What I actually learned working in a design agency

For most of my career, I've worked in agencies. Started as an intern, moved into a full-time UX role, and spent years working with small teams, flat hierarchies, and a constant stream of clients. Design college teaches you the craft. The agency teaches you everything else. Here's what I picked up that nobody prepared me for.

1. You do everything, everywhere, all at once

My title said UX Designer. My actual job was whatever needed doing. Branding, brochures, pitch decks, illustrations, brainstorming with the marketing team — and yes, one day I found myself building on WordPress. I used to feel like I was drifting from my main role. But looking back, working across so many different tasks made me a significantly better designer. Your skills compound faster when you're thrown into things you didn't sign up for.

2. You're a storyteller, a salesman, and a lawyer

But I'm a designer! Sure — and in practice, you're all three. I learned this the hard way in pitch meetings. Walking stakeholders through designs without context doesn't work. You have to tell a story so they can see themselves in it. You have to sell the benefits so they understand the value. And when the questions and objections start — and they always do — you have to defend your decisions with examples, data, or precedent. The design is only half the job. Presenting it is the other half.

3. Speed matters more than perfection — sometimes

When you're running multiple projects simultaneously, you have to work smart. There were times I didn't have "perfect" designs ready for a client meeting and was tempted to postpone. Don't. Getting in the room with work in progress is almost always more useful than waiting until everything is polished. Clients see the progress, give input that saves you hours, and feel involved in the process. Perfect designs presented too late are worth less than good designs presented on time.

4. Befriend your developer

Early in my career, I'd hand off designs and get back something broken — wrong spacing, missing interactions, components that didn't work the way I intended. The fix wasn't better handoff files. It was a conversation. Understand their constraints, share your designs before they're final, ask what's buildable. When designers and developers talk early, the gap between what's designed and what's built shrinks dramatically.

5. Your clients are not designers — and you are not the client

I am the designer. They are not. I can visualise how a rough sketch becomes a finished screen. They can't. So I stopped showing sketches and started presenting near-final work — because that's what they can actually respond to meaningfully.

But it goes the other way too. Your client might have spent decades in their industry. Their feedback might sound strange from a design perspective. It's usually not wrong — it's just coming from a different kind of expertise. Listen to it. Do your research. Then make the call.

6. Don't surprise your manager or your client

This one I was told directly by my manager and it stuck. Nobody likes surprises in a professional setting — especially when a deadline is involved. If something is taking longer than expected, say it early. If a design direction isn't working, flag it before the meeting not during it. If you're stuck, ask for help before it becomes a problem. Transparency isn't a weakness — it's what builds trust with the people you work with. The earlier you communicate, the more control everyone has over the outcome.

7. Don't take it personally

I've had hundreds of designs rejected, criticised, and sent back for rework. Early on it was hard to separate the feedback from my sense of self. But I learned — the faster you detach your ego from your work, the faster you improve. It's not about you. It's about the problem you're solving. Once that clicked, the feedback stopped feeling like criticism and started feeling like information.

These aren't lessons you find in a textbook or a design course. They come from real projects, real clients, and real mistakes. If you're just starting out in an agency — or anywhere in design — I hope at least one of these saves you some time. And if you've been in the industry for a while, I'd love to know what you'd add to this list.