Put simply, we are a design services company.
How we work
We give our expertise to you as and when you need it, and we charge for the time it takes.
We can work from our own offices or we can come to you, but we find working remotely is far more efficient if there is no interaction required with the rest of your team, as it both removes us from the office banter and allows us to fit your work in around our other tasks – so when we get stuck for inspiration, we can ponder for a while at no cost to you!
Can you tell me how much it will cost?
We give estimates for work, and we are very good at guessing what’s going to be involved.
We generally avoid fixed price jobs as we find that most of our clients want to change the spec a little, add an extra bell or whistle at the last minute, suddenly realise they need to test to another standard for one particular customer, or any of a dozen other things that changes the scope of work – at which point a fixed price job would have to be stopped for a re-negotiation.
We charge by the hour and keep timesheets so you can see where we spent the time. If we spend less time than our estimate, then we charge you less. If we have to learn something new, then we take a view on whether it’s a skill that is useful elsewhere or really just for your job, and may reduce our fees if we feel we’ve gained something from working with you.
What if I need more work done?
We ask all our clients to set up an umbrella agreement with us that covers the way we work together and has all the legal mumbo-jumbo in it. With just this, we are happy (once we get to know you) to just take email or sometimes verbal instructions to undertake work.
These days, we have many clients who just pick up the phone, ask us to take on a slice of work and don’t even bother with what it’s going to cost them – because they know they’ll get a good solid job done with no bother. We’d be pleased to put you in touch with some happy clients if you don’t believe us!
Will you support us once we hit production?
Of course! Whilst we (as engineers) like the challenge of getting to the root cause of an issue and coming up with a novel solution, we also (as product designers) realise that there isn’t a next product unless the current one is a sucess in the marketplace – and that means we have to make sure you are able to make it efficiently, avoid returns and hit the pricepoint you need. All that means we have to work closely with the factory to get it rolling down the production line, work with them to iron out the enevitable wrinkles as they ramp up the volumes, and then continue to support as parts go end of life, or there’s a supply issue, or something unexpected happens in the field.
Rest assured, we’ll be at the end of the phone whenever you need some extra help.