All the excellent products offered on the market today share one thing in common: before becoming a phenomenal hit, they underwent tremendous processes that came in various stages, including comprehensive research, in-depth analysis and rigorous tests. To clear all stages and obtain good results, a business that is pushing for the next big hit definitely needs a highly reputable, experienced and established product development and engineering design firm in its armory.

Here are five specific, important questions that should lead businesses to the right team of innovators.

1. Does the innovation team employ a customer-oriented process?

Top innovators are able to conceptualize and develop new products most effectively when they focus on the most important aspect of the business: the customer. Customers are drawn to a product that offers original features as well as new and unique benefits that provide better value than the market standard. Only a product design and development team that focuses on obtaining knowledge of the customer's preferences and needs can successfully bring this kind of product to the market.

That being said, however, a customer-focused product development process should take into consideration customers on both ends of the spectrum: internal customers that include manufacturers and suppliers, and external customers that include end users.

2. Is the innovation team committed to a front-end system in product development?

In product development, the innovation process could result in heightened risks to the technical implementation, conceptualization, marketing and financial aspect of the product. A product innovation team works to reduce all these risks while still increasing functionality, regardless of the reworks required in these areas toward the creation of a final product.

3. Does the team continuously check and adjust to the ever-evolving market needs?

Identifying what the market wants is important, but it’s equally important that product developers are consistent in ensuring that the needs of the market are met at all times.

Because shifts in consumer preferences have become astoundingly evident, creating a product prototype and subjecting it to a Customer Acceptance Test will shed light on what exactly the current preferences are. A team of innovators who understands the product category and effectively analyzes consumer behavior should be able to recommend tweaks to meet the demand of prospective consumers and consequently, develop product improvements.

4. Is the team composed of cross-functional members working toward a common goal?

Exhaustive research is an important area in product design development—but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Top-performing innovation firms do not merely consist of Research and Development experts. What makes the best production innovation team are highly-skilled specialists who can work together and combine their expertise as well as their experience spanning across different fields. A perfect example of this is Boost Design, a reputable product design and development firm that has talented researchers, electronic engineers, software engineers, mechanical engineers and systems engineers that work together to come up with a phenomenal product design.

5. Does the team utilize the stage-gate roadmap and set quality need targets?

From conceptualizing a product to moving it to launch, a Stage-Gate system is necessary. This roadmap requires innovation teams to carry out and complete the activities with formal reviews and assessments as well as signed management approvals before proceeding to the next step. In addition, setting quality targets as they relate to customer needs, investment expenses and project schedules will have to be subjected to audits under the QCT process. A continuous QCT effort ensures that errors are diminished and strategies for constant improvement--as may be applicable--are always implemented.

Regardless of what product a business wants to create or improve, the right product design and development firm can definitely help make that happen. Ultimately, the key to hiring the best product development firm is in finding a match between the needs of the business and the way the firm works to meet it.