Task Management for Agencies: Why Work Breaks Down and How to Fix It

It’s 7pm on a summer Thursday. Instead of going for your evening walk, you’re leaving a comment in your PM tool to re-explain something you could’ve sworn you’ve explained twice before to someone you’re already paying, because nothing in your system communicated what “done” looked like to them. And tomorrow, on your summer Friday, instead of logging off at 1pm, it will probably just happen again.

Next week will probably look the same.

But the frustration you feel towards the tool and the team is misplaced. The system your day-to-day delivery exists within probably worked when the company was smaller. Now that you’ve grown, the system needs to set up your tools and people for success. As a leader, you’re still “in” this work, but you built it from ground up. So it seems very clear to you. But the catch is, it only seems clear to you.

Why task management falls apart in growing companies

Service-based Founders and CEOs often get frustrated as their company grows because the work becomes less and less predictable. Why?

When the company was smaller, task intake was very straightforward. Client request → routed to the right person → everyone was already in the loop and familiar with the client so there wasn’t much knowledge transfer needed. The clients were also typically lower stakes, so a mediocre output was considered okay.

Then the company grew. Added people. Added a more robust project management tool. Added more clients, bigger clients. More requests. There was a formal intake process named, but it was a bit reactive. It focused more on what happens after the request is posed, instead of what the request actually needs to contain.

Most founders see unpredictability in the work as a people issue. They feel concerned the quality of their talent isn’t good, or they need to add headcount in order to deliver better work faster, or they need more managers/supervisors to oversee the work, or they need a better tool to manage the flow of work.

The real reason work isn’t predictable is an incredibly difficult problem to diagnose from the inside. Founders and CEOs need the people embedded in their work, their team, to speak up and address the issue. But oftentimes, team members are afraid to address these issues or are just too bogged down in the details to muster the energy.

What does it look like in practice?

We worked with a digital delivery team who accepted any and all requests into their backlog, even those that didn’t have a description. It resulted in hundreds of backlogged requests, some dating back over three years, that never got handled. Our team worked with them over six months to uncover their operational bottlenecks and address priority fixes: intake management, project governance, restructuring the backlog, and more.

One quarter later, their strategic output increased 48%.

What do tasks need to contain before handing off to your team?

Put yourself in your team’s shoes. Let’s say you, or an account lead, enters a task into your project management tool, “Fourth of July hero image”, assigns it to the designer, makes it due next Tuesday and moves on. All the designer knows is which client it’s for, it’s a hero image, and for the Fourth of July. Hopefully there’s specs saved somewhere and maybe a content strategy the designer can reference. But there’s so much missing here.

• What’s the context of this? Why does the client need a Fourth of July hero image? Are they a mattress company running a flash sale? Are they just a ProServ firm who wants a festive hero image? Is this going to touch other deliverables?

• Is there a general vision they have for this? Do they just want a design, do they want copy, etc.? The designer could deliver a myriad of things, but without some thought starters from the client, you’re guaranteed to do revisions. And again, if this isn’t directly tied to client revenue goals, its kind of burning your designers time.

• What does success look like to this client for this particular deliverable? Do they want it to increase time spent on page, just boost brand image, etc? Is there actually a point to this ask?

Being stricter with intake actually speeds up everything and significantly improves quality of output. A lot of times, when you thoughtfully ask questions like, “What does success look like with this deliverable for you?”, clients will end up talking themselves out of a random ad hoc ask.

Include This In Every Task Handoff Moving Forward

So, why are you clarifying things for your team at 7pm on a Thursday?

Most likely, someone assumed the objective and definition of done for a deliverable. Assumptions in client delivery never end well.

All tasks should include the following elements:

• Objective

• Context

• Assets

• Deadline

• Definition of Done

Before we walk through them, no this will not slow you down. This should streamline the work your team is doing. It should help keep them in their zone of genius, reduce rework, and increase client satisfaction.

Objective

A strong objective is typically tied to the funnel: awareness, education, credibility building, converting, or delighting. A brand new hero image on it’s own could have an objective tied “delighting”, but that’s weak. A brand new hero image tied with some type of value add (discount, free download, etc.) hits on delighting + another part of the mid-funnel.

Context

In the world of client services, clients are constantly switching their focus. This is why context is so important. If added context isn’t included in the task, your team is delivering on prior knowledge (to no fault of their own). What happens next is inevitable rework, frustration on both sides, and this costs the company real money.

Assets

Don’t pay your team to chase files down. Having governance around where assets should be found or uploaded, and holding people accountable to getting them there is key. The task itself should say: “client wants team image in hero, uploaded to Drive”, or the designer should know to upload their files to the Drive. And when the tasks move into review, the reviewer should know per the process, where to look. When you don’t have governance around this, your team burns 30+ minutes per day tracking down files.

Deadlines

A client deadline vs an internal deadline is quite different, and often makes a big difference between a smooth delivery engine and a series of fires. A strong deadline chain works backwards: client deadline → internal review → revision buffer → execution → intake. Don’t throw deadlines on tasks with the hope (and assumption) nothing will go wrong.

Understanding your team’s baseline production times for recurring work makes a big difference here. This is how you move from guessing to predictability. If you don’t understand your team’s baseline, we can show you how to do that.

Don’t set deadlines based on client urgency, set deadlines based on your team’s production reality. This builds trust with your team and clients.

Definition of Done

This is where you translate client expectations into results for your team to take their talents and act on.

A poor definition of done just describes the deliverable: “a set of new images for ads that features (services your company sells) and meets (specs)”.

A strong definition of done describes the outcome the client wants from this asks. “a set of new images for ads that are designed to drive qualified clicks and decrease CPAC by $1”. From here, your designer can then recommend testing a few different types of images and design them accordingly, with the objective in mind being tied to profit (which goes back to the first step in the list, the objective).

What to Do Next

There is a world in your near future where you’re on an evening walk 7pm on a Thursday and totally clear headed. Because your job is focused on growing the company, making decisions confidently and clearly, and winning business. That is a world where your team is producing at the top of their potential. And the fastest way to enable that is fixing how work enters your world.

If you don't know where your task management is breaking down, that's what a Root Cause Call is for. Book 30min with our Founder, Erica, and walk away with your real bottlenecks identified, a written summary of what was discovered, and honest clarity on what your best next step is.