Leading Through Complexity: Building a Unified Digital Agency (Perficient)

Between 2016 and 2018, Perficient Digital acquired three agencies, each with its own identity, culture, and way of working. The leadership challenge wasn’t simply operational — it was strategic and cultural. I was tasked with unifying 130+ professionals across five offices into a single, high-performing Experience Design practice while also:

• Repositioning the business from a traditional tech consultancy into a full-service digital agency capable of leading with design and brand as much as engineering.
   
• Creating new, combined processes that blended agency creativity with enterprise-level rigor, ensuring delivery could scale across industries and clients.
   
• Preserving morale during uncertainty, preventing attrition and keeping teams motivated during rapid expansion and cultural change.
   
• Balancing distinct agency cultures and egos without losing the entrepreneurial spirit that made them successful.
   
• Aligning executives, clients, and employees around a shared vision for Experience Design as a core differentiator, not just a support function.
   
• Maintaining delivery quality and financial performance in the middle of integration — proving to leadership and clients that growth didn’t come at the expense of outcomes.

I approached integration as both an organizational design and a strategic transformation challenge, moving deliberately through these steps:

Establish the Vision & North Star

• Defined what “Experience Design” meant inside a large tech consultancy: a practice that blended UX, brand, engineering, and strategy to deliver full digital solutions.
• Aligned executives around a repositioning goal: move from a “delivery partner” to a full-service digital agency that could lead with strategy, creativity, and design.
• Communicated a clear story for employees and clients: not just bigger — but stronger, more connected, and more capable.
   

Scale & Structure the Team

• Grew the team from 12 to 130+ professionals across five offices through a mix of targeted hiring and acquisitions.
• Introduced role clarity, career paths, and growth frameworks to retain talent and provide stability during uncertain times.
• Balanced entrepreneurial energy from the agencies with the operational discipline needed to work at enterprise scale.
   

Integrate Cultures & Processes

• Directed the integration of three distinct agency cultures into a single identity, creating shared rituals, leadership forums, and values.
• Designed new combined processes that merged agency creativity with enterprise rigor — establishing a design-led, agile delivery model that scaled across industries.
• Built repeatable frameworks for proposals, delivery, and measurement that reinforced consistency and credibility.
   

Build Collaboration & Knowledge-Sharing

• Launched communities of practice, playbooks, and cross-office initiatives to break down silos and unify disciplines (UX, brand, engineering, strategy).
• Encouraged “cross-pollination” of teams across geographies and disciplines, ensuring ideas and best practices spread rather than staying local.
• Positioned collaboration not as a buzzword but as the engine of innovation and delivery excellence.
   

Sustain Momentum While Growing

• Balanced the long-term integration effort with quick wins that reassured employees, executives, and clients that the transition was working.
• Maintained delivery quality, hitting growth and performance targets, to prove that integration wasn’t a distraction but a multiplier.
• Reinforced to the market that Perficient Digital could now operate as a credible, nationally recognized digital agency while keeping the trust of enterprise clients.
   

• Business Growth Sustained: Delivered ~15% year-over-year growth during a period when many firms stumble through acquisitions, proving the integration model could scale without disrupting revenue.
   
• Cultural Cohesion Achieved: Unified three distinct agency cultures into a single, thriving Experience Design practice, retaining key talent and strengthening morale through clarity and shared purpose.
   
• Strategic Repositioning Realized: Shifted Perficient from being seen as a traditional tech consultancy into a full-service digital agency, capable of leading with design, strategy, and brand alongside engineering.
   
• Operational Maturity Built: Designed new combined processes that merged agency creativity with enterprise-grade rigor, creating delivery models that could scale across industries and client portfolios.
   
• Market Differentiation Secured: Established Experience Design as a core differentiator in major enterprise consulting deals, directly influencing wins and elevating Perficient’s profile in a crowded market.

This wasn’t just about managing acquisitions or launching Perficient Digital — it was about transforming identity, culture, and strategy inside a large consulting firm. The real leadership challenge was showing that design and digital experience weren’t add-ons, but central to Perficient’s growth story.

It matters because it demonstrates that leadership in these contexts isn’t just operational — it’s about:

• Creating clarity where there is confusion.
   
• Aligning cultures without erasing what makes them unique.
   
• Reframing a business model to compete at the next level.
   

By putting people, culture, and vision first, I turned what could have been several siloed agencies into a unified national practice — and repositioned a consulting firm into a credible digital agency with the scale, process, and culture to win at the enterprise level.