As you evaluate potential UX partners, there’s a natural tendency to focus on the positive. Why is this firm a good fit for us?
A harder question to answer–one that many firms are not prepared to address–is why they might not be a good fit.
You’ll invest both time and money in your design relationship. Identifying misalignment upfront can save your company thousands of dollars–and lots of time. What if you could avoid that rabbit hole of wasted time and resources? You can, but it requires being real about what you really want and what you can dedicate to getting there.
In the spirit of skipping a misstep, see if any of these statements sound like you. If they do, good that you’re being real, but know Slide UX probably isn’t your ideal partner. Best to know now.
1. You don’t want a team who asks questions.
““Their delivery made clear that they were as invested in our success as we were.””
It happens. Sometimes teams feel they know exactly what they need, and they don’t want to collaborate much.
Clients come to us because they have a vision and we have the UX and UI design expertise they lack. We’re a dedicated bunch ready to dig deep with the right questions (for you and your users) and bring your vision to life with our expertise.
You may think you have the details figured out already, and just need hands to execute an idea exactly as you’ve sketched it–no questions asked. But our methods are geared toward helping you build an amazing user experience, and that requires getting to know your situation.
Sometimes, all you need is design. But, even then, we get excited when clients seek collaboration, discovery, and refinement. And we’re a great match for engagements where we can collaborate from strategy to execution.
2. You don't have time or the attention to participate actively in your project.
We’ll lighten your load with our expertise in UX strategy, UI design, and user research. But here’s the thing: to take advantage of that expertise, you’ll need to play along and provide:
Your data and insight into your business, your market, and your product’s buyers or users.
Your attention, so your organization adopts our learnings and recommendations.
Your thoughtful feedback to ensure our conclusions sync with your business situation.
Your solid leadership, which alleviates unnecessary back and forth and sets us up with the most efficient way to the win.
Despite their best intentions, it's not uncommon for teams to bite off more than they can chew when it comes to big projects.
3. Your organization feels safer with a “big design firm.”
Some organizations crave the optics of large agency teams to trust that their partners are legit and can get the job done. But there are budget implications of larger-than-needed teams, bigger-than-necessary meetings, and hours of polish on transient design artifacts.
We don’t deliver fanfare orchestrated to wow our audience. Our focus is always: how can we best serve our clients’ needs? There’s nothing wrong with a pretty powerpoint deck (and we can make them), but the clients who appreciate us most care more about substance and business value than agency stagecraft.
We won’t stuff your project with warm bodies to impress you (or run up your bill). We scale our teams to fit your project’s demands because we know the best work comes from teams that are focused and accountable; and that’s the Slide-way of doing business.
““They are super organized and responsive, and they have incredible attention to detail.””
Our UX consultants, affectionately known as Sliders, are trained to manage our portion of your project. With skilled practitioners at the helm of your project, you won’t be stuck behind layers of account or project management. Your lead can ask and answer UX questions on the spot, avoiding back and forth.
Bonus reason: You want real work done before you hire.
Spec work (short for speculative) is any job for which the client expects real work–examples or a finished product–before they agree to pay a fee.
While these requests are rare, they’re an immediate no for us.
Free work devalues our industry, and it's how a lot of firms get themselves in trouble. Not only that, but it doesn’t serve the purpose of showing you what to expect. Our normal approach is thoughtful; Uninformed work doesn’t represent our real value–consultation. The right clients understand that this is how we earn our living.
So, where do you stand?
There are many things we love about our work and top of the list is when we bring in a new client, with a new need, in a new (to us) industry. We welcome the challenge that comes with the work–but not the challenge that comes from misalignment.
We invite you to look inward and determine how much strategy, time, and attention you have for the project at-hand. If your answer is “all in!” – we can’t wait to meet you!