Written by
Lukas
•
Oct 7, 2025
•
Agencies
When agencies talk about getting organized, the conversation almost always lands on the same topic: Which tool should we use?
"We've moved everything into Notion."
"We're testing ClickUp now."
"We finally switched to Trello."
The hope is simple: once we find the right tool, everything will run smoothly.
But that hope gets disappointed almost every time. The numbers tell a clear story:
55% of employees report having multiple apps that do the same job
60% of employees say tool overload is hurting their ability to collaborate
The average worker switches between apps over 1,100 times a day
The problem: Tools don't fix structural problems. Choosing a tool isn't a design decision – it's a structure decision.
Tools Offer Possibilities – Not Answers
Modern digital tools like Trello, Notion, or ClickUp are incredibly flexible. That's their greatest strength – and their biggest trap at the same time.
These tools are essentially blank canvases. They don't come with structure – you have to bring it.
Imagine moving into an empty office with no furniture, no defined team roles, and no meeting rhythm. After a few weeks, papers pile up on the floor, everyone improvises their own system, and nobody knows where anything is.
That's exactly what happens to many "clean" new project boards.
Without defined responsibilities, clear workflows, and agreed-upon rules, boards quickly turn into digital dumping grounds – just as messy as a real desk covered in unsorted notes. Tasks pile up, priorities blur, and deadlines slip through the cracks. The tool is there, but nothing has really changed.
Roles and Handovers: The Invisible Backbone
The missing piece in many agencies isn't a better app. It's a shared operating system – the invisible backbone that keeps work flowing.
Ask a few basic questions in most teams and you'll see the cracks:
Who owns the initial client briefing?
Who decides when a concept is "final"?
How exactly does a signed proposal become a live project?
If these questions don't have clear, consistent answers, no tool on earth will save you. In fact, the flexibility of general-purpose tools often makes the problem worse: everyone sets up their own way of working, processes stay implicit, and handovers happen casually in Slack or quick hallway chats.
The board becomes a chaotic storage space, not a structured workflow.
A concrete example:
A digital agency in Munich – about 35 employees, specialized in e-commerce and web development – used Trello for everything in 2022. Each team lead built their own column structure. One board had "To Do / Doing / Done." Another used "Inbox / In Progress / Needs Feedback / Shipped." A third had custom labels instead of columns.
Three teams, three systems, no shared language.
Within months, nobody trusted the boards anymore. Work happened elsewhere – in DMs, on calls, in improvised Excel lists. The tool was there. The structure wasn't.
A Board Is Not an Operating System
Many tools get treated like digital whiteboards: great for visibility, not so great for actually running an operation.
A functioning agency system needs more than nicely named columns. It needs a clear, repeatable flow that reflects how the business actually works:
Lead → Proposal → Project Planning → Execution → Billing → Retrospective
Without that structural flow, rules fade, the team loses oversight, and tool usage becomes inconsistent. After a few months, most teams end up back where they started – but now with yet another abandoned board.
What a real operating system looks like:
A mid-sized IT consultancy in Hamburg – 28 consultants, focused on enterprise digitalization – made the switch from homegrown Excel chaos to a structured system in 2023.
The difference? They defined their processes FIRST:
Every lead gets created as a ticket in the Sales project
As soon as a proposal is accepted, it automatically triggers a new project with pre-configured work packages
Every work package has an owner, a reviewer, and clear acceptance criteria
Time tracking is directly on the ticket – no separate lists anymore
Handovers are visible through status changes: "Ready for Review" → "In QA" → "Done"
Only then did they choose the tool that could best support this structure.
The result after six months: 40% fewer follow-up questions, 25% faster project completion, and for the first time, they had precise data on where time was actually going.
Structure First, Tool Second
The real work starts long before anyone logs into a platform. An effective operating structure answers a few fundamental questions:
Roles & Responsibilities:
Who decides what, when, and how?
Handover Points:
How does work reliably move from A to B?
Standards:
How do we ensure everyone works the same way?
Process Flow:
What's the backbone that the tool should support – not replace?
Once these elements are clear, choosing a tool becomes a question of fit, not salvation. The tool becomes an accelerator, not a crutch.
How Leadtime Solves the Structure Problem
This is exactly the gap Leadtime addresses. Instead of giving you a blank board and leaving the rest up to you, Leadtime provides a working agency operating system out of the box – with built-in process logic, role definitions, and handover mechanisms that work from day one.
Predefined Workflows
Workflows in Leadtime map the entire value stream – from initial quote to final invoice.
The flow is already there: Lead → Proposal → Project → Execution → Billing → Closure.
You don't start from zero. You start with a proven structure.
Roles and Responsibilities Embedded in the System
Roles are built directly into the system, so tasks automatically flow to the right person at the right time.
There's no more "Who's doing this?" moment. Every work package has an owner. Every handover is clearly defined. Responsibilities are visible and binding.
Handover Points Are System-Supported
Handovers in Leadtime aren't informal Slack messages anymore.
Every ticket has clear states: "To Do," "In Progress," "Feedback," "Review," "Done."
Handovers happen through status changes – with checklists, comments, and accountability. No more "Did you see my Slack message?" chaos moments.
Structure and Tool Are Unified
The interface reinforces your processes instead of just displaying them.
Leadtime doesn't just show tasks – it orchestrates them:
Big Picture shows you at a glance which work packages are on track (green) and which are falling behind (red)
Pipeline organizes tasks by priority and impact, so everyone always works on what matters most
Stacks automatically transfer these priorities into each team member's individual workspace
The result? Teams don't have to invent their own structures from scratch. They start with a solid foundation and can focus on improving the work itself – not endlessly reorganizing their boards.
Conclusion
Many agencies try to solve structural problems with software – and fail. Tools aren't magic organization machines; they're amplifiers.
If you lack structure, they amplify chaos.
If you have structure, they amplify clarity and speed.
That's why tool choice isn't a design question. It's a structure question.
Get the structure right, and the tool will follow. Get it wrong, and no amount of shiny interfaces will save you.
