How to choose a UI/UX design agency: 12 questions to ask before you sign

Before the first call

Look at three case studies and ask one question of each: can I tell what changed, and how they knew it worked? A portfolio that shows only finished screens is showing you craft, which is necessary and not sufficient. You are buying judgement.

The twelve questions

• Who will actually work on this? If the people in the pitch are not the people on the project, ask to meet the ones who are.
• What does your discovery include? You want named activities and an output, not the word "research".
• How do you hand off to engineering? A documented component library and a spacing scale, or flat screens? This is where fidelity is usually lost.
• Can you show a project that did not go to plan? A studio that cannot is either very new or not being straight with you.
• What do you measure? If nothing, you have no way to tell the work from the decoration.
• How many revision rounds are included? And what happens on the one after that.
• Who owns the source files? Get it in writing before, not after.
• What do you need from us? A good answer names a person and a time commitment. Design stalls on client availability more than anything else.
• How do you handle states? Empty, loading, error. Ask to see them in a past project.
• What happens after launch? Launch is the midpoint. Ask what the first month looks like.
• Fixed scope or retainer, and why for us? A studio that recommends the cheaper option when it fits is telling you something useful.
• Can we speak to a past client? Then actually call them.

Answers worth worrying about

• "We'll figure out the research during design." Discovery that has no shape tends to have no output.
• "Our process is proprietary." Process is not a trade secret. Specifics are.
• A portfolio with no numbers anywhere. Not every project has a clean metric, but none of them having one is a pattern.
• A quote that is a single figure with no phases. You cannot tell whether that is expensive — only whether it is large.

Agency, freelancer or in-house?

The simplest test

Describe your hardest problem on the first call and see what happens. A studio worth hiring will ask you three uncomfortable questions about it rather than immediately telling you they can solve it.