May 2014
Report by Dave Zedonis
Sarah Woodruff, business development manager at Catalyst PDG, Inc. (Indianapolis, IN), told us how a product development company such as Catalyst can quickly and effectively help an inventor embody an idea and bring it to market.
Develop your idea as best you can before hiring professional developers, because their services are expensive (up to $20,000 for a prototype). Find out who your potential customers are and what they want, so you can give developers a very good idea of what product you want from them.
Professional developers offer a variety of services, such as:
- market research, including focus groups and customer surveys, to help you design a product that your potential customers want;
- prototyping, to make sure your invention works, with the aid of 3-D designing and printing, modeling, problem solving, selecting materials, tooling, and machining;
- small scale production of thermoplastic products with injection molding machines;
- packaging;
- light assembly;
- delivery of up to 500,000 parts; and
- connections to other developers who provide complementary services.
Thank you for your helpful advice, Ms. Woodruff!