Creative projects are a lot of fun but without a creative workflow management system in place, it’s easy to lose sight of the goal at hand. Finding a workflow that works best for you and your team can be difficult but there is somewhat of a standard process. We’ve included some tips and some key checkpoints to ensure you’re managing your creative workflow effectively.
Ideation
The ideation stage is when you’re putting together the ideas and what you want to achieve out of this project. During this stage put together and finalize your creative brief. The brief will outline the goal of the project, key personnel, and the deliverables. You can include the major tasks, as well as include key dates and deadlines. This is especially important when you’re working with a large team as this can keep you all on the same page. If you’re looking to outsource vendors, having a creative brief gives them an idea of what you’re looking for as well.
Split Up Tasks
Now that everyone is on the same page about what is being achieved its important to break up the project into smaller tasks and assign individuals or teams to those tasks. If you’re working on a tight timeline this will ensure that all the moving parts of the project are completed in a timely manner.
Create Templates
A great way to speed up your creative workflow is to create templates. If you have a commonly used format for a certain type of project then making a template will make it so much easier to start a new project. Depending on how your team is split up you may be able to create your templates in a way where tasks are already assigned and ready to go.
The Review Process
After the ideas are in place and individuals or teams have started to work on their parts, it’s important that you have a review process in place. Ensure that key decision-makers are part of the review process and that enough time is given to review the project. Do you have an objective scoring system that can help make decisions? Your review process plays an important part in ensuring quality work is sent out to your clients all the time.
When you send off your work to your clients make sure that giving feedback and tracking revisions is a simple process. Your naming conventions should be clear, concise, and reflect which draft they’re viewing. Client’s should be able to leave feedback inline, or in a commenting program to ensure nothing is missed and that things are kept simple enough for the editors to make changes and the client to provide feedback.
Creative workflow management doesn’t have to be difficult. How do you manage your team?
