News
IBM’s new case study on Starmark’s implementation of Agile
The results
Increased transparency and client trust
One of the most monumental shifts came in budgeting and client alignment. In the past, clients received lump-sum quotes, sometimes resulting in a string of change orders without a process in place to handle scope changes effectively as projects evolved. With Targetprocess, however, every project is broken into stories, each transparently priced. Clients can see exactly what they are paying for, and if they want to adjust scope, they can add or swap stories with full visibility into costs and timelines.
“Since adopting Agile, our client satisfaction scores are way up,” says Circe. “Six-month projects are delivered on time and on budget, which is critical for a fixed-fee, project-based agency like ours. And clients often remark that we ‘get it right’ the first time.”
The change order—long a source of tension in the industry—has disappeared from Starmark’s business processes. This new level of transparency helps Starmark provide concrete information during QBRs (quarterly business reviews) with clients, which builds trust, improves delivery, and deepens client relationships.
More accurate estimating, healthier margins
The way projects were estimated also changed. In one early comparison, a traditionally estimated project came in at $100,000, while the Agile roadmap for the same work priced it at $220,000. The difference wasn’t overbidding—it simply reflected the actual effort required to complete the project, according to the subject matter experts who would do the work. The client, when presented with the detailed roadmap, accepted the higher price without resistance. For Starmark, this meant greater profitability and fewer unpleasant surprises during delivery.
“In the past, projects were scoped by project managers without input from subject matter experts,” Circe says. “This often led to underbidding. But now, scoping is done by the people who will actually do the work. Clients get a much more accurate estimate upfront. They are happier, and since we do everything on a fixed-bid basis, it improves our profitability, too.”
Protection from burnout
Internally, the benefits were just as profound. Before Agile, long nights and weekend work were routine. After the shift, however, mandatory overtime became rare. Capacity planning in Targetprocess allowed the agency to balance workloads realistically, ensuring that each employee carried about 64 billable hours per sprint, with 16 hours reserved for internal meetings and activities. Structured schedules meant employees could leave the office at reasonable hours, and work-life balance improved. Employee engagement scores rose, and the agency retained more of its top talent.
More work, same headcount
Throughput also increased. By managing capacity, prioritizing high-value work, and tracking progress through sprint burn-up charts, Starmark found it could nearly double the volume of work without adding headcount. For example, when COVID forced the team to go fully remote, workflows were seamless. One remote employee in Portland didn’t even realize the rest of the office had closed. This was proof that the Targetprocess system was working exactly as intended.
Circe says, “Agile plus Targetprocess allows us to handle far more work with the same headcount, effectively increasing profit per person.”
Executive visibility and portfolio control
Leadership also gained a new level of visibility. By using business value scoring within Targetprocess, executives now make portfolio decisions with confidence, knowing which projects truly matter to the bottom line. Even the agency president communicates the business value in Targetprocess based on billing cycles or client needs.
“We use a four-point business value scoring system (BV1-BV4), with BV1 being the highest priority,” says Circe. “For every sprint, we only allow five BV1 projects, so everyone knows what the most important work is for the sprint. This allows us to assign the right people and the right roles to the highest value projects.”
Next steps
Starmark’s journey demonstrates that Agile is not just for software developers. With the right commitment and the right tools, an advertising agency transformed how it worked, delivering projects more profitably, transparently, and sustainably. The move to Agile, anchored by Targetprocess, allowed Starmark to grow throughput, protect margins, and foster a healthier culture for its employees.
Looking ahead, the agency plans to continue capturing hard metrics to quantify its gains. By sharing its story more broadly, Starmark is also positioned as a thought leader for companies exploring Agile outside the technology world.
For Starmark, Agile was not a process tweak but a reinvention of how an agency can work. Ten years and 260 sprints later, the results speak for themselves.
“Targetprocess has been vital to the success of Starmark,” Circe says. “And it has grown with us, from the very beginning when we really didn’t know what we were doing to now, where we are running like a well-oiled machine at entity number 80,565 and counting.”
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