10 Tips for Building a Successful Creative Resourcing Model

Original article published in ANA

By Andrea Ruskin, Kate Sullivan

When in-house teams struggle to meet demand, the issue is rarely creativity or commitment. More often, it's a resource model that wasn't intentionally designed for the volume and complexity required, or undefined swim lanes between internal and external partners.

Without clarity around who does what, how work moves through the organization, and what capabilities are needed to do the work, talented people end up in reactive mode — stretching, hustling, and burning out — while the business questions why work takes so long or requires "so many people."

Resourcing is not just an operational exercise; it is foundational to the in-house agency's ability to set expectations, scale intelligently, protect creative excellence, and earn trust across the organization. Getting it right requires visibility, discipline, and alignment.

Here are 10 ways to ensure your resourcing model positions your in-house team for real and lasting impact:

1. Take inventory of the work.

Begin with an assessment of the work your team is responsible for. Document the types of creative assets produced, the volume, and the level of complexity. This becomes your baseline for understanding capacity and workload. Without this inventory, every other decision — from staffing to outsourcing — rests on assumptions rather than facts.

2. Know your team's capabilities.

Capture a clear view of the skills across your in-house team, as well as the capabilities that exist among stakeholders, vendors, and tools. By knowing exactly what expertise you have — and don't have — you can assign the right work to the right people and avoid over-engineering roles or over-relying on the same people to get the work done. This needs to be revisited on a regular basis.

3. Identify and plan for gaps.

Once you know the work and the skills, you can spot the missing pieces. Determine which capabilities are critical, which are nice to have, and which may be emerging needs. Then evaluate whether gaps are best filled through hiring, outsourcing, or leveraging technology. Build a short-, medium-, and long-term plan so you can stay strategic, even when budgets, headcount constraints, or hiring freezes shift.

4. Clarify centralized versus decentralized ownership.

Misalignment about "who owns what" is one of the fastest paths to inefficiency. Decide whether creative work flows through a centralized in-house team or whether certain lines of business will manage specific work themselves. Both models can work — but only if the choice is explicit. Clarity here drives better hand-offs, avoids duplication, and strengthens cross-functional relationships.

5. Create a single source of visibility.

Even in decentralized models, you need one place where demand, resources, priorities, vendors, and decisions are visible. This can be a tool, a process, or a role (like a creative resourcing manager), but the function is the same: reduce confusion, eliminate redundant efforts, and ensure people and dollars are allocated with intention.

6. Formalize how new vendors, roles, or tools get approved.

Without criteria and a clear decision path, organizations unintentionally accumulate vendors, tools, and contract roles that overlap or don't ladder up to strategy. Establish the decisionmaker(s), the criteria and how information flows. This creates guardrails that simplify choices and protect budgets.

7. Connect creative talent across the org.

If your team includes creatives embedded in different departments, build intentional moments for connection. Community matters. Shared standards, peer critique, and exposure to each other's work not only improve creative outcomes but also reinforce culture and prevent fragmentation of the brand.

8. Outsource intentionally (especially the repeatable work).

Outsourcing should be a strategic design choice — not a reaction to overload. When possible, keep brand-defining and conceptual work in-house, and partner externally for high-volume, repeatable execution. This protects your team's energy for the work that differentiates your brand, while still scaling output efficiently.

9. Educate stakeholders on value, not just capacity.

Executives often see only timelines, headcount, and cost. It's your job to help them understand the strategic role of the in-house team and the trade-offs involved in resourcing decisions. When stakeholders grasp the "why," they make better asks, respect process, and become partners rather than pressure points.

10. Anchor every resourcing decision to business strategy.

This is the most important principle. Resourcing is not about keeping up — it's about moving the business. Tie your staffing, outsourcing, tools, and processes to the company's strategic priorities, not just the volume of work. When resourcing ladders up to business outcomes, the team becomes a lever for growth, not merely a service function.

Conclusion

A purposeful resourcing model frees teams from reactive execution and enables them to focus on meaningful, high-impact work. When clarity and alignment are in place, in-house teams direct their time, talent, and investment toward what truly moves the business forward.