In the hair-on-fire world of modern advertising, where agility and flexibility can make or break a client relationship, my lil’ ol’ Google team in R/GA San Francisco faced what many would call a “good problem”: success. Our team was gaining visibility as a trusted resource inside Google’s Mountain View campus and with that came an influx of small, urgent projects (in addition to the larger, long-term projects we were traditionally involved in). All of the sudden, the team found themselves pulled in multiple directions – at the cost of productivity, focus, and the sanity of the team.
Enter the Triage Unit, a new model for managing chaos without compromising quality.
When Every Task is an Emergency
The Google “Pod” that I ran at R/GA had become a trusted partner for the agency’s biggest client, gaining traction across new teams and projects. But with that trust came frequent last-minute requests, often small in scope but big in urgency, importance and profile. These “drop everything” moments were disruptive, stealing time and focus from our core teams and burdening leadership with endless scoping, meetings and distractions.
But, the issue wasn’t the work, it was workflow.
The Analogy That Changed Everything
Borrowing a moniker from the TV show “MASH”, we labeled our approach “The Triage Unit”. After all, it’s not a stretch to think of our designers, developers, and strategists like medical specialists: focused, skilled, often booked with long-term patients (projects) and hyper specialized. Now imagine pulling a heart surgeon mid-surgery to set a broken arm in the ER. Sounds ridiculous, no?
But that’s exactly what was happening. Constant context-switching was now hurting the quality of both our new found short-term opportunities as well and the long-term projects that we were known for.
Then one day, over a sandwich at the local deli, it clicked: What if we had our own Emergency Room for… the emergencies?
The Solution: MASH 35
The Triage Unit was born to handle short-term, acute projects: landing pages, quick QA cycles, fast development turnarounds with the same rigor and quality that R/GA is known for, but with a team purpose-built for speed and focus.
Think of it as a creative ER, where experienced doctors, nurses and techs (producers, designers, engineers) jump in, diagnose, stabilize, and ship—all without derailing the hospital’s top surgeons and long-term care happening on the floors above.
How It Works: Staffing the ER
Staffing the Triage Unit correctly was like prepping a house prior to painting; if the prep is good, you simply put “paint where it ain’t” and everything else falls into place. So, we found those that love short, quick hit, hero type work and we put them on the team:
- One dedicated producer (Our Nurse Jackie, if you will) leads 4-5 simultaneous projects.
- A lean but efficient team of:
- 1 copywriter (50%)
- 1 experience designer (50%)
- 1 visual designer (75%)
- Dev and QA:
- 2 full-time software engineers
- 1 full-time QA specialist
- 1 part-time tech lead (25%)
- Account Management:
- Senior Account Director (10%)
- Mid-level Client Services (50%)
This dedicated group above handled the bulk of small incoming projects independently but leaned on the bigger team for support when needed.
The Process: From Ask to Action in Two Weeks
- A new request arrives: typically directly from the client, from sales or account leads.
- Evaluation: within 48 hours, work is assessed by the Program Director (me).
- Routing: if it qualifies, it’s handed to the Triage producer.
- Scoping and Resourcing: quick week by week planning document and resource assignment.
- Client Response: quote and timeline returned in 2–3 days.
- Planning: budget/timeline tweaks negotiated.
- Kickoff — work begins and is 100% handled by Triage resources.
Not a B-Team, a 2nd A-Team
A critical point: This is not a hierarchy. The Triage Unit isn’t a backup band. It’s a specialized team playing a different gig. Both teams are “A Teams,” with unique skills and mandates. One focuses on depth, strategy and big initiatives, the other on speed, accuracy and efficiency.
Then what happened?
With executive buy-in and the right tools (Asana was a big part of our success), the Triage Unit became the new model for balancing agility and excellence across our pod. After a while, it became so natural that we didn’t even think about it, that’s how you know it’s a good idea, it’s effortless. I created and shared a presentation to the agency and became an advocate for this approach for other clients and teams. Some listened, some didn’t. Say la vie.
Conclusion:
I like to think of the Triage Unit that we created as more than a clever metaphor but rather a smart operational evolution that recognized the realities of modern client work. By carving out space for urgency, without sacrificing focus or the big picture. R/GA continued to build trust and good will with the most important client in the building while putting some joy back into the work we all had a little more fun. The result of this was the first ever retainer contract (the holy grail of advertising) between R/GA and Google and it lives on to this day.
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