Part 3 of a 4-part series on Project Management by contributor Annika Vaughan, MBA, PMP
Find or grow?
So, now that you are convinced of the benefits of project management in your team, you may wonder where to begin. While there are many project management tools out there, there is no technical solution to replace the human interaction needed to manage your clients and projects. So, the very first thing you need to think about is establishing project manager roles in your team. And most probably, you will be faced with two choices— recruit new project managers or train/assign existing staff to work as project managers.
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Hiring project mangers
The benefit of hiring project managers from the outside is that you will instantaneously gain someone who is trained and experienced. An ideal candidate will be someone who has subject matter expertise in the creative industry gained in an agency or in-house team, is familiar with project management software, and has solid communication, scheduling, and estimating skills. Other qualities to look for are organizational skills, logical thinking, and the ability to work under pressure.
At a recent project manager event, I participated in behavior assessments. The test was based on DiSC methodology which centers on four different personality traits: Direct, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. Guess which category 80% of the room fell into? Dominance (direct, strong willed, and forceful) and Influence (sociable, talkative, and lively). This probably shows that determined extroverts are more suited for project manager roles than those who are introverted.
Unlike recruiting designers and photographers where you can see their portfolios, assessing project managers’ skills can be a challenging task. You can check references, but if you want to go the extra mile, challenge your candidates with case studies. For example, give the candidate mock scenarios to see how they would handle negotiating scheduling, delivering bad news to a client, meeting a tight deadline, etc. Alternatively, you can look for candidates who are certified. Project Management Institute offers robust certification programs starting from Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), to Project Management/Program Management Professional (PMP/PgMP). These project management certifications are not directly geared toward the creative industry, but they are widely recognized globally across different industries. Candidates with these certifications have gone through professional training and demonstrated technical understanding of basic project management principles. However, this can be a bit pricy. A certified Project Management Professional’s average salary was $110,000 USD in 2013, so if this is within your budget, hiring a PMP to lead your project management team could be an excellent option.
Training your existing team
Another option which could be cheaper and easier to gain management approval (Adding a headcount is always a hassle, isn’t it?) is to train a team member who is currently working in another capacity. I have heard of teams who have trained receptionists or customer representatives to become project managers with great success. In other instances, designers and other content specialists who are interested in growing their careers in more operational/business roles can be trained into project managers. You may also be able to find an experienced project manager in other departments such as IT to transfer to your team.
Sourcing project managers internally can be advantageous because your team knows your business process and clients well. Also, you avoid the risks involved bringing an external candidate into a new function, where clashes with the existing team and culture are possible. If you have a training budget, you can send your future project managers to crash courses or have them set a goal to be certified. There are many training institutes that offer online training as well as group training at your organization.
Deploying technology—useful project management tools
Once you have the right people in place, the next item to consider is which project manager tool to use to reduce manual input.
A good project management suite should take in requests from clients, map resources, create project schedules, store project information in one place, and possibly offer a platform for collaboration. Other fancy features offered are invoicing, cost planning, and online approval tools.
Up until a few years ago, many creative teams had no options but to use Filemaker or Excel to aid project management. Today, many companies are offering tailor-made project management and collaboration tools for the creative industry. Just Google “creative project management software” and you should find a dozen products in the market. The prices vary depending on the packages or number of licenses you purchase. Note that on top of the costs for the software, there is quite a bit of manpower required to implement a solution. It helps to talk to other users and read write-ups on project management tools to learn more about the pros and cons of each product.
The key here is to know what you wish to achieve through the tool. Is it for collaboration, to introduce digital proofing, or simply to track project progress? Do you need a workflow tool, or simply a place to track and report time and expenses. Ask these questions to your team and clients before bringing in a new system.
You should also appoint a champion on your project management team to lead the system implementation and maintenance. If you are lucky enough to have a robust IT team to support the tool, you may be able to get away with having a liaison appointed internally in your team and have your IT department do the heavy lifting during implementation. Alternatively, you might be able to use your IT department to develop a custom solution.
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Once you have a team of project managers and set of tools to use, you should be all set to deal with your next challenge—change management!
Coming up next on March 17th: Part 4 – Change management: marrying the left and right brain successfully

About the author: Annika Vaughan, MBA, PMP
Annika works as Media Officer at the International Monetary Fund, in a project management team of an in-house agency with 40 + staff providing design, photography and video production services. Her previously held positions include TV reporter, PR manager and UN Communications Officer.
Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are those of the author and should not be attributed to the IMF, its Executive Board, or its management