I consider using outside resources a great strategy. Having an influential agency on your side rather an a full time designer can mean connections that wouldn't

I consider using outside resources a great strategy. Having an influential agency on your side rather an a full time designer can mean connections that wouldn't have happened otherwise. It also keep the focus on projects with a beginning and an end. FTE's are great for somebody that represents a core function of the business. In my services company we have 6 of them, end everybody is at 95-100% capacity and bought into what we're doing. Adding even one more person though can be treacherous, especially when building a product. The article is right, users will let you know endlessly about how to fix the UI, you don't need some UI god to figure that out before you have something built.