

What to look for when hiring a product development team:

Companies that know their way around. These companies are flexible as they understand startup challenges, funding and hurdles, they’ve seen the ups and downs and have identified new and creative ways to solve problems without delaying your progress.

Not to mention that they have experience working with several startups, they understand how to strategically plan the project based on your existing resources and so whatever you’re bringing to the table, they work around it and refine it as if it was a billion dollar funded project. Working from scratch is their A game and this is where you can assess their work.

In order to launch a successful company, you will require a variety of resources, including financial, human, educational, emotional, and physical resources. These resources can be organized into five major categories. You should take into consideration also, that these types of design and development firms can pull together the resources needed for a startup to be successful.

Starting a business can be intimidating, but many people do so successfully each year. Those that do succeed often spend a significant amount of time before launching their new company acquiring funds, conducting market research, developing a viable business plan and finding the right team.

Find your experienced product development team with a proven track record to guarantee success.

The stakes are too high!!

Ready to Plan For Your Successful Launch?

Sign Up Today

For A Diagnostic Evaluation For Your Project Success.