Ask HN: How many of you feel capable as an industrial designer

Full disclosure: In addition to being a long time lurker on here, I'm also at a startup focused on matchmaking product designers and startups & midsize teams, and I'm trying to better understand our market, and whether we're solving the right problems. Will you help me?

I have a couple questions for anyone here who is working on a physical product idea, especially for those of you in the connected hardware space.

1: Do you consider the design an important factor in your success?

2: Are you, yourself, in charge of the functional or aesthetic design on your team?

3: How many members does your team have? And of that number is there a dedicated industrial designer with prior experience?

4: How did you find your product designer?

5: Does the prospect of connecting with a community of designers more easily appeal to you?

6: How long is your current development cycle, and how much of that is spent on the design vs testing, research, engineering iterations?

Thanks very much for your feedback. And if you have any suggestions on another place I might find more hardware makers, I'd very much appreciate the chance to ask them, too.

Cheers!