Choosing the right design agency is one of the toughest and most consequential decisions a consumer-goods founder can make. Get it right and your project moves quickly and confidently. Get it wrong and it can slow, stall or even completely derail your startup.
There is an amazing depth of product and industrial design talent in the UK (and abroad), but agencies vary significantly in approach, capability and delivery style.
Having run a design agency myself, and later managed agencies from the client side within a large corporation, I am in a unique position to guide founders through this decision with clarity and confidence.
So how do you choose the best design agency for your consumer goods startup?
1. Clarify your needs first (before you start your search)
Before speaking to anyone, define exactly what you need external support for.
Are you looking for:
- Someone to turn a napkin sketch into a polished visual for early investment conversations?
- Or someone to take a rough proof-of-concept and make it DFM-ready for manufacturing quotes?
List your internal capabilities and identify the gaps you need to outsource. Do what you can in-house, but know your limits and bring in specialists when the work moves beyond your comfort zone.
Set realistic budget expectations. One of the most common misalignments I saw when running an agency was founders expecting to bring a physical product to market on a four-figure budget. Unfortunately, that simply is not realistic.
2. Size & Scale: What’s the right fit for a start-up?
The UK is full of product and industrial design agencies, along with many talented individual freelancers. The challenge is choosing the partner that best matches your stage, budget and technical needs.
Individuals and small studios (1–5 people)
- Flexible and agile
- Often fast and innovative at early-stage concepting
- May lack deeper engineering or supply chain capability
Mid-sized agencies (5–20 people)
- Balanced capabilities across strategy, industrial design, engineering and CMF
- Founder-level involvement with more delivery bandwidth
- Often the best value for early-stage startups needing end-to-end support
Large or global agencies (20+ people)
- Ideal for complex hardware that needs cross-functional internal teams
- Typically expensive for early-stage founders
- Processes usually geared towards corporate clients rather than individuals
More often than not, a small studio or mid-sized agency offers the best balance of experience, attention and value. This is where I can add substantial value by helping founders identify the right-sized partner for their needs.
3. Relevant experience matters (but not the way you think)
It can be tempting to find an agency that has built something almost identical to your idea. In reality, that can result in your product blending into the category.
Instead, look for:
- Experience in adjacent categories
- Evidence of strategic thinking, not just strong visuals
- Case studies that show how the team problem-solves, not only the final outcome
Some of the best innovation comes from designers who borrow manufacturing approaches or materials from unrelated industries. This can unlock genuinely fresh solutions that stand out in crowded markets.
4. Selling time vs selling value
Most design agencies work within two commercial models: time-based billing or value-based (or milestone-based) billing.
Time-based billing
- Hourly or day rates, retainers or blocks of time
- Predictable for the agency, but can sometimes lead to a focus on hours rather than outcomes
- For example, when you purchase two days of design work, you receive two days of output, but this does not always lead to the strongest solution
Value-based or milestone billing
- Pricing is based on the value the outcome delivers to the project
- Often results in more considered outputs
- Still dependent on clearly defined deliverables, so clarity at the start is essential
Watch-outs
- Scope creep can quickly erode budget and timeline
- A closed or secretive creative process reduces visibility and increases risk
- Many first-time founders are unsure what a strong deliverable actually looks like, and this is where advisory support becomes particularly useful
5. Setting and managing clear expectations
If you are commissioning multiple phases of work, such as ideation followed by CAD and then prototyping, both sides need to be aligned on what each phase includes and what the expected output looks like.
Ask for:
- Clear descriptions of each deliverable
- Defined check-ins and feedback loops
- Agreed limits on iteration rounds
- Clarity on what success looks like at each milestone
A common failure I see is founders handing over a brief and expecting the final output to match the vision in their mind, even though it was never fully communicated. Clear expectations prevent this.
6. Get the right paperwork in place
Documentation protects both you and the agency. At a minimum, ensure you have the following:
- Statement of Work (SOW) that defines scope, milestones and deliverables
- IP Ownership agreements so that everything created is yours
- Roles and responsibilities that outline who does what
- Timelines and dependencies to prevent misalignment
- Handover obligations that clarify exactly what you will receive and when
I have written, reviewed and negotiated these agreements many times from both sides of the partnership, and the impact of good documentation cannot be overstated.
7. Measure progress against deliverables
Once the project begins, continue evaluating the quality and direction of the work. Deliverables may include:
- Sketchwork that shows both the messy exploration as well as refinement
- CAD fidelity, especially if the model is meant to be DFM-ready
- Prototype function that proves the core idea
- Transparency, meaning you see the real process rather than only the polished results
Progress is not always linear. Understanding what does not work is often necessary in order to find what does.
Build natural pause points into the project so you can reassess direction without wasting budget.
When to bring in an advisor to guide the agency relationship
For many consumer-goods founders, choosing and managing a design agency is completely new territory. The stakes are high: the right partner can accelerate your path to market, while the wrong one can quietly drain time, money, and momentum. This is where bringing in an experienced product development advisor can make a measurable difference.
You don’t need an advisor for everything — but founders often benefit most at key inflection points:
1. When you’re engaging a design agency for the first time
If you’ve never been through a full development cycle before, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by proposals, deliverables, jargon, and pricing models. An advisor helps you cut through the noise, compare agencies on the right criteria, and avoid common traps that early-stage teams often fall into.
2. When your product involves real engineering or design complexity
Consumer goods look simple from the outside – but once you get into mechanisms, electronics, materials, DFM, or certification, the complexity spikes quickly. An advisor ensures technical requirements are understood, budgeted for, and clearly reflected in the agency’s scope from the start.
3. When you need someone who’s been on both sides of the table
This is where my experience becomes especially useful.
I’ve been:
- An agency owner, working directly with dozens of startups.
- An in-house design lead at a large corporation, managing external agencies.
- A partner to founders, helping them make smarter decisions at every stage of development.
This combination gives you someone who understands not just what agencies deliver, but how they really work – and how to get the best from them.
How an advisor adds value to your project
An effective advisor acts as an extension of your team, helping you make confident, informed decisions without adding overhead.
I can support you by:
- Shortlisting the right agencies based on your product type, ambition, and budget.
- Reviewing proposals and scopes to ensure you’re paying for outcomes, not unnecessary extras.
- Joining or running kickoff meetings to set up clear expectations and responsibilities.
- Monitoring progress against deliverables, so you always know what’s on track and what isn’t.
- Protecting your budget by catching scope creep, misalignment, or inefficiencies early.
- De-risking the entire development journey by ensuring design, engineering, and manufacturability stay aligned.
For founders, this support often means fewer surprises, fewer pivots, and a smoother path to a manufacturable, investment-ready product.