The debate between agency vs in-house design is a constant consideration for businesses striving to make the best decisions for their brand.
Both approaches come with their unique set of advantages and challenges, making the choice a nuanced one.
Agencies offer a wealth of experience, diverse skill sets, and a fresh perspective that can invigorate a brand’s visual identity.
On the other hand, in-house design teams provide a deeper understanding of the company’s core values and day-to-day operations, allowing for a more integrated approach.
In this article, we delve into the key factors that can help you decide which path to take for your design needs.
Hiring an In-House UX Design Team
Advantages
1. Deep Understanding of the Brand
In-house designers aren’t just cogs in a machine—they make your brand recognizable by designing relevant brand elements. They’re the ones who bring your company culture, vision, and history to light.
It’s like having a personal stylist who knows your style and body type and sometimes even better than you do.
The result? Designs that feel authentic resonate with your audience and strengthen brand loyalty.
2. Consistency and Cohesion in Design
Remember when United Airlines had that epic social media meltdown?
For the uninitiated, United Airlines forcibly removed a passenger after he refused to give up his seat. The airline’s initial social media response was cold and dismissive, ignoring the public outrage and focusing on company policies instead of human compassion.
A strong in-house is necessary to avoid such debacles and visual chaos, especially in a world where people remember online responses for years to come.
An in-house team ensures your brand’s visual language stays on point across all platforms. No more miscommunication or rude messages, even if they are unintentional. At the same time, it negates the possibility of mismatched fonts or inconsistent color palettes.
An in-house design team is also essential for consistent branding, which ultimately helps build trust and brand recognition.
3. Direct Communication and Collaboration
According to a recent survey, 70% of employees believe better collaboration in a workspace can lead to better productivity and time-saving.
Working in-house with a team makes collaborating easier than in a more scattered work environment. In-house designers are part of the family. They’re not just vendors; they’re teammates.
This open line of communication leads to faster decision-making, fewer misunderstandings, and a better final product.
4. Full-Time Availability and Commitment
You’re not at the mercy of project timelines or competing priorities when you have a dedicated in-house team.
They’re fully invested in your brand’s success. This means faster turnaround times, greater flexibility, and tackling unexpected challenges head-on.
Disadvantages
Building an in-house UX design team has its fair share of challenges. These challenges include:
- Hiring and maintaining a full-time design team is expensive. Finding top-notch UX talent is challenging, and when you finally find one, you’ll likely pay a premium. Salaries, benefits, and office space add up fast.
- You’ll have limited exposure to diverse design trends. Your in-house team might be skilled in their own right, but they might miss out on the latest design trends happening outside your industry.
- There’s a potential for skill gaps. Even the best internal teams have weaknesses. You may need a VR expert, or your team lacks experience in AI design. Building a full-spectrum in-house team can be challenging and costly, and there will always be a potential for skill gaps.
- They have a longer onboarding process. New hires need time to learn about your brand, culture, and tools, which requires immense patience and consistency. This onboarding period can slow down projects and impact productivity.
Hiring a Design Agency
Hiring a design agency can work wonders for your business! Let’s break down why:
Advantages
1. Access to a pool of experienced designers
While an in-house UX design team has its perks, hiring a design agency gives you access to a diverse pool of experienced designers. Design agencies bring the best designers under one roof for you, so you can skip the vetting process and directly hire the agency and share your project details.
It’s like having a pick of the best players for your design team. You get access to various styles, experiences, and fresh perspectives.
2. Diverse skill sets and expertise
This is more like a continuation of the above point. Since a design agency hires multiple people who fulfill different design needs, you have access to a pool of skill sets and expertise.
Let’s say you need a new website. A single designer might be great at making it look pretty, but they might not know how to make it super fast or easy to use. A design agency has people who specialize in all sorts of stuff:
- Graphic design: Making things look amazing
- Web design: Building websites that work like a charm
- UX/UI design: Figuring out how people use your stuff and making it super easy
- Copywriting: Writing catchy and persuasive words
- Photography and videography: Capturing stunning visuals
Putting together an entire team like this will be challenging and costly. To avoid this cost, it’s best to hire a design agency.
3. Fresh perspectives and innovative ideas
Having access to a diverse pool of designers with different skill sets and expertise also means tapping into fresh perspectives and innovative ideas. A design agency can get together to brainstorm unique ideas for your business.
Since they also work with various industries and businesses, their designers are often brimming with fresh ideas. This isn’t possible with in-house design teams or an in-house designer.
For example, Apple would only be Apple with the brand hiring a skilled design agency that could inject fresh ideas into its logo.
Their iconic logo, that simple, shiny apple with a bite taken out of it, was designed by an independent design agency. The designer, Rob Janoff, nailed it.
You can instantly recognize the logo, which perfectly captures the essence of Apple: simple, clean, and innovative.
4. Reduced overhead costs
While salary is one of the most significant expenses, it isn’t the only one when hiring a full-fledged UX design team.
Consider it: salaries, benefits, software, equipment—it all adds up.
You can sidestep these expenses when hiring a design agency. When you hire a design agency, you rent their expertise without a full-time commitment.
It’s like getting a gym membership without buying all the equipment. They’ve already got the pros, the tools, and the space. You just pay for the work that needs to be done.
5. Focus on specific projects without a long-term commitment
Every business has its specialty. Some are experts at building products, while some are better at sales. Whatever the expertise, it’s where you should spend your time and energy. Rest can be easily outsourced.
Design agencies let you do just that. They handle the creative side while you focus on growing your business.
For example, if you’re a tech startup, you want to spend time coding, A/B testing, and getting your product to market. A design agency can create a killer website, logo, and marketing materials without distracting you from your core mission.
Disadvantages
While design agencies offer many perks, they also have some potential drawbacks.
- You might face communication challenges. Outsourcing your design work can sometimes be a bit convoluted. Your ideas might get lost in translation between you, the account manager, and the designers, leading to misunderstandings and frustration.
- You’ll have less control over the design process. Since a design agency will be an external entity, you don’t have much control over the design process beyond your initial instructions and regular check-ins. While they’re the experts, you might feel like you’re not as involved in the creative process as you’d like.
- There’s a risk of intellectual property issues. Sharing your ideas and concepts with an external team can be risky. It’s essential to have a solid contract in place to protect your intellectual property. Without proper safeguards, your ideas could be used for other clients.
Conclusion: Hire In-House UX designers or Outsource to UX agencies?
Hiring an in-house designer and hiring a UX design agency have perks and drawbacks. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your unique business needs and goals.
Consider factors like budget, timeline, project scope, and your team’s capabilities when deciding.
An In-house UX designer or an internal team is ideal when you:
- Have long-term, complex design projects.
- Need deep brand integration and consistency.
- Value more control over the design process.
- Can afford the upfront costs and ongoing expenses.
UX agency is a good fit when you:
- Need specialized skills or resources for a specific project.
- Have short-term or one-off design projects.
- Want to access a variety of design perspectives.
- Prefer a flexible, pay-as-you-go model.
Sometimes, a hybrid approach combining in-house and agency resources can be an effective solution.
