A guide for hiring an agency

A great agency can accelerate your business like nothing else. But hiring an agency must be done very carefully, because if you do it wrong you misaligned agency will become a gigantic time and money sink. 

This is my checklist for hiring an agency.

• What is their creative vision? Why do they do what they do -- are they chasing innovation and excellence, or dollars? 
• What is their culture of getting things done? This will have the biggest impact on your day to day. If you have a good RFP then you will probably get many proposals that look roughly the same in terms of deliverables and timeline. So the stuff that happens in between is super important. How and when do they plan on communicating with you, the client? How many people on their end will you be working with, and how frequently? What processes, tools, and methods do they use? 
• Where are they located? If they are more than 45 minutes away by car, then they are remote. Working with a local agency has huge benefits because of the face to face time, but working with a remote agency can have plenty of benefits as well. If you are in San Francisco like me, you have an extraordinary amount of local talent to choose from, but can also find great deals if you shop elsewhere. 
• How big are they? Big agencies have big costs. Small agencies often lack breadth and bandwidth. I really love agencies in the 10-40 person range. They are big enough to have a lot of history together, and perhaps a brand, but they also usually also have minimal HR costs, overhead, and bureaucracy. 
• Who is doing the work? Is it the junior people, the senior people, a blend, are they outsourcing any of it? Be very clear upfront with who is doing what.
• What does their work look like? Not the "portfolio" on their website, ask them to see deliverables from recent and relevant project. (Hint: if they do not recent project that is relevant to yours, maybe they do not do what you want them to do). 
• Do they understand the work to be done? Take as much time as you need to define very specifically the scope and expectations of the projects. This starts with creating a thorough RFP. Any unknowns of ambiguity translates to longer timelines and higher costs. 
• Do they check out? Feel free to ask them for references. 
  

For best results, think of an agency as your partner and treat them accordingly. There is a reason why it is called an agency relationship. Agencies do best when you enable them for success and provide them with feedback and resources. Don't nickel and dime them on the deal. If they feel like they are getting shafted you project will not be a success. Win/win is the only outcome you should optimize for.