Decision brief
Meet the people who would build it
An agency pitch tells you what might be possible. A working conversation reveals who does the job, what your staff must do and who stays available.
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Contents
Bring an awkward example
The presentation shows a neat result. Who will build yours? Imagine a mid-market manufacturer choosing an agency to classify incoming supplier documents. Invite the proposed delivery lead and the people who would work with your staff. Bring a sample you have permission to share: an unclear supplier name, a missing field and a document the system should reject. This is an interview exercise, not a request to solve the whole project on the spot.
Ask the team to talk through how it would investigate the sample and deliver the work. Who asks for clarification? Who decides whether the missing field stops the task? Who looks after the source-system connection? Put names or roles beside the answers. Keep a sales example separate from a commitment by the people assigned to your project. If those assignments are provisional, ask when they will be confirmed and how you would approve a replacement.
Find out who manages the work
Data Science UA offers complete projects or specialists working with your team through outstaffing, along with client training. Supercharge describes its people as an extension of the customer’s team.1,2,3
If you are buying extra people, find out who gives them priorities, reviews technical decisions and accepts their work. If you are buying a managed project, ask who brings the pieces together. Either way, someone in your company must know the business process and make decisions about it. A proposal expecting daily technical direction will not fit if your IT manager has no time to provide it. Resolve that mismatch before negotiating the price.
Write down the jobs: define the process, grant data access, connect systems, check results, train staff and handle incidents. Each needs someone doing it and someone accepting it. In the manufacturer example, procurement could define the fields, IT could grant access and an operations supervisor could approve the review queue. Ask those colleagues whether they can do the work. A timetable that assumes their availability is only useful once they have agreed it.
Ask your team to try the handover
Fifty One Degrees says the client’s team learns during the build. Nexus describes building the first procedure with the customer and staying to improve it.4,5,6
Ask what learning would look like for your staff. Watching a presentation is different from changing a rule, spotting a bad answer and recovering from a failed connection. For the manufacturer, suggest an exercise: its team adds an approved document category, reruns the agreed examples and sends an uncertain result for review. The supplier can help people learn beforehand. At handover, the exercise should reveal what the receiving team can do and where it still needs help.
Ask for the materials that make that possible: operating instructions, a map of systems and access, checked examples, known limits and a route for escalating problems. Agree which changes the supplier will still make and what they cost. Your staff do not all need to become developers. They do need to be able to supervise the service they are taking on, with a clear boundary around the work the supplier remains responsible for.
Find out who covers an absence
Valliance describes small teams that use AI. Supercharge lists L1, L2 and L3 support and says its work continues after launch.7,8,9
A team size or a support label cannot tell you who answers when the usual contact is away. Ask who has access, who covers absence and who can explain the build without its original author. Request a sample operating guide with confidential details removed. Talk through how a problem reaches the person who can fix it. Then put the support hours, response expectations and escalation promises you agree into the proposal.
Leave the interview with a note listing confirmed people, unassigned work, commitments from your colleagues, the handover exercise and unanswered support questions. Listen for constraints as well as strengths. An agency need not be ruled out because it cannot name every person yet, but confirming those people should remain a condition before work starts. Compare the note with the commercial offer. The team you met, the work you discussed and the service you pay for should agree.
How to read the evidence
We used supplier material checked on 8 November 2026 and wrote this guide on 9 November 2026. Information supplied directly by Nexus is identified separately from public pages. The examples and suggested exercises are illustrative; Marchmont has not run these engagements.
- A difficult example helps reveal who asks questions and takes responsibility.
- Confirm the people and prerequisites before accepting the plan.
- This is the supplier’s published statement, checked on 8 November 2026. We have not tested it independently.
- Buying extra staff and buying a managed project leave different jobs with your team.
- Ask both sides to agree who does and accepts the work.
- A practical exercise shows what the receiving team can do without the builder.
- The handover should make the division of work clear.
- Support needs named cover and usable instructions when the original lead is absent.
- Turn the staffing and support discussion into written commitments.