How to Work with an Outside Design Resource
You've selected an outside design source that you think will be a great fit. Now, how do you get the most out of the relationship. 9 tips for working with a creative design resource
- Get an internal champion to work with your outside resource
Make sure that whomever works with your outside resource from within your company wants the design firm to succeed. How much development experience does your internal champion or contact have? This can make a big difference in the quality of work you receive. Your outside resource assumes you know your business and the development process well enough to keep them from making mistakes that are obvious to you and they also expect you to support them to obtain the results you expect and that they have demonstrated to get the job. - Internal team
Make sure that the internal team you start with is the one you finish with. Midstream changes that impact your outside resource will create additional challenges if not create real setbacks. Anyone who comes in late to the process, especially if they are decision-makers, can be very disruptive. For this reason the inside champion is expected to be given authority with responsibility and be able to manage up the organization. - Process
One of the greatest disappointments of working with outside resources is inexperienced clients think everything will work perfectly the first time. After all, these guys are professionals and that's why we pay them so much, right? This is a common rationale to work outside. The development process must have some iteration, which means changes, which means mistakes--to some. There may be mistakes but they may be iterative calculations that must be made to arrive at the right solution. Nothing that is new-to-world works the first time. Count on iterations. Prototypes are, in fact, calculations in 3D and iterative steps created to work out bugs in the design. It's normal. Count on it. Expect iteration in the tooling stage as well. - Incentives
Be very careful and realistic about promises. While design firms respond to incentives, they've all heard about the next platform of products and have had that carrot put in front of them before. Over-reaching on the first project invites missed expectations. - Deliverables
Do you know what you are getting? Do you know the terms and definitions of the deliverables? Make sure you know the terminology and that you are talking the same language as your design resource. - Meetings
Regularly scheduled progress meetings are important. But checking in too much actually impedes progress. So much energy is expended getting ready for meetings that it can take away from productive work time. - Product development and Research and Development
Any technology that is not clearly tested and proved ready for commercialization means all bets are off for schedule and timing. - Communication
Most trusts are broken because of miscommunication rather than outright mischief. It is incumbent on you the customer to express any and all information, ideas, notions and expectations about what you think about your project. The design firm will ask lots of questions and will try not to take things for granted. Please don't be offended if questions seem too probing. Trust is the most important thing in the relationship so think the best and keep communication open. - Be realistic about the timeline
This is probably the most contentious and misunderstood part of product development. If the order of the day is speed to market: be careful. Speed can kill a project. You can design the wrong thing as fast as the right thing. Plan well. It costs less in time and money to make design changes than it does to make tooling changes. Think of your design team as your pit crew and the project as your racecar. You can't just hit the development pedal while the team is preparing the car for the track. If speed is more important than smart execution it will automatically kill the schedule and likely ruin the relationship. There seems never enough time to do things right but always time to do things over.