The success of your projects doesn't just come down to creatives, clients, or products. It depends on effective process management, which is an art and a science in its own right.
A critical aspect of your creative processes is managing creative requests. If you don't have a clear process for receiving project requests in place, both sides will be frustrated and confused and projects will run behind schedule.
Here are some tips on how you can improve your process for handling project briefs and creative requests, for clients and creatives alike.
Let's start with the key details. If you want to keep the process moving with as few disruptions as possible, the best place to start is to tackle project intake, prioritization, and key details up front.
Your creatives need critical information at the outset in order to create the project their client asked for. If your process is informal, they'll be fielding requests and shaping the core of the project on the fly.
Neglecting details at the outset is one of the most common project management mistakes, and it's guaranteed to set your team up for frustration.
Instead, you can collect all the details you need in a project brief. This makes it easy for the client and the creatives to see the project through a shared lens, ensuring that important details aren't lost in translation.
Of course, once the project is rolling, there are still going to be requests for changes. If they're coming in from every possible direction, details will inevitably be lost, and both the client and the creatives will be frustrated.
To mitigate this, get all of your teams on board with a centralized production process. All new requests should be routed to a single location so that creatives can refer to a single source of truth.
On the client side, you should have a formal system for submitting requests. This is all about drawing lines in the sand and setting clear expectations.
Make it clear to clients that a project or change request does not happen unless it's formally submitted through your request system and assigned a deadline. It doesn't matter if you just talked about it in the hallway or they emailed a request. The system exists to ensure nothing gets lost.
Above all, effective communication is key to managing creative requests.
A great deal of client and creative frustration boils down to poor communication. Both sides think they're communicating clearly but the point isn't getting across. Or, even if they are communicating clearly, details get lost because the communication system is disorganized.
If you want to manage requests, you need a twofold approach to communication. First, be prepared to communicate your expectations and project best practices to clients. Second, communicate throughout the project using a system that allows you to easily see the big picture.
Remember, communication is a two-way street. Both clients and creatives have to be on board, so be prepared for a bit of re-training.
Managing creative requests is often frustrating for project managers, but it doesn't need to be a battle. You just have to show up with the right tools for the job. That's where we come in.
We know the challenges creatives face, which is why we developed tools that allow them to focus on the big picture instead of the fussy details.
Want to find out how we can help? Click here to book a demo today.