Thousands of agencies promise transformation; a fraction deliver it. Telling them apart before you sign is a learnable skill — here is the syllabus.
Start with the work, but read it forensically. Who did what, against which brief, to what measurable effect? Agencies proud of outcomes answer precisely; showreels answer with music.
Meet the team you will actually get. Senior charm at the pitch followed by junior reality in delivery is the industry's oldest sleight of hand — insist the day-to-day leads are in the room.
Interrogate process over promises. How are disagreements handled? What dies in week two? The answers reveal whether you are buying thinking or theatre.
“Read the work forensically: outcomes answer precisely, showreels answer with music.”
For talent choosing a home
Portfolio velocity matters more than prestige: how much of your work will ship, be seen, and teach you something? Ask juniors, not founders, what the apprenticeship is really like.
And mind the commercial model. Shops paid for outcomes think differently from shops paid for hours — choose the incentives whose thinking you want to inherit.
