UI/UX design agency vs. an in-house design team: What is better?

When you hire outsourcers, you gain:

• Versatile specialists with diverse expertise. Typically, IT outsourcers have high-profile employees on their roster, each with a specific skill. So, by working with an external agency, you hire a UI/UX designer, a QA engineer well-versed in usability testing, a prototype creator, and more whose narrow-scope competencies are better than an in-house jack-of-all-trades can have.

• Industry experience across multiple verticals. Top-notch agencies cooperate with customers from different sectors, so their staff can introduce the best practices and approaches adopted there that the in-house team may know nothing of.

• Improved cost control. The project-based model outsourcers rely on allows customers to pay only for the actual work they do instead of paying full salary to internal designers, no matter whether they work double times in the peak periods or twiddle their thumbs during the shoulder season.

• No long-term commitment. The project-based scheme mentioned above enables a company to enjoy first-rate UI/UX services on demand and end the partnership when the assignment is accomplished.

• Efficient project delivery. Outsourcers have a well-established operation pipeline containing the necessary UI/UX design process steps and a guide for success, which lets them complete projects within time and budget.

• Clear project implementation. When hiring a UI/UX designer agency, you sign a Statement of Work, where the project's scope, budget, timeline, and deliverables are laid out fair and square, ensuring timely and predictable implementation.

When partnering with a UI/UX design agency, you may also face some bottlenecks and pitfalls.

• Time-consuming selection routine. Before you land a reliable partner, you have to spend quite a time sifting through dozens of options, reviewing their portfolios, assessing expertise, speaking with former clients to get their opinion of cooperation results, and communicating with vendor representatives.

• Varied quality. You never know how good the vendor is until you actually start working together. If the potential candidate is oriented toward profits, relegating results to a secondary place, you are in trouble.

• High cost of services. Design projects that first-rate agencies deliver are big-ticket items, so startups and small businesses may find their costs forbidding.

• Potential misalignment with your goals and business culture. Being outsiders, outsourced staff members may struggle with understanding your organization's internal ethics, strategic objectives, and brand identity, which causes collaboration and communication problems.

In fact, internal UI/UX design teams are everything outsourcers are not.

• More controlled workflow. With an in-house team, you can run a pretty tight ship, exercising continuous supervision of all design aspects and ensuring the end product's total alignment with your brand and business objectives.

• In-depth awareness of your customer base. As a part of your company, in-house UI/UX designers understand its target audience inside out. This knowledge makes the creation of custom-made products with highly tailored user experiences much more manageable.

• Continuous adaptation. Outsourcers stay with you as long as the project is in progress and must be paid for the solution's support and maintenance after completion. In-house teams are always on hand to optimize, refine, and fine-tune the product when needed.

• Participation in other marketing and branding initiatives. Internal IT employees can attend to other urgent tasks even while the main project still goes on, contributing to website usability improvement, crafting marketing visuals, optimizing landing pages, you name it.

Alongside weighty benefits, keeping an in-house UI/UX team on your regular payroll has a number of drawbacks.

• High long-term costs. You don't only pay the internal team members competitive salaries, arrange training, defray vacations and sick leaves, etc. You also have to splurge on hardware, software, stationery, workstations, and other things necessary for the department's smooth functioning, making its maintenance a pricey endeavor.

• Inconsistent workload. Very often, a company's UI/UX design needs are feast today and fast tomorrow, so employees may have little to do at some periods, whereas, at others, they face the necessity to fill numerous breaches at once.

• Scaling difficulties. In emergencies, you may find that the existing team requires reinforcement here and now, which is impossible since hiring and onboarding new employees can't be done in a New York minute.

• Limited expertise. Many organizations have only one UI/UX designer on their staff (or a small team at best). Their skill range may appear inadequate for handling specialized tasks like motion design, information architecture, or mobile design.

As you see, both options have numerous fortes and weaknesses. So, how can you make the right choice?

Elaborate projects require versatile competencies from UI/UX designers, which small internal teams may lack. By contrast, among numerous professionals working at UX design agencies, you will indeed find specialists with the necessary skill set. On the other hand, in-house team members are well aware of the company's specific needs, whereas outsourcers must be instructed in many fine moments and peculiar aspects concerning the enterprise's goals and business vision.

Are you ready to enter a long-term salary commitment and keep an in-house team that will cost you an arm and a leg at the end of the day? Or is it better to hire outsourcers for certain projects and save a pretty penny down the line? You better answer these questions before committing to one or the other.

If UI/UX design is the staple of your shop floor activities, you can't do without an internal team involved in the continuous optimization of your products. In case you have occasional projects to complete now and then, outsourcing UI/UX design is just what the doctor ordered.

It will take some time for a newly hired in-house team to set up workflows and get pipeline processes going. Agencies can get in gear off the bat and follow well-established routines, which is mission-critical for projects whose deadline is yesterday.

Internal teams have to rely on the existing workforce, which may not be optimal for companies that often face sudden increases in UI/UX design demand. Augmenting such crews is a time- and resource-consuming endeavor, while outsourcers can scale up their workforce on short notice.

It is easy to monitor the performance of your in-house team working in the next room and clarify all fine points simultaneously. Direct oversight is impossible with external agencies, so you should organize structured collaboration and establish efficient communication with a convenient schedule and robust channels.

You should understand what is essential for your projects: offbeat ideas and fresh perspectives outsourcers can usher in based on their experience across multiple domains or profound awareness of your company's specifics and customers' in-house teams develop over time.

If, after analyzing these factors, you realize that outsourcing UI/UX design is a better fit for your use case, you face the problem of finding a reliable and competent agency.