A review of your agency’s ways of working to surface challenges and opportunites for rapid improvement.
Your digital or creative projects aren’t always going to plan. Sometimes you feel like you’re on a rollercoaster of unpredictability. There are overruns and delays regularly impacting your team, your clients and your bottom line.
Some projects run smoothly, but then the wheels come off. Instead of consistent, repeatable success, you’re regularly thrown into firefighting mode, supporting where others should be in control.
If you regularly lead projects you’ll have experienced it yourself. Whether while running an agency, managing client work, or as part of a delivery team.
You’re not alone
These experiences are common, and it’s backed up by data. A recent survey of more than 200 agencies showed that five of the top six project management challenges were specific to delivery.
- Poorly trained Project Managers
- Attempting to run too many projects
- Poor resource management
- Inconsistency in approach
- …
- Frequent changes to scope
Only 45% of agencies reported that they had a track-record of project success. Less than half. That means all the other agencies who took part regularly ran projects that were challenged or failing.
66% of agencies said they were late with delivery of the majority of projects. The same number, 66%, were often overspending. These two failures are certainly related, but equally surprising.
Based on these results, project success, on-time delivery, and hitting profit targets is for the minority of agencies. But we can improve that.
My health check workshop surfaces challenges with your agency’s ways of working, and offers immediate opportunities for action.
Learn, Adapt, Measure
Delivery challenges are often specific to one agency. The commonly shared solution you’ll have read about may be right for others, but won’t necessarily work when you implement them.
Step one is where we understand what’s going wrong. We review your project delivery approach, gathering insights from your team members, and map them to help you visualise the priorities.
Mapping is a great option for triggering discussions. It always surfaces new pain points and challenges. Any map or assets we create are yours to keep, and we may return to them together at a later date, or you could build on the insights yourself.
The beginnings of mapping a delivery system
While we’re mapping, we’ll touch on some key elements of successful delivery systems. The session will be an opportunity for learning as well as sharing.
The four project focuses of Tactical Delivery Habits:
- Align – before a project, lay the foundations for project success
- Define – agree what we’re creating and what the priorities are
- Deliver – master the creation, releases and delivery
- Adapt – regularly inspect our ways of working and improve
We’ll touch on those, and some of the building blocks for consistent success:
- Stakeholder mapping
- Value definition
- Approach suitability
- Kick-off
- Outcomes or outputs
- Delight and success
- Retrospection
- … and more
Progress then perfection
You’ll immediately see potential for improvement and the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s likely you’ll come away with more actionable insights than you can immediately implement.
You’ll also take away:
- Any delivery system map, opportunity map, or other mapping we do
- A list of challenges and priorities for improvement
- Insights on how you might approach each
- Newly found faith you can consistently deliver successful client projects
- An excited, aligned team, ready to take on the challenge
All this from £750, starting with a discovery call and followed up with an Insight Report
Ready to book your Delivery System Health Check?
Send me an email ( hello@harrybailey.com ) or Find me on LinkedIn and let’s discuss your situation.
Testimonials
Harry’s approach allows agency owners and teams, deep in the trenches of day-to-day project work, to step out for a much-needed bird’s-eye view.
It’s helped me feel confident about delivering client projects consistently and with self-assurance. Highly recommended!
– Frank Staiger, Via Studio
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Harry to agency teams looking to build team cohesion, improve productivity and develop a commercial mindset throughout a team.
— Tom Parson, Huddle Digital
FAQ
How long does the session take, and what’s the format?
Most reviews are completed in a single half-day session. We can run them remotely or in person, depending on what suits your team best. You’ll get a clear summary and recommendations soon after the session.
What kind of team involvement is required?
It works best when a small cross-section of your team joins. Those people who plan, deliver and manage your projects. This mix helps us see how your delivery approach works in practice.
What happens after the session? Do you help with implementation??
You’ll receive a practical list of findings and next steps. Some teams take it from there, others ask for follow-up support or coaching to help put the improvements in place.
Can you run it again for the same agency?
It’s an iterative session which you will benefit from repeating regularly. So yes, you could run it again. We can discuss various options.
Does it matter if our agency focuses on Marketing, Design or Software?
Not at all. It’s valuable for any agency which runs projects for clients which have a start, a middle and an end. Especially if the end results in a sign-off. More so if there is knowledge work being done and the ‘What’ is often unclear to begin with.
Let’s discuss your situation… Send me an email ( hello@harrybailey.com ) or Find me on LinkedIn.