You sit down at your desk, ready to start the day.

You’ve got six priority tasks lined up from last week.

Just as you’re about to dive in, the notifications hit.

Three people have shared messages about “urgent things” that need to be considered.

Two have been sent to over a dozen team members in a desperate plea for help. One is sent directly to you, although you think the sender could have made more progress first.

You ignore the team-wide messages and fire back a “Can this wait? Or can you progress without me?” to the DM.

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Delivery models get a lot of attention — and fair enough. They set out how teams are organised, who holds responsibility, and how work should move across an agency. Whether it’s centralised pods, distributed squads, or some hybrid mix, the model lays the groundwork.

The problem is, structure on its own doesn’t deliver anything.

What actually drives outcomes is the approach — the day-to-day habits that keep teams aligned, focused, and moving when projects inevitably get messy. It’s the part that’s usually overlooked once the org charts are drawn and the decks are presented.

That’s why I developed what I call Tactical Delivery Habits: a practical, flexible framework that turns any model into something that works on the ground, not just on paper. In this piece, we’ll look at what delivery models do well, where they fall short, and why a tactical approach is the difference between promises made and promises kept.

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Scope Creep is Common

You’ll have seen it many times before. A project starts smoothly, but once you’ve started sharing progress, and asked for feedback, the requests begin. Small tweaks, additional features—before you know it, scope creep is eating into the budget, your margins and can even lead to project overruns.

Scope creep isn’t just an occasional challenge—it’s a constant reality for agencies. A project begins with what feel like clear expectations, but before you know it, your team and the client have differering priorities.

Your team need to be able to keep every project on track, and that means assessing and refining your agency’s delivery approach to avoid this risk.

Often scope creep requests are accidental. Perhaps a naive client with unclear expectations—clients assume something is included, or aren’t clear if they can change their mind.

Sometimes, it can be strategic—a sneaky attempt to squeeze more out of the budget you agreed.

Either way, how you handle it impacts your agency’s profitability, efficiency, and client relationships.

Your tactics during a project must depend on which approach you planned before it begin. The key is to be intentional and consistent.

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