When can a specialist design team replace a big consultancy?

Consider a hypothetical purchase: a product leader gets 2 proposals for the same internal dashboard. One includes research, software integration, staff training, and rollout support. The other offers research, interface design, and a handoff to engineering. The second costs less. The screenshots look equally convincing.

These are different purchases. Before choosing, someone needs to account for the work between the finished designs and a product employees can use.

A specialist design team can replace the product design part of a large consultancy engagement when the work has a clear boundary and the buyer can cover the remaining delivery responsibilities. Whether that saves money depends on the complete scope, including internal effort. A smaller supplier is not automatically a cheaper way to reach the same result.

Humbleteam publishes this guide and provides product design services. The comparison below applies to its proposals too.

What part of the consultancy engagement are you replacing?

Start with the change the business needs. “Redesign our dashboard” might mean helping employees resolve a maintenance request without opening a spreadsheet. It might also involve replacing the source system, changing approval rules, and training every regional office.

A focused research and UX/UI assignment can fit a specialist design team. A wider program needs people responsible for the other work, whether they come from the buyer, the consultancy, or another supplier. Ask candidates to identify that boundary in their proposals.

This distinction matters when looking for alternatives to Deloitte Digital or another large consultancy. A shortlist based on company size tells you little about the actual assignment. Compare named teams against the same required outcome. Our enterprise product design agency comparison can help identify firms to investigate; it does not establish which proposal will cost least.

The GOV.UK service-team guidance separates design from the other skills needed to build and operate a service, including engineering, security, measurement, and ongoing support. It is public-sector guidance, but that distinction is useful when dividing a commercial product assignment.

How do you compare proposals that include different work?

Give each candidate the same responsibility worksheet. Ask them to name the owner of every row, what their fee includes, and what they expect your team to provide. “Shared” needs an explanation of who makes the decision and who completes the work.

Keep a separate column for each proposal when you use the worksheet. An unanswered row is an unresolved part of the purchase. Ask for clarification before treating the prices as comparable.

Then map the dependencies between owners. In Lenny’s interview with Geoff Charles about how Ramp builds product, Charles describes teams making their responsibilities visible to one another. Adapt that principle to suppliers: the design team should know what engineering needs, and engineering should know what it has agreed to deliver. This is an application of the idea, not evidence that Ramp used this procurement method.

Where can the apparent saving disappear?

In the dashboard example, the smaller proposal assumes the buyer will provide a working connection to the maintenance database. The larger proposal includes that integration. During the comparison, the engineering manager explains that the internal team cannot take on the connection until its current release is finished.

The design fee may still be attractive. But the buyer now has a dependency that affects both cost and timing. Options include commissioning the integration separately, moving the release, or narrowing the first assignment to research and a tested prototype.

Each option changes the purchase. Completing a prototype can be a sensible first step if it resolves an uncertain workflow. It should not be presented internally as a funded commitment to launch a working dashboard.

How should you calculate the total cost?

Compare supplier fees alongside internal delivery effort, other supplier costs, transition work, and support over the same agreed period. Include only costs relevant to that scope and avoid counting the same work twice.

For internal effort, ask each responsible manager to estimate the time their team will contribute and what work that displaces. Existing salaries do not make that time free, but neither should an opportunity-cost estimate be presented as an additional cash invoice. Keep cash expenditure and internal capacity visible separately.

Use a range when a dependency remains uncertain. Record the assumption that would move the estimate, such as access to a usable data source. A precise total built on unconfirmed availability is difficult to defend.

The UK Cabinet Office’s Consultancy Playbook recommends considering whole-life costs across internal and external delivery options. That supports a broader comparison; it does not establish a standard discount for hiring a specialist agency. Actual savings require comparable proposals.

When should you keep the broader delivery team?

A wider engagement may be appropriate when the product depends on coordinated changes across several systems or business units and the buyer cannot supply that coordination. The same applies when specialist engineering, operational change, or rollout work exceeds the internal team’s capacity.

Ask the larger provider to show who will do that work and how it connects to the product release. Its scale alone does not prove the proposed team can handle your dependencies. Ask the specialist team the same questions about its partners and exclusions.

A mixed arrangement can also work: a design specialist owns a defined product assignment while another team owns integration or a wider program. Agree how decisions cross those boundaries, who resolves disputes, and where the receiving team can find current working files. Include these responsibilities in the scope from the start.

What should you decide before signing?

Bring the completed worksheet to the people who own delivery, budget, and the resulting product. Check that each has accepted the responsibilities attributed to them. A proposal cannot reserve an internal engineer’s time on their manager’s behalf.

The decision should state the first outcome being purchased, its acceptance evidence, the supplier’s responsibilities, and the work the buyer will provide. Attach the unresolved assumptions and the point at which they must be settled. Our enterprise procurement guide covers the wider selection process.

In the dashboard example, the buyer can now choose a complete delivery package or a smaller assignment with an explicit next step. Either can be reasonable. The useful saving is the one that survives after every necessary piece of work has an owner.