Why big agencies have trouble
fitting in the small projects

What you are about to read is a revealing look inside large web and creative agencies and why your digital project could cost tens or hundreds of thousands more than it might otherwise be.

Careful what you wish for!

This site can ruin your belief structure around selling and delivering small projects profitably...

Actual (redacted) Slack message from inside a popular web agency:

"COMPUTERS ARE HARD"
• Huge standup, ask questions at end, wedging tech questions into remainingn minutes keeping everyone on call when we all just want to hang up, devs not getting chance to ask theirs, quick rushed answers. Calendars are fully-booked and devs feel they just have to wait until tomorrow to try again because they can't ask during the day especially given timezone differences.
• You have a huge bench that you want to use but ebb and flow leads to shortages then contractors
• Fedearted approach, sprinkling hours
• Afraid of underbidding, gross overbidding
Predicting the shit out of everything
Over-complicating things
Not knowing what you really do
Not tracking your time well
Not letting people know the time expectation or when they are over it
"OUT OF BOX" behavior
Over-reliance on "user stories" that don't really convey detail
Lording over spreadsheets

Bloated teams
Not talking to each other
WHY ARE WE ALLOWING CUSTOM UI AND THEN THAT LANDS ON FED DESK
WHY IS CREATIVE BEING DONE DEEP INTO PROJECT
WHY ARE YOU GOIVING THE TECH TEAM NO PREP OR ADVANCED VIEW OF CREATIVE TILL NIGHT NBEFORE UNVEILING TO CLIENT
HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK THEY CAN CATCH BY GLANCING AT A SCTEENCAST WHILE YOU ARE PRESENTING
FALLACY OF WORKING AND MEETING AND REVIEWING AT THE SAME TIME - WATCH, THINK, SAY, DO
CAR WASH
"ASK ALL YOUR QUESTIONS" & Soothsayer image
REPEAT THE SAME THING EXPECTING A DIFERENT OUTCONME
WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING YOU KNOW
What happens when people just don't know stuff? What if you are late int he game, and what if you realize this person has been making changes all along? CHECKING IN versus WORKING WITH THE TICKET NEEDS TO BE DONE THE TIMESHEET MUST BE FILLED OUT MOVE TO JELL SO TEAM DOESN"T HAVE TO REPORT DURING STANDUP - STANDUP ALL PM not TECH/DEVS OPEN TH WEB CAM AND WORK ALONE, TOGETHER Ernie and Bert - cookies on the plate

PROCESS - OBSERVE - CONVEY - PERFORM

Inside you will learn about:

Voodoo Accounting

The Soothsayer

Groundhog Day

The Four Functions of Humans

Cookies on a Plate

The Fallacy of Cheap Labor

The Art of Progressive Elicitation

The Fallacy of the Change Order

Story Points and You

All RPM's no torque.

Ten people reviewing 40 lines on a spreadsheet wit one person actualy doing almost all the owrk beind the scenes

PM would rather discuss each and every topic each and every day, even when it's obvious most have not been touched, rather than to let the very small tech team discuss the things they know are in play