Brandish | A Creative Agency’s Post

In 2022, I led my first big software implementation project when Brandish | A Creative Agency transitioned our project management tool from Asana to ClickUp. Here are some things I learned: 📝 Confidence goes a long way. Deciding to switch PM tools was pretty scary. I knew it was going to be hard, and it would impact literally the whole agency if it didn't work. I didn't know what I didn't know. And change is inherently uncomfortable. I also knew the limitations of Asana at the time were holding us back, and I whole-heartedly believed that doing nothing wasn't an option. I pre-planned as much as I could and built a case for my decision. In the end, my leadership team trusted me because I approached it with confidence – not because I wasn't terrified(!!) but because I believed it was the right solution and I was fully committed to seeing it through. 📝 Having the right support/resources is so important. I realized pretty early that I shouldn’t do it alone. I'd never used ClickUp, didn't know what I didn't know. So I hired a consultancy to guide us through the implementation. Instead of spending countless hours trying to fumble my way through it, ZenPilot gave us expert guidance from a team who'd done this same thing multiple times over for companies just like ours. This saved us time, reduced stress, and ultimately increased my own confidence working with the platform. 📝 Teamwork makes the dream work (honestly). I'm so grateful for the team who stepped up to help with initial training, decision-making and setup. When it was time to make the switch, Dan Nicholson, Michelle Perron, Phuong Hoang and myself worked over the weekend to migrate projects from one tool to the other – seamlessly following a well-constructed launch plan that they also contributed hours and hours to. Big, big thanks to this Ultimate #DreamTeam – because of them, the agency signed out of Asana one day and logged into ClickUp the next without missing a beat. 📝 My work is valuable e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶ especially when no one notices it. Launching ClickUp was kind of weird. Four months of planning and building, then launch – and that's it. No confetti, no big party. A few questions, but not much noise from the team. A few months later my dad asked me, "Oh – how did that big implementation you were working on go?" and all I could say was, "Good, I guess." 😅 The thing about #Operations is that people don't often see your contributions in the same tangible way as, say, a great ad campaign. You hear more about problems than success. But I’ve learned that silence can actually be a great indicator to look for – sometimes no news truly is good news. #AgencyTools #BrandishToolkit #BehindAgencyOps #ProjectManagement #AdminPlus