- There are multiple project management methodologies available for agencies, such as scrum, kanban and waterfall.
- By improving your project management, you can onboard clients more easily, optimize time spent on projects, and hire talent more efficiently.
- In order to improve your project management, set up standard SOPs, hire a project manager, and use the right tools.
Running an agency without effective project management is challenging, with many struggling to complete projects on time. Hubspot’s Marketing Agency Growth Report reveals that 43% of agency owners lack time for administrative tasks, and nearly 25% struggle to meet client goals.
Good project management practices can solve these issues by allowing you to track projects and deliver them on time. But good agency project management is more than that.
In this guide, I’ll introduce a few tips and tricks that will help you run a more efficient project management process.
Introduction to agency project management
Agency project management refers to the systems and processes you use to manage your day-to-day agency operations.
Tasks that can fall under the banner of project management include:
how you manage and track your team’s billable hours
the workflow you use to manage projects and tasks
your client onboarding process
Project management is all about making sure your agency runs smoothly and your client experience is never negatively impacted. Whether you’ve just started an agency or are five years into the journey, you’ll quickly start seeing benefits once you implement better project management systems.
Performance metrics & financial management
Effective agency project management hinges on setting and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). They are essential if you want to measure success and identify areas for improvement.
Setting and tracking KPIs
There are four KPIs you should track in your agency:
Project completion rate: Monitor the percentage of projects completed on time to assess efficiency and reliability.
Client satisfaction scores: Gauge client happiness through surveys or feedback to ensure your services meet or exceed expectations.
Resource utilization: Track how effectively your team's time and skills are being used to optimize productivity.
Revenue per project: Measure the financial return of each project to understand profitability and pricing strategies.
By regularly reviewing these KPIs, you can make data-driven decisions that create better project outcomes and increase client satisfaction.
Managing financials effectively
In order to keep your business afloat, use the following techniques:
Budget tracking: Implement tools to monitor project budgets in real-time, ensuring expenses stay within allocated funds.
Cost forecasting: Anticipate future costs based on historical data and project scope to avoid financial surprises.
Revenue projection: Estimate future income from projects to plan for growth and investment opportunities.
Time & invoice tracking: Use tools such as Clockify to accurately track billable hours and streamline the invoicing process with Service Provider Pro.
Regular financial reviews help identify potential cost overruns early, allowing for proactive adjustments and maintaining financial stability.
Role of performance metrics
Here’s why it pays off to track all these metrics:
Data-Driven decision making: Analyze performance data to inform strategic decisions and optimize resource allocation.
Iterative Improvement: Use KPI insights to refine project management processes and enhance efficiency over time.
Agile responsiveness: Stay adaptable to changing client needs and market conditions by regularly reviewing performance metrics.
By integrating performance metrics into your project management framework, you can continuously improve your services and increase profitability.
Agency project management methodologies
There are several common project management methodologies agencies are using.
Scrum: If your agency works with a few large clients, you may need to conduct sprints to accomplish big projects and complete tasks. Scrum is a good method if you need to finish up large projects, but not as effective if your agency work consists of smaller repeatable tasks that your team completes independently. A course in agile project management should cover the scrum methodology fully.
Kanban: A visual framework made up of boards. A board usually contains a set of tasks, which are assigned to team members responsible for them. Kanban is a popular project management methodology for agencies because you have a central place for all the tasks your team is working on. And each task usually has a deadline, too, so it’s easy to see the bigger picture.
Waterfall: This follows a linear process. When one task is complete, your team can move on to the next. The waterfall principle works well for agencies with predictable tasks, as it’s easy to identify blockers in agency processes. If one task isn’t completed, a whole project can come to a standstill, so great teamwork is essential.
When you’re starting your agency, you can use a simple project management process in the beginning. This could be a Trello or Notion board tracking every task your team is working on.
As your agency grows, you should start using a unique agency project management framework that fits your business based on your work and the size of your team. There’s no one-size-fits all-solution.
4 benefits of improving your agency project management
As an agency owner, it should be your goal to constantly improve your project management flow. Let’s look at why you should strive for perfection.
1. Transparency into your business operations
The first major benefit to effective project management for agencies is that you’ll know:
where which your biggest cost factors are
what tasks each team member is working on
what blockers exist that need to be solved
You can also see a high-level overview of everything your team is working on and understand both their current and future workload.
If you ever need information about a specific project, you can easily see who is working on it, the costs incurred, and the expected completion date. You can then stay in touch with your clients and deliver project updates.
2. Streamline client onboarding
With good project management processes in place, every task will follow a documented process, including your client onboarding system.
Create a framework for your agency onboarding process to standardize:
setting up a follow-up email after your initial discovery call
automating invoicing and managing payments
ensuring the success team knows when and how to upsell clients
Streamline & automate your client onboarding.
While these steps sound simple at first, it’s easy to end up with a client onboarding process that’s messy and hard to manage.
3. Improve your hiring process
Knowing when to hire new employees or finding new contractors is key to successful agency growth. With good project management, you’ll always know the availability and limits of your current team, enabling you to plan for new hires in advance.
You’ll never be in a situation where you onboard a new client, then need to scramble to find a freelancer to help as your team is already at capacity.
4. Optimize how your team spends their time
A survey of over 10,000 employees done by Asana found that 60% of most company time is spent on tasks such as searching for documentation or taking calls with team members.
As an agency owner, you can’t spend hours every week on insignificant work; you need to focus on generating leads, establishing agency partnerships, and overseeing the evolution of your company.
With a good project management system in place, you can spend less time on basic task management, all while ensuring your team is focusing on the most important task at any time. In SPP, for instance, you have reports that give you an overview of currently assigned orders. This helps your manager delegating work to contractors if the internal team is running at full capacity.
How to improve your agency project management
With the benefits known to you, let me show you how you can improve your project management flow in four steps.
Create standard operating procedures
The first lever you can pull to improve your project management is by creating standard operating procedures (SOPs).
SOPs are step-by-step templates with instructions on how to fulfill a specific task.
For example, if you run a content agency, you may have a SOP for writing a blog post with steps like:
create content brief based on keywords
assign the task to a knowledgable writer
run quality checks on the article using tools like NeuronWriter and Grammarly
source a featured image from our stock photo library
upload article to client CMS
When you assign the task to someone on your team, they can work through the process and check off each task when it’s finished.
If your team is following a consistent process, it’s simple to plan ahead, as you know how many hours each task takes and who is responsible for it.
Create & assign tasks with due dates.
Having documented processes in place is also essential if you decide to sell your agency. It shows prospective buyers that your agency operations are structured and scalable.
Focus on a single niche
If your agency is dealing with clients across 10+ industries and you need to comply with different rules and best practices for each one, it’s going to be near-impossible to implement effective project management processes.
One of the best ways to solve this is through specialization. Agencies that focus on one niche have it easier managing resources and projects. Your processes will be more applicable across different client accounts, and your team more familiar with each one.
Another benefit to specialization is that you can position your agency and team as industry experts, making scaling your agency easier.
Audit the tools you’re using
Everyone enjoys signing up to tools that promise to revolutionize the way you run your agency. But it’s best to keep things simple.
If your team’s attention is spread across multiple tools like Slack, Gmail, Google Docs, Notion, Asana, Intercom, and payment providers like Stripe—things can get complicated.
It won’t be long before a client email slips through or someone misses a due date because they didn’t see an in-app reminder.
Even if your current project management system is working, consider a quarterly or bi-annual audit of the tools your agency uses. You might find that you’re using multiple tools to achieve the same thing, or that the apps you’re using can be replaced by a new one.
For example, a client portal like SPP includes:
recurring payments processing that removes the need for manual invoices
order management to help you log and deliver client work
customer helpdesk that your whole team can access and answer questions in
referral management to grow your client base
Having fewer tools, but ensuring each one you use covers all the essential tasks you need to fulfill in your agency, is a simple way to improve your team’s workflow.
Risk and stakeholder management
Tools only take you so far with your projects. The success of your projects hinges on effective risk management. By proactively identifying and mitigating risks, you can minimize disruptions and ensure smoother project execution.
Here are key strategies to manage risks:
Identify: Conduct regular risk assessments to identify potential issues that could impact project timelines, budgets, or outcomes. Involve your team and stakeholders to gather diverse perspectives.
Mitigate: Develop contingency plans for high-impact risks. This could include allocating buffer time in schedules, securing backup resources, or implementing fallback strategies.
Monitor Regularly review and update your risk register to track the status of identified risks and assess the effectiveness of mitigation strategies.
Another vital aspect is managing stakeholders. By communicating with them clearly, you can builds trust and ensure that everyone is aware of project goals.
Here’s how to manage stakeholders effectively:
Identify key stakeholders: Map out all individuals or groups affected by the project, including clients, team members, and external partners. Understand their roles, interests, and influence over the project.
Create a communication plan: Develop a communication plan that outlines how and when to engage with each stakeholder. Tailor your communication to address their specific concerns and keep them informed of project progress.
Engage stakeholders: Actively involve stakeholders in decision-making processes where appropriate. Regular check-ins and feedback loops ensure their voices are heard and their expectations are managed.
By integrating robust risk and stakeholder management practices, agencies can navigate challenges more effectively, fostering successful project outcomes and stronger client relationships.
Team collaboration and leadership
The final key to successful project management in your agency is effective team collaboration. Make it clear that you prefer open communication; use collaborative tools that allows teams to communicate with each other.
Here are key strategies for effective team collaboration:
Regular check-ins: Schedule stand-ups to discuss progress, address issues, and align on goals.
Collaborative tools: Utilize project management software such as SPP and communication platforms like Slack to streamline workflows and facilitate real-time collaboration.
Stay on top of your projects and get your tasks done on time.
While teams can collaborate with each other to a certain degree, at some point they might need a leadership role. Strong leaders inspire and motivate team members, creating a productive environment. They ensure clear project vision, delegate tasks effectively, and support team growth.
If your team is mostly remote, you can use these strategies:
Virtual meetings: Use video conferencing to maintain face-to-face interactions and build rapport.
Clear expectations: Establish defined roles, responsibilities, and deadlines to keep remote teams on track.
By prioritizing team collaboration and strong leadership, agencies can overcome challenges and deliver successful projects, whether teams are co-located or remote.
Wrapping up
Improving your project management is a necessary step you need to take if you want to level up your agency.
Good project management allows your team to do their best work while keeping you in the loop of every task and project being worked on.
When creating a project management system, it’s important to spend time setting up a framework that works for your unique needs. Don’t rush this process, as you’ll quickly see the benefits across your whole business once the system is in place.
