I love partnering with creative agencies on projects. I’m often blown away by the quality of their work and it’s exciting to imagine the possibilities of bringing the specialities of the two companies together.
Like all human relationships, a partnership between two agencies can be a difficult thing to get right, and I’ve learnt some lessons from my experience. So if you’re thinking about tackling a project jointly with another agency, perhaps by subcontracting a portion of the work to them, then this article is for you.
Lesson 1: The end client rarely minds that you’re using a subcontractor
People often worry that the client will lose confidence in them if they find out that some of the work is being subcontracted. But in my experience, the client just wants to feel confident that you can deliver what you have promised. It can actually help your case if you say to the client ‘we are all about visual design, so we get the expert techies in to do the database bit’. If you do make the subcontractor ‘invisible’ to the end client, you’ll create additional project management hassle for yourself as all of the communication will have to go via you. The best way to approach a partnership project is to be transparent with the client and introduce them to all of the people who will be working on their project and say ‘these are the guys who will get it done’. In today’s flexible, dynamic business environment it’s not a big deal who’s payroll each person is on.
Lesson 2: Get the specialist involved early-on
If you’re partnering with a specialist then remember that they are capable of more than just implementation. Get them involved early on in the project so that you can get their ideas about how to best achieve the client’s objectives. As well as the possibility of generating ideas and approaches that you might not have thought of yourself, you will ensure their buy-in to the project. Let’s face it, how motivated will the partner be if they are commissioned to do a piece of work that could have been done much more effectively in a different way?
Lesson 3: Be prepared to be told that the help you need is different to what you thought you needed
I’ve been in situations where a design agency has come to me asking for help with the programming element of a web project. They’ve produced a set of screen mock-ups in Photoshop and have a Word document explaining the functionality of the site. They think they need a programmer to ‘make it work’, but what the project really needs is someone to take them back a step; plan out the user experience in a little more detail; and then actually implement it. You can avoid this by getting the specialist involved early on, and also by understanding the disciplines required on a successful web team to spot the gaps in your own skillset.
Lesson 4: Account management and project management are different
You’ve worked hard to win the trust of your client and you want to own the relationship. This is what I call ‘account management’ and it’s definitely something that you have every right to hold on to. However, managing the operational side of getting the work done (project management) is a different kettle of fish altogether. The project manager should be the person who best understands the complete end-to-end process that you’re going to be following, and sometimes that may be your partner rather than you. You can still own the overall client relationship whilst giving the project the best chance of succeeding by getting the right person to manage it day-to-day. If you get the project completed successfully then your client will love you for putting it all together for them.
Lesson 5: Partnerships take time to build
Just like a jelled team within a company, a partnership takes time to blossom. It might take a couple of projects before you get used to working with each other, so it’s a good idea to test the partnership on a smaller, lower risk project and then build up to more significant projects. If the circumstances dictate that you have to dive straight into a major project, then set everyone’s expectations: there will be the odd stressful moment, but go easy on the people, play nice, and you’ll get through it together.
Good luck, and let me know how you get on.
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