Appendix B: Tough Questions for Consultants
You may decide that you need an outside opinion. Even if your companyhas the capability to produce wireframes and produce other prototypes, perhaps you need additional resources: a designer who specializes in developing, testing, and validating specifications for software systems, or a consultant who specializes in testing the usability of software.
It’s no disgrace not to do it all yourself—many of the world’s largest product companies, including Microsoft, routinely outsource design and usability work. If your company has no depth of experience in product design or the study of human behavior, consider adding a specialist to your team. But before you hire a designer, a consulting design company, or a usability expert, ask these questions.
Selecting the correct design leadership from an ocean of consultantscan be difficult unless you consider how well a consultant’s strength matches your present and future needs.
The lines between many areas of business operations are blurred and are becoming even more fluid. Web sites that once were advertisingand marketing venues are now complex, highly transactional business systems, and your company’s internal systems may now be running inside a web browser. Internal systems that are distributedto users through a browser shouldn’t be confused with web sites, and you shouldn’t employ creative embellishments to pretty them up—this is not design. Advertising and marketing firms that were excellent partners for the most recent incarnation of your visuallycompelling web site may not possess the chops to design the online business system that your next web site must become.
If you’re interviewing a design consultancy, you will definitely want a partner who knows how software is developed and tested, and how design methods can be elegantly and effectively woven into current software development processes. You also may be seekingspecialized expertise in needs assessment, interface design, usability, information architecture, or reconfiguration of software systems. However, if you’re interviewing a designer to fill a position on your staff, look for a generalist, someone who has designed solutionsto a variety of problems. A skilled designer understands the importance of collaboration and knows how to manage the design process within the realities of production requirements and other business limitations.
A strong track record of solving a diverse range of problems is an excellent predictor of a candidate’s success in solving problems at your own firm.
