Realizing I’m clueless about how scoping works. How do agencies normally set up retainer scopes when the workload is expected to significantly ebb and flow throughout the year? (Like wtf does TurboTax do, since they go so heavy before tax season but then go mostly dark?) Do you understaff and hiring freelancers when big waves hit, or overstaff and use the slow moments to do pro bono work, research, new biz, etc?

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Every retainer scope I've seen lays out the projects/campaigns needed, and the staff required to deliver on those. Doesn't matter what time of year it will be. If there's a lot of work the first half of the year, the agency will probably try to staff people on that client along with another one who can use them more later in the year.

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This is so simple. Brilliant. Thank you!

This is one of the biggest parts of Accounts job

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Do the lines blur between project management and account when it comes to scoping discussions with clients?

It depends on the agency and their scoping / staffing process. An agency with knowledgeable PMs, Account and Finance they would break out projects and when they would happen in the year or at the least break out the projects with associated hours. That is then transfered into how many FTEs are needed on that account. Combine all the accounts / FTEs and that would tell you how many bodies you need at that level for the year. Using your TurboTax example, I assume there are some tasks associated with tax time activities and then there are those that happen across the year and they staff accordingly.

smart

OP - SD yes, including not only the number of projects but level of effort of those projects. Many times teams are looking at scope creep when working within a retainer because the thinking is everything is included because it's a retainer. Thus is where Utilization and burn is very important to track. From a client's perspective, the reason they would want to have it listed out is so then they are able to say "you said 6 of these projects, but I only got 4" then on the agency side you can say "the scope said 4 of this type of project, you only did 2, but we did 6 of this other project". Recording and tracking is key. Make sure you have a PM who knows their stuff and have scope management be a high priority.

"Take what you need! Leave what you have. Free love."

funny

Agencies have multiple clients, when turbotax is slow, they work on other accounts. And even though turbotax only advertises part of the year, it can take a year to develop a campaign.

Sure - but how does TT’s agency structure the scope? Does TT accept that they have to pay for the full year? Or is there some other way they go about it? I’m trying to understand how that part gets negotiated.

It’s a constant cycle of research, brief, concept, produce, air, and start again. Also, clients usually have more than one product - TurboTax is part of intuit, so quickbooks is one of the always on products.

Do you only have a single TurboTax product/project and nothing else? If so then you plan for it like a project account and use internal resources scoped based on how many deliverables they’re looking to create.

My favorite part about scoping is blowing the whistle on my directors when they scope 8 hours for a 20 minute task 😂😂

I bet you’re the person that says “it’s only a tagline, you can do that in an hour, right?”

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