Agencies
Project management for agencies running parallel client projects.
Agency work multiplies handoffs: several clients, shared specialists, and deliverables that cross account, strategy, creative, and production. Relay keeps one clear owner per deliverable, so you can see where everything stands without chasing anyone.
A handoff should make it obvious who has the ball.
The problem
The same person is shared across five projects.
An agency does not have one project, it has many running at once over one pool of people. A designer's real queue is assembled from four clients. When someone asks "where is the Northwind deliverable?", the honest answer usually requires a message to two people.
So agencies build a reporting habit: a status column per project, groomed before the client call. It is accurate for about a day.
- Shared specialists
- One person's queue spans several clients.
- Cross-team routing
- Work moves between account, creative, and production.
- Status chasing
- Finding out costs more than doing the next step.
Requests
Ask the team before guessing the person.
When account work needs design, the ask goes to the team. It has no owner until someone accepts it — which is honest, because until then nobody is doing it. The requester sees it under Waiting; the accepting person becomes the owner.
Tuesday
Requests · Design
Work your team has been asked to pick up.
New request
not sentLaunch graphics for the spring drop
Spring launchMarketing → Designnobody owns it yet
The launch graphics request is ready to send to Design.
Ownership
One owner per deliverable, across every client project.
Every deliverable has exactly one owner at a time. Reviews move the action to a reviewer without moving ownership. Passes move ownership deliberately, and the project records the handoff.
Across client projects, you can see who owns a deliverable and whether it is with a reviewer or ready for the next step.
Relay is where your team runs the work. It is not a client portal, and it does not change how you share finished deliverables with a client.
- Owner
- One person is accountable for moving the work forward.
- Reviewer
- Has the work in hand to look at it. The owner does not change.
- Requester
- Asked for the work. Sees it under Waiting until someone accepts.
- Team ask
- A request pointed at a team, with no owner until a person accepts it.
Project Pulse
Answer "where is this?" before the client call.
Project Pulse reads each client project back as what needs attention, what moved, and what is next — from the passes, reviews, and approvals already recorded. Nobody prepares it; it is a view of the work.
Project Pulse · today
Website refresh
A live read of what needs attention and what moved.
On track
“The homepage is in review and the launch work is moving on schedule.”
Updated today by Maya
Needs attention 2
- Homepage copy · Maya owns it · Sarah has it for review
- Packaging feedback · changes came back to Maya
Recent movement
- MOMaya passed Photography selects to Alex2h
- SCSarah approved Email campaignyesterday
Bring your client work into Relay.
Start free with one client project and see how much status chasing disappears when every deliverable has one owner.
Free for solo use. Team starts with 14 days free — no card required.