Creative Projects Take Too Long
Originally published in Cella's 2021 In-House Creative Industry Report, here's a story of how my in-house creative operations team used Adobe Workfront to dissect creative project timelines and address client concerns around project timing.
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“I feel like creative projects take too long.”
I’ve heard this sentiment from clients, in some shape or form, many times throughout my career. It’s such a simple statement, ultimately centered on personal perception and misaligned expectations. So, when we started hearing this last year in our three-year-old in-house agency, we decided to unpack it a bit. Turns out, a couple of things were going on.
First, the word “feel” hints at a lack of evidence. It’s simply someone’s perception, based on some amount of interaction and observation. We all remember the nightmare projects that go 17 rounds, but does that mean 17 rounds is the norm?
Second, “too long” means simply “longer than expected.” If a client expects a draft in five days and it’s delivered in three, then you’re a winner. If they expect it in two and you deliver in three, then that’s “too long.”
Finally, it’s worth understanding precisely what constitutes a “creative project” and who has influence over the timeline. Spoiler—not just the creative team.
At the heart of our clients’ comments was dissatisfaction. Some were unhappy because they perceived that their creative projects took longer than a creative project should. We like our clients and want them to be happy, so we tackled their concerns head-on.
Dissecting the Timeline
Our first step toward evaluating client concerns on timing was to precisely identify each phase in our creative process…
Breaking out project timelines to this degree helped our clients clarify their pain points. Some clients felt the time from kickoff to seeing a first draft took too long. Others commented on the speed at which we turned around edits. A few, who were further removed from day-to-day creative development, commented on the overall time it took to bring new work to market.
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More Than a Feeling
Once we dissected the timeline, we put in place a system to measure every piece of our process. Each of our projects boils down to a collection of tasks. And, while the length of every project varies, almost all follow the same cadence. We work on something, then share it for review and feedback. We take the feedback, make adjustments and share again for review and feedback. Rinse and repeat.
In Workfront, we built a collection of project templates that mirror this back-and-forth cadence. Rolling our internal tasks into folders (Parent Tasks) resulted in a series of top-level tasks whose durations could each be independently measured.
From here, we were able to build reports based on the duration data. For example—show me the average duration of all parent tasks with the term “Round” in their name.
We wanted the flexibility to eventually change task names on complex projects, so we assigned milestones to each task. Now we’re able to generate reports based on the milestones. For example—show me the average Round 1 milestone duration across all projects last quarter, grouped by creative tier.
We assign tasks to our account team to “receive feedback from clients” and update planned due dates to match actual performance. As a result, we can report on the time work is out with clients for review—by round, in total and with some manual calculation, by percentage. We discovered that, on average, projects are in creative development for 30-40 percent of the time and are out for client review for 60-70 percent.
An Effective Response
By better understanding exactly which parts of the creative process cause concern, backed by the ability to consider actual performance data, we’re able to have more meaningful conversations about the “feeling that creative projects take too long.” It also helps us consider different tools to address different parts of the process.
For example, to clients who see only overall project durations, a response could be, “Are you aware how much time work is out for review? Do you know how many rounds projects take, on average? Could we together discuss ways to reduce overall project durations?” Some tools include efficient project intake, clear alignment of expectations, and adherence to schedules. Our team added a proofing/quality-control check for all pieces to improve the accuracy of our work, thereby eliminating unnecessary rounds of revisions.
For others who comment on the length of time it takes to return edits, a response could be, “Are you aware of what our actual turn times are? Are they quick enough? Should we together discuss what it takes to improve reaction times?” Some of our time-improvement tools include staffing adjustments, an escalation process for priority conflicts, internal process adjustments, and examination of quality expectations. We’ve done them all, to some degree.
Ultimately, clients are happy when we meet or exceed their expectations for creative quality, budget, service and timing. Their view of how we perform against those expectations is a matter of perception. To the degree that we can anchor perceptions with data and establish realistic expectations through collaboration, we ensure that future interactions will continue to positively influence their satisfaction.
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Do you want help improving creative project efficiency or help with Workfront? Please get in touch. I'm always happy to hear from others facing similar challenges. mikeukstins.com