Can You Outsource Product UX / UI Design Successfully?

Let me be the first to totally disagree with this article.

The world is full of great outsourced design: websites, adverts, car designs, buildings, bridges, spacecraft. You name it.

UX is not something magical. It is just another application of design. A good designer will have no difficulty getting into the head of both client and user. That is their passion.

This argument can cut both ways. If I'm a designer, and I can make a kick-ass interface, but aren't so great on the programming skills, can I, or can I not hire a programmer to make work?

My sense is the HN crowd would be aghast at such a notion, but I don't see that much of a difference. A good product is about vision, and a design nerd or code nerd can have it, and that doesn't demean or diminish the value of the other.

Tony Hsieh has fascinating discussion on outsourcing in Delivering Happiness. They could have outsourced two big parts of their business:

- Their telephone support

- Their fulfillment center

These are both things that, typically, are very expensive to run. The temptation to outsource is huge. The trouble is, these are also two of the most crucial interaction points for customers. So if they don't work correctly, the business will suffer.

What Zappos discovered was that by outsourcing, they ceded a lot of control and insight into their business to other parties who didn't really give a damn whether Zappos succeeded or not. Outsourcing fulfillment almost destroyed them because aligning incentives and priorities with outside parties is so very difficult.

When they returned to doing fulfillment themselves, they figured out a bunch of ways they could not only do it well, they could do it in a way that was so surprisingly good that people were blown away and told all their friends.

Similarly, by maintaining control over their phone support, they could make sure everyone answered the phone in a way that took care of each customer thoroughly. No operators hurrying people off the lines to keep their scores up, reasonable autonomy to make people happy. As a Zappos employee, immersed in the day to day of Zappos' business, they reflected the internal culture to everyone they talked to. This would be hard to do through an outsourced firm.

So can you outsource UX? Even software development? Sure. Maybe at first. But eventually, your company is going to need to have an internal understanding of these things. If your success is tied to UX but it's nowhere in the heads of your people or in your company's DNA, eventually you're going to lose out on opportunities that come to you only when people are invested exclusively in your success.

Eventually you're going to have the crap beat out of you by a company in another city made out of two guys who really know UX and code and iterate all night and all weekend because they don't have to haggle with anyone to reach perfection.

As a designer I can tell you that the two key questions you need to ask yourself are:

1. Is the product UX/UI design an essential core your product? i.e. Are you willing to listen to the designer if they have suggestions that may change the core of your product.

2. If so do you have the budget and long term prospects to hire someone full time? If you don't are you willing to give the designer shares in your company or a percentage of the profits?

Most geeks assume that the two core founders of a business should be a coder and a biz person — I disagree with that assumption: To me a product starts with good design, and without that code and biz doesn't mean anything.

yeah, i really disagree with this article. although i've had good and bad experiences outsourcing all aspects of design here's the real trick in my experience: a totally amazing UX person is a rare bird. if you're doing a startup, the likelihood that you can entice them to leave their clients behind and come work for you full time is unreasonable for you and them. hiring them on a contract basis to do the work gets you first class work and allows you to build a long term deep relationship with them. if they love the product, maybe you can hire them later. the other thing is you don't need a UX person full time. you need a UX person to manage someone doing your wireframes and then manage a designer to make them look cool. frankly, i don't see any way around outsourcing UX for a startup. your and their risk is too high to join forces. you'd waste their time. they'd waste your money.

The sad thing about this post is that I think he's actually serious. That might sound harsh and defensive, but from my perspective (principal of a firm that exists to help clients design amazing products) his perspective belies a local maxima.

In other words, he just hasn't worked with a great team to get something off the ground. There's any number of reasons for that: perhaps he's not a good personality fit (a UX team has to be highly opinionated to be effective) or maybe he just hasn't been introduced to the right fit and doesn't realize that Mrs. Right is out there for him.

That said, bringing in an external group isn't the right fit for everything. I agree with Tony Hsieh that outsourcing their fulfillment and tech support would have been a disaster.

But it's equally crazy for Brian Eno to learn Objective-C to release Bloom, don't you think?

Saving you a click, he doesn't believe so but wishes for startups that have done so to get in touch.

Warning: Biased comment.

Warning2: Really bad grammar sorry. Am fixing it right now.

I am co-founder of a design agency and have helped countless startups designing their websites and products. I often meet startups that have been burned hiring a design agency and I have myself probably burned or been burned by startups. It's never a clear case so I will simply say this. As with everything else. Nothing and no one is perfect despite best intentions. Startups can be tricky because the goals are often unclear and the clients often unexperienced.

Luckily the good experiences beats the bad experience by miles and I still love doing startups despite my agency primarily have large established customers now.

These are a few basic principles for making sure you get most buck for the money.

1. Figure out what your needs are.

With this I mean figure out how important design is to whatever you are launching. Many startups put too much time, money and effort into making their website perfect, too early, only to find out 3 months later that they need to pivot or change their communication completely.

Design is there to help you optimize your goals (launch product site, design service etc.), not solve them.

There are generally 3 situations where it's important to spend time and money on a good design agency or designer.

a.If you have developed a technology that is complex in nature and needs to be productized and communicated clearly.

b.If your design is going to be a differentiator to the rest of the market. I.e. in markets where there are many competitors but few of them (or most of them) have spent time on making their design really stand out. For an example of such a market see the time-registration market which is huge and diverse.

c.If you have a clear vision about your product and know you won't be changing that vision anytime soon.

It's rare but it does happen. But just as with b. you need to be clear about how you want design to help you. I.e. create principles. You might want to read http://000fff.org/beyond-aesthetics-design-tips-for-startups... for what I mean with that.

2. Always get a portfolio and have them explain what parts they did.

You will be surprised how many times designers show some work they have been involved in but not necessarily done everything themselves. It's fair enough to do that, but you should just make sure that you figure out whether you are appreciating the right things from the right designer.

3. Hire them in phases.

Instead of getting one price on the entire project, hire them one phase at a time (UX, Visual Design, Front-end programming, development). This will benefit both of you.

You will figure out if you are a good match without having betted your entire budget in one basket and they won't be stuck with a client they hate. It will also give them something to work for (next phase) which means they will often put more effort into the first phase (again a benefit to both of you).

4. Pay them 25% upfront

This might sound weird but since you are a startup they are running a big risk taking the job. I know many stories (and have experienced them myself once in a while) about companies getting a lot of work done without having the money. So to get that insecurity out of the way do this.

Many agencies will ask for it anyway (some even more) because they have burned their fingers too many times. There is a huge advantage to doing this by paying 25% upfront you are putting the pressure on them to work those hours as quickly as possible. It also removes any argument internally in the agency about whether they should put their best people on you or prioritize bigger clients.

5. Always make it a goal to get an internal designer.

Whether you have hired an agency or a team of freelancers work on getting your own people. Outsourcing means paying for their time. This is beneficial if you are trying to get started and don't have the capital or is in a position to hire your own people. But once the main project is over you will be better off having someone in your own stable rather than having to pay for an agencies time. The second you start having ad hoc assignments or changes which where not part of the agreement etc., the agencies will down prioritize you since you aren't bringing in the big bucks anymore. You will loose most advantages with regards to their pricing structure. As an alternative this might be where you outsource to China or India as they majority of conceptual work have now been done and your tasks are less complex.

If you can afford it get a copywriter. That is unless you are a savvy writer yourself. You will benefit greatly from getting a good copywriter to help you communicate your product as clearly as possible. Good copywriting is half of the design experience, this is why advertising agencies often have teams with one art director and one copywriter on each.

UX is something people feel, a UX/UI designer have to put on end-user's shoes and be emotionally attached to it, as an artist and as a human-being.

You can copy their work but it's hard to copy their genuine motivation, inspiration and emotions, the real brains behind the design.

UX people cultivate their inspiration through art, social interactions, sciences, relationships, love, passion, nature, architecture, etc. because they invest heavily on their emotions, their inspiration to design a good UX/UI.

I can only talk from personal experience- I've never seen a founder that's been completely happy with outsourced UX/ UI. In the end, it's really tied to the type of site that you're developing. If the design is integral to the experience (like a music or design site for example), then don't outsource. If the design is purely tied to the data and the way the data is arranged for consumption, then maybe.

I think you can outsource UI design, but not the UX (if you're a web company).

If you're a company whose value isn't in the website, e.g., a daycare, then I think you can often simply steal the UX from others who have done it in your industry and done a good job.

I love the line, 'you can't commoditize good design.' I just want to read it over and over.

Design has been so further commoditized in recent years, it's a wonderful reminder that design is much more than application of style.

Outsourcing is for inefficient cost cutters, almost any task can be completed domestically or even locally. People outsourcing jobs is one reason a lot of people don't have jobs. Sure some tasks may cost more to stay local, but doesn't it just seem right to insource?

Quality isn't necessarily a factor, but let me suggest one comparison Myyearbook.com outsourced almost their entire business while Facebook.com outsourced a few jobs at the onset, see the difference?