
Silicon Valley Killed the Design Agency (2014) - doppp
http://zurb.com/article/1353/silicon-valley-killed-the-design-agency
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tootie
As someone who's worked in agencies for quite a while, this is all way off
base and is really just and ad for ZURB. Good design agencies have been agile
for quite a while. Switching from specialists to "product designers" is
something I've seen attempted with mixed results. The problem isn't
specialization it's expertise. If we have work for 50 visual design experts,
50 UX experts, 50 content experts all full-time across accounts, what benefit
would be had from hiring the same number of non-experts? Part of the value
offer is that we can staff someone with 20 years of expertise in a very narrow
area who would never work for your company and let her impart wisdom for 2
weeks that you could spend a year figuring out. Top agencies are already in
almost every space including bootstrapping startups and even working for
established product companies like google, apple, microsoft.

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pbreit
The only possible answer is: the design agency killed the design agency. There
is so much demand for design right now that if agencies can't figure out how
to participate, it's definitely on them.

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spamizbad
Very much this.

Successful product companies (usually) have a tight integration between
"product" people, design, and engineering. Agencies, in my experience, prefer
their design teams to be buffered from stakeholders via a PM. And the
"stakeholders" are a very narrow segment of the team building the actual
product. As an engineer, I struggled getting face-time with designers to work
through challenges or things that were unaccounted for. Often times this was
filtered through the design firms PM, who would maybe get back to me in a week
or so. It was always an excruciatingly slow process and unless you were the
one signing the checks it was like you did not have a voice.

Then there's the fact that agencies do not like something that's quite popular
these days: Metrics-driven product development. I know certain "thought
leaders" in the design community have made some sneering comments about this
approach. Metrics don't exactly get me super excited, but if that's how your
customers are working you should learn how to adapt and work with them.

I worked at two companies that made the transition from agency to in-house.
Shortly after we brought on our first designer, productivity went up. We
shipped stuff that made our customers happier than ever. Team morale improved.
And it was cheaper. Win-win-win.

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purephase
I usually don't criticize in comments, but that article was very difficult to
read and understand.

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falsedan
I agree. Here's a sample (first paragraph from this article):

    
    
        Silicon Valley, which is known for putting whole
        industries on notice, has quietly killed the design
        agency. Or have they? While Silicon Valley isn't afraid
        to eat its children, it's also thinking an internet
        generation ahead as it produces hit after hit. So with
        chaos comes clarity, then chaos. It's a cycle. Until
        the next innovation.
    

There's more plot twists in this para than Christopher Nolan on Ritalin.

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saiprashanth93
Spot on. Sometimes I can't tell if I am reading too fast or if the writing is
complicated and I usually assume that I am reading too fast but not here
though.

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tostitos1979
This article is written in an odd way .. I couldn't bear a straight-through
read. It is from 2014 so not sure why it is being posted.

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projectramo
I wish there was a little more detail here. \- UX needs to differentiate with
"higher level" \- it is a skillset, not a department

I feel he was getting at something but without giving specific examples, he
never quite said it clearly.

You can't outsource UX design because it has to be an integral part of what
people do? Or you can outsource it but it must still be an integral part of
what people do?

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alvern
What type of design is this geared for? UX? Hardware? Software? Brand? The
article is an industry fluff piece that doesn't really attach itself to an
industry, except for Silicon Valley. Is SV an independent industry?

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eloisant
Wow, [insert design shop here] is getting scooped up by Faceoogleboxes! That's
big news!

