If you have been reading Refactoring for a while, you know I have mostly written about internal engineering teams.

I also often had the chance to combine the work of such teams with that of vendors and agencies. These collaborations represent an opportunity to:

• 🪵 Expand resources — faster than regular hiring and within in a well-defined scope.

• 🎓 Bring in excellence — in areas where our team needs to grow: design, dev process, etc.

However, such collaboration is not trivial and not all projects end up a success.

As with all relationships, there are two sides of the coin. In my life I have only been on the client side, so last week I interviewed two friends who run very successful agencies to get their opinion, too.

They are Sergio from Moze, and Giulio from Belka.

This article is a multiplayer effort to shed light on how to build successful relationships with agencies, why and how you should work with them, or not.

It includes concrete advice and strategies about:

• 🏢 Companies — find out if there is a natural fit between your company and the agency you want to work with. Reflect on five foundational elements that will help you learn more about your company and your needs.

• 🔨 Projects — understand what types of projects you can develop with agencies and how you should run them. Set yourself up for success and learn what elements the best projects have in common.

• 🏃‍♂️ Processes — learn principles on how you should work day-to-day to ensure the project and the relationship is a resounding success.

Let's dive in! 👇