Retainer vs. Project: What’s the Difference (and Which Is Right for You)?
Learn which UX engagement model fits your healthcare organization.
At ZoCo, we intentionally shape our work around what will best support your team over time.
When we’re collaborating on whether a retainer or a project-based approach makes the most sense, we take the time to understand what’s really happening inside your organization. We ask thoughtful questions about your goals, your timelines, your internal capacity, and the pressures you’re navigating. From there, we talk through options together, outlining what each structure would look like in practice so you can choose the right model with confidence.
Don't want to wait for those conversations to learn more? From the Client Engagement side of the house here at ZoCo (what we call our amazing Account and Project Management team), we're breaking down the key differences between a retainer and a project. From where we sit—close to roadmaps, stakeholders, and the realities of helping UX make a valuable impact at large healthcare organizations—the difference comes down to how your work and teams behave over time.
When the Work Moves, a Retainer Moves With It
Most environments don’t sit still. In healthcare organizations especially, roadmaps shift with regulatory updates, leadership priorities, and acquisitions or consolidations. What starts as usability research for scheduling can quickly expand into service design for care coordination. A new population health initiative might require continuous discovery work as it scales.
A retainer is built for that kind of motion. It works well when:
- You’re scaling a UX practice where continuous discovery, insight management, and cross-team collaboration is constant.
- Design and research needs ebb and flow across teams and products.
- You need continuity without hiring for peak capacity.
- Enterprise-wide initiatives require long-term embedded coordination with development, product and commercialization teams.
Instead of re-scoping every time priorities shift, a retainer provides an adaptable bench of UX practitioners who already understand your systems, stakeholders, and constraints.
When the Goal is Clear, a Project Creates Focus
Other moments call for concentration. This might look like designing and launching a new app, de-risking a strategic product bet before further investment, or shipping a new feature with executive visibility (hello, AI).
In cases where you need to demonstrate ROI, show tangible deliverables on a set timeline, or introduce UX expertise for the first time, the work benefits from a clearly defined container. A sharp problem statement and agreed-upon outcomes create alignment from the start. Everyone understands the scope, the timeline, and what “done” actually means. With clear boundaries, decisions move faster. And because the goal is explicit, progress becomes easier to measure and communicate. Structured this way, a project carries a meaningful initiative from start to finish, while giving stakeholders the visibility and confidence that the investment is working.
A project model is a pre-set scope that works best when there’s:
- A defined challenge.
- Clear success criteria.
- A shared commitment to deliver by a specific date.
Both move important work forward, but the decision comes down to flexibility or focus. Whether your team needs the flexibility of a retainer or the focus of a defined project, our role is to help you choose the structure that will create the most impact.
Check out our Ultimate Guide to UX Research & Product Design Services
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