User experience is increasingly cited as a key factor in customer choice, so it’s no surprise that organizations of all sizes are seeking out UX practitioners.
Many prospective clients come to us with a choice: should they hire full-time UX help in-house, or work with an outside partner? We’re an agency ourselves, but we’re also really keen on seeing our fellow UX counterparts score great full-time jobs, so we see both sides of this topic.
If this is a decision you’re wrestling with, here are some things to consider.
Breadth of skills. Most organizations need a wide range of UX capabilities: user research, information architecture, visual concepting, accessibility, content strategy, content development, prototyping, animation and user interface specifications. You can definitely find individuals with several of those skills, but finding someone with all of them is unlikely.
If you choose to hire in-house, you’ll have to be realistic about what you can expect from a single person. Prioritize the skills and experience that are most important for your first hire while considering how to get other needs met, too. Sometimes a combo hiring strategy allows in-house and agency teams to learn from one another.Organizational leadership. It’s a phenomenon that can drive in-house talent mad - the consultant says what the internal team has been saying all along, and finally, leadership believes it. Will a solitary, junior in-house hire be effective at converting your organization from design-by-engineer to user-centered? Consider the level of leadership you need, and the depth of organizational change you need to drive. Hire junior UXers into supportive environments, but find senior support if you need to change your organization’s attitude toward design. We’ve seen first hand that a great agency experience can help increase the appetite for UX investment.
Financial commitment. Entry-level UX candidates are plentiful, but will need strong design leadership—which you might not have yet, if you’re just adding the UX discipline to your roster. Many organizations first hire an experienced UX candidate who can hit the ground running, establish the new role’s protocols, and potentially manage a team. Research salaries in the location you intend to hire, but also factor in other costs, like necessary hardware & software, payroll taxes, bonuses, and benefits like health insurance.
Agency UX time will cost more by the hour on paper, but won’t require those extras like payroll tax, benefits, and most hardware/software. Ideally, you can call on an external agency partner as needed—and save those funds when you don't.Time to hire. We all know that the many steps of hiring new employees can be time-consuming. You write and post a job description, gain approval to post it, list the role and allow time to collect applications, interview candidates, settle on your new hire, make an offer, negotiate compensation, and finally, the selected hire submits their notice. Even after they start and get their software and equipment ready, it will take a couple of weeks to acclimate.
If you’re thinking ahead, the time can totally be worth it. But if you’ve got an imminent need, adding resources from an outside UX team is typically a quicker process—especially if you expect needs to ebb and flow during the course of an existing relationship. Be sure to ask potential agency partners about how long it’d take to get started, and what it’d be like to add resources along the way.
Team collaboration. Most agencies will include internal collaboration in their process, meaning that work is critiqued by other UX specialists familiar with the project requirements before you see it. Teammates help develop one another and band together to handle larger, coordinated efforts.
When you hire your first in-house UXer, you need to consider capacity, and peer review. Will your organization support the hire with a strong sounding board of collaborators? Can you prioritize assignments in a linear way, to fit one person’s workload, or do you need a team?Diverse experience and exposure. Agency teams are sharpened by the expectations and unique needs of other clients. This exposure can pay off for you over time, as agencies must stay relevant to the market at large, while internal teams are often incentivized to get along with organizational norms.
If you choose to hire in-house, consider ways to help your internal UX team stay up to speed with the space, even when working on the very necessary projects that aren’t cutting edge.More minds = more ideas. To generate a wider range of ideas, agencies will often assign multiple designers to the same task. Individual experience, knowledge, and styles can lead to different ways of solving the same problem, and sometimes the best answer is somewhere in between different ideas. Some organizations hire out just for the sake of bringing new ideas into the fold.
UX resource management. With any discipline, hiring means management. You’ll need to support each UXer's focus, tasks, allocations, goals, and career development the same way you do for other roles, even though it’s a new discipline for you. Where in your organization will the new UX department roll up? What does that group’s leader know (or need to learn) about the UX talent market? With an outside agency, all you have to manage is your project.
Downsides of hiring an external UX team
Stockpiling knowledge outside your organization - User research and domain knowledge reside most deeply with those who gather it. Re-engaging a past partner for brainstorming or chit-chat is less practical than swinging by the desk of an in-house teammate, and knowledge gained might not pop up as serendipitously when it was collected by outsiders. Consider the access you’ll have to your outside UX partner after the project concludes.
Negotiation and project scoping - Changing courses is certainly easier when there’s no specific money changing hands or contractual scope commitments. It can be a grind to negotiate internally and externally to keep an external partner on the books. Work around this by crafting agreements that anticipate change upfront.
Resourcing is outside of your control - There’s definitely ramp up time involved with bringing new teammates up to speed, especially in complex, specialized domains. You have less control over who exactly you’ll be working with when you select an agency, since other clients may claim teammates you’ve worked with in the past.
Characteristics of a great UX partner
A good partner will learn your industry and domain, the needs of the user, and your company's work style–and will put all three to use in future engagements to help you get the most value from it. As you consider potential agency partners, look for firms who can point to long-term client relationships, tenured agency employees, and policies/culture that incentivize agency employees to stay put.
“[Slide UX] has developed a thorough understanding of what we do and what we’re trying to achieve, so they continue to be a great partner to have by our side.”
Mileage may vary on the above benefits and downsides, and of course, every agency and situation is different—there is really no one-size-fits-all solution. Sometimes it makes sense to start a project with an agency, and then hire in-house. You can start UX projects immediately, and then continue that momentum with an internal team. At Slide UX, we've been lucky enough to have helped clients interview, hire, and train new in-house resources on projects we started.
Evaluate your current situation and contemplate future needs to figure out what’s right for your company. And certainly, let us know if we can help you devise a game plan.
Don’t miss it: Our cofounder Erin Young was featured in an article on the UpCity website entitled, “How To Hire A UI/UX Design Company”.