Myth 7: UX firms make it difficult to bring UX in-house later

Myth or Fact? Hiring a UX firm will create a big headache when it’s time to take UX in-house.

It really depends on the UX firm and your company.  We’ve heard everything from horror stories to fairy tales.

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We strongly believe starting with a UX firm should be an advantage for your product.

1. 👴 Since they’ve created multiple security products from scratch, UX firms understand how to design a scalable product for your UX hires to build on top of for years.
2. ⚔️ Veteran UX firms have battle-tested processes, research, and design systems. By leveraging the firm's experience, your product team will release valuable features faster.
3. 🏋️ UX firms can (and should) provide training, mentorship, and resources during the transition to your internal team. Your UX hire will understand first-hand how and why product decisions were made.

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We don’t want you to live a horror story, so here are some red flags to watch out for.

🫢 Poor communication:

Regardless of results, a firm that doesn’t communicate well will create future problems. All products have complex decisions being made at every turn. If your team doesn’t know why past decisions were made, they will…

• be slower to find product/market fit
• lack the context needed to make informed design choices
• potentially repeat a past mistake

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🦸 Over-confidence:

Veteran product designers are great at understanding what users will and won’t understand, but they aren’t always right. When firms become too confident in their experience and intuition, they will stop user testing. Testing mitigates risk by catching confusing aspects of the interface before development and QA.

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Our hot take: 🔥

The benefit of veteran product designers setting the foundation for your product greatly outweighs any time lost onboarding a UX hire in the later stages of the product.

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What are your thoughts? Have you been burned by a UX firm that left your UX team with a mess to clean up?

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