December 2025. Video call.
Client (B2B workflow automation SaaS, 8-person team, Series A): “We just spent $210,000 with a design agency in New York. Six months. Nothing works. Can you look?”
Share staging link. Load product.
Immediately clear: this UI/UX design agency in New York had never designed a real SaaS product before.
Dashboard looked like consumer app homepage – big hero cards, marketing copy, zero data density. Empty states showed generic “No items yet!” with cheerful illustration of empty folder. What users really need when stuck: clip art. No user permissions, no role-based views, no admin tools. Onboarding was single welcome screen then dumped users into product.
Client: “They said they specialize in B2B SaaS. Their portfolio showed subscription products.”
I look at agency portfolio while on call. Three “SaaS projects” – all landing pages. Not one screenshot of actual product dashboard, settings, or workflow.
“How many users does their designer have on their own SaaS product?” I ask.
Long pause.
“I don’t think they use SaaS products.” Or possibly any software more complex than Instagram.
What NYC UI/UX Design Agency Promised
The Pitch (May 2025):
Agency homepage: “B2B SaaS Design Specialists – 50+ Products Launched.” Translation: they made 50 landing pages for companies that sell software.
Pitch deck included: “Deep experience in subscription-based products,” “We understand the unique challenges of SaaS UX,” case study of Healthcare SaaS platform (client later discovered this was marketing site redesign), team bios saying “Our designers have worked on enterprise platforms” – worked on meaning saw a screenshot once – timeline of 6 months, cost of $210,000 ($35,000/month retainer), office photos of exposed brick, standing desks, succulents that justify the Manhattan rent you’re paying for.
Portfolio showed: 3 “SaaS products” (later revealed: landing pages, pricing pages), several fintech apps (consumer banking, not B2B tools), e-commerce websites, mobile consumer apps, lots of hero shots with gradients.
Red flag client missed: Portfolio had zero screenshots of dashboards with real data, admin panels, settings pages, user management, empty states, onboarding flows, multi-step workflows, or anything boring but critical.
Should’ve asked: “Show me the admin panel you designed for [portfolio project].”
They couldn’t have. They’d never designed one.
What They Actually Delivered
Month 6 (November 2025): Handoff
The design agency delivered Figma files, a “design system” of 8 buttons in 3 colors, and handoff documentation – a PDF saying “use components.”
Client’s developers started building. Within 2 weeks, discovered fundamental problems:
Dashboard disaster:
Designed single dashboard layout. Client needed 3 role-based dashboards (Admin: company-wide analytics, user management, billing; Manager: team performance, workflow oversight; Individual user: personal tasks, activity).
Agency had designed consumer-style homepage with big cards saying “Welcome!” and “Get Started!” Exclamation points made up for lack of actual information.
No data density. No customization. No widgets. No filters. Real users needed to see 40+ active workflows, team status, upcoming deadlines, overdue items, performance metrics. Dashboard showed 6 static cards with illustrations of people high-fiving.
Empty states missing:
Every empty state showed same generic message: “No items yet! Click ‘Add New’ to get started.”
Copy-pasted 19 times. Same illustration. Same exclamation point. Same uselessness.
Reality needed: new user onboarding empty state (guide first workflow), archived items empty state (show how to restore), filtered view empty state (clear filters, not add new), permissions-blocked empty state (request access, not create item), error state (connection lost, retry).
The design agency designed one. Hit Cmd+V eighteen more times. $210,000 well spent.
Onboarding disaster:
Single welcome screen: “Welcome to [Product]! Let’s get started.” One button: “Go to Dashboard”
That’s the entire onboarding. No product tour, first-task guidance, role-specific setup, team invites, or workspace configuration.
Real SaaS onboarding needs: progressive disclosure, role-based paths, skip options, return-to-setup ability.
They delivered: one screen with exclamation point.
Settings catastrophe:
Everything in alphabetical list. 47 settings. No categories. No search. No sections.
Critical daily-use settings (notification preferences, default views) buried below rarely-touched settings (API webhooks, SAML configuration, legal entity tax details).
Want to change your email notifications? Scroll past “API Rate Limiting,” “Audit Log Retention,” and “Auto-Archive Threshold.” Who doesn’t alphabetize by technical implementation detail?
Real users need: frequent settings easily accessible, dangerous settings separated, search for 40+ options.
No consideration for: Seat-based pricing UI (add/remove users affects billing), permissions and roles (who sees what), multi-tenancy (Company A can’t see Company B’s data), admin vs user views (completely different needs), audit logs (compliance requirement for enterprise), bulk actions (managing 100+ items individually is hell), export capabilities (users need their data).
The design agency had designed single-user consumer app, not multi-tenant B2B platform.
Breaking point moment:
Developer (week 2): “Where’s the user management screen design?”
PM: “Ask the agency.”
Agency: “That wasn’t in scope. You didn’t mention multiple users.”
Product was designed for teams of 3-50 people. Requirements doc said this on page 1. Agency never asked about roles, permissions, or admin needs.
Six months. $210,000. Never asked “how many users.”
The Specialization Lie Exposed
Why their “SaaS experience” was fake:
Checked the design agency’s portfolio deeper. The 3 “SaaS projects”:
Project 1: “Healthcare Analytics Platform” Deliverable: Landing page + pricing page. No product screens in portfolio. Testimonial from marketing team, not product team. They designed website, not product. Marketing loved it. Users never saw it.
Project 2: “Fintech Dashboard” Consumer banking app – check balance, transfer money. Not B2B SaaS. Single user, no teams, no admin, no permissions. Like designing Venmo, not Salesforce. Venmo is lovely. Venmo is not enterprise software.
Project 3: “Project Management Tool” Screenshots were from publicly available demo site. Design looked identical to existing tool. The design agency likely did visual refresh, not UX design. No original product thinking. Changed the shade of blue. Added shadows. $35K/month.
Real SaaS specialization looks like:
Portfolio shows: admin panels, user management, empty states, settings organization, onboarding flows, role-based dashboards, bulk actions, filters, search, data tables, permissions UI.
Portfolio discusses: multi-tenancy challenges, seat-based pricing UI, compliance requirements, data export, API management, billing complexity, admin vs user needs.
Case studies mention: adoption rates, activation improvements, support ticket reduction, feature discoverability.
This NYC UI/UX design agency had none of that.
Their “specialization” was: they’d made websites for companies that sold SaaS products.
That’s not SaaS design. That’s marketing design.
Why Design Agencies Lie About Specialization
1. Can’t afford to turn down work: NYC overhead ($18K/month Tribeca office with exposed brick, $140K average designer salaries, account managers, sales team, project managers, kombucha fridge) means saying yes to everything. “Do you do SaaS?” “Yes.” “Do you do mobile?” “Yes.” “Do you do blockchain?” “Also yes.” “Do you do interior design?” “…Probably?”
2. Portfolio padding: Landing page for SaaS company = “SaaS experience” in portfolio. Website for fintech startup = “financial services expertise.” Designed signup form = “product design.” Looked at Stripe once = “payment systems specialist.” Surface design ≠ product design. But clients can’t tell difference from hero shots with gradients.
3. Designer rotation: Design agencies rotate designers across projects. Can’t build specialization when Sarah does SaaS this month, e-commerce next month, healthcare month after. Sarah barely remembers what a dashboard is by the time she’s designing her third DTC brand this quarter. Real specialization needs: 50+ products in same space, years seeing same patterns, deep understanding of user needs, workflows, edge cases.
4. No incentive to specialize: Specialization means turning down work. Agencies optimize for billable hours, not expertise. Saying “we do everything” gets more clients than “we only do B2B SaaS.”
Result: Every UI/UX design agency in New York claims specialization. Nobody has it.
What Had To Be Rebuilt
January 2026 – May 2026: Fixing the wreckage
Kept from agency designs: Color palette, some component styling, typography choices.
Rebuilt from scratch: All dashboard layouts (3 role-based views), complete onboarding system (4-step progressive), empty states (22 unique states), settings organization (7 categories, search), user management (roles, permissions, invites), admin panel (analytics, billing, audit logs), data tables (sortable, filterable, bulk actions), navigation (role-appropriate, customizable).
4 months vs their 6 months.
Cost to fix: $84,000 (includes my SaaS product design work + extra development to rebuild what was broken)
Total client spent: $294,000 ($210K agency + $84K fixes)
What it should’ve cost from start: $120,000 with specialist who understood B2B SaaS.
Agency’s fake specialization cost them $174,000 extra and 10 months total.
How To Spot Fake SaaS Specialists
Before hiring a design agency in New York, ask these questions:
1. “Show me 3 admin panels you’ve designed.” Real specialist pulls up Figma, shows user management, permissions, billing, settings. Fake specialist: “Admin panel wasn’t in those projects” or shows consumer app settings. Translation: has never designed one.
2. “How do you handle empty states for new vs returning users?” Real specialist explains progressive onboarding empty states vs filtered-view empty states vs error states. Fake specialist: “We design friendly empty states with illustrations.” One illustration. Copy-pasted everywhere. You know the one.
3. “Walk me through role-based dashboard example.” Real specialist explains admin view vs manager view vs user view, why they differ, what data each role needs. Fake specialist: “We design one dashboard and customize it.” Customize meaning change the welcome text.
4. “How many SaaS products do you personally use daily?” Real specialist: “I use 15-20 B2B tools. I study their onboarding, permissions, settings patterns.” Fake specialist: Blank stare or “I use Figma and Slack.” Neither of which they designed admin panels for.
Portfolio red flags when evaluating any design agency: Only landing pages (no product screens), only “hero dashboard” screenshots (nothing deeper), no settings pages/user management/admin tools, all single-user apps (no team/multi-tenant examples), consumer apps labeled “SaaS experience,” case studies discuss “brand refresh” not product improvements.
Portfolio green flags: Shows complete workflows (10+ screens), discusses empty states/edge cases/error handling, explains role-based design decisions, shows before/after with metrics, includes boring but critical screens (settings, user management, billing).
If portfolio is all pretty hero shots with no depth, they’re not specialists.
What Real SaaS Design Experience Looks Like
Not pretty landing pages. Product depth.
Real SaaS designer has designed:
Onboarding systems: Role-based first-time user experience, progressive feature introduction, skip/return options, team vs individual setup, trial conversion optimization.
Dashboard complexity: Role-appropriate data density, customizable widgets, multi-metric visualization, filtered views that persist, empty states for every scenario.
Admin tools: User management (invite, roles, permissions), seat-based billing UI, audit logs, company-wide settings, multi-tenant isolation.
Settings organization: Categorized (not alphabetical), searchable for 40+ options, dangerous settings separated, frequent settings accessible.
Data handling: Tables that handle 10K+ rows, filters, search, sorting, bulk actions, export capabilities.
Edge cases: Permissions-blocked states, network failures, concurrent editing conflicts, archived item recovery, deleted user handling.
This is SaaS design. Not landing pages with “SaaS” in the client name.
Why I Don’t Call Myself A Design Agency
I stopped using “agency” in 2019.
Design agencies optimize for: billable hours, team utilization, office overhead, account managers, sales pipeline, kombucha budget. I optimize for: fixing your product, designing things that work, not wasting your time or money.
UI/UX design agencies need you on 6-month retainer. I work project-based or embedded sprints. Agencies pitch team. You work with me – no account managers, no handoffs, no junior designer doing work while senior reviews.
Design agencies in New York claim specialization to win work. I only take B2B SaaS because 8 years of depth beats surface-level breadth. Agencies based in expensive cities need high margins. I’m remote – lower overhead means you don’t pay for $18K/month Tribeca office.
Not a design agency. Embedded product design partner who actually knows B2B SaaS.
Every UI/UX design agency in New York claims SaaS specialization. Most are lying.
Check their portfolio. If it’s only landing pages and marketing sites, they don’t design products. If it’s consumer apps, they don’t understand B2B. If there’s no admin panels, user management, or settings screens, they’ve never designed multi-tenant platforms.
Real specialization shows depth: onboarding systems, role-based dashboards, permissions UI, empty states, data tables, admin tools. Not pretty hero shots.
This client wasted $210,000 and 10 months with fake specialists. Could’ve cost $120,000 and 6 months with actual specialist.
Before hiring a design agency, ask: “Show me the admin panel you designed.” If they can’t pull up actual product screens with roles, permissions, and real workflows, you’re about to waste six months and six figures. Plus 4 more months fixing their mistakes.
Portfolio depth beats marketing claims. Every time.
If your product needs real UI/UX design – the kind that understands multi-tenancy, permissions, and the 47 settings that need organizing – you need someone who’s actually designed these things before. Not someone who changed the shade of blue on a landing page and called it “SaaS expertise.”
Ask for the admin panel. Watch them scramble. Save yourself $174,000.