05 Do we have the technical expertise to even evaluate the quality of work the agency is doing?
In many cases, companies will hire an agency to do something for them that they can’t do themselves.
If you’re not looking for support in the form of team augmentation, but are rather in need of specific expertise not available in your team, how can you evaluate the work and deliverables you’ll be receiving?
“Are you an expert?”
This question is especially relevant when dealing with complex technical projects. While you may not need to understand every line of code, having a basic grasp of what constitutes quality work seems pretty crucial.
Here are some strategies to help you evaluate the agency’s work, even if your team lacks the needed technical expertise:
Define clear deliverables and success metrics
Before the project starts, work with the agency to define concrete, measurable outcomes. These could include performance benchmarks, user satisfaction scores, or specific functionality milestones. By focusing on results rather than technical details, you can evaluate success without needing to understand every technical aspect.
Leverage user feedback
Ultimately, the success of a digital product comes down to user satisfaction. So why not ask the people who know best for help? Implement robust user testing and feedback mechanisms. If users are happy and the product meets their needs, that’s a strong (but not the only) indicator of quality work.
Ask for explanations
Don’t be afraid to ask your agency to explain their work in non-technical terms. A good partner should be able to communicate complex concepts in a way that also non-experts can understand. If they can’t explain it clearly, that might be a red flag.
Focus on the process
Even without technical expertise, you can evaluate the agency’s process and ways of working. Are they meeting deadlines? How do they handle changes or setbacks? Do they communicate clearly and regularly? A smooth, professional process often correlates with quality work.
Gradual knowledge building
Even if you don’t have the technical expertise required to judge the quality of your partner’s work, you might use the project as an opportunity to build your team’s technical knowledge. Ask the agency to provide basic training or explanations of key concepts. Over time, this can help your team become more adept at evaluating technical work.
A good agency should be proactive in helping you understand and evaluate their work and not hide behind complexity. They should be transparent about their processes, willing to explain their decisions, and open to questions and scrutiny.
Our take
Technical expertise is horribly difficult to evaluate reliably. We know because we have to do this every time we hire someone, too. Upfront due diligence is important, but nothing beats hands-on experience, though. Because the challenges that come with a real world project are hard to simulate in the vacuum of an interview or during the call to a reference client.
Which is why we recommend to some of our less experienced customers to consider our value-based pricing approach: depending on the case, we are willing to share in the risk and reward by making our success (and fee) depending on our customer’s success. The quality of our work is important, but even more important is that the output meets the demand of real customers and users. So every now and then we are willing to put our money where our mouth is and make part of our fees depending on specific KPIs and the successful delivery of the project.
