How to Choose a Product Design Partner:
A Product Manufacturer's Guide
After almost 30 years in product development, we've seen manufacturers make the same mistakes when choosing design partners. They pick based on portfolio flashiness or price, then discover misaligned capabilities, run into IP disputes, or partner with companies that can’t adapt to their specific needs.
The result? Wasted time, budget overruns, and products that look great in renderings but can't actually be manufactured at scale.
Here's what actually matters when vetting a product design partner.
Industry Experience That Actually Transfers
Not all product design experience is created equal. A firm that excels at medical devices might struggle with consumer products. Someone who designs sleek tech gadgets may have zero understanding of injection mold constraints or juvenile product safety standards.
What to look for:
Deep experience in your specific product category. Consumer goods have different constraints than medical devices. Industrial equipment follows different rules than consumer electronics. Regulatory requirements, testing protocols, material choices, and manufacturing methods vary dramatically across industries.
If your products require injection molding, your design partner needs to understand draft angles, gate placement, wall thickness, undercuts, and cooling channels. If you're doing sheet metal fabrication, they need to know bend radii, grain direction, and tooling constraints.
Our specific capability:
We've spent almost 30 years designing products for a vast array of industries. We’ve designed everything from baby rattles to aircraft components and everything inbetween. Much of those products have been focused on consumer products, with particular depth in juvenile products. That means we understand safety standards, durability testing, and the unique constraints of designing for children. We know injection mold design inside and out - draft angles, gate placement, undercuts, ejection strategies. We have extensive experience designing with tubing, frame design, and machine design.
When you work with us, you're getting manufacturing-focused design, not just pretty renderings.
Red flag to watch for:
Generalists who claim they can design anything. We’re on the edge of that, but we’ve been around almost 30 years. Product categories have unique constraints, regulations, and manufacturing considerations. A firm that says "we do everything" probably doesn't do anything particularly well.
Ask to see 3-5 projects in your specific category. If they can't show relevant experience, keep looking.
In-House vs. Outsourced Capabilities
This is the question most manufacturers forget to ask - and it's critical.
Some design firms are essentially project managers with a Rolodex. They outsource CAD work to contractors overseas, farm out prototyping to third parties, and coordinate everything from a distance. You think you're hiring a design team, but you're actually hiring a middleman.
Why this matters:
When capabilities are outsourced, you lose control over quality, timelines, and communication. Your feedback goes through multiple layers. Revisions take longer. Technical questions get lost in translation. And you're paying markup on work you could have contracted directly.
What we do in-house:
All CAD and design / engineering work
Reverse engineering
Most prototyping and testing (some prototyping requires processes that we outsource)
Core industrial design
We do outsource specialized industrial design when a project requires specific aesthetic expertise we don't have in-house. But we're transparent about it, and we manage it directly.
What we outsource but manage:
Manufacturing coordination. We can help you manage the manufacturing process - helping you find manufacturers, coordinating with your chosen manufacturers, handling revisions, solving production issues - but you maintain control. We're not inserting ourselves as a required middleman.
The transparency test:
Ask potential partners directly: "What do you outsource?" If they dodge the question, get vague, or act offended, that tells you everything you need to know.
A confident firm will tell you exactly what they do in-house and what they don't.
IP Ownership and File Access
This is where some product manufacturers get burned.
Here's the horror story we hear regularly: A company hires a design firm, pays for development, launches the product successfully. Then they want to switch manufacturers or bring production in-house. That's when they discover their "partner" technically owns the design files.
Suddenly they're negotiating licensing fees, paying ransoms for their own IP, or being forced to reverse-engineer their own product because the design firm won't release the CAD files.
Our policy is simple:
You own 100% of the IP. Everything. The designs, the CAD files, the documentation, the prototypes. All of it. Why wouldn’t everything you pay for be yours?
Upon final payment, all rights transfer to you. We sign over everything. No ongoing licensing. No strings attached. No "we need to be involved in manufacturing" clauses.
You paid for it. You own it. End of story.
What to ask potential partners:
"Who owns the IP?" and "When do I get the design files?"
Get it in writing before you sign anything. If a firm hesitates, pushes back, or tries to negotiate "shared ownership," walk away. Your product, your IP.
Post-Handoff Support Options
Different product manufacturers need different levels of support after a design is complete. We've learned to offer flexibility rather than force everyone into the same model.
Type A clients: "We'll take it from here"
You have internal manufacturing expertise. You have existing supplier relationships. You know how to take a design package and get it produced.
For you, we deliver the complete design package - CAD files, technical drawings, bill of materials, assembly instructions, testing documentation - and get out of your way. You handle manufacturing internally, and we're available for revisions and questions if issues come up.
Type B clients: "Help us get this manufactured"
You're great at your core business, but coordinating manufacturers isn't your strength. You want someone to manage the production process.
For you, we can help find manufactureres, help coordinate with your chosen manufacturers, handle revisions during production ramp-up, solve tooling issues, and ensure what comes off the line matches the design intent.
You maintain control and final approval. We handle execution.
The key is flexibility.
Your business, your choice. We adapt to what you need.
Beware of companies that want to force you into ongoing retainers, require their involvement in manufacturing, or lock you into long-term contracts. That's about their revenue model, not your success.
The "Process" Red Flag
Here's a warning sign that most manufacturers miss: Any firm that aggressively pushes "our proven process" or "our proprietary system."
Why this is a red flag:
Every company already has processes. You have procurement systems, approval chains, communication protocols, budget cycles, stakeholder reviews. Your business didn't start yesterday.
A design partner who insists you adapt to their process is telling you something important: They're inflexible. They have one way of working, and if your business doesn't fit their template, you're going to have problems.
Our approach:
We fit into your existing workflow. We work with your team's tools and timelines. We adapt to your communication preferences - weekly calls, daily emails, Slack, whatever works for you.
Some clients want detailed milestone reviews with multiple stakeholders. Others want minimal check-ins and trust us to execute. Some need everything documented formally. Others prefer quick iterations and fast decisions.
We don't force square pegs into round holes. We’ll ask you what your process is and adapt to it.
Question to ask potential partners:
"How do you adapt to different client processes?"
If they can't give you specific examples of adapting to different workflows, they won't adapt to yours. They'll expect you to change your business to fit their system.
Technical Capability Depth
Pretty renderings are easy. Manufacturing-ready designs are hard.
Anyone can create a beautiful 3D model that looks perfect on screen….AI will do that for you in seconds. The question is: Can they design something that actually gets manufactured at scale, at the right cost, with acceptable quality?
Beyond aesthetics, can they:
Design for your specific manufacturing method? Injection molding has different rules than CNC machining. Sheet metal has different constraints than 3D printing. A good design partner knows the difference.
Understand tolerances, materials, and assembly constraints? Not just "this looks good," but "this can be assembled by workers in 90 seconds with these three fasteners."
Speak your manufacturer's language? When your tooling vendor calls with a question about draft angles or a supplier pushes back on wall thickness, can your design partner have a technical conversation and solve the problem?
Our technical depth:
We specialize in injection mold design. We understand draft requirements, gate placement and sizing, cooling channel design, ejection strategies, undercuts, and how to balance aesthetics with moldability.
We design for assembly (DfA) and for manufacturability (DfM). We think about how parts fit together, how many fasteners are required, how assembly time impacts your cost structure.
We handle material selection for manufacturing. We know the difference between ABS and polycarbonate, when glass-filled nylon makes sense, and how material choice affects tooling and cycle time.
We have extensive experience with tubing systems and machine design - not just consumer products, but the equipment and systems that produce them.
We speak manufacturing, not just design.
The Vetting Checklist
Before you hire any product design partner, get clear answers to these questions:
What industry experience do you have with products like mine?
Ask for 3-5 specific examples in your category. Don't accept "we've done consumer products" - get specific.
What capabilities are in-house vs. outsourced?
Who actually touches your project? Are you hiring a team or a coordinator?
Who owns the IP and design files?
Get it in writing. If they hesitate, walk away.
What's included in your deliverables?
CAD files in what format? Technical drawings? Bill of materials? Assembly instructions? Prototypes? Testing documentation? Be specific.
What happens after design handoff? What are my options?
Can you take it from there, or are you locked into their manufacturing network?
How do you adapt to different client processes?
Ask for examples. If they can't provide them, they won't adapt to yours.
What's your experience with my manufacturing method?
If you're doing injection molding, they should be able to discuss draft angles, gate placement, and cooling. If they can't, they're not manufacturing-focused.
Can I talk to 2-3 references in my industry?
Not just any references - references from your specific industry with similar products.
Transparency Wins
After almost 30 years, we've learned that the best client relationships start with honesty.
We're not the right fit for every project, and that's okay. If you need cutting-edge consumer electronics design, we'll tell you to look elsewhere. If you need medical device expertise, we’ve been involved with that dozens of times, but if you need someone to walk you through FDA regulatory compliance, we're not your team.
But if you need consumer product expertise, injection mold design, and a partner who adapts to your business rather than forcing you into their system - we should talk.
We don't have a proprietary process to sell you. We don't hold your IP hostage. We don't force you into ongoing retainers or manufacturing relationships.
We design products that can actually be manufactured. We deliver the files and documentation you need. And we get out of your way or stick around to help - your choice.
That's it. No complexity, no games, no fine print.
Ready to evaluate if we're a fit? Contact us for a 30-minute capability review. We'll look at your project requirements, discuss our relevant experience, and give you an honest assessment of whether we're the right partner. No sales pitch, just straight talk about what you need and whether we can deliver it.
Impulse Product Development
317-243-2225
info@impulsepd.com