Org chart template: a creative or digital agency

Agencies almost always end up with the same three columns, because there are three different jobs and one person cannot hold all of them on the same account.

• Client services own the relationship. They are the ones the client calls, and they are not the ones doing the work. That separation is what stops a designer being interrupted eleven times a day.
• Creative own the craft. Designers and writers report to a creative director, not to the account team, so quality has somebody defending it who is not also defending the deadline.
• Delivery own the schedule. One project manager across everything at this size; a second one appears around twenty-five people.
• The strategist reports to the founder, deliberately outside all three, because their job is to disagree with everybody.

The matrix that is missing: in practice a designer on a project also answers to that project's manager. The honest way to draw that is a second, dashed box under delivery. Add one and see whether the picture matches the argument you had last week.

What to watch: the ratio of billable to non-billable people. On this chart eleven of sixteen can put time on a client. If that falls below about two thirds, the day rate has to rise or the overhead has to come down — the PxQ guide works the arithmetic.