Niti Bhan and Steve Portigal are not only BusinessWeek’s Bruce Nussbaum’s favourite bloggers, but also mine ;-) The two crafted a highly recommended article on Core77 about issues to consider before hiring a design firm.
What I like on their approach is that they beside the rest of the crowd (and I include myself here) have invested some concise thinking on explaining how to get started with investing in design. They’re absolutely right: While it is important to recognize that design and business might go well together and enable you to differentiate from your competitors it is the HOW? question which many companies might struggle with! A short snippet from their article:
“There are many things you need to consider before hiring a design firm, but we’re going to start with three: The Problem (defining your needs), the People (who the players are), and the Partnership (the nature of the engagement). Design firms are businesses, but with unique perspectives and unique work processes. Understanding a bit of the industry culture will go a long way in helping you to establish a successful engagement.”
Well, time to read the complete piece and you might be interested in reading reviews of their article at BusinessWeek, Corante and Fortune Innovation Forum.
