Hiring Industrial Design for Startups

The pros and cons of bringing industrial design in house vs. contracting an external studio.

Industrial design is playing a bigger role than ever. Design makes products relatable, desirable and if it’s done well, intuitive. It’s very often the single driving factor for consumer purchases. That’s why it pays to get it right the first time. Afterall, hardware is complex, revisions are costly and it always takes longer than you think! Just look at any delayed Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaign.

As startup founders bootstrapping a company together, the decision whether to hire in-house design or contract out will come up. So, what are the pros and cons of both? How do these decisions play into the long term strategy of the company?

Successful products are built by teams not individuals. Building a team of industrial designers, engineers and other professionals with a vast array of experiences is costly and challenging. This is where most founders get hung up.

There are essentially three ways to work with design:

1. Hire an in-house industrial designer or team
2. Contract an external studio
3. Something else altogether

IN-HOUSE DESIGNER

Most startups are on limited budgets whether by choice or salary capped mandate. This means they are going to be tempted to hire a highly dedicated, energetic young industrial designer with limited industry experience. While they’ve satisfied the requirements from the perspective of the balance sheet, there are a few things to consider. They may draw inspiration from raw creativity, but they lack the experience and track record of success. They will require more hand-holding. Instead of leading the design language from a high level, they tend to get consumed with the day to day operations of the startup.

That’s not to say in-house designers can’t be of great value. It’s just a case of managing expectations. Hardware is complex and knowing your designers capabilities and limitations is key. For instance if your goal is to white label a design, then you may not need a lot of design experience in house. If you are attempting a very innovative product, the likes of which haven’t been seen before, then you should be hunting for senior or director level talent with a proven history.

The Pros of in-house:

1. They can keep constant vigil on the brand and design language over time.
2. They are able to satisfy daily revisions throughout the product development process.
3. Full time employees can work longer hours without incurring excessive hourly fees.
4. Founders have instant access to design talent in-house.

The Cons of in-house:

1. On a lean startup budget, you cannot hire senior-level designers. You will often work with younger, and more inexperienced designers.
2. Smaller in-house teams may be limited by their own bandwidth
3. Maintaining a full time employee with benefits, personalities, etc can be daunting for a startup.
4. Designers need a variety of stimuli — there’s a risk of burnout.
5. Employees move on at some point, and usually on their timeline not yours.

HIRING A DESIGN STUDIO

Industrial design studios have a very compelling offering. They’ve pulled together a team of designers under the leadership of an industry veterans. They are capable, flexible and nimble — able to swoop in and master complex design problems at a moment’s notice. Hire them to knock it out of the park for a understood budget and timeline then focus your attention and funds on other mission critical endeavours.

While the project cost (hourly rate by comparison) may be considerably higher than in-house resources, the trade off is shorter timelines, a large set of skilled professionals to draw from, access to partner networks and greater risk mitigation.

A word of caution, you don’t want to be “one and done”. Products evolve over the development process. Building a strong relationship with a studio and keeping them close ensures the design intent through the entire process and into future products. Strong relationships help align design goals and lend serious street cred to your startup. Accomplished studios with a portfolio of successful products can attract investors and valuable partners.

The Pros of studio:

1. Design studios can curate their staff to your specific needs — drawing on internal experts.
2. You can contract a design studio for a focused amount of time and cost.
3. You have access to director level design leadership.
4. No need to purchase expensive computers, software, workshop tools, 3D printers, etc.
5. External studios are less affected by the chaotic environment of startup culture. They can easily navigate around distractions and focus on the task at hand.
6. Leverage your studio relationship to entice investors and other partners.

The Cons of studio:

1. Intermittent interactions between design and team members.
2. The studio you hire today may not be the studio you work with tomorrow, so nurture the relationship for future success.
3. Hourly costs may be higher, but should be weighed against length of engagement and quality of execution.

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

In my experience the best situation is to combine internal and external resources. As I said, hardware is complex and expensive. Not many startups have the luxury of building a whole design team in-house. In lieu of funding a whole team, you should hire a mid level internal industrial designer to manage design assets and be the point person for design projects. Ideally someone that has a high attention to detail, no ego and is willing to work with outside studios. Then engage an external studio on a project by project basis to drive the design language from a position of experience and past successes.

PARTING THOUGHTS AND A FEW QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

Knowing your business’s core competencies and competitive advantages is key to success. If design is one of those factors then you have to give design a leadership role on your team, even if you contract out the heavy lifting. Ask yourself a few simple questions:

1. What role do I want design to play in my company?
2. Is my vertical laden with design focused competitors?
3. Am I simply white labeling a design or innovating from scratch?
4. Can my product be successfully managed by a single designer vs. a studio?
5. What’s my time to market, and do I have the resources to achieve my goals?
6. What are my funding goals? Am I set, or still impressing investors?

Mardis Bagley is a co-founder of the design studio Nonfiction, based in San Francisco. He engages consumers through the design of fun and sophisticated products. Nonfiction’s clients range from large corporations and mid-size companies to funded startups all over the world. Nonfiction leverages relationships with engineering and manufacturing partners to execute ideas on time and on budget.