case study

What we did:

Over five years, I moved from hourly contractor to Strategy and Project Lead for a creative agency. Embedded at every level of the business, from onboarding new clients to developing new service offerings from scratch. My role included:

  • Running strategy calls and leading client onboarding
  • Creating sitemaps, user flows, and website ecosystem mapping
  • Overseeing projects from contract prep through launch and offboarding to the Support Team
  • Managing invoice preparation and collaborator/subcontractor relationships
  • Developing new service offerings based on emerging client needs

The agency was able to provide more value for it’s clients, retaining more clients long-term, and operating with a leaner, more profitable structure than when we started.

Client Challenge:

When the agency brought me on, they were already doing the work. They had talent, they had clients, and they had a documented process. What they didn’t have was efficiency.

Early indicators revealed:

  • Projects quietly running over budget
  • Reactive client communication with no consistent cadence
  • A widening gap between what was scoped and what was being delivered
  • Slow organizational friction that was easy to miss — until it got expensive
It wasn’t a people problem. They needed clarity and better structure for the process.

Our Solution:

Working alongside the agency’s other project manager, we looked honestly at where projects were slowing down and why. Here’s what we built:

  1. Simplified an overly detailed workflow to reduce friction and confusion
  2. Rebuilt client-facing document templates so every project started with the same strong foundation
  3. Added contract review calls, a deliberate early touchpoint to walk clients through exactly what was and wasn’t in scope before anyone opened a design file
  4. Developed a proactive client communication cadence, calibrated to what actually motivated each person to stay engaged — asynchronous updates for some, live check-ins for others
  5. Built a natural path to ongoing support by introducing the agency’s retainer offerings early and consistently, framing them as a next chapter rather than an upsell

Client Results:

  • Consistently finishing projects under or at budget gave the agency room to adjust their pricing without diluting the client experience
  • More clients transitioned into ongoing support relationships, increasing lifetime value
  • New service offerings were identified and developed based on what clients actually needed – revenue the business didn’t know it was leaving on the table

What this means for you

If you’re an agency owner reading this, you probably recognize something in this story. You know there are gaps in your shop too. Hours slipping. Scope creeping. Clients who could be lifetime relationships instead of one-and-done projects.

The difference between where you are and where you want to be is one relationship with someone who can see what you can’t quite see yet. That’s the work I do. And I’d love to do it with you.

Clarity is just a click away.
Schedule a call.

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