A Guide to Creative Project Management Software and Workflow
- Adilla
- Aug 29
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 26
Many creatives can be resistant to structure and scheduling. Most find a schedule daunting and even restrictive to their creative flow. However, in practice, this may not be the case at all. So, we explored why managing creative teams doesn’t have to be too free or too structured by utilising project management software for creatives and creating a workflow that works.
Table of Contents
Why Creative Project Management Software is Important?
Creative teams and project management rarely mix. Their desire for creative freedom and the fear towards structures are the main reasons why they won’t pick up project management for their creative projects.
However, when everything is dependent on spreadsheets or emails that are not organised, there are more pros than cons when adopting creative workflow or project management into creative projects.
One major struggle for creatives is collaborative feedback. We have asked fellow creatives about how they progress through their feedback and approval stage. Unfortunately, they are not centralised in one space. Rather, it might be either in emails or even WhatsApp, which can be lost and lead to misinformation.
Therefore, implementing a centralised space or software for information, communication, and feedback can prevent these issues.
What Are Creative Workflows and Why Do They Come with Project Management?
Are creative workflow management software and creative project management software the same or entirely different? While there are overlapping traits, creative workflow would be a component under creative project management.
Creative workflow management streamlines the process of creative work by setting out repeatable step-by-step instructions, so the workflow is ‘automated’.
Creative project management oversees the entire project from beginning to end.
So, why do they come together?
Creative project management is the kitchen of the project; the ingredients and appliances are there, with the chefs wanting to reach the goal of the project. The creative workflow is the recipe and the processes that come into making a meal or creating new recipes.
So, without a creative workflow, the kitchen would not operate smoothly or produce a dish that satisfies the chefs’ goals. Interesting metaphor, no? Either way, without a creative workflow, creative PM would not function smoothly, and without creative PM, the creative workflow would not have a goal to reach.
Challenges in Creative Workflows
There’s one thing about creative workflow: inspiration may not come consistently. Hence, there are challenges when applying structure to creative rhythm.
Setting Deadlines and Iterative Work
When it comes to setting deadlines, it’s no mystery to us at all how our creatives find them pressuring to a point that it might affect their creative flow. Additionally, their tasks in the big picture involve repetitive tasks such as ideating their creative work, working on it, seeking review and approval, and then bringing it into the world. You would think that a predictive flow would set a deadline more easily.
Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, as some of these phases do end up going back to a previous phase (e.g., ‘Review’ back to ‘Work in Progress’) to either fix something or change the idea. Hence, setting a rigid deadline becomes a challenge.
Balancing Inspiration with On-time Deliverables
Creatives perform better when they are inspired, and usually, inspiration doesn’t really strike on time. So, when structure, objectives and requirements are written down by creatives, it might not be delivered on time. To find the balance between when they’ve struck the idea gold while meeting the deliverables on time is difficult.
The Role of Project Management Software in Creative Work
How do you actually implement a creative workflow with these challenges? While laying out a creative workflow is tough, utilising a tool to streamline this process can prevent these challenges from arising.
So, how do you utilise project management in a creative environment?
Enhanced Efficiency and Productivity
With the repetitive tasks of creative work, Creative Project Management (CPM) software provides features that can automate these tasks and standardise the workflow. So, creatives would spend less time on administrative work and more on creating.
Streamlined Workflow
A Creative Project Management (CPM) software offers a structured framework that fits the creative chaos of its projects. It would simplify the complex workflow and coordinate the workflow of the team better.
Customised Interface and Flexibility
What differs CPM from the traditional counterpart is the ability to change the features according to the needs of the creative projects. While still providing the structure and flow to ensure everything is on track, it has the flexibility that doesn’t stifle the creativity of their teams.
How Creative Project Management Supports Creative Mental Health
You might be thinking, does this help with the pressure and mental load of creatives when CPM is laid out for them? You’d be surprised to know that it does.
Reduced Stress and Overwhelm
When projects and tasks are clearly defined, timelines are set, and workflows are organised, it helps reduce the mental strain on creatives. Since they need to conserve their energy for their creative work, it’s essential to lessen their mental load to ensure the quality of their output is not compromised.
Improved Communication and Collaboration
Miscommunication tends to happen a lot when working on creative work, so software that could provide contextual reviews and collaboration would ease any potential problems. Especially if it's centralised in one software to better ease your team’s workflow.
Establish Work-Life Balance
With transparency and better control of what creatives can work on, they can establish a better work-life balance. A CPM software can better track the time spent on a project, giving insights into how tasks can be better distributed throughout the project timeline.
Features that Creatives Value Most
Now that the benefits outweigh the concerns, it's time for you to find which creative team tools you should focus on when establishing creative project management software with your team.
Visualised Timeline and Task
Visual tools are the common visuals that are required for creative teams. Most importantly, the software must be able to display visual documents seamlessly, so keeping track of visually heavy tasks would be easier.
Streamlined Feedback and Communication
Feedback and communication between creatives are one of the key components of their creative workflow. So, to have this feature to streamline this process is essential in CPM software. For example, TESSR’s Review feature makes this easy with its ability to give contextual comments directly on a visual art, like a whiteboard with a picture pasted on it, if you will.
Refined User-friendly Interface
More often than not, the reason why our creatives are less likely to use project management software is because of the complex interface and the non-user-friendly approach to utilising their features. So, keep this in mind when choosing software for your team. Even for our TESSR programme, we provide hands-on help to better optimise our software.
Key Takeaways
The unpredictable nature of the creative process makes it so that structure doesn’t seem to work well with them.
However, a flexible structure and workflow will produce a more efficient and productive creative team.
Utilising project management software that can work around the creative chaos of it all can help you find the balance between structure and creative freedom.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the one feature that’s the most important for creative teams when using CPM software?
The one feature that creatives should prioritise is a feature not a lot of other project management software have: TESSR Woohoo. This is a tool that calculates the weighted completion percentage of projects.
It is a way to measure progress that takes into account the importance of different statuses in a project. Instead of seeing all the statuses of tasks equally, they are given weights or levels of priority to better visualise the progress of the project.
Mainly, this feature helps creative project management software make informed decisions and adopt an agile method in managing their team. With Woohoo, you get a greater understanding of the overall project’s health. Plus, TESSR has a free forever plan!
Is task management the same as creative project management?
Task management may not be the same as creative project management, but it is a part of CPM. Task management doesn’t touch the other parts of CPM, as it only focuses on the tasks of the project and your team.
Is all project management software CPM?
Not all project management software can be considered its creative counterparts. Not all software that can optimise visual documents is customised according to the needs of a creative project.
How do I know which project management software is suitable for creatives?
Choosing a project management software suitable for creatives is dependent on the features that can solve your pain points. Identify what the main issues are in your creative project and teams, then seek out tools for project managers that can solve them.
Author Bio
With a background in Arts English, Adilla has been a casual writer for various hobbies, like parodies of animated shows and plots for board games. She loves to read anything and everything, from fantasy stories to articles on tips and tricks. Now an advocate for mental health and effective project management for the creative industry. Currently, Adilla resides in Malaysia and is a creative writer at TESSR. To know more about her, check out her LinkedIn.
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