The old real estate adage is: Location! Location! Location!

When it comes to effective collaboration between a design agency and your business, an equally important axiom applies: Communication! Communication! Communication!

Good communication is the bedrock upon which trust is built, allowing creative projects between you and your design agency to flourish.

Remember, when working with a design firm, a successful collaboration requires carefully considered ideas so that a meeting of the minds can be achieved. Anything less will probably result in unwanted surprises, disappointment and a waste of time and resources. Lack of clarity about goals, poor preparation and lack of commitment could fatally undermine any collaboration between you and your design firm.

At the beginning of any collaborative process, it’s helpful to keep in mind the reason you need to work with a design firm. In short, you have a problem – a creative problem, and a design firm can help you solve it because they possess an invaluable skill — the ability to conceptualize. This means, or should mean, they are experts at identifying opportunities for your company and finding ways to fulfill those opportunities. Those opportunities might include things such as Web site design, marketing, company branding or rebranding, events, and various communications to connect you with your key audiences and customers.

Designers can help you navigate from being lost in the business wilderness with no idea how to proceed, to finding the path that will take your company to new levels of success.

When collaborating with a design firm, it’s essential to keep several things in mind. The following few tips will go a long way toward ensuring that you get the most out of your working relationship.

1. Build trust through respectful communication — Often, as a company owner or decision maker, you may not be able to see things as an outsider (i.e. customer) would. That’s why a design firm can be invaluable at the start. They bring an external perspective that will enable you to view things in a fresh light. This in turn can unleash powerful creative opportunities.
2. Define the problem and define your goals — Try to be as specific as possible when identifying the problem, as well as your goals, and communicate these clearly and concisely to your design agency. Vagueness here could result in disappointment because design solutions might end up being too general or plain. Make your objectives clear and what it is you want to be accomplished. Don’t leave out the details! What do you want your audiences, your customers to feel and what action do you want them to take?
3. Clarify strategy and the roles of team members — You’ll need a big picture roadmap for you and your design agency to work from. Make sure everyone has this roadmap and, importantly, knows what they are responsible for and when. This should eliminate redundant efforts. Make sure you have the support of key decision makers in the chain of command. You don’t want a project delayed or stopped entirely because someone important was left out of the loop.
4. Provide a budget range — This will really help define the scope of what your design firm proposes to you. Leaving this up in the air is not a good idea as the design agency may return to you with a dazzling proposal that is way beyond what you can afford, making the effort an expensive time waster. Additionally, if your budget is extremely limited, don’t expect champagne proposals, but rather more modest, though serviceable ones.
5. Work through problems together — Again, clear, direct and honest communication is key to overcoming the inevitable bumps in the road to the project’s completion. If you have concerns, bring them out into the open rather than working on them without your design agency’s knowledge or input. It may take some time for your design agency to fully grasp your company’s brand proposition, for example, but this is normal. Don’t always expect instant gratification. Be willing to wait until the final product has been refined and unveiled. And, finally…
6. Perform a project review — Sit down with your design agency representatives and study what worked and what could have gone better with the project. This will help both parties avoid making the same mistakes again and lead to successful future collaborations.

Written by Scott Wigton