GuidesHow to3 min
How to hire an innovation agency
A hiring sequence: name the job, ask six questions, compare two scopes, walk away from a pitch. Built for companies that need a system they can keep.
Most “innovation” hires fail before the first invoice: the company bought a feeling. A lab tour, a mood board, an unnamed “build partner.” Then an invoice that does not match the site. This guide is the sequence we would want a serious operator to run on us — SINLE Innovation Agency included. If we fail these questions, do not hire us.
You are hiring someone to change a stuck job, then leave you the keys. Filter for that. Workshops, decks, and a chief of innovation with nobody who can stop are theatre. The legal name on the contract has to be the legal name on the site. Ours is SINLE Technologies LLC. Demand the same from anyone else.
Read this before you send five RFPs. A bake-off without a one-line job produces five brochures. The steps below are the filter. The rest of this page is what “good” has to look like on paper before you sign.
What “good” looks like on paper
A one-line job. A list of nos (unsupervised money, a second brand, a chatbot on an empty FAQ). A legal name. A price in USD. A date you will open something staff can refuse. If those lines are missing, you do not have a partner yet.
What a real answer looks like
Run the filter on two studios, including us. You should end the week with two PDFs that name the same job, a price in USD, a date, what is out, and who owns the repo. If one reply is a deck and the other is a page, you already have your answer.
A useful hire saves the bake-off. Five calls without a one-line job costs a month of calendar and teaches you nothing you can take to finance. The page is the asset. The call is optional.
The sequence
Do these in order. Skip a line and you are back to a workshop.
- 01
Write the stuck job on one line
Who does what, where it waits. If you cannot, you are shopping for a workshop. Stop and write before you book a call.
- 02
List what you already tried
Tools, hires, the unofficial spreadsheet. Agencies that skip this will solve a cleaner problem than yours.
- 03
Ask what you open on week six
A URL staff can use, or a slide. That answer sorts studios from consultants.
- 04
Ask who codes and who invoices
Unnamed “build partners” are a referral with a markup. The legal name on the site must match the PDF.
- 05
Ask what you own on final payment
Repo, design, prompts, admin. If leaving kills the product, you are renting.
- 06
Ask what they declined last month
A partner that never says no will take your brochure and call it innovation.
- 07
Compare two written scopes, not two decks
Same job. Deliverables, USD, dates, what is out. Mood boards are not bids.
- 08
Sign nothing before the page exists
No kickoff, no Slack, no “we’ll figure it in sprint one.” Scope first. Card second.
Common mistakes
Five agencies, no sentence
A bake-off without a brief produces five brochures. Write the job first.
Paying for endless discovery
A short paid review can be honest. A six-month sprint with no kill date is rent.
Keep these
- Hire for a named job, not a lab tour.
- A proposal without ownership and a kill rule is a pitch.
- SINLE Technologies LLC will tell you if we are the wrong company. Demand that from anyone.
Do this before you spend
- 01Write the stuck job in one sentence and send it to two companies, not five.
- 02Ask each for a written scope. Decline any reply that is only a meeting.
- 03Compare ownership and the kill rule before you compare price.
Send us that one sentence. Spark is $750: a written yes or a written no. You keep the note. If we take the work, the fee goes toward Invent.
Questions
- How do you hire an innovation agency?
- Name the stuck job. Ask what you open on week six, who codes, who invoices, what you own, and what they refuse. Compare written scopes. Do not compare mood boards.
Next how-to
- How to write an innovation briefOne page, not a deck: the stuck job, the unknown, what you already tried, the kill rule, and what you will not fund.
- How to read a statement of workThe lines that have to exist: what ships, what is out, when the card runs, who owns the repo, and how you cancel. If they are missing, it is a pitch.
- How to budget for custom softwarePrice the job, not a platform. Site vs workflow vs product, five-year cost, and what a $750 Spark is actually for.
Next
Send the job. Get a page, not a pitch.
Spark is $750. A written yes or a written no. You keep the note. Nothing else is billed until you sign a scope.