siliconindia | | May 2018912 TIPS FOR HIRING THE RIGHT UX DESIGN PARTNERDyson, BMW, Amazon are investing millions of dollar in user experience.Design-led companies have outperformed the stock market multiple times over to the companies that are not design led. Design can drive ROI in following 7 ways-1. Influence Buy & Emotion2. Create & Enter new markets3. Build brand & repute4. Enable Product & Service Innovation5. Create IP6. Increased Customer Satisfaction7. Save Cost and Drive Speed.5. Is the design leadership available?Design is an iterative process. And, it works best when the designer has continual communication with product owners, stakeholders and decision makers. A lot of times the founder/design director/principal gives the pitch and floors the customer. Once the project starts they are virtually impossible to reach. I am not saying they should do the project or be on it 100 percent of the time but surely you need to ask how accessible are they if the need arises.6. Access to Clients - Big, Small & Diverse.By virtue of being business, everyone is going to have some names & logos as Clients. It is more important how and what the studio delivered to the customer. Doing a landing page for a fortune 500 vs. driving a product for 2 years for a thriving startup. You know what matters. Look deep into how consistently the design team has delivered across clients (startups, product companies, fortune 500 companies, consulting firms etc) and across verticals (finance, consumer, healthcare, education, tech etc) & devices (web, mobile, IOT, wearables etc).Ask for client references you can talk to not just canned testimonials!7. Project Management, Communication Process & Tools.A few questions now would save a lot of troubles later. Ask them if they have worked with clients in different geographical locations. Would they be comfortable in attending workshops in your city? Great teams rely on structured and unstructured communication for brilliant outcomes. Project management is equally important as design itself. Right from sharing assets and progress to resolving design differences, it is important to see that the design team is using licensed software and tools to deliver great quality work. Ask about escalation matrix and how design differences are resolved. This would speak volumes about the design team you are going to engage.8. Awards and True RecognitionAwards and recognition surely are a way to judge design studios and teams. But be very careful. Today, unfortunately, there are a lot of media houses that disguise paid/subscribed awards and do injustice to the deserving ones. There are a great bunch of genuine media houses, design fraternity conferences, design panels doing phenomenal work in recognizing design talent and bringing them to spotlight.9. Long-term partners vs short term vendorsNow it completely depends on you, if you are looking for a long-term partnership or want to hire short-term vendors. Where long-term partnerships have strategic outlook and commitments with the company, vendors are usually interested in finishing the project as quickly as possible. Design is an iterative process and is much deeper than it seems. The design team committed to delivering success or just looking to bill you by the hour. A good way to measure it would be to talk about the goals vs number of screens.10. Quality of the team vs. 1-2 membersA general thumb rule is if their hiring process is stringent and training is obsessed over then the team is as good as the newest member on the ground. Look for specialists vs. generalist mix in the project team that is assigned to you. You do not want to be dependent on one individual for the entire project.11. Are they ethicalWork with teams that put ethics ABOVE everything else. There are 100s of cases of copied work, re-used work, cutting corners, privacy invasion, frauds, cheating etc. You don't want to be dealing with those. In this area don't even work with anything GREY. It's either white or black. Great design cannot happen on the foundation of deceit, unlawfulness or morally corrupt individuals.12. Do they serve good coffee?Every successful partnership starts with a cup of coffee. And, especially when it comes to design thinking, coffee plays a vital role in building innovation. So, once you are done with your research and references, do judge their coffee before signing the deal. Good luck with your design journey ahead.
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