When Hiring a Design Partner…

Marketers are pickier about design partners than they've been in years, so we went looking at what marketers actually ask when they're vetting a design partner. The same eight questions kept showing up in buyer surveys and hiring guides. 

1. "Will this actually move the business?"

It should, or we shouldn't be doing it. Pretty is the price of entry. Our job is to help you launch the brand, the product, or the story that gets you to your next stage of growth.

That's why we start with brand strategy before anyone opens any tool, including AI. We want to know what you're trying to win: shelf share, sales conversations, investor confidence, a new market. Then every design decision ladders back to that.

2. "How do you use AI, and who's checking it?"

We use it. We're not shy about it. And a human creative is always the one making the call.

AI speeds up the parts of the work that used to eat hours: early exploration, content production, versioning, the grunt work. That's how we keep pace with fast-moving teams like the SaaS companies we work with. What AI doesn't do is decide what your brand stands for, approve a final design, or go out the door without a person who knows your business looking at it.

Also worth saying: your stuff stays your stuff. Client confidentiality applies to every tool and every partner we touch. And, if you prefer, we can do the work without a single AI tool... you make the call.

3. "Can I see the work?"

Please do. It's the number one reason marketers walk away from an agency, so we'd rather you judge us on it than on our pitch deck.

You'll find packaging for brands like P&G, Bayer, Molson Coors, and Burt's Bees. Brand environments for Nationwide, our partner since 2019. 3D animation that shows how a mobile military power source assembles and comes apart. Launch videos for startups. If you want to see something closer to your world, ask.  www.mertzdesignstudio.com/work shows a ton of it.

4. "Have you done this in my category?"

Probably. We're specialists in one thing: launching brands and products. We just do it across a few industries that keep coming back to us.

• Consumer packaged goods: packaging and brands for household names and challenger brands alike.
• Food and Beverage: packaging and brands for small and medium sized food and beverage products
• SaaS: storytelling and video for Paycor, Paychex, and Xactly, plus startup launches for Cadents and Give To Get.
• Manufacturing and industrial: brand, brand story, animation, and 3D visualization for Enerfab, Mazak, LEM, and Fives.
• Healthcare and med device: industrial design and animations for story telling, 3D visualization.

And if you're in a category we haven't touched? Fresh eyes are sometimes exactly what a stale category needs.

5. "Will you push our thinking, or just execute?"

Both. But if you only wanted a pair of hands, you'd hire a freelancer.

Most marketers say big-picture thinking is what they value most from an agency, and fewer than half feel they're getting it. We think that's a miss. We'll tell you when an idea isn't working, bring you options you didn't ask for, and poke at assumptions politely. Then we'll roll up our sleeves and make the thing.

6. "How do you fit with my in-house team?"

However you need us to. Some clients use us as their whole design department. Others have a strong internal team and call us for the stuff that's outside their wheelhouse or beyond their bandwidth: a launch, a rebrand, packaging, product design, animation.

We're not here to take your team's job. We're here so they can stop working weekends. And we play nice with your process, your tools, and your other partners.

7. "How will you deliver, and who will I actually talk to?"

You'll talk to the people doing the work. We don't have project managers playing telephone between you and the designers. Your Art Director or Creative Director owns your relationship, start to finish.

More than 90% of our work happens in-house with our own team. When a project needs a specialist, like a production crew for a live shoot or a realistic prototype, we bring them in, tell you who they are, and put them under NDA.

On time and on quality is the top thing CMOs say they want. That's not a differentiator to us.

8. "How do you price it?"

Clearly, and up front. We'd rather have the awkward money conversation on day one than a surprise invoice on day 60.

Most work is scoped by project, so you know what you're getting and what it costs before we start. Want to test-drive us first? Our Design Sprint gets you 3 concepts in 2 weeks for $9,500. Think packaging, product, a campaign look, or a brand direction, each with 2 to 3 mockups. It's a low-risk way to see how we think, and a great way to kick off next year's planning.

And yes, we're happy to talk about tying work to results. Let's just agree on how we'll measure success before we start.

Got a question we didn't answer?

Ask it. Seriously. The best partnerships start with tough questions, and we'd rather earn your trust than talk around it. Reach out, grab a Design Sprint slot, or just come say hi.

Sources

• RSW/US 2026 New Year Outlook via EMARKETER: creative quality is the top reason marketers pass on an agency.
• IPA and Tracksuit research via Research Live: clients value growth thinking more than they feel they receive it.
• EACA and Kantar CMO Expectations report via PPC Land: on-time, on-quality delivery is CMOs' top selection factor.
• Forrester, B2B agency investments 2026: marketers are more selective as AI use grows.
• Marketing Report on IPA research: AI capability and outcome-based pricing in agency selection.
• DesignRush QuickSights: business impact as the key interview question.