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In recent years, the demand for product design agencies has seen a tremendous increase. It’s actually not a surprise as building competitive products today seems a little difficult because of the amount of competition in the market.
With thousands of design agencies in the market now, it may be tricky to identify the right agency for your product design needs. To select the right product design agency for your business, you have to take into account a number of variables like their portfolio, client ratings, personnel strength, design methodology, and more.
To make your selection process a smooth one, we provide for you in this blog what a product design firm really does, how they contribute to product design, and what exactly to look for when hiring one.
We shall be exploring extensively,
- A Product Design Agency and what they offer?
- When do you need a Product Design Agency?
- How to choose the right Product Design Agency: (What to consider)?
Are you ready? Let’s get started.
- A Product Design Agency and what they offer?
A product design agency collaborates with your team throughout the entire product development process. This includes brainstorming, researching, validating, designing, developing, and testing your product. They possess both strategic and creative skill sets to create a winning digital product.
The following are the major services that a product design agency offers.
i) Product Strategy Development.
A product strategy is a plan that outlines your approach to solving problems, establishes your product's position in the market, specifies your target customer groups, outlines your product's attributes, outlines your marketing and distribution channels, and establishes your pricing and scaling strategies.
A product strategy defines your product's primary objectives and the steps you must take to accomplish your business goals.
The following items are deliverables at this phase:
- Solution and Architecture of the Product
- A map of the value proposition
- Your major product objectives and Business goals
- A marketing and positioning plan for the product
- Initiatives aimed at achieving these objectives
ii) Conducting User Research.
To create a user-centric product that communicates directly to the target audience while also validating the product’s concept, a product design agency performs what is called User Research; they gather data via surveys, prototype testing, field research, and customer interviews to learn about customers' emotions, goals, pains, habits, and motivations.
The following items are deliverables at this phase:
- Target audience analysis
- Customer needs & wants analysis
- Customer journey map
- User scenarios/stories
iii) Creating Visual Designs.
Your product should not only look great but also fulfill your customers' needs in order to be successful. There are thousands of designers and web design companies that can produce visually engaging designs, but they may not be able to fulfill user needs.
An expert product design company ensures that users are the priority, they make sure the product design satisfies users’ needs while preserving an attractive appearance by utilizing the appropriate methodologies based on design thinking and a human-focused approach.
The following items are deliverables at this design phase:
- UI/UX design
- Wireframes
- Brand identity
- Prototypes
- Usability testing report
iv) Assist in Development Process.
Although they don't specialize in development, a professional Product design agency can assist you with your product development needs. During the development phase, a product design agency can help you choose the appropriate technology stack based on your product's business goals and technical specifications.
They can assist your product development team in these areas:
- Support and maintenance
- Third-party API integrations
- Frameworks to use
- Code implementation (Design artifacts)
v) Analytics & Optimization.
Once you've released your digital product in the market, a product design agency will help you optimize, improve, and scale your business by tracking analytics and collecting the required metrics.
Here’s what you’ll get:
- Product optimisation strategy
- An examination of your project’s most significant metric
- Product analytics tracking
- Setting of KPIs
- When do you need a Product Design Agency?
Your business depends on your product. If your product does not become successful, your business may not achieve its goals. In the competitive world of today, to attain the success you will most likely need the help of an experienced product design agency.
At what point should you need a product design agency though?
You should hire a product design agency when you want to:
i. Establish your unique position in the marketplace.
When you are up against hundreds of competitors, having an exceptional user experience is one way to stand out. Functionality, usability, and aesthetics are the factors that determine the victor. These factors can most times be combined effectively and adequately only by a professional product design agency.
ii. Validate all product ideas.
You might have several ideas that you think are exciting but every idea needs to be validated in terms of user acceptance, viability, sustainability, and scalability. Product design agency helps in validating by conducting user research and advising on the most effective one.
iii. Improve your product’s user experience.
If you have an existing product with poor user reviews, chances are that 80% of them would point towards a bad user experience. Here, the agency can conduct a UX audit and user research and work on improving the user experience of your product.
iv. Increase your conversions and customer satisfaction.
Good user experience translates into good business. The UX of your product, be it a website or an app has a direct impact on its conversion rate. An improved design will solve issues like low conversions, poor activation rate, and so on.
v. Increase your ROI.
Forrester Research shows that, on average, every dollar invested in UX brings 100 dollars in return. That’s an ROI of a whopping 9,900 percent!!
Got any reason not to hire a product design agency?
- How to choose the right Product Design agency: (What to consider)?
On Clutch, there are 3797 companies that are listed under product design services and 16,305 listed under UI UX design services.
Out of these thousands of companies, how can you identify which one is the right agency for you?
Don’t sweat it yet. Here are some of the most important things to consider when looking for the right product design agency.
- Their portfolio and reviews (Which projects they did and what did their clients say?)
Check a product design company’s track record for getting products to market before hiring them. A comprehensive portfolio demonstrating experience in various industries indicates that the organization is not limited to a single specialization and can develop solutions for multiple markets.
If all you discover are ideas and draughts, be mindful that working with this agency may not be the best option.
If you want to be confident that the project is of the highest quality, it must be executed in a real setting and tested during numerous problems. Do not get distracted by an appealing graphic portrayal of a given concept. This will make you oblivious to other important components of your industry.
Client testimonials are another way to get to know the credibility of a product design agency. You can check for these testimonials on their website and other third-party websites such as Clutch, Trust Pilot, Good Firms, etc.
You want to see that they have created a good reputation from the beginning of a product to the end of delivering it to customers.
- Their approach to the product design process.
Ensure they give specifics regarding their reporting procedure. It’s ideal for when the company holds regular meetings and produces new products. This can allow you to keep track of the progress and make suggestions.
It’s preferable to work with a company that uses iterative product development. It’s the process of coming up with new ideas, developing prototypes, and putting them to the test to see if they’re viable. Then it’s back to square one. It gives you complete control over the process and reduces the time to deliver the product.
Ensure there is transparency between you and the product design agency. For example, you need to have unlimited access to all papers, tasks, and reports.
- Do they have adequate experience?
You must look at whether the agency you’re considering has experience in all aspects of product design. You need to make sure they can handle the type of project you are looking to do. Find out if they have experience doing similar projects.
Why?
Because every agency has worked on specific kinds of projects and has developed expertise in them. For eg., if you are a healthcare service provider and looking to create an ERP, and the agency you hired has expertise in designing fintech products, then it is a mismatch.
In this case, it would be wise to look for an agency that has worked on medical or healthcare products. They would be in a better position to understand your requirements and can fulfill your expectations.
Check out our experience with various projects here.
- Communication prowess (Are they good communicators?).
There should be clear and open communication with the agency. If you have to chase their design team for each and every update then it’s better to call off the contract.
Before starting the project, ask them about their mode of communication, who will be the point of contact, and how you can track your project’s progress.
The design team of an agency should communicate effectively.
Nowadays, the use of collaboration tools has made it easier for clients and agencies to coordinate on a real-time basis and be in sync with each other.
- Do they have a creative & strategic design approach?
An extensive and interconnected strategy is needed to properly design a product. Every phase of the process is crucial and has major implications for the end result. An effective approach and deliberate procedure are required for any product undertaking.
An agency that employs a strategic approach and utilizes creativity is considered ideal when it comes to product design. If they fail in any of these aspects, the product will not meet the demands of its users and consequently result in company failure.
To wrap it all up,
A good product design agency works in sync with your business objectives and the overall product's scope, market acceptance, usability, and aesthetics. It's important to do your research from the ground up to find the right one for your product. Hopefully, you'll find the right match for your product.
Are you having issues navigating this process or your product design?
Feel free to get in touch with us, we’ll be glad to guide you through it all.
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