Why creativity and process management needn’t be enemies

For marketing departments and agencies focused on creative goals, the idea that process and project management are just as important can seem ridiculous. The perception exists that business processes only matter for technical areas such as operations, IT and finance and that creatives have no need for those sorts of restrictions.

But the truth is that processes – and in particular, a project management approach – are vital to keeping creative businesses running smoothly. Creative projects are just like those in any other part of the organisation: they have milestones and deadlines that need to be hit, information that needs to be shared among all involved and the need for visibility on how the work is progressing.

Yes, designers might not like being told what to do and creativity doesn’t always arrive on schedule, but that just makes it even more important that those potentially more disorganised right-brained types have access to tools to help them manage what they’re doing.

If they’re creating an advertisement or piece of marketing collateral, they need to know how to manage work requests, maintain the timing, keep managers updated on project status and, critically, manage version control and the approvals process so that they don’t end up with multiple different drafts floating around the company at the same time.

In our experience, too many agencies and marketing teams still rely on the old standbys of Excel spreadsheets and email trails, while their IT and engineering counterparts instead employ dedicated project management software tools with dashboards and online hubs for knowledge-sharing.

Managing processes more effectively is not about restricting creativity, it’s about giving creatives the room and opportunity to work successfully. Our research has shown that 40 percent of businesses have accidentally published an incorrect piece of creative and that 17 percent have encountered unnecessary duplication of work – both of which are issues that could be easily avoided with access to modern process management tools.

So get in touch with us if you’d like to know more about managing the creative process and what tools are available. Surely it’s far too important to leave it to email?