When to Bring in Product Development Support—And When Not To
Not every product idea needs outside product development support. In fact, bringing in help too early or too late can slow things down, add unnecessary cost, or create confusion.
At the same time, waiting until a project is already stuck can make challenges harder and more expensive to solve.
So how do you know when it makes sense to bring in product development support and when it doesn’t?
Based on what we see across brands, ingredient companies, and startups, here’s a practical way to think about it.
When Deep Technical Development May Not Be the First Step
There are moments where jumping straight into formulation or scale work isn’t the most effective use of resources.
- You’re Still Exploring the Idea Space
If your concept is still broad: for example, you’re exploring multiple categories, formats, or positioning angles—jumping straight into formulation may be premature.
In these cases, early-stage support focused on innovation strategy, concept creation, whitespace identification, and consumer validation can be far more valuable than immediate technical development. Narrowing the idea with real consumer input helps ensure that formulation and scale-up efforts are focused on concepts with true market potential, rather than chasing everything at once.
- You’re Making Minor Changes to a Proven Product
Flavor extensions, cosmetic tweaks, or small adjustments to an existing, well-understood formulation don’t always require deep technical support, especially if the product is already produced reliably at scale.
If you’re not asking, “can this be done?” and you’re simply executing against known parameters, outside development support may add limited value.
- You Have Strong In-House R&D and Manufacturing Alignment
Some teams already have deep formulation expertise, established processes, and trusted manufacturing partners. When development, process, and production are tightly aligned internally, external technical support may not be necessary for straightforward projects.
That’s a good problem to have.
When It Does Make Sense to Bring in Support
Teams don’t always need outside help—but when they do, it’s usually for the same predictable reasons. Product development is full of blind spots, hidden constraints, and moments where assumptions quietly replace data. That’s where external expertise can change the trajectory of a project.
Bringing in support isn’t about replacing your team’s capabilities; it’s about accelerating progress, reducing risk, and making sure decisions are grounded in technical reality rather than optimism. The biggest impact tends to happen at inflection points when a project is moving from idea to execution, or when a single change has the potential to ripple through the entire system.
Below are the situations where outside support consistently saves time, money, and frustration.
- When Feasibility Isn’t Clear
If you’re unsure whether an idea can be formulated, processed, or scaled—or if you’re relying on assumptions rather than data—early feasibility work can prevent costly missteps later.
This is especially common with functional products, novel ingredients, and new delivery formats.
- When You’re Reformulating or Changing a Core Variable
Reformulation introduces risk, even for experienced teams.
Swapping sweeteners, removing allergens, adding functional ingredients, or changing processing conditions can affect taste, texture, stability, and shelf life in ways that aren’t always obvious at the bench. This is often where outside expertise helps identify tradeoffs before they become problems.
- When Bench Success Doesn’t Translate to Scale
What works on the bench doesn’t always work at pilot or commercial scale.
Scale introduces new variables: shear, heat transfer, mixing efficiency, hold times, packaging interactions, and more. If a product performs well in development but breaks down during pilot runs or early production, that’s a strong signal that additional process-focused support is needed.
- When Manufacturing Is the Bottleneck
Many projects stall not because the idea is bad, but because the path to manufacturing is unclear.
Questions like:
- Which co-manufacturer can realistically run this?
- Will their equipment support the process?
- How does the formulation need to evolve to fit real-world production?
Bridging formulation and manufacturing reality is often where outside support adds the most value.
When Timing Actually Matters
When timelines are real and internal teams are stretched, external support can accelerate progress if it’s applied strategically.
The goal isn’t to outsource thinking. It’s to move faster with fewer wrong turns.
What Product Development Support Should Look Like
Good product development support doesn’t just help move projects forward. It helps teams avoid moving in the wrong direction.
At its best, support should:
- Ask hard questions early
- Pressure-test assumptions
- Align formulation, process, and packaging from the start
- Design with scale and commercialization in mind
- Support informed go / no-go decisions
Depending on the stage, that support may begin with concept development and consumer validation, or it may start with technical feasibility and scale-up. The key is matching the type of support to the right moment in the process.
A Simple Way to Decide
If you’re unsure whether to bring in product development support, ask yourself:
- Are we confident this can scale?
- Do we understand the technical and manufacturing risks?
- Is our team blocked or stretched?
- Would clarity now save time, cost, or rework later?
If the answer to any of those is yes, support may make sense sooner than you think.
How We Can Help
Eurofins Product Development & Innovation partners with brands and ingredient companies across the full innovation lifecycle—from concept creation, whitespace identification, and consumer testing through formulation, pilot trials, scale-up, and commercialization.
Our team of food scientists and product developers helps narrow ideas, pressure-test assumptions, and identify risks early, so development efforts stay focused on concepts that are both desirable to consumers and viable in the real world.
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Meet the Author
Rachel Taylor | Director of Commercial Strategy, Eurofins Product Development & Innovation
Rachel Taylor is the Director of Commercial Strategy at Eurofins Product Development & Innovation, formerly known as The National Food Lab. She works closely with brands, ingredient companies, and startups to bridge the gap between innovation and commercialization, helping teams move products from early concept through scale-up and market launch.
