The Embedded Programme.
Real work, under real conditions, teaches people more in one real project than a semester of lectures. The Embedded Programme brings that into your team.
THE OBSERVATION
Be deliberate
The best teams I’ve ever worked with didn’t get good because someone trained them. They got good because they worked alongside someone already good → absorbing the methodology through proximity and real-time feedback on real work.
In agencies, that proximity is accidental. When the senior person leaves, the methodology walks out the door. The Embedded Programme makes it deliberate.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
A week inside the programme.
Monday: I review three projects with your team. We rewrite the weakest one together in real time. The team sees how I diagnose the problem, where I push for sharper language, how I test the brief against behavioural science principles.
Wednesday: We’re working on the positioning project. Your junior strategist co-creates with me, learning the Problem/Insight/Solution framework by using it on a live problem.
Thursday: Feedback session on three concepts. I model the approach: “Does this answer the brief?” not “I like this.” Your team practises the same approach. By month three, they run these sessions without me.
This is one engagement’s actual cadence. The contracted cadence is shaped per engagement to fit the team’s existing rhythm.
WHAT’S DIFFERENT
Six months later…
Your team articulates and executes projects that creative people want to work on. They give feedback grounded in brief alignment — direct, specific, delivered with the respect that makes it land. They use AI to pressure-test ideas before presenting them. They make bolder decisions faster because they share a language for quality.
If that doesn’t happen, I’ve failed at the most important part of the job.
The engagement is designed to end. When the team can maintain the standard without me, it does. The methodology stays. The improvement compounds.
THE CHECKPOINTS
Three months. Three checkpoints.
Every month of the engagement ends in a formal checkpoint, because the thing you’re hiring me to transfer is the thing I need to measure.
Month one — can the team brief the work without me?
A live briefing session; the team leads, I observe.
Month two — can the team review the work without me?
A feedback session on live concepts; the team chairs, I watch for gaps in the evaluation framework.
Month three — can the team produce the work without me?
A full Problem/Insight/Solution cycle on a live brief, start to finish, without me in the room.
If a checkpoint fails, we extend the engagement at no additional cost until the next one passes. The retainer is paid for independence, not for presence.
INVESTMENT
€15,000–€20,000 per month (2–3 days/week). Minimum 3 months.
A fraction of a full-time senior hire. And unlike a hire, the engagement is built to end → with your team operating independently.
CONTINUITY
One person. No handoff.
If something takes me out of an engagement for more than two weeks, the retainer pauses and a handover protocol kicks in — documented at kickoff, agreed in the contract, not invented on the day.
Not sure yet? Start with the Diagnostic →
Need lighter-touch support? Fractional Creative Direction →