Every agency starts with the same management books, the same frameworks, the same promises of systematic success. OKRs will align your team. KPIs will measure progress. Performance reviews will ensure personal growth. The alignment is supposed to be top-bottom efficiency and growth. We tried them all at New World. Most of them didn’t function efficiently after the initial push.
So we had a figure out a way that worked for our fully remote design agency and why we had to throw out the usual, tired playbook to find it.
The Great OKR Experiment - And Why It’s Not Worth The Hassle
"A lot of times our strict OKR and objectives have just fallen flat," our CEO Jay confirmed. "Didn't work. But when you keep a simpler task list or a goal list, it works."
This wasn't the story we expected after five years of running a distributed design team. We'd implemented OKRs with enthusiasm, complete with quarterly planning sessions and elaborate tracking systems. The plan was sound: clear objectives would create alignment, and key results would measure progress.
The reality turned out to be more of a reality show. Designers spent more time updating OKR dashboards than designing. Colleagues gaming metrics instead of solving problems. A team that felt increasingly out of sync from what they were doing and the purpose behind it all.
The Answer was almost blindingly simple: basic checklists. Tasks that need doing. One list, one person, one day. No elaborate frameworks, no complex scoring systems. Just clarity about what needs to happen and why behind it all.
Hiring Better - Our Bread and Butter
There's a management cliche - what isn’t? - that everyone preaches but few actually practice: hire people better than yourself. At Neue World, this isn't inspirational poster material - it's an operational necessity.
"I don't know the nitty-gritty details most of the time," Jay says. "So that's why you hire the right people to figure out what is a potential solution, what can be implemented, and what can be feasibly done."
This admission might seem like weakness to traditional management thinking. We see it as strength. When you hire a team that knows more than you in their respective domains, several things happen:
You naturally stop micromanaging because you literally can't - you don't know enough to interfere effectively or know which questions to ask. So you start asking better questions instead of pretending to have answers. Your team starts taking real ownership and responsibility - which we encourage - because they know their expertise, their presence, is genuinely valued, not just acknowledged in a company caught up in posterity.
But here's the catch: you still need accountability. Even with a flat hierarchy philosophy, someone needs to answer when things go awry. "Even from the client side, I can have four designers assigned to one client, but eventually if something messes up, they will come for my neck," Jay explains.
Top Gun: The Founder Advantage
We made a strategic decision to work primarily with founder-led businesses. Not because they pay more (they often don't) or because they're easier (they definitely aren't). We work with founders because passion can’t be delegated.
When you work with a founder, you're not getting requirements filtered through three levels of management and hurried calls. You're not dealing with someone following an old playbook that is better left behind. You're working with someone who loses sleep over their vision. We work with passionate - albeit tired - founders because that is who we relate to.
This shapes our entire agency culture. Our team isn't just executing tasks from a brief - they're helping build someone's dream. The energy is different than the normal workforce experiences, and we like that way. The stakes feel real because they are real.
"Our vision is to build a version of the vision that founders have," Jay explains. "So the team's vision keeps changing." This might sound chaotic to traditional management thinking, but it keeps the work tip-top and meaningful. Agile methodology in real life - not in processes, but in outcomes.
The 80/20 Rule (And Why Fighting It Is Futile)
Here's what no one wants to admit about agencies: a small percentage of your team will always do most of the critical work. You can restructure, incentivize, and optimize all you want - the ratio remains surprisingly consistent.
Instead of fighting this reality, we've learned to design around it. This means:
Accepting different contribution levels and styles. Not everyone needs or even wants to be a superstar. But that’s the thing - they all are. Some people are steady contributors who fight recurring tasks much like Heracles with the hydra. Some are creative burst workers who deliver brilliance sporadically - their Achilles’ hell is the creative block. Some are relationship builders who keep clients happy and teams cohesive. We function as a team, and we see ourselves as a team.
Matching tickets to people. Instead of forcing everyone into the same productivity mould, we've learned to read our team's rhythms. The designer who struggles with steady production work might excel at experimental projects and creative solutions. The developer who seems slow on feature development might be exceptional at solving complex technical problems.
Protecting your heavy lifters. The 20% who do most of the heavy lifting need special attention - not more work, but more support. Their candles are the ones burning at both ends - they need sabbaticals before they burn out. They need variety to stay engaged. They need to know they're valued beyond their output.
Trial, Error, and the Courage to Adapt
"Trial and error," Jay says when asked about implementing new protocols. "You apply, you get feedback, you see if they're okay with it, if they're not okay with it, and you reiterate over and over again."
This isn't the confident, certain leadership that management books promote. They’d rather you did what the authors did back in their time. But our system is a little more modern - is it better? is it more efficient? Too early to say. But it is authentic. And in our experience, authenticity builds more trust than conservatism ever could.
We've tried anonymous feedback systems - they worked. We've tried virtual coffee chats - they didn't. We've implemented elaborate project management systems and tools - abandoned. We've gone back to simple spreadsheets - still using them.
Every wrong turn taught us something about our team, our culture, and ourselves. The growth isn't in getting it right the first time. It's in admitting when something isn't working and trying something else.
The Empathy Scale
%20(1).png)
Running an agency requires a constant balancing act between empathy and business reality. Yes, we care about our team's mental wellbeing. Yes, we'll give someone time off for personal issues. Yes, we'll pay for sabbaticals when someone's burned out.
But also: clients need their work delivered. Deadlines are real. Quality standards aren't negotiable. And clients don’t really care about the employees. They see a timeline, a number, and a deliverable.
"You have to find that balance," Jay notes. "At what point do you have that strict conversation? Because business is business and client work is client work versus when can you let go of empathy. It's situational and you have to keep reiterating."
We've learned that true empathy isn't endless accommodation - it's honest communication about boundaries and expectations. It's saying, "We understand you're struggling, and here's how we can help, but also here's what we need from you."
The Simple Tools Revolution
After cycling through almost every project management platform, communication tool, and productivity system on the market, here's what actually works for us:
- Simple checklists instead of complex task hierarchies
- Direct messages instead of elaborate communication protocols
- Quick video calls instead of lengthy email threads - silo work is highly discouraged
- Shared documents instead of complicated and over-corrected knowledge bases
- Quarterly anonymous polls instead of complex performance reviews
The pattern is clear: simple beats complicated almost every time. Not because our team can't handle complexity, but because complexity creates distance and time between people and their work.
What Nobody Tells You About Remote Management
After five years of remote operations, here are the truths nobody includes in their management playbooks:
Sometimes your best performer will leave with no warning, and you need to accept it without taking it personally.
Sometimes the person with the weakest portfolio becomes your strongest team member, because portfolios show past work, not potential.
Sometimes paying someone to look after themselves (sabbaticals) is the best investment you can make.
Sometimes the client is wrong, and you need to protect your team even if it costs you the account.
Sometimes simple is revolutionary, especially in an industry obsessed with sophistication.
Your Own Build
The most valuable lesson we've learned isn't any specific tactic or tool - it's the permission to build our own way of working. Every agency has unique dynamics, unique challenges, unique opportunities. The frameworks that work for a huge consultancy won't (and don’t) work for a 20-person creative outlet. Embrace the agility.
So we've stopped looking for the perfect system and started building one that's perfectly ours. It's messy. It changes quarterly. It sometimes contradicts itself. But it works because it's honest about who we are and what we're trying to build.
The future of agency management isn't in better frameworks or more sophisticated tools. It's in having the courage to admit what isn't working, the flexibility to try new approaches, and the wisdom to keep things simple.
We threw out the playbook not because we're pioneers, but because we're pragmatists. And if there's one thing we've learned, it's that pragmatism beats theory every time when you're trying to build something real with real humans in the real world.
The playbook is dead. Long live the checklist.
Looking For a Webflow Expert?
Just like you, we are also looking for partners who would like to work with us. We want to be your team, part of your team and much more. Take that leap and fill in this form or email us.
