UX consulting

Propose the change in what users can finish, not a set of screens.

UX consultants get pulled in when a product team is shipping and support is still answering the same five questions. The proposal should name the task users cannot complete, and the evidence you will use to show they can.

The task users cannot finish

Write the task as a user would. Book a return. Invite a colleague without emailing support. Understand the invoice before paying it. Support-ticket themes are better source material than a stakeholder's wish for a refresh. If the client cannot point at a task, the first days of the timeline are for finding one, and you should say that.

Name the product surface. The logged-in app, the marketing site, and the internal tool are three projects. A proposal that says 'the UX' will be asked to fix whichever one the loudest person used this week.

Evidence, not a screen count

Say how you will know the work landed. Five users completing the task without a prompt. A drop in the specific support question. A before-and-after of the same flow. Screen count is a vanity measure and clients who have hired designers before have learned to distrust it.

Visual design production, a design system for the whole company, and front-end implementation are easy to imply and hard to include. State what you will hand to the people who build. A tested flow and a specification is a complete engagement. Building it is another contract.