Choosing help
How to choose a consultant you won't regret
Buying consultancy is hard precisely because you're buying judgement you don't yet have. This is the evaluation I'd run if I were the buyer, including the questions I'd want a consultant to squirm at.
The short answer
Evaluate the person, not the polish. Ask for evidence of real work on problems like yours, watch how they diagnose on the first call, and insist on scoped deliverables with a price attached. Anyone selling certainty before they understand your problem is just selling.
The discipline matters less than you'd think. A good consultant, in research, service design, accessibility, CRO or strategy, will tell you early when your problem lives outside their expertise. The bad ones take the work anyway.
What to evaluate
Four things predict whether an engagement will be worth the money, and none of them is the website or the deck.
Evidence of real work
Case studies should name the client, the problem and the consultant's specific role. An anonymous 'we lifted conversion 40%' tells you nothing. Look for work they can discuss in detail: what they tried, what failed, what they'd do differently, and clients you could plausibly ask.
How they diagnose on the first call
Good consultants ask more than they assert: about your users, your evidence, what you've already tried, who has to act on the findings. Someone who arrives with the solution before hearing the problem will deliver that same solution whatever you actually needed.
Scoped deliverables, not vague retainers
A defined output, a timescale and a price mean you can judge the work against a promise. 'Ongoing support' with a monthly invoice means you can't. Retainers have their place, after trust is earned, not as the opening offer.
Who actually does the work
With an independent it's the person you're speaking to, by definition. With anyone else, ask directly: who delivers, how senior are they, and how much of the named expert's time is real rather than 'oversight'.
Questions worth asking
These are the questions I'd ask any consultant, myself included. The answers matter less than whether there's a real one.
"What would make you turn this work down?"
Anyone without an answer takes everything, and a consultant who takes everything is an expert in nothing. You want to hear specifics: wrong discipline, scope that needs a team, a brief that's really a decision already made.
"What will you need from us?"
The honest answer covers access: to users, analytics, stakeholders, prior research, and to someone who can act on the findings. 'Nothing, we'll take care of it' sounds convenient and predicts a report that bounces off your organisation.
"What does the deliverable let us do next?"
A good answer names decisions: what to build, what to fix first, what to stop. If the answer is a document (a report, a deck, a framework) with no verb attached, you're buying shelf-ware.
"Where has this gone wrong for you before?"
Every honest practitioner has failures and can tell you what they changed because of them. Someone with a flawless record either hasn't done much or isn't telling you the truth. Both are disqualifying.
Red flags
Any one of these is a reason to slow down. Two or more and I'd walk, whoever it is.
A solution before a diagnosis
If the proposal recommends the same thing they always sell, whether a redesign, a rebrand or their proprietary framework, before anyone has examined your evidence, the diagnosis was never going to change the prescription.
No numbers on anything
'Price on request', vague timescales, deliverables described in adjectives. Consultants who won't commit to numbers before you sign rarely become more precise afterwards.
Guaranteed outcomes
Nobody can guarantee a conversion uplift, a usability score or what research will find. The whole point of the work is that the answer isn't known yet. A guarantee is a sales device, not a method.
Everything is in scope
A consultant who never says 'not my area', happy to do your research, your rebrand, your SEO and your development, is reselling other people's work or stretching past their competence. Breadth is real; omniscience isn't.
Know which discipline your problem lives in
The evaluation above works for any specialist. If you already know whether you need research, service design, accessibility, CRO or strategy, start with that engagement and judge it by these tests.
Judge me by the same tests
Every engagement on this site names its deliverables, timescale and fixed price before we ever speak, and the case studies name the clients and the work. Run the evaluation on me first.
Still deciding?
Frequently asked questions
Should I speak to more than one consultant?
Yes, two or three, even if the first call goes well. Not mainly for price comparison, but because hearing different people diagnose the same problem sharpens your own understanding of it. Pay attention to who asked the best questions rather than who gave the most confident answers; the difference between candidates is usually obvious within twenty minutes.
How much does sector experience matter?
Less than most buyers assume. A stalled checkout, an unusable form and a confusing service journey behave much the same in banking, government or retail. The underlying patterns repeat. Sector knowledge earns real weight in heavily regulated contexts, where constraints shape what's possible. Otherwise, prefer depth in the discipline over familiarity with your industry; the second is learned in weeks, the first takes years.
What if we don't really know what we need yet?
That's normal, and it's not a reason to delay the first conversation. A good consultant treats that call as a diagnosis and will tell you what kind of help fits, including 'none yet'. If the picture is genuinely murky, start with a small scoped diagnostic rather than a big commitment: it answers the question cheaply and shows you how the person works.
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Previous feedback
I had a fantastic experience working with Andy. One of his most impressive achievements during our time at NHS HEE was masterminding a deeply complex information architecture for a new platform that brought together a large number of legacy websites.
Will Parkhouse
Senior Content Designer