Agency structure: Multiple roles at growing agencies - Karl Sakas

Quoted on this wiki

Every place a page here uses this source, in the order the words come in it.

1. “As your agency grows, you and your employees tend to become increasingly specialized.” For instance, a designer might stop doing project management on top of their design work. Or instead of handling account management and client strategy, you’ll handle just one.

   In Cross-team accountability model

2. Can agency employees fill more than one role at once? “In a smaller agency, employees will often serve in 2–3 roles at once.” Account Leader + Strategist: Here, the day-to-day client contact (Account Leader) also creates the client’s long-term strategy (Strategist). Clients like having continuous access to their strategist, but this can make the strategy seem less valuable because you’re so familiar to them.

   In Cross-team accountability model

3. Can agency employees fill more than one role at once? “It’s a common practice—but it’s not always a good idea.” Account Leader + Strategist: Here, the day-to-day client contact (Account Leader) also creates the client’s long-term strategy (Strategist). Clients like having continuous access to their strategist, but this can make the strategy seem less valuable because you’re so familiar to them.

   In Cross-team accountability model

4. Speaking of making yourself “Optional” at work—if you want to reduce your day-to-day involvement as an agency owner, consider dropping things in this “checklist” order. “Specialist (since you typically can hire or outsource this work without impacting client-facing relationships)” Delivery Leader (even if you’re detail-oriented, there are more important things for you to run… and if you’re not detail-oriented, delegate this sooner rather than later, because most owners either under-prioritize it or over-manage it)

   In Hybrid operating model design