Faster to Market, Less Risk: The Case for a Different Kind of Design Partner
Faster to Market, Less Risk:
The Case for a Different Kind of Design Partner
COMPANY INSIGHTS | MARCH 31, 2026
Nearly 30,000 new products hit the market every year — and up to 95% of them ultimately fail.
Over the last 40 years at Fredricks, we've worked on more than 4,000 projects centered around new product development. That kind of volume gives you a pretty good sense of what works and what doesn't. We've used that experience to dial in our process and how we show up for clients: as a true strategic partner, not just another external vendor.
Instead of keeping us at arm’s length, we embed with your team and act as a catalyst — speeding up development while the core ideas and direction stay yours.
Our clients run into the same pressures time and again when bringing new products to market or refreshing existing lines. Limited design talent, overloaded engineering teams, siloed departments that slow everything down, risk aversion and the fear of expensive mistakes, plus constantly shifting user expectations, new technology, and tougher competition. These things push design and engineering teams into tight boxes where real innovation gets squeezed out.
Successful product development means navigating a messy web of decisions from all the stakeholders — internal and external — and figuring out not just whether a product will succeed, but how you'll actually measure that success.
Our approach is built on relationships. A few years back we stepped away from chasing every lead and started focusing on the clients we genuinely enjoy working with. That shift lets our teams function as a real extension of your internal group. We bring past experience with your people and processes, so we can jump in fast.
This collaborative model means you can pick up the phone on day one and often see relief from bottlenecks by day two. We make that possible through three main ways we engage:
Consult — We lean on our experience and your internal capabilities to guide and execute specific phase-based work that keeps momentum going.
Develop — We step in as your advanced development team, delivering phase-based or full turnkey solutions using our complete range of services and vast supplier network, all tailored to what you actually need.
Contract — This is where things click best for us. We define “contract” differently than a lot of firms. No matter how the commercial side is structured, we operate like we're part of your in-house design and engineering group. We get to know your systems, your processes, and your people so we can deliver seamless support with almost zero ramp-up time.
This setup gives you real flexibility. You engage with us on your terms — whatever fits your workflow. As Design Director, my goal is to move as many of our key clients as possible under this contract-style relationship. That can mean anything from a quick one- or two-day engagements to programs that run for a year or more, depending on scope and scale.
We want you to treat Fredricks the same way you treat your own team members — someone you can pull off your bench to clear congested workflows, bring fresh insights from other markets we've worked in, and tap into our long-standing network of suppliers. That network can help from early market research all the way through to delivering finished product to your door.
Of course, this kind of relationship isn't one-way. We ask for repeat engagements (within reason) so our team can really learn the nuances of how you operate. We know it's a bigger commitment on your end, but the payoff is real: shorter time to market, higher levels of innovation that truly solve problems for both users and your internal teams, reduced development costs and risk, and long-term capability building through the knowledge we transfer back and forth.
At the end of the day, when you're under pressure to innovate without blowing tight timelines or budgets, having a partner who truly acts as a catalyst can make all the difference. We've seen it play out hundreds of times over the years — ideas that were stuck suddenly move, teams gain momentum, and products make it to market stronger than they would have on their own.
If that sounds like the kind of support you're looking for on your next project, reach out. Whether it's a quick consult to get unstuck or a longer-term partnership, let's talk about what makes sense for your team. Drop me a note or give us a call — we're happy to jump in and see how we can help accelerate things.
Conor Fredricks
Director of Design
Fredricks Design, Inc.
