I think then the question becomes one of exposure and breadth of experience.

It’s like horseradish. “To a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish.” – Yiddish expression

All else being equal, for a UX professional, I think it’s best we expose ourselves to a multitude of experiences in different domains (it doesn’t even have to be in technology). This opens our eyes and minds to better ways of interacting with technology. For this reason, I think a UX professional operating in a UX consultancy will more likely expose him to a multitude of experiences.

That has been my personal experience having worked in a UX consultancy and an MNC…and not back in a UX consultancy.

Then again, if you are one that believes Apple creates great products with great user experiences, being that worm might not be that bad afterall, so long as you’re in an Apple..(;

I guess it depends on what floats your boat about your job. Me, I love meeting new clients and talking about their problems, but I know some people who have no interest in the strategic and business elements of an engagement and prefer to concentrate on the subtleties and challenges of the design issues.

Whilst the freelance market is bouyant, one thing I find distressing is that as a career it has a relatively low glass ceiling. Whilst contractors in other areas of the technology and media sectors may be product and marketing managers, UX freelancers are rarely used as anything but a testing and wireframing resource. This doesn’t insure us very well as individuals against a shift in the market.

For the traditional consultancies, I agree it’s increasingly difficult for them to compete with 1-2 person operations on cost. There’s been a trend for some time towards specialisation and attempts to get out of the usability-test-and-report space. Some are trying to own more of the client’s design process, others such as HFI are concentrating more on the strategic end of the market, whilst others increasingly specialise in technology (e.g. analytics, eyetracking, etc).

Anyway, until someone wants to hire a strategic UX advisor at freelance rates, I’m staying put!

Agree on cost, but there is an argument against it.

I’ve seen in-house web teams produce very stale work because they’re basically only working on one thing, but that’s by no means a rule (looking at you Harry!).

I’d argue that the variety of work at an agency is a plus to most people’s skills; it broadens one’s experience.

@David – I agree. As someone who’s built an in-house role for myself, having worked agency-side, I can confirm the cost savings for my employer are huge. To be honest I don’t really see UX freelancing as “the future” per se, but it’s definitely flourishing at the moment.

Most UX agencies typically assign a single consultant to UX research projects, Sometimes overseen by a more senior practitioner. Agency consultants in this situation frequently refer and take advice from colleagues within their agency, so the client benefits from the collective experience of the agency’s best practitioners.

It’s possible though for a client to have the best of both worlds by hiring a freelancer who’s done solid time in the agency environment to benefit from collective knowledge and experience, but who maintains a network of colleagues to bounce and share thoughts with. There are more and more of us around.

My thoughts are that there is room for two to three person freelance alliances. Pairing a freelance UX researcher with an IA for example might come in at less than the agency rate for just one of these but provide the client with double the value.

In most agencies nowadays, the UX people are king. They get to specify the ideas+concepts, and effectively define the later volume/complexity of the production work.

Is it not in the client’s interests to make UX work financially independent of production? I don’t know of any agencies who deliberately ‘expand’ the production work through UX, but I wonder….

*ducks*