While creative projects typically require tight deadlines and frequent team communication, 42% of creative teams don’t have robust reporting on creative production. This can lead to backlogged production, rushed timelines, and inefficient review sessions. As teams grow and projects become more expansive, tracking these key metrics continues to heighten in importance.

Some Takeaways from an Agency’s Perspective: 

  1. Rush projects are any project that needs to be completed in less time than the average project life cycle. If this number is trending upward, the team should reevaluate why so many projects are requiring a rushed timeline.
  2. Managing up allows the C-Suite to come into the equation and oversee the general project management system. When presenting to the C-Suite, it’s important to make the data visually pleasing while also helping the team understand the key metrics.
  3. A few key measurements that are important to the creative process project management: Total projects in process, total projects completed, top 10 highest rounds of review, average hands-on design time, project per team member, and average time to complete.

How Direct Agents Teams Report on Creative Projects: 

At Direct Agents, creative teams use various software to measure the overall management of projects. Trello is a program that allows teams to create tracking boards from the initial proposal to the final deliverable. As a new addition to the creative process at Direct Agents and Future First Studio, ClickUp helps teams manage both long-term and short-term projects. Through organized segmentations of internal and external work, teams are able to clearly monitor deadlines and priorities. The program also features detailed status tabs, assignments, and estimated completion times. 

In addition to internal software, the teams at Direct Agents use creative performance reports with actual data to measure creative effectiveness. Teams also utilize creative audits to measure which projects performed well, and which ones did not resonate with the audience. After pinning these audits against audience research, the team is able to determine whether the approach should be refined, or whether the existing design needs to be elevated.

Through the detailed creative reporting process, teams at Direct Agents and Future First Studio are able to use key metrics and project analyses to determine the effectiveness of specific creative projects and to help guide the team’s direction in the future.

To learn more about Direct Agents and Future First Studio contact: [email protected]