Outsourcing IA/UX
AIfIA published an editorial about offshoring not long ago that got mixed responses. One camp dismissed offshoring of IA as red herring, insisting that understanding user and business requirements was work that couldn't be moved to a remote development office. Another camp was sure that offshoring is a real possibility, noting for example that Samsung won more IDEA awards this year than its western competitors.
Last week the New York Times took a new angle on this topic in article about outsourcing to Canada. Our "stability, proximity and cultural similarity to the United States tend[s] to attract higher-value, more sophisticated work." In some cases this includes requirements gathering and other work where social and cultural norms can be critical:
Canada is holding its own against India in high-end work. "We do not have the same volume of people as India," said Robert Scott, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada, based in Toronto, and the co-author of a study on outsourcing. "But Canada is generally competing at the leading edge of technology where close interaction between business users and developers is critical."
The article also confirmed my intuitions that the Maritime provinces are the best place to outsource development work in Canada:
Stephen E. Lund, president of Nova Scotia Business, a government-financed agency, estimates a skilled software worker who can command $80,000 to $90,000 a year in Boston is paid the equivalent of $60,000 to $70,000 a year in Halifax. Costs for a typical 110-employee software development group in Halifax, he said, are about 40 percent to 50 percent lower than Boston or New York.
Although the Times article focuses on software development and call centres, I think there's a credible case to be made for outsourcing (or "nearshoring") information architecture, user experience and other design-oriented work to Canada as well. (Admittedly, I'm biased since my company would potentially benefit from such a shift.)
Tasks that have well-defined inputs and outputs and can be completed remotely--like content inventories, card sorts, indexing, metadata and thesaurus development--are obvious candidates for outsourcing. Some kinds of usability testing might also make the list. In addition, Calgary's Critical Mass has built an excellent all-around practice primarily with local talent (grads from Mount Royal College, Alberta College of Art and the University of Calgary). If nothing else, Critical Mass is an existence proof that a nearshored IA/UX team can produce top-quality work.
I think the Critical Mass experience is reproducible, under the right conditions. The local talent pool is reasonably deep--our universities offer graduate programs in library science, industrial design and HCI, as well as a plethora of relevant undergrad programs. (I can't speak for other provinces, but I'm sure they're somewhat comparable.) Operating costs are significantly lower than most US cities. Quality of life is comparable (as long as you don't mind the blistering winters). And the exchange rate, inflated as it is, still favours the US dollar.
If there's a barrier, it would be management experience. There are few large companies with established UX practices--like eBay, Yahoo or Microsoft--here to incubate UX managers. Even mature Canadian markets like Vancouver and Toronto lag behind US markets in the number of experienced practitioners. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it's a potential risk to any nearshored project. Although it's certainly a lower risk that offshoring to a team that might not grasp the social and cultural nuances inherent in much of the work we do.
As an aside, it's interesting that people find outsourcing to Canada much less threatening than outsourcing to India or Eastern Europe. Is it xenophobia? Or is it the vast difference in economics (e.g. an Indian programmer will work for $10/hour) that makes it seem scary?
