Design retainer:
a senior product design team inside yours
A senior design team inside your SaaS or AI startup — continuously improving UX, shipping faster, and moving the metrics that matter: activation, retention, conversion. Not a vendor. Part of your team.
Built for teams where
design can’t keep up
Your roadmap outpaces your design capacity
Your SaaS or AI roadmap is moving faster than your current design can handle.
You need ongoing product improvements
Across activation, onboarding, retention, conversion, and core workflows.
You want to remove UX friction with data
Use product analytics and experiments to find and fix what is slowing users down.
Design is becoming a bottleneck
For product, engineering, or growth initiatives.
What $12,000 a month
actually buys
One flat rate. No hourly billing, no change orders, no surprise invoices.
The team
A dedicated project manager as your single point of contact, a design lead who owns quality and product direction, and a senior product designer full-time on your product.
The output
Dedicated capacity for ongoing product work, dev-ready Figma files with specs and components, and a design system maintained as your product grows.
The process
A weekly sync, updates every two days and async Slack — and you talk to the designer directly, with no middlemen in between.
TANDEM · NOVEMBER
The teamwhoever is free this weekthe same three, every week
TANDEM · DESIGN BOARD · NOVEMBER
The outputa backlog that waitsscreens your devs can build
TANDEM · WEEK 46
The rhythmsilence until the deadlinesomething new every two days
How the retainer runs
From proof to a weekly shipping rhythm, without a procurement cycle in between.
- Optional: Free 3-day trial. One real screen from your product. No commitment, no contract. Proof before you decide.
- Week 1: Onboarding. We map your product, users and metrics. We find the UX debt worth paying down. You get a prioritized backlog.
- Every week: Ship cycle. Design, review, dev-ready handoff. A weekly sync tied to your metrics. Updates every two days in between.
One price. Choose your term.
Minimum three-month engagement, then cancel anytime with 30 days’ notice. All prices in USD / USDC. Start a retainer within 30 days of your MVP and we credit $2,500 toward your first month.
3 months
Minimum termThe minimum engagement. No discount, and the shortest way to find out whether this works.
- PM, Design Lead and Senior Designer
- Ongoing capacity, scoped to your roadmap
- Weekly sync and direct comms
- Design system maintained as you grow
6 months
Save 5%For a roadmap you can already see through to the end of a half-year.
- PM, Design Lead and Senior Designer
- Ongoing capacity, scoped to your roadmap
- Weekly sync and direct comms
- Design system maintained as you grow
12 months
Save 7%For teams treating design as a standing function rather than a project.
- PM, Design Lead and Senior Designer
- Ongoing capacity, scoped to your roadmap
- Weekly sync and direct comms
- Design system maintained as you grow
Enterprise
Extra senior capacity for complex products and multiple teams. Starting at $20,000/month, final pricing scoped after a call.
WhatsAppWhy founders
choose Glow
Metric-driven, not screen-driven
Activation, retention and conversion are the scoreboard. We agree what a month has to move before it starts.
Deep AI and SaaS expertise
Agent UX, LLM interfaces and devtools. No onboarding on your category, and no learning on your budget.
Faster than hiring
Hiring and onboarding a senior product designer takes 3–6 months. We start in days, with a team rather than one person.
No lock-in
Three-month minimum, then cancel anytime with 30 days’ notice. The work is yours from day one.
Not ready for ongoing? Start smaller.
Fixed Scope
One defined scope with a fixed price: a redesign or a feature, delivered and then done. For when a retainer is more than the problem needs.
- One defined piece of work
- Price quoted before we start
- Senior designers only
- Closed when it’s done
MVP
No product yet? A working MVP in four weeks, at a fixed price. Start a retainer within 30 days of your MVP and we credit $2,500 toward your first month.
- A working build, not a design file
- A core flow designed to activate and retain
- Dev review of architecture, security and scale
- Free 3-day trial included
Free 3-Day Trial
See the work before you commit to anything. One real screen from your product, three working days, no contract.
- Three days with a Glow designer
- Real screens on your actual product
- No contract, no commitment
- Nothing owed if you stop there
See how we work —
before you spend a thing.
Give us a real product challenge. We’ll explore the problem, find a smarter way forward, and bring it to life through design. See what Glow can do in just three days. All in just three days, for free.
- Dropcall10,000users in two days
- Lendflow6+ yearsyearscontinuous design partnership
- Mobile Banking App+44%user satisfaction
- Payment Platform−63%transaction time
- Investment App−29%7-day churn
Frequently
asked questions
Because a live product changes every week. A fixed project prices a scope agreed before anyone has seen how users behave, and every change after that becomes a negotiation. On a retainer the team is already in context — it knows your product, your users and your metrics — so next week’s work starts on Monday instead of starting with a new estimate.
Because a live product changes every week. A fixed project prices a scope agreed before anyone has seen how users behave, and every change after that becomes a negotiation. On a retainer the team is already in context — it knows your product, your users and your metrics — so next week’s work starts on Monday instead of starting with a new estimate.
Hiring and onboarding a senior product designer takes 3–6 months. We start in days, and you get three people rather than one: a project manager, a design lead and a senior designer. When your roadmap quietens down you give 30 days’ notice instead of managing a headcount decision.
Hiring and onboarding a senior product designer takes 3–6 months. We start in days, and you get three people rather than one: a project manager, a design lead and a senior designer. When your roadmap quietens down you give 30 days’ notice instead of managing a headcount decision.
It is dedicated capacity scoped to your roadmap, not a fixed screen count. We agree the priorities at the start of each cycle and work through them in order, so the honest answer for your product comes out of the onboarding week rather than a number on a page.
It is dedicated capacity scoped to your roadmap, not a fixed screen count. We agree the priorities at the start of each cycle and work through them in order, so the honest answer for your product comes out of the onboarding week rather than a number on a page.
After the three-month minimum, yes — cancel anytime with 30 days’ notice. There is no automatic renewal to catch you out and no penalty for stopping.
After the three-month minimum, yes — cancel anytime with 30 days’ notice. There is no automatic renewal to catch you out and no penalty for stopping.
Yes. Most of what makes product design work is the same either way, and our case list runs across fintech, logistics, healthcare, marketplaces and edtech. AI products are simply where we are deepest, because we have designed the most of them.
Yes. Most of what makes product design work is the same either way, and our case list runs across fintech, logistics, healthcare, marketplaces and edtech. AI products are simply where we are deepest, because we have designed the most of them.
You do, from day one. Files, source, design system, everything — there is no clause that keeps any of it with us.
You do, from day one. Files, source, design system, everything — there is no clause that keeps any of it with us.
Then a retainer is the wrong shape and we will say so. A Fixed Scope is one defined scope at a fixed price: a redesign or a feature, delivered and then done. Book a call and we will tell you which of the two your situation actually needs.
Then a retainer is the wrong shape and we will say so. A Fixed Scope is one defined scope at a fixed price: a redesign or a feature, delivered and then done. Book a call and we will tell you which of the two your situation actually needs.
