Agency vs. In-House: What Changes, What Doesn't

I've led design on both sides: creative direction at Valtech and Mirum Agency, across brands like Disney, Universal Studios, Chanel, Rolex, Qualcomm, and the Marines; and in-house product design leadership at Intuit and ServiceNow.

At an agency, you're proving yourself inside a new client relationship on every project. Trust gets rebuilt from zero, constantly, across brands with zero tolerance for average — design leadership across $75M+ in annual client work meant owning the creative direction, the team, and the outcome, simultaneously, across multiple brands.

In-house, the trust compounds. You're building a system, a team, and a product that has to hold up over years, not a single campaign. The stakes shift from "does this launch well" to "does this still make sense in three years, across 100,000+ users."

What doesn't change is the standard for the work itself. Whether it's a concept store for a retail client or a product used by enterprise teams every day, the job is still translating ambiguity into something people can actually use.

Being comfortable operating in both modes is, I think, useful context for anyone trying to figure out what kind of design leader they're actually hiring.