The Digital Jane League Twenty Two

Case Study  ·  Jan 15 – Apr 15, 2024  ·  Los Angeles, CA

How We Built a Scalable
Talent Infrastructure
for a Growing Creative Agency

A creative agency at a growth stage that required stronger operational infrastructure. Here's how we built it together.

16 Weeks
14 Custom Boards
4× Faster Onboarding
13 Processes Documented
"You just condensed like four hours of Audrey's work into like 10 minutes." Kenley  ·  Senior Operations Manager, League Twenty Two

Client Overview

A culturally-driven agency ready to scale

League Twenty Two is a creative experiential marketing agency producing culturally-centered campaigns and activations for major brands. They bring cultural authenticity to everything they do.

Kenley, the Senior Operations Manager, followed The Digital Jane and reached out after a recent promotion. She was looking for support in refining their internal systems, especially talent management.

Nike Essence CultureCon
Visit leaguetwentytwo.com
League Twenty Two team

Engagement Details

Industry Creative / Experiential Marketing
Timeline January 15 – April 15
Duration 16 Weeks
Primary Tool Airtable
Focus Areas Talent Management, Systems Design, SOPs, Team Role Clarity

The Challenge

Vetting and onboarding talent took hours.

League Twenty Two was at an inflection point. With high-profile clients and growing demand, the right infrastructure wasn't yet in place. Every new project brought the same operational pressure.

The ops team was spending 2–3 hours per freelancer, pulling information from multiple places without a centralized system. Important details needed a better home.

The bottleneck wasn't talent availability. It was infrastructure.

"We were missing very integral things that could have potentially allowed us not to pick them."

Kenley, Senior Operations Manager

Where the breakdown was happening

👥

7–8 full-time staff managing a rotating bench of 10–15 contractors per project with no centralized system

⏱

2–3 hours spent onboarding each individual contractor, per project

🗂

Critical info spread across spreadsheets, email threads, and individual inboxes

🔄

Hiring happened project by project , with no standing roster to pull from

🚧

Leadership wanted a more reliable system for managing project staffing at scale

Our Process

We built a scalable foundation

To keep our clients' info safe, we don't share a full demo. This walkthrough covers each phase, what we found, and what we built.

Phase 01  ·  4–6 Weeks

Diagnose the Root Cause

Discovery, Team Clarity & Operational Readiness

Before we touched any tools, we needed to understand how the team actually works. We conducted workflow discovery sessions with each team member, mapping day-to-day work and identifying where there was room to build.

What we found:

Role ownership between the ops manager and coordinator wasn't clearly defined

13 core processes existed but weren't documented, they lived in people's heads

The Airtable base they'd started building wasn't being used because it didn't match actual workflows

The insight: the tools weren't the gap. Clarity and ownership were the starting point.
"I feel pretty secure in my role now... I'm understanding how I can take more ownership and take things off of Kenley's plate." Operations Coordinator
Automations Built
Thank You + Next Steps Email Ops Team New App Alert
Discovery Role Clarity Airtable Audit
1
Jan – Feb
L22 Talent Management Wiki - Application Review Process
Airtable Talent Management Base - League Twenty Two
2
Feb – Apr

Phase 02  ·  10–12 Weeks

Implementation & Documentation

System Setup, Process Development & SOPs

With clarity in place, we built the operational backbone they needed to manage talent at scale. We designed two custom Airtable bases:

Ops/Admin Matrix: Centralized expense tracking and task management

Talent Management Base: A fully automated system for screening, onboarding, and assigning freelancers

Automated workflows replaced manual handoffs. Filters and views surfaced the right talent at the right time. Calendar integrations gave leadership visibility into project staffing. Every workflow was documented with SOPs and training videos.

Freelancer screening became faster, consistent, and easy to repeat. The team could now manage 10–15 contractors per project without bottlenecks.
Automations Built
Freelancer Stage Transitions Availability Blast Email Soft Rejection Email Calendar Sync on Assignment
Airtable Automation SOPs Training Videos

Phase 03  ·  4 Weeks

Training & Handoff

Building Internal Ownership

The final phase wasn't about handoff. It was about building internal capacity. We trained the ops team not just to use the systems, but to own them. They walked leadership through the new workflows with confidence and clarity.

"This is real good. Y'all taught her very well." Nigel, Leadership
"When projects come, we have an army of folks ready to go." Kenley, Senior Operations Manager
The ops team had the systems to move with confidence.
Training Capacity Building
3
Apr
L22 Application Approval Flow - Training Session

The Transformation

16 weeks. Real results.

League Twenty Two invested in building the operational infrastructure to match where they were already headed.

18x
Faster Onboarding From 3 hours per contractor to 10 minutes
13
Processes Documented Pulled out of people's heads into repeatable systems
0
Systems Left Behind Every deliverable built to be owned by the team

Before

2–3 hours spent onboarding each individual contractor
Hiring happened project by project, without a standing talent pool
Leadership couldn't confidently take on new work
Information was spread across tools without a centralized home

After

Freelancer onboarding takes 10 minutes
Talent pipeline is proactive, with vetted contractors ready before projects arrive
Leadership can scale client work without scaling operational burden
All processes are documented, centralized, and sustainable

League Twenty Two now has the operational infrastructure to support their growth ambitions. They're no longer limited by internal capacity. They're ready to scale.

"Thank you so much. We really appreciate this process, and we know that it's going to be extremely helpful for streamlining all of our incoming talent. It's nice to have this consistent flow happening in the background, so when projects come, we have an army of folks ready to go."

Kenley  ·  Senior Operations Manager, League Twenty Two

By the Numbers

What we delivered

Every deliverable was built to be owned and evolved by the team, not dependent on us to maintain.

14
Custom Boards Delivered
Airtable bases purpose-built for talent management and ops/admin tracking
7
Documented Processes
Core workflows moved from informal knowledge into documented, repeatable systems
4
SOPs for Core Workflows
Step-by-step documentation with training videos for team independence
2
System Audits & Rebuilds
Existing tools restructured to match actual team workflows
Alice Foy, Principal Consultant, The Digital Jane
Alice Foy Principal Consultant, The Digital Jane

What This Taught Us

You can improve efficiency by making what the team is using realistic. Make it fit them.

What matters most is that the work we leave behind actually gets used. Systems that become part of how the team operates. Built to last because it was built to fit.

Principle 01

Clarity creates capacity. No system sticks without defined ownership and documented process.

Principle 02

Systems should be built based on what's real.

Principle 03

Training prepares the team to understand their part in managing and owning the changes.

Work With The Digital Jane

Your organization is
ready for this.

We partner with creative agencies, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations to build the operational infrastructure that lets teams scale with confidence.

Book a Strategy Session