You’ve eaten a hearty breakfast, sat in your comfortable office chair, and are ready to have a highly productive introductory meeting with Strouse. Or so you think.
Yet, as soon as the representatives start talking, you’re taken aback by their direct questions about your product. “Why would they need to know that?” You grumble while copying a list of information to report.
Putting your best foot forward is challenging when you don’t know what to expect from a meeting. Strouse knows we can help our clients save time by giving them an idea of what we’ll discuss so they can be ready for it.
By the time you’ve finished reading this, you should have a solid understanding of the Discovery Meeting, its purpose, who should be involved, and how it can help you with the next step in your project.
What is the Discovery Meeting?
The Discovery Meeting is an appointment with Strouse to discuss your design and plans or to ask any questions you have about our converting capabilities.
The meeting will involve many questions about your part design to help us figure out the best way to produce it in a cost-effective and timely manner.
These are the most common design questions we ask:
- What does your part actually do?
- What does it need to stick to?
- How is your part applied?
- Does your part attach to the skin?
- Is it permanent or removable?
- What environments is it going to be exposed to?
- What’s the most crucial element of your design (if any)?
- Why this design?
- Essentially, what problem does this product need to solve?
By the end of the Discovery Meeting, we’ll have a clear understanding of what you need and how far along you are in your process.
Who Should Be Involved in the Discovery Meeting?
First and foremost, any experts involved in your part design should be involved in the discovery meeting.
Our questions will become highly technical, so it saves time and frustration to have the design experts on call rather than having to relay our messages through word of mouth or email.
Who qualifies as a technical expert?
- Someone who worked on the design
- Someone who knows the purpose behind the design and the product itself
- Someone who’s actively involved in the project from a technical standpoint
- An engineer, often a design or application engineer
For us to fully understand your process and offer the best solution, it’s crucial to bring someone who can answer questions about your product, describe its intended application, and help you succeed in your adhesive part design.
Having a technical expert in your meeting will speed up the process, prevent miscommunication, and significantly increase our chances of having a productive conversation.
What Should You Be Prepared to Discuss During the Discovery Meeting?
Every project is unique, so the agenda for each meeting might differ slightly. Regardless, the most important topics we’ll cover in-depth are your part's intended function and design.
Looking for more ways to prepare? Here are ten more questions we might ask:
It’s essential for your converter to understand the function and design of your product.
Although we might also review your project timeline or consider the possibility of scaling your design for production, the best way you can prepare for the discovery meeting is to come prepared to discuss the primary function of your product so we can build and deliver a successful part.
THE VALUE OF DESCRIBING YOUR ENTIRE PROCESS
As we discuss your process, there’s one question you’ll probably find yourself asking:
Why do you need to know more?
You’ve explained the basics of what you need from us, and you believe you’ve given us plenty of information. Unfortunately, the opposite is usually true: we need to know more about your product.
The first step is discussing your die cut tolerances to determine the feasibility of your part. Here, it will benefit you to provide any drawings or data you have for us to know about your part’s design.
The next step is how you plan to use your part for the final product, including how you’re applying the part, so we can understand the process and offer alternative ideas.
Design details, such as adding a tab to the liner, might bring you from fifteen seconds of application down to five. Failing to disclose the application method, such as an automated process, could result in faulty samples or wasted time and money due to a lack of pertinent information.
YOUR PART DRAWING
If you haven’t yet submitted your drawing or design, you can send it to Strouse in preparation for a meeting or discussion:
As a reminder, we are not a design house, meaning our design capabilities are aimed at improving the process rather than designing the part itself. If you don’t have a drawing, you might not be ready to talk to an adhesive converter. Consider visiting a design house before diving headfirst into production.
What Happens After the Discovery Meeting?
Before we wrap up your discovery meeting, we will determine a sure course of action.
Depending on what we’ve discussed, this could include sending samples, figuring out your timeline, writing your quote, and more.
If you’re starting a project with a tight deadline, you might be nervous about setbacks and looking for a strategy to overcome lead times. You may also want to know what your quote will include and how to compare it to others.
Looking to set up a discovery meeting? Ask us to help you get started.
