Expectations in Creative

I used to work in creative. I was a designer, technical illustrator, and in the olden days a paste-up artist.

I made that switch from a drawing board to a Mac. It changed everything.

I didn’t have to spec and order type, size and order color separations, do imposition guides – you know, all that prehistoric stuff we had to plan. Before we executed anything.

With the speed of a keystroke, I could change the parameters of type, re-size images, impose in the file. Pretty much could do my planning as I was doing my work.

Expectations changed radically. Especially from those who didn't do the work. Like your VP of Marketing, or your client.

“It’s on the computer; it’s just a quick change…”

That dazzling piece of technology has made you a slave to lack of planning, and expectations that are somewhere beyond reality. But you work to meet them anyway.

Because someone committed you to those expectations.

You see how those expectations make it from the client, right on through past account and directly to creative?

I know you’ve been there.

I have a special place in my heart for creatives. I am awestruck by great copy; a great headline. I hung up my t-square long ago because I had the privilege to work with designers/art directors/creative directors who have blown me away with things I never imagined. And they did it so effortlessly.

So, about expectations…

Creative folks, you deserve to receive a comprehensive brief; to be a part of developing that brief and defending that brief. So that when it comes time to execute, you actually recognize it.

You also deserve to get clear documentation with expectations defined – scope, timeline, budget.

What is expected of you is this: stick to the plan; immediately notify your AE and PM if there are any issues with scope, timeline or budget. And come to an agreement on any deviation before proceeding.

I expect you to defend your work, and know when to give-in when the client plays Creative Director. Because knowing when to cut your losses and take the paycheck leaves you time to do wonderful work for those who really recognize your talent.

I expect you to provide updates without prompting – so we can keep the work moving.

I expect you to post any time you work on any project – to the correct project number.

I also expect to know if you’ll be out of the office: for offsite work, vacation days, illness, coffee, or that pint of Bagdad Ale if you leave at 3pm on Friday (because a client will always call at 3:15 with an emergency).

I expect you to do your timesheets. Every day.

I know that last item is the thing you hate most, but it is the one thing that tells us – with more simplicity than any other piece of ‘technology’ – how expectations are being met in the agency.

Open a Job for Every Project – I’m Not Going to Nag

I just re-read this article in AdAge Small Agency Diary, "Beware Those Tiny Daily Decisions: They Can Come Back to Bite You". It speaks to the creative-side, but there is another side – and it comes down to resources and cost.

Call me a control freak – or a nag if you don’t get it – but I like to know what’s going on in my agency. As I said yesterday, a hundred little things really add up. Even ten little things add up. One little thing can trigger a chain of events that will throw all projects – and your fabulously creative staff – into chaos.

Chaos is bad. And very expensive.

Actually, I’ll change that paragraph – I need to know what’s going on in my agency. Because someone has to pay attention. If not, you have a bunch of people running around asking who has the latest version of X, and upon locating it, wondering if it really is the latest version. Such a waste.

You need a few rules to keep life orderly and just a little predictable.

So those rules include writing a job order (job start, ticket, whatever you call it) for every project that comes in the door. If this little quickie is part of a Bigger Project – like a campaign – was it factored into that plan or are you just sneaking it in under the veil of the Big Project?

Sneak it in and you just gave away something for free. I will find out, hunt you down and make you fill out a form. Dang. You just screwed up our planning, time allocation and budgets – not to mention the potential to make a little more money. So we can stay in business – and get bonuses.

I’ll explain. The purpose of a job order is to outline your direction on the client’s desires. In other words, it is the plan. We will know what is expected, and when – in writing. Other than someone’s weird interpretations – it should be pretty clear what the deliverables are.

Now come those small deviations (from the original job order) and justings (just do this or that).

Document the deviations and the tweaks – through a collaborative app like BaseCamp,  or at least on the file or proof - or better yet, invest in agency management software. Email is NOT collaborative software, sorry. Remember that game of telephone? Projects go the same way. Who made this change anyway?

When it’s time to send that little job back to the client, you’ll know why project X now looks completely different than the original job order. It’s documented. Further, when you check the accrued hours on the project you’ll know exactly why the Quick Little Job is now in the thousands of dollars. And late.

Of course, in my perfect world, I’d have you do a change order.

You’d be amazed at how ridiculous some changes are when you actually have to write them out. The mere act of articulating a change makes you think about it. Speed doesn’t equal efficiency.

If you don’t find documenting changes compelling, there is this: It will become crystal clear the origin of all those little things that send a project into the stratosphere of time and cost, or delayed to the point it is no longer relevant. A client who has become creative director; an AE who can’t say no; an AD who just wants to do a little more; a studio that has to re-work the file because it has morphed into something unrecognizable.

You get the idea. And by the way, never work on anything without a legit job number. We can all be gatekeepers of profitability. 

open concept offices

Once again there’s an article touting how cool open offices are. The examples in the article are in fact, very cool.

Do you work in an ‘open’ office? The kind that encourages collaboration, “where hierarchy has been ripped out, that makes everyone feel part of something special.”

Are you able to get work done? I know I’m not. And by the way, you’re not so special that I want to hear you take every call over the speaker on your phone.

In the article, What Makes a Cool Office? The answer to cool is “It's more than just a billiards table and free soda. Design buffs weigh in on how to build a creative, collaborative, and innovative workspace.”

I do believe that an awesome workspace can inspire. I have worked in awesome and I have worked in miserable. And I have worked in the combination of the two. I love amazing architecture, new clean and modern, or historical buildings – each can possess an energy that is conducive to great creative collaboration.

So my issue is with distraction. No walls, no cubes, and lately, not even assigned desks. Everyone is portable all the time, sitting at the same table. If you want or need quiet you must either use headphones or take a walk over to the corner Starbuck’s / Peet’s / Coffee Bean. If you need to pull together a meeting, conference rooms – if they exist – are always booked.

Doesn't that tell you something? Your colleagues are either working in small groups off-site or have snagged one of the precious conference rooms.

And if you need to make a personal call, you have to walk out of the office.

So how much work do you actually get done in that cool office?

I worked in an agency in a historical building and everyone had offices. It never hindered collaboration. In fact, people were in each other’s’ offices all the time. They could shut the door and get work done, or leave it open – and we could always hear what was going on with open doors. Imagine that.

Then, I worked in an open office – which was quite large – and to mask conversations, ‘white noise’ was added. Nice. I had a white noise speaker right over my desk. It was deafening, and at 5:30pm when it shut off, everyone relaxed. Go figure. And as the one who had to follow-up on all active projects, the pure joy of having everyone within earshot – or in view – was a huge waste. My colleagues were usually out for coffee.

If you want successful open concept offices, here’s a challenge for your architects and space planners: make it cool, but please provide space where staff can really work.

Collaboration is not always a happy accident.  It can be a major distraction – for others. You can be a part of something special by being able to get your work done – at the office. 

managing projects is like being a custodian...sometimes

Remember Carl the custodian in The Breakfast Club? He was the sage who knew everything about everyone.  There were no secrets. Always there to clean up the debris of the day. He went through everyone’s lockers.

A project manager, traffic manager, producer is important. We keep everyone’s work moving along. We have to know where everything is – all the time. Beside being a custodian, it’s also like being Mom. “WHERE ARE MY (insert item you can’t find but Mom miraculously knows exactly where it is)?” If you were organized this wouldn't be an issue.

Well, we’re all adults, right? Most of the time as project managers, we have all the answers. We know where we stand on the progress, budget, alignment with the brief – always on top of everything. Because we're constantly bugging you for updates.

But when you’re not around to provide an update, produce the item that was due an hour ago, or a change has just screamed into agency and must-be-done-now – we have to rifle through your desk, files, whatever.

Personally, I feel that your desk, your file system on the hard drive of your computer is your personal space. However, it becomes mine when I have to know what the status of a project is – NOW.  I hate going through someone else’s stuff. It’s a violation of space and makes me feel weird. But I’ll do it.

So, like a custodian, or a Mom, we find what we need and get to see what a disaster your personal space is. Compelled to clean it up for you, we do not. It is your job. We get what we need and leave a sticky-note on your monitor as to what had transpired.

Therefore, if your agency or marketing department has a centralized system for managing projects, updating information, communicating updates – USE IT. If you don’t have a central system – or if you feel that email is the end-all to organization, I recommend you do a Google search and find tools that bring everyone into the loop. Need help? Let me know.

Email is not a project management tool. It is not a database and requires a lot of sorting, searching and filing. Your IT department will love you for cutting back on the clutter and resources needed for bloated inboxes and terabytes of storage.

A little guidance from your Mom…Centralize your information. Provide updates as you move along. And clean up your files because one day, someone will need something and have to search through your debris.

It will all come down to you – whether you’re at your desk or at Starbuck’s. And by the way, let your colleagues know when you’ve stepped out for a sec. If we know you’ll be right back I won’t have to look in your locker.

giving away money

Who, in your agency, is authorized to give your clients something for free? Are you going over and above the defined scope, budget or  perhaps burning through your retainer...regularly?

Here’s a scenario for you: Let’s say you have a defined project. Scope, deliverables, timeline and budgets are set in stone (well, yeah, I know). The client has signed-off.

The project comes in and the ‘well-defined’ brief starts morphing.

An AE or coordinator writes-up the job, and says, ‘see me or AE about details’. Because the scope is written and it’s a hassle to put additional details into a job form. You then have a kick-off meeting and everyone gets the details in their heads (and hopefully, in their notes) and moves forward with their own version of what they just discussed.

AE or coordinator takes a call from the client – perhaps we should do this or that – please explore. That gets passed along to Creative in an email. Still in scope? Yeah…it is. A freebie – by choice.

Bigger question – can we fit in the client's request and still make deadline for first round?  Yes, we’ll work late. But that’s OK because everyone is salary. It costs the same – right? Bring in dinner, get the work done. More freebies.

The next morning, the client calls – they have an emergency meeting, will have to meet after the weekend. Great!!! – more time to tweak. Anywhere along the line, copy / art / direction / strategy get another internal review - because you now have time to do more work! Massive opportunity to provide more free service, and perhaps get in even more work over the weekend.

Along the way, anyone who’s on the project has chosen – on their own – to just go in and do a little more of what they felt should go into the project. They just gave away a little more for free.

Time to present – gather materials and print-out / mount (if you still do that). And because no one seems to ever get materials together until the eleventh-hour, and everyone is in a rush, things have to be re-printed and re-mounted and keynote deck needs revisions. That additional time to massage the work has just added a significant amount of employee hours to the project.

Your presentation goes fabulously, client approves, then you produce.

Hmmm, images were just thumbnails and now the real thing is really expensive and restrictive. Production will require more time and money. Who pays for it? Should have known before you presented. Try to work it out. We have enough “padding” built into the budget. Should be OK. Freebie.

Been there, done that? So have I. The AE didn’t want to revise scope and estimate – because “we were all traveling so fast” and everything seemed to be within scope and budget. All the dollars, with perhaps the exception of production budget, have been spent by the time you do your first presentation.

I have a big issue here. I don’t care if your client is on retainer, or this is your bestest and biggest client, or if your entire staff is salary. You’re just really busy, and still making money. But you have to know how much stuff really costs. Because if you don’t, your client will say; “remember project X that you did? Can you do project Y at the same price?”. And you will say Yes.

So, do you know what that project actually cost?

Well, everyone along the line made personal decisions as to how they would spend their time, and what resources they would use - and they most likely went over budget. How many actually looked at the scope and budget? Do they know how? Is it available to them?

At the very least, a structured process, central documentation, and clear expectations allow those in control of the budget to make informed decisions as to where dollars are spent. And when it’s collaborative, it becomes real-time management.

With a good system in place, you will get a revealing picture of what it actually takes to get your stuff done. 

Then, when all is said and done, take a look at your original scope and budget - and compare them to actuals. The learning never ends.

By the way, require timesheets. Every day. And even though staff is salary, and the regular workday is eight hours, and someone worked 12. Have them put down 12. That is what it actually took to do the job.  

I will not listen to whining about timesheets.