The first sixty days of an agency relationship determine whether the engagement compounds or stalls. This runbook is the version we have refined across hundreds of post-mortems on engagements that worked and engagements that did not.
Days 1 to 14 — Foundations
Brand, customer, and competitive context shared in structured form, not as a folder of decks. Brand book, customer research summaries, three-year competitive timeline, and the last four quarters of measurement results. The agency reads, the client team answers, and a single shared question log captures every gap surfaced.
Days 15 to 30 — First work
The first piece of work is a low-stakes, fixed-scope deliverable that exercises the operating model end to end. Brief, kick-off, mid-point review, delivery, and retrospective. The objective is to surface friction in the operating model, not to deliver a campaign. Friction surfaced here is cheap; friction surfaced in week ten is expensive.
Days 31 to 45 — Operating model
Documented operating model: meeting cadence, decision rights, escalation paths, financial governance, and reporting expectations. Both sides sign. The document is reviewed at the 90-day mark and quarterly thereafter.
Days 46 to 60 — Strategic plan
The agency presents the first strategic point of view on the brand challenge. The client responds with what they agree with, what they disagree with, and what they want to test. The output is the agreed plan for the first major engagement, not a one-way presentation. Plans agreed here run for at least two quarters before material changes.
Common failure modes
Skipping the foundations phase to get to work faster. Treating the first work as a campaign rather than a model test. Leaving the operating model implicit. Allowing the strategic plan to be a one-way presentation rather than a co-created agreement. Each of these failure modes predicts an engagement that is renegotiated within twelve months.
Last updated May 2026 · Filed under Frameworks