5 Tips for Collaborating and Engaging with a Third Party Design Agencies

5 Tips for Collaborating and Engaging With a Third Party Design Agency

When working in any type of modern business, there is a lot to deal with to keep it running, and this often necessitates the outsourcing of jobs like marketing and branding to a third party company. When doing so, this third party organisation is an extension of your business, which means that it needs to operate effectively and economically.

Here we look at five top tips on how you can ensure that the engagement you have with a third party design agency is as active as it needs to be and that the collaborative work you do achieves its goals.

Collaboration Best Practice

When outsourcing to an external company for the first time or with someone you’ve had existing dealings with, certain best practices should be followed. Even within the boundaries of product development, design and marketing, the tasks being outsourced can vary wildly. Hence, you need to set some ground rules for everyone you work with on this basis.

Let’s take a look at some of those now.

Tip #1 – Utilise Their Expert Knowledge from the Outset

When setting out on any project, you should include the person or team you’re outsourcing to in any early-stage meetings or discussions. That way, you get the benefit of their expert knowledge and don’t have to do all of the heavy brainstorming work on your own.

Tip #2 – Be 100% Clear on All Assignments

Once you’ve set the context for the project, you need to be clear about what any assignment you’ve given out entails. Also, be clear on the objective or the ‘end goal’, as this will help to keep your outsourcer focused on the job in hand. Asking the design outsourcer to describe the task back to you is an excellent way to check for understanding.

Tip #3 – Be Open to Challenge

When the project is underway, you should try and be as open as you can to challenges from your outsourcer. An outsourcer who feels comfortable in asking tough questions is much more likely to do their best work, instead simply sticking to orders when it may not be the best course of action.

Tip #4 – Try not to Micro-manage

While it pays to keep an eye on progress and ask for updates, you need to trust that the outsourcer you’re working with knows what they’re doing. Micro-manage too much, and you risk disrespecting their abilities and more importantly, making them less effective.

Tip #5 – Keep Your Outsourcers ‘In the Loop’

If something changes with regards to the design project’s bigger picture, you should keep your outsourcer well informed. Otherwise, they may not see the implications of the work they’re doing and might make an incorrect decision based on an inaccurate perception of how things are.

In Summary

Outsourcing can be the perfect answer for many of the business processes that you’re not able to take care of yourself. However, just like any working relationship, outsourcing relationships of any kind need to be created on sound foundations, and by employing the tips we’ve given you today, you do just that. Of course, there is more to it than what we’ve written here, but these five tips provide the basics to ensure that your projects’ objectives are met.

If you’d like to know more about anything talked about here, we recommend that you take a look around our website www.cxportal.com. There you’ll find lots of interesting and useful information and if after looking through, you’d like to talk to us about how we can help your business, call us now on +442034416513 and we’ll do everything we can to assist.