Fractional Operations & Systems Partner

Run your studio
like the business
it's become.

AI has changed what's possible for agencies, and the role of operations has changed with it. I act as an embedded operations partner, combining operational leadership with AI, workflows and custom tools to help studios run better, deliver more and grow without the overhead of a larger agency.

Book your intro call 30 minutes · no pitch deck

Trusted by agencies and brands including

The shift

Agencies have changed. Operations hasn't kept up.

AI didn't just add a new tool to the stack. It changed what a small team can actually deliver, and that means the old way of running a studio, more people to do more work, is no longer the only way to grow.

The old model
Firefighting
Real work

Operations as admin

  • Growth means hiring
  • The founder holds every process in their head
  • Tools get bought off the shelf and half-used
  • Ops is whoever has five minutes free
The operating model I build
Ops
Real work

Operations as leverage

  • Growth means better systems, not just more people
  • Delivery, resourcing and process live in one place, not one head
  • Tools are built to fit how the studio actually works
  • Ops is a senior partner's full-time focus, part time

How I help

A modern operating model, built around three outcomes.

Not a day rate menu. Three ways I embed, depending on what your studio actually needs right now.

01

Fractional Operations

Become part of your leadership team

I run delivery, resourcing and client relationships like an in-house partner, so decisions don't all pass through one person anymore.

  • Delivery oversight across live projects
  • Resourcing and capacity planning
  • Process design and commercial operations
  • Weekly leadership-level review
Book your intro call

03

Studio Transformation

When things need redesigning, not patching

For studios where growth has outpaced the operating model itself. I rebuild how the studio runs from the ground up, capacity, delivery, tooling and team workflows together.

  • Operating model redesign
  • Delivery and capacity restructure
  • Tooling built for scale
  • New team workflows, embedded and handed over
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Recent work

Real examples, not case studies.

01

Fractional Operations

Reviewed a studio's cloud infrastructure and backups, found costs nobody had noticed, and rebuilt the reporting so leadership could actually see what they were spending.

02

AI & Automation

Jira's built-in automation only covered 80% of what we needed. The official fix was an expensive tier upgrade, so I built the missing automation myself instead.

03

Studio Transformation

Built the capacity planning and freelancer management tools a studio now runs on, replacing spreadsheets that couldn't keep up with how the team actually worked.

Why work with me

The senior partner who builds the systems, not just recommends them.

With 25+ years in top creative and tech agencies, I know what makes studios thrive and what holds them back. Where most fractional partners will tell you what tools you need, I build them, from deployment pipelines to bespoke internal apps. I slot in fast and start making an impact from day one.

25+
Years in agencies
5–30
Studio team size I work with

Background

Operations leadership, built for how agencies actually run.

Des Tapaki

Over 25 years in creative and tech agencies, most of it in delivery and operations, keeping studios running while they grow.

AI hasn't changed why that matters. It's changed how it gets done. I combine operational leadership with the AI, automation and tools that let a studio run leaner, without losing the parts that made it good in the first place.

Questions

Good to know before you book a call.

How your studio runs day to day, delivery, resourcing, process, tooling, and who's responsible for what. Most studios never designed theirs, it just happened. I redesign it deliberately.

A project manager focuses on delivery. I go further: resourcing, commercial operations, process, and the automation and tooling that removes admin entirely.

Yes. Alongside running operations, I build lightweight automations and internal tools tailored to how your studio actually works.

Most clients are independent creative and tech studios between 5 and 30 people.

Usually within a week of the intro call, starting with a short assessment of how things run today.

Get your time back.
Keep your studio moving forward.

One 30 minute call to see if it's a fit.

Book your intro call