Process Maturity: Ensure Your Solutions Grow With You

Kade Brewster • June 4, 2023

As your business grows, your processes need to scale accordingly

Every successful business knows that growth is crucial for survival in today's ever-changing landscape. But before they can grow, companies need to have a strong baseline of maturity within their processes. Process Maturity is a term we use at Brewster Consulting Group to describe a company’s level of sophistication and the effectiveness of its processes. We created a Process Maturity framework that measures not only how efficient you are today, but also how efficient you will be as the business evolves.

In a broader sense, an organization is a sum of all the individual processes that exist. If you want to drive a meaningful impact for your organization, you have to understand which processes are the biggest levers you can pull to drive improvement. That’s why it’s so important to spend time focused at the process level to drive real organizational impact. This includes understanding organizational goals and objectives, distilling them into the most influential processes, and evaluating the maturity levels of key processes.

In this article, we will discuss process maturity in detail, including its definition and importance, and walk readers through the eight steps scale for evaluating and rating process maturity.

What is Process Maturity?

Processes are the lifeblood of an organization; well-run processes stack upon one another to create the building blocks of an organization's operational success. As these processes mature, the organization grows in its quality and capabilities. Thus, we created a proprietary framework to facilitate the maturation of an organization’s processes. Process maturity is the degree to which an organization's processes are defined, measured, repeatable, and can be continuously improved. Process maturity can be viewed as a measure of the organization's ability to effectively manage and optimize its processes. The higher the level of process maturity, the more efficient and effective the organization's operations are likely to be, and the more capabilities the business will be able to handle.

Eight Steps For Evaluating and Rating Process Maturity

The Process Maturity framework is an 8-point scale, each level of the process maturity scale incorporates different deliverables to advance to the next level. The performance of an organization, at a macro level, is the sum of the individual processes. Process maturity helps distill organizational strategy and objectives down to tactical steps to drive improvement in performance. It also helps align and prioritize disparte initiatives across the organization to maximize positive impact.

Definition
At the first level, organizations have ad-hoc processes in place that are not formally documented or standardized. Employees are left to figure out how to do their jobs on their own, which can lead to inconsistencies and errors. Questions, doubts, and guesses abound in an unformalized system, meaning that valuable time and resources can disappear on a daily basis. Accountability is hard to define because projects, without any true process owners, are managed by individuals using personal knowledge. Worse still, your clients can feel the results of such a crude operating system when their results are less than satisfactory.

Ownership
In the second step, a process owner must be clearly established. The organization is still seeking consistent operating processes. These processes are starting to become documented and standardized, but they are not yet fully implemented or consistently followed. Employees may deviate from the standard procedures, leading to variability in the outcomes. For instance, a project team may have a set of procedures in place for creating, editing, finalizing, and delivering content to their client. With multiple hands on the team, an efficient process would be to have all the data stored in a shared space or drive, like the cloud, so that it’s accessible to anyone on the team at any time. If a collaborative effort relied on local storage, or if some of the members housed data on their personal devices, version control would suffer and could lead to an incomplete final product.

Understanding
In the third phase, the organization has clearly defined their processes while completing their process map. The team as a whole now has a firm grasp on what is expected of them and how they ought to deliver the results. Furthermore, subject matter experts are identified, defining a hierarchy when a helping hand or expert opinion is necessary.

Standardization
Businesses can graduate to the fourth stage of process maturity once they begin to standardize their clearly defined processes. This phase takes planning and coordination to execution when procedures exist to standardize necessary components. Cross functional process impacts are mapped, ensuring that each team and department understands how they are affected. Finally, the organization will have reached standardization once they have proper change control in place. The goal is to create a smooth and efficient transition from stage to stage, and from team to team, with standardized practices.

Measurement and Defect Reduction
Consistent measurement and defect reduction is the next phase of process maturity. As your team moves along the maturity scale, KPIs, SLAs, and SLOs are established to monitor and track organizational efficiency. It’s critical for organizations to be able to both identify and successfully catalog risks and controls by this stage. Process data management is now aligned with organizational data strategy, further propelling the organizations towards an optimized operating environment.

Automation
Automation is one of the most important stages in the growth of an organization. Upon reaching the automation phase, manual process tasks are increasingly replaced by automated execution. These processes are now reaching goals as defined by key metrics, while stretch goals for those key metrics are developed in alignment with bigger objectives. Organizations can establish a Comprehensive Process Reporting system that is focused on identifying and addressing process inefficiencies and bottlenecks to continue driving the business forward.

Innovation
As businesses reach the innovation stage, they’re growing closer towards complete process maturity. This penultimate stage is defined by an increase in analytics and new thought. The team is encouraged to constantly evaluate and optimize their processes for continued improvement, always leveraging data to find the best solution. One example is using predictive analytics to drive process insights and ensure maximum efficiency.

Scalability and Digital Transformation
Upon reaching the final stage of process maturity, organizations are continuously improving by weeding out faulty systems and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible through predictive and prescriptive analytics. All of these factors, working hand in hand, allow an organization to scale as rapidly as their sales engine allows. Teams predict, adapt, execute on repeat.

Benefits of Process Maturity

As your business progresses through the process maturity scale, businesses can reap a number of benefits.

Increased Efficiency
Improving efficiency is a major benefit of process maturity. By streamlining and standardizing processes, businesses can reduce waste, eliminate redundancies, and optimize their use of resources. This can lead to cost savings, increased productivity, and improved quality.

Consistency
By establishing a framework and baseline for processes, businesses can ensure consistency across all operations. This can lead to higher quality products and services, as well as improved customer satisfaction. A company that provides IT support may ensure that all support staff follow the same procedures when handling customer inquiries, ensuring a consistent level of service for all customers.

Scalability and Agility
By creating a scalable framework and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, businesses can become more agile and better able to adapt to changes in the market. Online retail services may be able to quickly add new products to their website or adjust their pricing strategies in response to changes in customer demand.

Better Decision-Making
By automating processes and using data analytics tools, businesses can make better-informed decisions. This can lead to improved outcomes and increased profitability. For example, a company that provides financial services may use data analytics tools to identify patterns in customer spending behavior, allowing them to make better-informed investment recommendations.

Taking the Next Step

Now that you understand what process maturity is, what are you supposed to do about it? Knowing how to implement the right process map can be tricky or time consuming. That’s where Brewster Consulting Group takes the baton.

Contact us and set up a consultation where we can walk you through our process and discuss how we can increase your team’s collaboration, productivity, innovation, and revenue growth through increased process maturity.

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How Small Marketing Firms Can Scale Smarter with Fractional Project Management

By Ranae Peterson • October 29, 2025

In the fast-paced world of marketing, agility is everything. But for many small marketing firms , staying organized and executing effectively can feel like an uphill battle. Between juggling client deliverables, managing creative teams, and keeping up with digital trends, it’s easy for even the most talented agencies to lose focus or momentum. That’s where fractional project management comes in - a cost-effective, flexible way for small agencies to gain project management expertise without the overhead of a full-time hire. What Is Fractional Project Management? Fractional project management allows marketing firms to hire an experienced project manager or project management team on a part-time, contract, or as-needed basis. These professionals provide the strategic direction, structure, and accountability of a full-time role, but with the flexibility and affordability that small firms need. Unlike traditional project management roles, fractional project managers adapt to your workflow. They can: Create or refine marketing project management frameworks. Oversee campaign timelines, deliverables, and communication. Manage resources, budgets, and vendor relationships. Introduce project management tools, such as Asana. Provide performance insights to keep campaigns aligned with business goals. The Common Challenges Small Marketing Firms Face: Running a small marketing firm means constantly balancing creativity, client satisfaction, and growth, all while working with limited time, budgets, and staff. While many small agencies deliver incredible results for their clients, their internal operations are often suboptimal. Without proper structure and project management in place, business operations can quickly become reactive instead of proactive. Here are some of the most common challenges small marketing firms face, many of which can be alleviated with the right fractional project management support: 1. Inconsistent Execution of Marketing Strategies Small firms often start projects with enthusiasm but struggle to maintain consistency across campaigns, clients, and platforms. Without a clear project roadmap or centralized process, teams can lose sight of timelines, priorities, or deliverables. This inconsistency can lead to missed deadlines, off-brand messaging, and a loss of client confidence over time. 2. Limited Budgets and Tight Margins Many boutique agencies operate on razor-thin margins, meaning that hiring a full-time senior project manager or operations manager may simply be out of reach. This leads to a “DIY” approach to project coordination, where creative directors, account managers, or even designers end up juggling scheduling and task tracking in addition to their core roles. It’s a recipe for burnout and inefficiency. 3. Attracting and Retaining Talent In the marketing world, top talent wants growth, clarity, and collaboration. When internal processes feel chaotic or constantly changing, employees can become frustrated or disengaged. A lack of structured project management can contribute to high turnover, especially among younger professionals looking for organized environments where they can learn and thrive. 4. Keeping Up with Industry Trends and Technology Marketing trends shift faster than ever, from SEO and social media algorithms to automation and analytics tools. Small firms, often focused on servicing clients, rarely have time to step back and strategically assess which technologies to adopt or how to integrate them effectively into their workflows. This can result in wasted subscriptions, underutilized tools, or outdated methods that slow productivity. 5. Balancing Growth and Quality As marketing firms grow, the complexity of managing multiple campaigns, channels, and clients multiplies. Without scalable project management processes, expansion can lead to growing pains: stretched teams, missed opportunities, and declining quality of work. Fractional project management can help maintain creative excellence while effectively scaling operations. 6. Cash Flow and Resource Allocation Project delays, scope creep, and unclear task ownership often lead to billing inaccuracies and wasted time. Many small agencies underestimate how much untracked work cuts into profit margins. Without proper project visibility or a defined workflow, forecasting becomes guesswork, making it harder to predict cash flow or plan for sustainable growth. 7. Client Communication and Expectation Management Misaligned expectations between the firm and its clients are another major pain point. When communication is informal or scattered across emails and chat threads, misunderstandings arise. A structured project management system creates transparency, accountability, and shared visibility, all key to stronger client relationships. 8. Content Creation Bottlenecks Small firms often pride themselves on creativity, but without workflow organization, content can get stuck in feedback loops. Campaign approvals, revisions, and scheduling can all become bottlenecks that stall production. Over time, this can limit the firm’s ability to scale output or deliver consistently across multiple accounts. 9. Lack of Technology Utilization Even when agencies have invested in tools like Asana, ClickUp, or Monday.com, they often fail to leverage them effectively. Either no one owns the system or team members don’t have time to update it. The result is a fragmented picture of project progress and duplicated effort, both of which fractional project managers specialize in resolving. 10. Burnout and Overwork With so many moving pieces, it’s no surprise that burnout is common among small marketing teams. When deadlines stack up and roles blur, people spend more time reacting to problems than delivering creative solutions. Over time, that stress impacts morale, retention, and ultimately, client results. In short: most small marketing firms aren’t lacking talent, they’re lacking structure. And without a scalable framework for managing people, projects, and priorities, even the most brilliant ideas can get lost in the shuffle. How Fractional Project Management Helps Small Marketing Firms Fractional project management offers both strategic and operational advantages for small agencies, including: Strategic Oversight Without the Cost: Fractional PMs bring senior-level strategy to the table without requiring a full-time salary. They guide teams on where to prioritize resources, how to align goals, and how to scale efficiently. Flexibility and Scalability: Whether your firm manages two clients or twenty, fractional project management services scale with you. You can engage in support during busy periods or for specific initiatives without long-term commitments. Immediate Access to Top Talent: Fractional project managers are seasoned professionals who’ve worked with multiple marketing firms, giving your team instant access to best practices and proven systems. Improved Accountability and Execution: With an external PM keeping projects on track, your creative team can focus on what they do best: creating and delivering exceptional marketing work. Enhanced Profitability and Efficiency: From budget management to workflow optimization, a fractional project manager helps uncover bottlenecks that waste time and money, improving cash flow and project margins. When Should a Small Marketing Firm Consider Fractional Project Management You might not need full-time help yet, but here are a few signs it’s time to bring in a fractional project manager : -You’re juggling too many high-value projects at once. -Projects are constantly behind schedule or over budget. -Your team is overworked, burned out, or missing deadlines. -You lack internal project management expertise. -You feel stuck or overwhelmed trying to manage growth. If these sound familiar, fractional project management might be the missing piece. The Bottom Line For small marketing firms, fractional project management isn’t just about organization; it’s about unlocking growth. With the right systems in place, marketing agencies can scale confidently, deliver better results, and focus on what they do best: creativity and strategy. As the marketing landscape evolves, fractional project management services offer a competitive edge, one that combines flexibility, structure, and cost efficiency.

Turning Data into Direction: Why Small Businesses Need Fractional Analytics

By Ranae Peterson • October 9, 2025

Many small businesses are laser-focused on growth, sales, and staying afloat. In that constant hustle, one of the most valuable assets, data , often gets overlooked. Even when businesses “look at the numbers,” that doesn’t always mean they’re collecting the right data, tracking the right KPIs, or translating those insights into actionable strategies. Fractional analytics bridges that gap. It allows small businesses to access experienced data analysts or analytics teams on a part-time or project basis, essentially bringing enterprise-level data expertise without the full-time cost. Think of it as analytics-as-a-service for small business owners who need clarity and insight but can’t justify a full analytics department. The Reality: Why Data Gets Overlooked While most business leaders know data is “important,” it can be hard to see its impact until it’s visualized through dashboards, real-time reporting, or guided by a professional who knows how to turn information into action. Without these tools and expertise, business decisions often rely on gut instinct instead of insight, leading to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and in some cases, failure. Statistics show that: About 20% of small businesses don’t survive their first year. Nearly 50% fail within five years. Around 65% close within ten years. While the reasons vary, from financial mismanagement to poor planning, many of these challenges stem from a lack of data visibility or poor data management . In other words, the root cause often isn’t just financial; it’s analytical . Real World Analogy Imagine running a restaurant without ever checking what inventory levels, most frequent orders, or best margin products. You might think you’re doing well because the restaurant is busy, but when you do the books, you’re not actually making any money. Now, imagine having a fractional analytics consultant helping you organize and visualize your data. They don’t need to be in the kitchen every day, but when they are, they bring order to chaos, tracking inventory and margin by menu item, predicting staffing needs, and saving costs by cutting waste. That’s what fractional analytics does for your business data. It helps you understand what’s really happening across operations, finance, and customer service so you can make smarter, faster decisions. Common Operational Challenges Solved by Fractional Analytics Here are a few common pain points small businesses face that fractional analytics services can address: Inefficient reporting and manual data entry. Lack of clear KPIs or performance tracking. Inconsistent financial forecasting. Missed revenue opportunities due to incomplete data. Poor inventory or resource management. Lack of clarity around customer behavior and profitability. Benefits of Fractional Analytics for Small Businesses Engaging a fractional analytics provider offers far more than just numbers and dashboards. It’s about empowering smarter decisions without breaking the bank. Cost efficiency: Avoid the high salary and benefits of full-time analytics hire. Speed to impact: Gain immediate access to expertise, no lengthy onboarding or training required. Scalability: Bring in analytics support when you need it and scale it up as you grow. Better decision-making: Replace guesswork with data-driven insights and actionable KPIs. Time savings: Spend less time in spreadsheets and more time growing your business. Long-term cost reduction: Identify duplicate payments, missed invoices, and inefficiencies that quietly drain profit. Fractional analytics also enhances cash flow management and enables business leaders to spot opportunities for optimization, often resulting in measurable growth and sustainability. Why It’s a Make-or-Break Decision Choosing whether to work with a fractional analytics consultant could be the difference between surviving and thriving. Many business owners don’t realize that outsourced analytics is even an option, one that offers flexibility, affordability, and strategic insight without high overhead. The truth is, small business leaders don’t have to do it all alone, nor do they need to rush into hiring a full-time team. Fractional analytics gives them the best of both worlds: the expertise of a senior data strategist and the flexibility of a part-time engagement. Final Thoughts In today’s competitive market, data-driven decision making isn’t optional; it’s essential. Small businesses that embrace fractional analytics gain clarity, confidence, and control over their operations. By investing in the right insights today, they set up the foundation for sustainable growth tomorrow. If your business is ready to move from guessing to growing, now’s the time to explore what fractional analytics services can do for you.