Whether this is your first venture into physical product design, or you work for an existing brand with many other products, understanding the first steps of the process after approaching an agency can often be a little confusing and nonobvious.
We’ve received this feedback several times in the past 6 months, and so have decided to break down, in detail, the first few stages that we take with prospective clients, from initial contact all the way through to hitting go on the invoice of the first stage.
At Centreline, we offer a free initial consultation to discuss your idea in detail with our team, and off the back of this, we will produce a quote that breaks down each phase we would need to work through to take your idea to be a fully designed and engineered product.
Want to learn more? Let’s get into it-
STAGE 1 - Contact and IP Protection
1 - First Contact
The very first step is simply reaching out to our friendly team. How you do this is up to you; you can speak directly to a member of staff on the phone, or make contact directly through the enquiries section of our website.
2 - IP Protection and NDA
It’s important to make sure that your idea is protected. That’s why before we ask any information about the specifics of the product development, we will send over an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) for you to sign digitally. This ensures that your idea, and any related IP (Intellectual Property) is protected, allowing you to speak freely and in detail about your idea and vision for the product.
3 - Project Proposal Form
Once the NDA has been signed, we ask that all prospective clients fill in our Project Proposal form. This consists of a few simple questions that give us some background information about the idea, contact details, and also your preference for meeting location for the free NPD (New Product Development) consultation that we offer.
You don't need to have every answer at this stage. Fill in what you can, as honestly as you can — any blanks we can chat through during the NPD meeting.
We have studios based in Hoxton, London and also in Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire, and encourage prospective clients to come in and meet the team. Where this isn’t possible, we are also are very happy to meet virtually over Microsoft Teams.
STAGE 2 - Consultation and Project Quote
1 - Consultation Prep
Upon completing the Project Proposal form, our director will get in contact to set up a date and time for your initial consultation. The meetings run for approximately an hour, and are hosted by at least two of our senior leadership team. This is a great opportunity to meet our team, discuss the scope and intent for the project, and hear about what we can offer to the product.
Anything that you have to share will be helpful to our team, whether that be napkin sketches; similar products that you’ve found; and information on timescales, budget and approximate retail price.
2 - The Meeting
The meeting itself will generally run as follows -
Brief Introductions
Discussion of the idea and vision for the product
A quick chat about our capabilities and experience as a team
Discuss timescales, and align on expectations
We use the information that you share in the meetings to produce a free, bespoke quote for the project. This covers every stage that we would need to work through to prepare the project for manufacture.
3 - The Quote, and Kick-Off
The project quote will cover every phase, from R&D through to Engineering, that we would need to work through to take your idea to the point of being ready for manufacturing. We do handle manufacturing for many of our clients, but this is quoted in the later phases of the project, when the product has been designed and engineered. (If you have a target manufacturing price, do let us know in the meeting, and we can use our experience to work to this during the project).
Each phase is individually priced, and we only ask for payment of one phase at a time. This ensures that we build trust with our clients in terms of our capability to deliver, and also means that they don’t need to outlay the full cost in one go. With new clients, we ask for 100% of the first quotation phase upfront. For the following phases, we work on a basis of 50% upfront, and 50% upon completion of the phase.
When you have had a chance to review the quote, we can offer a follow-up meeting to talk through the nuances, and answer any questions that you may have. There is no rush to start immediately, and you can take as much time as you need. If you decide that you want to proceed with the quote for the project work, we will send over the invoice for the first phase.
Upon payment, we are then ready to undertake the first phase of the project. We offer an optional kick-off meeting at this stage, where we can discuss any additional nuances and ideas/areas that you would like us to explore.
Our next blog in this series will cover the individual phases that we generally work through to take an idea and convert it into a manufacture-ready product.
Hopefully this has helped to clear up the first few steps that we work through with clients on the journey to successfully bringing a product to market. If you have any questions, or would like to take the first step, get in touch today. We’d love to hear from you.
Established in 1984, Centreline is an award-winning, design-to-manufacture consultancy, with studios in London and Nottingham. Get in contact today on 0203 1764190.
