I'm a one-person UX team in a small, non-profit organization. In fact, I'm also the only developer (front end only).
Our company's website will be completely re-done by this summer. We're in the final steps of selecting a web agency to complete this huge project and then we'll start. When I say re-done, I mean a complete evolution of our web strategy and brand, design, information, services, etc. Whereas our current website serves as a supplemental info-only entity right now, by the summer it will be the hub of our business.
Obviously one person cannot do something like by his/herself. Since I'm the only person that works on design/dev/UX in my company, I'm really struggling to see how I can positively contribute to this project when the web agency will do the discovery phase, the design phase, the dev phase, testing, etc, etc.These are skills I want to learn and practice-I've only been doing UX about 3 years-and I feel that this would be a great opportunity. Except it doesn't feel like it.
I've talked to my boss a bit about it, and she assures both of us that we're going to be insanely busy with this project, and at some points that will be true. The agency isn't our company, doesn't know the business like we do and can't read our minds. But still, I feel like I'll just be a person that says "yea, that design looks good" or "well, can you move that box over there? It looks better" or "that flow doesn't make sense for our users; re-think it".
So, have any of you been in a similar situation? How can I build my skills and contribute to the project? Do you have ideas of what I may do? Should I look for other opportunities elsewhere?