Goddard Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

• What is a product development company?
• What is industrial design?
• What is Goddard’s involvement with our team throughout the project?
• If you’ve never worked with my kind of product before, can you take on my project?
• Can you help me confirm that there’s a market for my product or service?
• How do you make sure that the product’s design is manufacturable?
• Do you have experience with regulatory strategy and documentation?
• What does it mean to be ISO 13485 certified?
• Can you help me with the manufacturing process?
• How do you bill your projects?
• What is Goddard’s quoting process?

What is a product development company?

• A product development company is a firm that you can hire to assist in creating, building, testing, and refining a product or service. Product development companies often feature varied skills and capabilities, ranging from product definition to manufacturing. These companies are brought in to lead or assist in the development of new products, but they can also be hired to refine or identify a problem with an existing product.

What is industrial design? 

• Industrial design is the practice of designing products, systems, and services. Industrial design companies are organizations that you can partner with to improve anything about the design of your system, from physical appearance to functionality and manufacturability. Industrial design companies can help to relieve internal design teams and bring a fresh set of highly-trained eyes to a project that may be falling behind or lingering due to a technical challenge. In the medical device and life sciences industries, industrial designers can help to ensure that the products you’re designing are safe and meet the needs of your users.

What is Goddard’s involvement with our team throughout the development work?

• Goddard’s engineers and designers are highly collaborative with our clients throughout the scope of our projects. We don’t operate in a vacuum – we make sure that we’re meeting our clients’ needs by actively engaging them in the decision-making process through the product development cycle. 
• This usually involves weekly or bi-weekly meetings to review the project’s progress and milestones.

If you’ve never worked with my kind of product before, can you work with my product?

• Absolutely! The principles of good design and product development are consistent across product types and industries. We often find that our engineers and designers have transferable skills from past projects. Our ability to leverage their unique experience and capabilities gleaned from diverse industries results in inspired solutions for our clients. 

Can you help me confirm that there’s a market for my product or service? 

• A crucial part of good design and product development is knowing your product or service’s market. Our developers use thorough market research and competitive analyses to help you develop a product that will stand out on the market and meet your end-user’s needs. 

How do you make sure that the product’s design is manufacturable? 

• Based on more than 20 years of experience with the product development process, we know that engineers and designers must work side-by-side rather than in silos. Thoughtful inclusion of both engineers and designers throughout the development process ensures that the design isn’t just marketable, but also functional and manufacturable. 
• Goddard also believes that it is critical to include your manufacturing partners as early as possible in the development process. This will help make certain that the design of the product fits within reasonable manufacturing costs and an efficient manufacturing process.

If you would like to learn more about our approach to the entire product development process, learn more in our Guide to Product Development Planning

Do you have experience with regulatory strategy and documentation?

• Goddard’s team works closely with external regulatory experts to ensure that the products we create with our clients meet any relevant regulatory standards. Our engineers and designers are intimately familiar with what it takes to get innovative products into highly regulated markets.

What does it mean to be ISO 13485 certified?

• We meet specific requirements for our quality management system (QMS) that enable us to produce medical devices that meet customer and regulatory requirements. For more information on the ISO 13485 certification, visit this link. 

Can you help me with the manufacturing process?

• We have plenty of experience in solving product development issues related to manufacturing quality and throughput. In fact, we have several manufacturing engineers on staff who are ready to help! Our team has traveled around the world working with clients and their manufacturers to resolve quality and production challenges. 
• We also can lead you through the vendor sourcing and selection process, helping you to identify which partner organization has the skills and expertise needed to manufacture your product. Goddard has established relationships with trusted third-party manufacturing vendors, but we’re also happy to integrate seamlessly with a manufacturing partner of your choice if you have a go-to vendor with whom you’d prefer to work. 

How do you bill your projects?

• The type of billing depends on the type of project and how the goals of the project are defined. But in general, we have two options: we can bill the work by time and material (a “T&M” approach) or as a fixed price phase-based project. 

What is Goddard’s quoting process?  

• A typical quote follows this process: 
  • Generally, we begin by executing non-disclosure agreements. 
  • We’ll kick things off with an introductory call to better understand the project, meet the client’s team, and learn how we can help meet the client’s product development needs. 
  • The client will send technical information related to the project. 
  • Goddard’s engineering team will review the information and draft additional technical questions to ask the client so that we can provide a thorough, appropriate quote of work.
  • We host a follow-up call with the client so that members of Goddard’s engineering team can ask their technical questions. 
  • Goddard’s team will quote the project. 
  • Goddard will meet with the client to submit and review our proposal. 
  • Refine and iterate the proposal based on the client’s feedback. 
  • Goddard hosts a follow-up call for final discussions related to the proposal.

Want to learn more about development, design, and planning for your next project from the experts at Goddard? Check out our library of Guides and Whitepapers.