Innovation is one of the biggest drivers of the growth of a startup company. By creating new products and services, you attract the attention of more customers. In turn, these new customer bases will give you more revenues and boost your business.
But with all the other tasks involved in operations, like management and customer support, it can sometimes be hard to sit down and think of new stuff. As it turns out, outsourcing can be a surprising option for your innovation needs. But how does it work and how do you do it right? Let’s take a closer look.
How Innovation Outsourcing Works?
In its simplest definition, innovation outsourcing is the strategy of delegating the business idea generation process to a third party. It differs from typical product development outsourcing in that the latter does only the actual development work. You still retain the ideation process internally.
Image from Quality Magazine.
With innovation outsourcing, even that ideation process is sent out. In essence, what you are signing up for is the intellectual capital that the provider has. That includes things like strategic research capabilities, product know-how, and general management abilities.
Why Outsource Innovation?
Considering how vital innovation development is to the life of your company, you might wonder why you would give it to an external party. However, there are several strong reasons why you would want to go for this option.
Getting A Fresh Perspective
Developing all your startup company product ideas in-house is a great way to build your identity. However, there will be a point when all of these ideas become repetitive. Introducing an external party opens the door for product concepts that you might not even be aware of.
Image from Medium.
Additionally, these innovation outsourcing providers can also help you avoid being too attached to your own ideas. Okay, before you fret on that thought, being passionate about your ideas is not bad. However, it can prevent you from seeing the bigger picture about its viability. With innovation outsourcing, you can play the role of an external observer to see how your possible business ideas develop. You can then apply that knowledge back to your concepts.
A More Mature Ideation Process
Coming up with a new product idea is just the first start of the innovation process. Once you have that idea fleshed out, you need to set up the various processes to determine its viability and plan the eventual development. That can often be a lot of work, something that your startup might not be able to commit to readily.
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By outsourcing, you get access to a fully established ideation process. These providers have honed their craft for years, making for more efficient work. With that, you jumpstart the development work and have a new product out in the market faster than usual. That gives you more opportunity to capture your desired market faster.
How Your Startup Company Should Do Innovation Outsourcing?
Even with the above reasons, it is understandable that you might still be reluctant to go with outsourcing your innovation process. After all, you are not sure whether the ideas that the external party will develop for you will succeed. As such, you need to plan out the effort accordingly.
Getting The Right Partner
As is with any outsourcing effort, the work starts with finding the right provider. Beyond the general considerations, there are several specific areas you need to pay attention to. This will ensure that you get a provider that matches your product development needs.
The Technology And Skills s Of The provider
Look into the provider’s history to see how often they have worked with companies that have a similar profile like yours. This gives you an idea of their capabilities to conceptualize and develop the products you have in mind.
One way to get this information is by requesting case studies of their previous projects. These tell more than just about the ideas they conceptualize. They also provide you information on the technology the provider needed to develop to make the idea feasible.
Compatibility With Your Development Process
You also need to match their ideation process closely with your development strategy. The goal is to make it easy to transition from their ideas into your production process. Note that this might not be an exact match. Instead, you should see how flexible they are to accommodate your business.
Image from DevPro Journal.
You also need to take a look at how their knowledge transfer process works. That transfer process should ideally begin even when the product is still in conceptualization. They should be able to transfer that know-how smoothly to you. This is important, as you will need it for post-development product work.
Protecting Your Startup Company IP
Another essential aspect to look into when outsourcing intellectual capital is how to protect your IP. After all, you want to have exclusive rights to the product they have developed for you. Discuss with them as early as possible.
Image from Stanton IP Law.
A good provider should be able to walk you through their IP protection system. There are several things to look into here. One is if they handle IP documentation and registration. Note that not all outsourced innovation firms provide this. In that case, you can hand it over to a firm like Virtua Solutions that specializes in administrative tasks like this.
Additionally, you should review the provider’s data security protocols. Look into how they control access to sensitive product information. You also need to know how they facilitate the transfer of information to your team. All of these ensure that your new product ideas are safe before launch.
Creating A Thorough Onboarding Process
Once you have finalized the details of your startup company innovation outsourcing, you can bring in the external party. Give them a tour of your company’s operations so that they have a clear idea of your processes. You can also start discussing what kind of products you would want them to develop.
Note that you need to be clear on the scope of the project so that they can correctly orient their design ideas to your expectations. But you still need to provide them with a good amount of creative leeway. After all, their goal is to innovate, and you can get better results by letting them do their work freely.
Helping Your Startup Company Drive Innovation
To facilitate your startup company and the outsourced innovation team’s work, you need the right support team. Virtua Solutions is ready to help you here. We can serve as a liaison between you and the external development team. As such, you can count on getting all of the updates about the project even while you do other tasks.
And as mentioned, we can handle the various back-office duties that ensure the development project goes according to what you want. So, contact us today and get all the help you need to bring your startup company innovation to its fruition.