Get your company in order so you can focus on growing your business, not just managing it.
Now recruiting new clients for the 2024 seasonFor 25+ years, we’ve led, advised, and coached creative teams of all shapes and sizes, from two-person studios to 2500+ person design organizations. Working with creative teams is what we do, and sometimes they’re in-house.
We love our work, and our clients, so much that when we work with them, we find ourselves gushing over them. Surprise, surprise…they do the same!
“Together we developed actionable goals and measurements that were flexible enough to scale but structured to keep their impact. Brett actively listens to understand. He is very fair and full of integrity. He is also just a lot of fun and easy to work with. 12/10 would recommend.”
Sonya Palmer
VP, Operations
Rankings.io
Greg has has helped me navigate highly complicated growing pains, evolve our design program, experiment and prototype potential new services, improve our process for qualifying and interviewing early-career designers, conceptualize new thought leadership and marketing efforts, deal with my impostor syndrome, and most significantly helped me design my new role at the agency.
Anthony Armendariz
Co-CEO, Chief Strategy Officer
Funsize
“Delivering thoughtful and actionable insights is one of the highlights of having Greg on your team. But it’s his vast experience across several roles and business types that makes that insight highly applicable and relevant.”
Richard Banfield
VP, Design Transformation
InVision
“[Greg] makes me feel like we are just two friends nerding out, bringing the same energy that one would to a fun brainstorm. Process formality can result in me overthinking, and so his insights get to me faster because he approaches everything like we’re just two people on the same team.”
Sarah Mills
Design Director
Docusign
“The opportunity to speak with someone with so much knowledge was a massive value add to my professional development. If you have the opportunity to work with him, do it!”
Jennifer Antunes
Projects Director
PaperLeaf
Over the last ten years, we've talked to many frustrated agency owners who tried popular programs that didn't result in the effective change they wanted and needed.
Same Team Partners work collaboratively to learn what makes your company tick, truly understand and uncover your challenges, and develop solutions that are genuine to you and your culture. We use a variety of tactics and methods that drive the desired outcomes you need to maintain a healthy, happy agency.
Your agency is running you and you’re stuck wearing too many hats without any time or energy to get ahead. Same Team Partners aligns agency owners on a strategy to accomplish your vision. Go to work happy and confident with a clear strategy, operations plan, and measurable goals.
Your studio appears to be running efficiently and profitable but you genuinely have no idea. Same Team Partners creates profitability targets for the company, teams, and projects with a reporting structure. Finally run your business with financial accountability that is easy to track.
Sometimes it feels like you’re the only adult in the room. Same Team Partners develops stronger leaders who are aligned with your vision, values, and culture. Feel free from the stress of having to stay engaged as the leader on every team and project decision.
Your team is struggling, your projects are failing, and off-the-shelf processes and SaaS tools aren’t solving your challenges. Same Team Partners improves your teams abilities to deliver projects more efficiently and effectively. Your teams will happily hum like a well-oiled machine and your clients will want to find more ways to work with you.
Your people struggle to collaborate with each other and with clients and they likely don’t realize it. Same Team Partners teaches everyone what effective collaboration is, how to do it, and use this training immediately. By turning everyone into a collaborative team member, your company culture will change overnight with new found energy, capabilities, and positive outcomes.
Something in your company has changed and your culture has taken a punch to the face. Same Team Partners uses an empathetic approach to assess what needs adjusting to boost individual and team participation in the culture and improve morale. Creating an adaptive culture makes it active and resilient no matter the future shape or size of the company.
Working with us feels like we’ve been on the same team for years. That’s because we are authentic, empathetic, and easy to work with—and we tailor our working relationships to you, not the other way around.
Schedule your team tryout nowWe’ve been there, owned that, and learned a lot of lessons along the way. The biggest lesson: prioritize culture and keep people happy and productive. The problem is, that it’s hard to do that when you’re overwhelmed or feeling stuck. It makes you feel like you’re doing it all wrong, so you start to search for a system or process that will fix it all. That’s when things get worse.
Off-the-shelf operating systems are expensive and rigid, and they require a huge investment in time. Plus, they weren’t designed specifically for your team, your culture, or the type of work you do. Forcing a solution on your team will create more issues for you and them, so let’s work together to create an operating strategy that is built on your talents, your culture, and your vision.
We’ve been in all the seats, from project manager and designer to agency owners and in-house team leaders. We built Same Team to be the type of trusted partner we wish we had had back then: a friendly and trusted adviser who understands your business and vision, and offers guidance and solutions that work for you, not against you.
Book a consultation today so we can learn more about the issues you’re facing with your business, and craft a plan that will help to get your team unstuck, and back on track with where you want your business to be. Stop putting out other people’s fires and start lighting your own.
Getting started is free and easy. You'll need to invest up to one hour of your time for the entire process.
1—
You say hello
Contact us to arrange a day and time for us to meet with you. We'll provide an agenda so we can make the most of the time.
2—
We chat and take notes
We'll provide an agenda to make the most of our time together. We'll ask questions and make sure you have time to do the same with us. This step is free of charge providing that we connect on LinkedIn.
3—
We propose a path forward
After reviewing our notes, we'll pull together an assessment of what collaboration will be the most useful for you and your agency.
Same Team Partners is a joint venture between long time friends, colleagues, and entrepreneurs Brett Harned and Greg Storey.
Brett Harned is one of the founding voices of the growing digital project management community. He launched the Digital PM Summit in 2012, and over the past decade has since hosted and spoken to audiences globally. His first book Project Management for Humans was published in July 2017, and his podcast Sprints and Milestones launched in April 2018. His wealth of successful online classes, a YouTube series, and numerous bylines further underscore his experience in digital PM consulting.
Brett applies his breadth of knowledge and experience to help clients solve complex challenges around people, process, and culture. Brett served as Vice President of Project Management at award-winning web design agency Happy Cog and as a senior PM at global digital agency Razorfish. As a project manager, strategist, and consultant, he's led capital campaigns, managed enterprise website redesigns, and produced new iOS and Android products for Zappos, MTV, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pfizer, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Harvard University.
Greg Storey brings a wealth of industry experience and wisdom to his work as a founder and leader gained through 25 years of experience in the industry. His work with agencies, medium-sized companies, and enterprise organizations like IBM, USAA, InVision, Stanford University, Sundance Film Festival, AMC Theatres, and BBVA Compass has given him a unique and valuable perspective on what makes design successful in a variety of conditions. He's a willing collaborator ready to partner across teams and loves to break down silos and build people and teams. Greg is known for bringing unique perspectives to problems that help get teams unstuck.
Greg is an active leader in the digital community by providing leadership for Dribbble, Creative Mornings, and Amazing People Design List communities. In 2011, he co-founded the Bureau of Digital, a supportive community for studio owners, operators, design and project management leaders. He is the co-host of the podcast Sprints and Milestones and is a co-author of the book Remote Work for Design Teams.