Design perspective: What does a design consultant do?

Design Consultant The term is a bit of reference to the academic institutions of the meaning of the title system, that is, a certain company needs to design packaging (there may be products, may be the image, but also may be the overall process of the company), and then find a "consultant" to consult, guidance. General design consultants have long-term employment, but also short-term external project system, but most of them are the relationship between party A and party B.

Since it is a position of advisory responsibility, the design consultant is not only limited to individuals, but also usually company entities, such as Bicker design consultants in the field of graphic design. No matter what form, the enterprise generally produces the design aspect question, only then needs the design consultant such a role, then the design consultant's biggest value also lies in whether can effectively, the quick solution Enterprise's question.

As the field of UI design is relatively new, many companies are in the process of growth, the team is also from scratch slowly developed, it happened that I did more than a few years of this work, but also often encountered a number of enterprises to find me "consultant consultant" situation, but I found that in fact many enterprises are not too clear "design consultant" What exactly needs to be done, and where is the value of these jobs:

1. In the face of leadership, advisers are not the savior

Design consultants from the outside into a company, facing some difficult problems, first of all, and the company's boss (of course, if not the boss, at least the specific project directly responsible) do a good job of communication. Consultants will be based on specific circumstances, combined with their own experience to propose solutions, this is like the old Chinese medicine pulse root, the first need to have a patient with a frank psychology, dare to face their own problems, and fully exposed.

I believe that anyone who plays the role of a design consultant does not have a one-size-fits-all formula, where it is always on the winning side, so from the perspective of leadership, it is necessary to work with consultants to find out where the most difficult part is now. What means are needed to deal with it? How much time and cost are expected? Also, be clear about the responsibilities of the design consultant, even the more elegant employment relationship, you can not forget a party B's responsibility relationship-a lot of "design consultants" in addition to some ready-made information (may be the company he formerly served) into the enterprise, in fact, it is difficult to solve the real problem, finally found that there are difficulties, Clap your butt and walk away.

2. In the face of the process, the consultant is not a security channel

Design consultants A lot of time the main task is to comb the reasonable design process, due to the flexible mode of cooperation, on the process of implementation and inspection, the design consultant can not stare every day, this requires the management of the enterprise to cooperate with the supervision, and real-time submission process.

The good process should be steadily advanced, the lengthy process should be streamlined, the design consultant should provide an optimal working model under a reasonable cost and risk control-not the so-called, "because I'm a consultant, so I'm going to come up with some complicated, advanced approach", facing the difference between the enterprise and the product, resulting in different design issues, The flexible proposal is the value of the consultant.

Even, some of the better design consultancy companies are not acclimatized to the situation, some of the localization of the habits we should properly retain, that the "big company's process is that we need to learn" thinking should be abandoned as soon as possible, and from the big companies out of the designer is not necessarily your good design consultant.

3. In the face of products, consultants are not users

Even as a consultant, a consultant may not be able to use his experience to completely replace the user's ideas and habits. Design consultant for the product's biggest role is: to put forward new ideas, explore the possibility of product success, share product success and failure of the case, give the product design accurate guidance, product prototype stage design.

And this product is not good, you must have users to test, to the market to test, if you think that invited the design consultant to participate in the design process, you can safely go home to sleep, then no one can be responsible for your products.

Once there was such a small scene: "Ah, Zhou, you see how this should be designed?" "," xxxxx can do so, but after the best to ask users to test. "," but also the user ah? Aren't you an expert? ”，“。。。。。。 -Don't say who the experts are, you are the expert, your family are experts.

4. In the face of the team, consultants are not managers

Design Consultant has an important job, is the team training and guidance, this is a very important part, ask which company will always be assured that an external personnel to control the product? So for a while, the consultant takes his team to a more mature stage and saves time and effort.

But consultants can only solve knowledge reserves, project experience, design skills and product perspective training, to help members of the team from the theoretical and practical improvement, but never do one thing: Correct the professional attitude of the team. This personality and atmosphere of the problem, is the need for team managers, usually department managers to complete, and because of the sensitivity of design consultants, often the department manager is relatively indifferent to him, which creates a sectoral atmosphere of non-violent non-cooperation.

In fact, from the design consultant to start work, the company level should be clear to design consultants and design department managers different division of labor and concerns, to avoid some functional misunderstanding. If unfortunately, your manager is still a little narrow-minded, then waiting for you is the team gradually split.

5. Facing the client, the consultant is not a strong heart pin

In the face of senior customers, a better design consultant is to do external communication when the necessary weapons, especially those who are moving towards high-end development of the company, design consultants generally have a relatively good design perspective, have a certain ability to persuade customers, of course, there are lectures and good communication skills. Apart from these, the design consultant is not the customer's strong heart needle, but the customer's lubricant, running-in the process of cooperation in the design understanding of the deviation.

A good design consultant is unlikely to bring in more orders, but it can help the company improve the quality of the design; The customer also understands this, so the judgment of the person is sometimes a lifelong affair. Of course, good design consultants will also do customer research before visiting customers, including the design of the call process, which is also the pre-sales.

In the end, the design advisor has a role to play when you and the customer determine the design offer, and the price lever can be controlled by the role--eh, this is really embarrassing. Dingpan