Part 4 of a 4-part series on Project Management by contributor Annika Vaughan, MBA, PMP
Implementing project management in the creative industry comes with a set of unique challenges. More so if you have never had a dedicated project management function in your team and if your Creatives are used to running projects their own way. While alleviating stress, chaos, and disorganization, sounds like a no-brainer, people tend to find change—even if it’s positive—more stressful than dealing with the pain they have grown accustomed to. So, implementing new processes and tools, and introducing new roles to the dynamics of your team can face major resistance. Creatives tend not to embrace linear processes and confining operations. So, the last thing you want your creative talent to think is that you are trying to turn your studio into some kind of manufacturing production line by implementing project management.
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Sell the benefit of project management to the Creatives
Marketing the project management team to your creative talent is absolutely crucial to ensure that the whole team embraces the new function. You have to highlight the benefit of project management to your team. For example, you could say:

• The new project management software will organize your day and you can see immediately which tasks to complete first
• You don’t have to look for production files anymore, everything will be stored in an organized fashion in the new system
• Your project manager will handle scheduling and remind you if you are falling behind.
• If you are having issues with clients not defining the scope, your project manager will facilitate discussion and help you figure out the exact deliverables.

Answering the “What’s in it for me?” questions from the creative team will ease the transition, ultimately setting the right scene for your new project managers to succeed.
Empowering project managers
When thinking about the reporting structure for project managers, there are different school of thoughts. Some organizations will have project managers reporting up to the operations head (or senior project manager) or studio manager. Others have project managers reporting to the creative director. The advantage of separating the reporting line of project managers with content producers is drawing a clear line between production and control, hence ensuring better accountability. But again, if structured well, project managers can report to the creative director and assist in effective resource management. So, there’s really no one-size-fits-all solution.
Never underestimate the importance of empowering the project managers. Explain to the team and the clients what the role and responsibilities of the project managers are, so they can demonstrate proper authority. This method should work even if your project managers are relatively junior in working experience or title. Your role as a creative leader is to set the scene to allow project managers to take a lead in scheduling discussions and engaging with clients.
From project management to operations management
Once your team has learned to understand the basics of project management, you can take it to the next level by normalizing the business practices using operations management principles.
If your agency’s projects consist of highly templated, repetitive, and routine production work, you can manage these projects by setting factory line-like processes. This way, you can minimize the monitoring and controlling efforts on these projects and allocate your resources to those projects which are new and experimental and/or require complex stakeholder engagement. Grouping projects into different types and setting rules and procedures to handle each type of project helps your team focus their energy in the right places . Some teams use a project tiering system, others might set up a transactions desk to handle simple, repetitive, and fast-turnaround projects.
Many of the project management systems discussed in the previous post would certainly support your effort in implementing operations management to run an effective team. However, to get to the operations management stage, you will need to conduct thorough business analysis of your processes and procedures—a task you can assign to project managers who will be experts in your team’s business processes.
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Good luck with implementing project management in your team! It may be a time consuming, painful process but it will definitely pay off in the long run.
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