Sue, to begin, could you share a little about your journey into creative operations consulting and what drew you to your current role at Cella by Randstad Digital?
I began my career as a graphic designer, working in design and branding firms before transitioning into corporate creative leadership at New England Financial. That experience gave me an early appreciation for the unique challenge and opportunities of in-house creative teams. From there, I co-founded an integrated marketing communications agency in Boston, where I led the creative function and worked closely with clients in the service industries. That chapter really sharpened my ability to connect business goals with creative impact.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of building strong relationships across the creative industry and leading in-house agencies at the enterprise level, including at Lincoln Financial. My career has been driven by curiosity and a willingness to embrace new opportunities, whether that meant growing as a creative leader or developing the operational muscle needed to build best-in-class teams. I’ve certainly learned valuable lessons along the way, often through experience, which I now translate into actionable ‘best practices’ for my clients.
What truly drew me to Cella Consulting was the opportunity to channel everything I’ve learned into helping organizations solve complex problems and unlock the full potential of their creative teams. I thrive on the variety of clients, the intellectual challenge, and the continuous learning that comes with helping Fortune 500 companies not just operate more efficiently, but truly thrive creatively.
As creative teams evolve, what trends are you seeing in how organizations are reframing the role and identity of their in-house agencies?
Today’s economic uncertainty presents a new inflection point pushing creative teams to lead with agility, prove their impact, and help shape what’s next for their organizations. We’re seeing a clear evolution in how in-house creative teams are positioned. Our 2025 Cella Intelligence Report highlights a clear trend: We’re seeing a significant evolution in how in-house creative teams are positioned. There’s been more than a 15% increase from last year, with 55% of teams now developing or having developed an in-house agency model that spans all three tiers of work – from strategic initiatives to adaptations and production. In-house creative teams are evolving from service providers to strategic partners.
The latest Cella Intelligence Report shows a notable rise in teams shifting toward a more strategic role. What does this shift mean in practical terms for how teams operate and deliver value?
In practical terms, this shift toward a more strategic role means in-house teams are increasingly leveraging AI to automate routine tasks, thereby placing a greater emphasis on creative strategy and innovation. There is recognition that teams and people who do this well will be very valuable to companies while those who fail to adapt will not be able to support their company at the cost and scale needed. The shift to the role of a strategic partner requires conceptual strategic creative talent and the automation of routine tasks.
Furthermore, in-house teams have a unique advantage: their embedded position within the organization. This allows them to capitalize on deep brand knowledge to drive authentic and consistent long-term approaches, foster stronger internal stakeholder relationships, and maintain flexibility in addressing shifting priorities and real-time data.
When defining the mission and structure of a creative team, what core elements should leaders prioritize to ensure alignment with broader business goals?
That’s an important question. Start with understanding the broader business goals and how the work the team does will align to them. Defining a clear department mission, vision and value proposition are essential tools to ensure this alignment. Teams that clearly define those core elements are better positioned to earn trust and expand their scope. Other considerations include understanding who the team is supporting, who your internal clients are and what are they planning? This should help you determine the services you need to provide and customize your approach accordingly.
Stakeholder alignment often determines a team’s success. How should creative leaders go about mapping and managing the needs of their internal clients?
Planning is super important when it comes to managing the needs of internal clients. Work with them to forecast work by reviewing the historical project data and current marketing plans. This collaborative forecasting helps in understanding the complexity, timing and volume of incoming work by tier. By aligning this information with data on the effort required to do the work, creative operations can accurately determine capacity needs and plan for resourcing during surges or for specific skillset requirements. Having a methodology to prioritize work so you align creative deliverables with business goals and resource constraints is also important in planning and intaking projects.
How are modern creative organizations balancing in-house capabilities with outsourced support, particularly as demands fluctuate across the year?
A key responsibility of creative operations includes balancing in-house and outsourced support. Putting a staffing strategy in place to include in-house, freelance and external agencies is part of the planning and forecasting process. Larger teams who are doing this well often have a resourcing and agency management role on the operations team.
While it’s generally understood that work created in-house is less costly than work done by external agencies, cost alone is not the sole determining factor for insourcing or outsourcing work.
The in-house creative team should be staffing the number of full-time employees needed to support the average amount of work coming in throughout the year rather than staffing for peak periods. Surge staffing and specialized skill sets that are only needed in specific circumstances, can be planned for and outsourced to freelancers and agencies as the capacity and skills needed fluctuate.
The resourcing role in operations keeps track of capacity and brings in additional talent during peak periods or specialized skillsets when needed. The agency management role oversees external agency relationships and strategically determines how creative work should be distributed between internal resources and external agency partners. This role includes evaluating agency capabilities, negotiating contracts, managing agency performance and partnering with internal stakeholders to align external agency resources effectively.
As teams consider growth and scale, what factors should influence decisions around headcount, freelance partnerships, and outsourcing?
When looking at how to grow and scale your team, identify your vision and primary purpose. Evaluate how the internal team aligns. What value is the team bringing to the company? What is the team capacity and cost? Core competencies should be on the internal team to cover recurring demand for work.
The type and tier of work, along with the volume of work for each and project timing will influence decisions about work going to the in-house team vs. external agencies and when to bring in additional freelance talent to accommodate surge staffing needs.
As technology is implemented and repetitive work is automated, take into consideration the changing responsibilities and ensure upskilling is in place.
What are some best practices for structuring a creative team to handle both high-volume production work and high-level brand strategy?
When structuring a team to handle both high volume production work and high-level strategic work it is important to bring in the proper roles and align the team accordingly so they can work together effectively.
Think of this as two separate functions, strategic creative and production. The creative team that will support the high-level strategic work is usually composed of creative directors, art directors, copywriters and designers. The team is set up with roles aligning to specific brands and operates cross-functionally to do the strategic work. Think: big idea creation, campaign concepting, etc. Design roles on this team may be used to implement the original pieces making up the campaign idea or adapt the campaign idea to other channels.
The production team is set up with production roles that can do tier 2 and 3 production work across channels which may include print, digital, video, social, etc. The creative talent on this team typically possesses deep channel expertise and manages work based on prioritization, rather than being aligned to a specific brand.
The creative operations team which includes project managers will project manage and ensure work is on track. They also ensure the right processes are in place and followed for the specific work type and tier.
Account Managers play a crucial role in aligning with brand clients, ensuring strategic synergy between the clients’ objectives and the creative team’s efforts.
With AI and automation increasingly part of the conversation, where do you see the biggest opportunities for technology to enhance creative operations without compromising the human element?
AI is increasingly part of creative applications, and it is imperative that creative talent upskills to be able to use the technology effectively. Operationally, identifying repetitive tasks and developing AI agents to help with those will create further efficiencies. Tasks such as tagging assets, creating and distributing personalized assets, and even certain aspects of video creation are opportunities for AI to significantly reduce manual labor and accelerate timelines. Forrester is predicting up to a 40% increase in productivity with an AI enabled Human Network. Informed and knowledgeable human interaction is imperative to guide, develop and provide robust governance of AI.
Finally, what advice would you give to creative leaders looking to future-proof their team’s structure, processes, and value proposition over the next 12–18 months?
My advice to creative leaders looking to future-proof their teams over the next 12–18 months is to think holistically about people, processes, and positioning and put a strong change management plan in place.
First, prioritize leadership upskilling. Creative leaders need to be hands-on in understanding how AI is transforming the creative process, both in terms of tooling and in how value is defined. Leadership fluency in AI is essential, not only for making informed technology decisions, but also for providing training and confidently guiding teams through change, setting realistic expectations, and maintaining creative integrity while embracing new efficiencies.
Second, evolve team structures. Focus on building hybrid capabilities- roles that blend creativity strategy, and emerging technology skills. Regularly audit current skill sets vs. emerging needs and create intentional upskilling programs. Organizations increasingly value in-house teams that can scale and pivot quickly, leveraging a dynamic mix of freelance and agency resources, alongside technology augmentation, to effectively handle fluctuating demand and niche skill requirements.
Third, optimize processes for speed and relevance. Systematically integrate AI tools for versioning, personalization, image/video generation, and content tagging to reduce manual labor and accelerate timelines. Formalize tiering models with clear intake and resource allocation rules. Connect creative processes more directly to business performance data. Embed data (customer insights, performance metrics) directly into briefs to improve relevance and effectiveness of the creative work.
Finally, reframe the team’s value proposition. The most successful in-house teams are moving beyond being service providers to becoming strategic partners and creative problem solvers. Position creative teams as contributors to key business KPIs rather than execution factories. Proactively market the creative team internally with dashboards, success stories, and leadership reports to reinforce strategic value. Dedicate a portion of team time to pilot new technologies and present future-forward concepts to business partners.
Ultimately, future-proofing isn’t a one-off initiative. It’s about building a team culture that stays curious, adapts quickly, and stays closely aligned to business priorities.
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Sue Wolski, Director, Creative Operations Consulting, Cella by Randstad Digital
Sue Wolski, consultant for Cella by Randstad Digital, leads the Creative Operations Consulting practice at Cella. She is an innovative and accomplished Creative Services Marketing Executive. She has built and developed best-in-class marketing and creative services teams and led operations in both agency and in-house corporate environments. Sue supports Fortune 500 marketing and creative leaders in assessing current state operations, developing strategic plans and financial models to evolve and future proof the in-house agency, and in implementing change. She has extensive experience designing and coaching effective and thriving organizations and work processes that deliver high quality creative products. LinkedIn.