For agencies
Managing people at an agency without an HR department
You run or co-run a marketing, creative or digital agency of eight to eighty people: account managers and strategists who face the client, and designers, writers, developers and producers who make the work, with a few freelancers around the edges. The founder or the operations lead is HR, between pitches and invoices.
The moments where people work goes wrong
The client praises the account manager and nobody writes it down
A client says on a call that the account manager saved the launch. The founder hears it, says thanks and moves on. Six months later the review asks for evidence, and there is none.
Account managers and creatives judged on one form
The review template was written for whoever the agency hired first. An account manager is rated on design craft and a designer on client communication, and both decide the review is not about them.
The senior who is great with clients and hard on juniors
A senior designer wins the pitch and keeps the biggest client happy. Two juniors have asked to move off her team. The founder hears it secondhand and does not know how to raise it with someone the agency cannot afford to lose.
A pitch that took two weekends
The agency wins. The team that built the pitch is tired, and nobody asked how they are because the work started the next morning. The next resignation letter mentions the weekends.
A designer asks what the path to art director looks like
There is no answer written down. The founder improvises one, and the designer compares it with the offer from a larger agency that has its levels on a page.
What it costs the agency
Praise from clients evaporates
Client praise arrives in calls and emails that nobody files. At review time people are rated on what the founder remembers, which favors whoever sits closest.
Juniors leave the senior, not the agency
When nobody can give upward feedback, a hard senior keeps losing juniors and each exit looks like a bad hire. The agency keeps paying to recruit for the same seat.
Burnout shows up as notice
Without a regular read on the team, the founder learns how the last quarter felt from exit conversations.
How LVL Up helps
Client feedback on the person's record
Send a client the external feedback link for a named account manager or creative. The client answers a short form without creating an account, and the answers sit on that person's record, ready for the next review.
A review template per role, with upward feedback
Write one template for account roles and one for creative and production roles, each with a self-review, a manager review and peer feedback. Upward reviews let juniors say how working for a senior goes, and anonymous feedback is there for what they will not sign.
A pulse survey after the big push
Send a short pulse survey and an eNPS question after a launch or a pitch. Results appear once at least three people have answered, so the founder gets a read on the team without asking anyone to speak up in the room.
Career paths for both sides of the agency
On Growth, write what junior designer, designer, senior and art director mean at your agency, and the same for the account side. Each person can see the path and where they stand in the skills matrix, and monthly 1:1s keep the conversation going between reviews.
Where we are the wrong answer
LVL Up is built for employees. It does not manage freelancers or contractors: no contracts, rates, invoices or availability. It does not track hours, utilization or project profitability, and it does not connect to your project-management or time-tracking tools. Client feedback through the external link is attached to a person, not to a client account or a project. It does not run payroll. It holds employment records for your staff, not client or customer records, and it does not replace your practice-management, matter-management or job-management software. Career paths and the skills matrix are Growth features.
Which plan, and what it costs
Growth — Up to 100 people
$79/month, or $758/year
An agency of up to 25 employees can run on Team, which has reviews with 360 and upward feedback, 1:1s, pulse surveys and recognition. Growth is the usual pick for an agency that is hiring or already past 25: the same core with room for more people, plus career paths, the skills matrix, OKRs for account teams and API access.
- • Everything in Team
- • Goals & OKRs
- • More AI coaching (500 requests a month)
- • Skills matrix & career paths
- • 1:1 video calls
- • Recognition rewards & team rituals
- • LVL Proof™ portfolios
- • API access
- • Founder-led email support
No credit card. The trial runs on Growth so you can see everything; pick Growth when it ends.
Getting set up
- Start the trial and import your employees from a spreadsheet with each person's manager. Leave freelancers out.
- Write two review templates, one for account roles and one for creative and production roles.
- Send the external feedback link for each account manager to one client who knows their work.
- Turn on a monthly pulse survey, and put a monthly 1:1 on the calendar for each junior with their manager.
Common questions
Can clients give feedback on our team?
Yes. You send a client a link for a named person. The client answers a short form without creating an account, choosing the relationship from customer, vendor, business partner or other. The answers appear on that person's record. They are not tied to a project or a client account.
Can we add freelancers to LVL Up?
LVL Up is built for employees. It has no contracts, rates, invoices or availability for freelancers, so keep them in whatever you use to book and pay them.
How do we raise it when a senior is hard on juniors?
Start with what the juniors said, not with a verdict. An upward review gives you their words in a form you can refer to, and a 1:1 with the senior is the place to discuss it. Write the notes and agree one or two specific changes as action items, so the next 1:1 checks whether they happened.
Does LVL Up track hours or utilization?
No. It does not track time, utilization or project profitability, and it does not connect to time-tracking or project-management tools. A utilization target can be written as someone's goal, but the number is updated by hand.
Does it work with Slack?
Yes. Recognition shout-outs can post to a Slack channel, so thanks for the team that shipped the launch shows up where the agency already talks. On Growth, a read-only API returns staff, goal, feedback, recognition and review data for your own reporting.
What happens when the trial ends?
The trial is 14 days, no credit card, then read-only until a plan is chosen. Nothing you entered is deleted while it is read-only.
Related:
Start with your own staff list
Import your employees, send the external feedback link to one client who knows an account manager's work, and put a 1:1 on the calendar for your newest senior. Growth fits an agency of up to 100 people.