How to Choose a Digital Product Design Partner

Last week, we gave you all some solid advice on choosing a delivery partner for your app project. Being a product development agency ourselves, we're in a great position to help you navigate the potholes of working with external agencies.

Studio Graphene, however, is much more than just a delivery partner. We're also a full-stack design agency, equipped with the tools and personnel to give your brand the beautiful finish it needs to stand out in the marketplace. That's why we thought it would be a great idea to extend our partnership advice to the design realm. Whilst some of the things we mentioned last week still apply to designers, there's a few things it's worth mentioning that are specific to creatives.

Let's take a look..

Check out their Dribbble account

Dribbble is more than just a platform for showcasing ideas. It's a space where creatives congregate, communicate, and get inspired. If your prospective partner is very active on Dribbble it's a good sign that they're deeply engaged in continuous creative development.

Get them to demonstrate their creative process

If you're not a designer, the whole process of creating new, interesting ideas and designs might feel a bit mysterious to you. What you may not realise is that every designer has, or at least, should have, a clearly defined creative process that enables them to generate great new ideas at will. Ask them to explain this process to you. If there isn't one in place, there's no guarantee of original work.

Ask for advice on feedback

Feedback processes are essential to design success, so ask them how you should be providing it. If they don't have a framework in place, be worried. Remember, a great agency should always have requirements of their own.

Agree specific deliverables

Experienced design agencies know that scope creep is a genuine danger to any project. They'll want to know exactly what they're required to produce for you up front and will base their costing on these deliverables. Make sure that your agency is being clear about you're entitled to receive.

In case you missed it, take a last week's article on delivery partners. There are a few points here that will help you in your choice of design agencies too!