Choosing a development company is one of the decisions that affects your product the most. It determines how long it takes to reach a prototype, how much it costs, and whether you end up holding a product that can actually be manufactured. Here are ten questions to ask any company, and what you should hear in the answer.
1. Who exactly will work on my project?
Good answer: the name of an engineer, with experience you can check, whom you will talk to directly. Red flag: "a professional team" with no names, or a project manager who will be your only contact.
2. Does the same person design the hardware and write the firmware?
This may be the most important question. The bugs that take weeks live between the board and the code. When the same engineer owns both, they are solved quickly and there is no argument about whose fault it is. Detailed explanation.
3. What similar projects have you done?
Ask to see real projects: what the challenge was, what was built and what came out of it. A list of technologies ("STM32, ESP32, LoRa") is not enough. Defense projects are usually shown only in a meeting, under NDA, and that is normal.
4. How is payment structured?
Good answer: clear stages, such as specification, prototype, pilot and production, with a price known in advance for each and a deliverable you can check at the end. Red flag: one lump sum with no breakdown, or hourly billing with no estimate.
5. Who owns the intellectual property?
All schematics, PCB files, source code and documentation should be handed over to you. If the development company keeps the code, you depend on it for every change, forever.
6. What do I get at the end of each stage?
Ask for an explicit list. At the end of specification: a requirements and architecture document and a cost estimate. At the end of the prototype: working boards, source code and a test report. If you can't get an answer like this, it will be hard to know whether the project is progressing.
7. Do you support production too?
A prototype that works on the bench is half the way. Ask who prepares the manufacturing package, who works with the factory and who builds the test jigs. 7 mistakes that make the move to production expensive.
8. How fast do you reply?
Questions come up all the time in a development project. A company that replies within one working day saves you weeks over the project.
9. What happens when something doesn't work?
Ask about a project that had a problem, and how it was solved. A company with real experience will tell you about tricky bugs and what it learned from them.
10. Do you use AI in development?
Today, AI tools shorten code writing and add a layer of review. It is important to hear that an engineer still checks and is responsible for every line. Where AI helps, and where it doesn't yet.
A large company or a small one?
There is no single answer, but for most product development projects a small company with a senior engineer is faster, cheaper and more personal. Detailed comparison.
How to compare quotes
A cheaper quote is not always cheaper. When comparing, check:
- Do both quotes include the same stages and deliverables?
- Is the firmware included, or is it "an additional stage"?
- Are the files and source code handed over to you?
- What happens if another board revision is needed?
Summary
You can ask all of these questions in the first meeting. At ProtoMakers the first meeting is 30 minutes, free and with no obligation, and you can ask any of them. Book a meeting.
Written by Roman Alperovich, founder and lead engineer at ProtoMakers.