How to evaluate a design agency’s domain knowledge
Domain knowledge shows in the questions a design agency asks about your data and your users.
Portfolio images show visual skill. A conversation about one of your workflows shows the rest.
Table of Contents
Summarize with:
Key facts
- Domain knowledge shows in questions about data, roles and exceptions.
- Portfolio images show visual skill.
- A conversation about one of your workflows is the most direct test.
- Proposals that open with visual style are a warning sign.
- In manufacturing software, terms such as lot, BOM, routing and work order are a quick check of vocabulary.
Questions to ask
- How would you handle partial completion, rework or a short pick in our product?
- Which roles would you design for first, and why?
- What would you need from our engineers before drawing screens?
- Can you describe a design decision that changed a data model?
Relevant expertise
Evaluate the team’s domain knowledge alongside completed projects and design expertise.
What good answers include
| Question | A good answer mentions |
|---|---|
| Partial completion, rework, short picks | A path for the exception, how it is recorded, and what happens to the record afterwards |
| Roles to design for first | Who uses the product daily, and which role’s errors cost the most |
| What they need from engineers | The data model, the component library, build constraints |
| A decision that changed a data model | A concrete case, with what was missing and what changed |
Warning signs
- Proposals that open with visual style
- No questions about how records relate to each other
- Committed estimates without explicit scope or assumptions
- Every example from consumer apps
Practical check
Running the conversation
Pick one workflow that your users find hard, and walk through it with real data in a test account. Note which questions the design team asks before suggesting anything. A team that knows the domain asks about records, roles and exceptions. A team that does not asks about colours and layout first.