As a creative agency with many different clients and projects to manage, it is important to manage each deliverable’s deadline and timeline efficiently and effectively. In order to maintain a client’s trust, effective communication and meeting deadlines is key! When communication fails, and deadlines aren’t being met, it not only affects the product’s quality but also breaks trust. And this is the exact sticky situation we want to avoid. Avoiding these types of situations takes a great deal of organization and teamwork within your own team and with your clients. Everyone on your team should be able to assess a project and determine its status so it is tracked on every level and not forgotten – this is where having project tracking tools comes in handy, which we will discuss in another article.
Checklists are always a helpful tool, either via hard copy or digital, in order to keep track of the status and steps of a project. However, it takes more than just a checklist to get things running smoothly. Here are some hot tips for mastering deadlines and deliverables like a pro!
1. timelines
First off, make a timeline for the project from start to finish, pre-production to post-production. This timeline would consult many sources, such as the team’s internal calendar but would be mainly dependent on the client’s needs. Timelines should also have dates that aren’t the last possible deadline but leave wiggle room for any mishaps or errors that may come up – dates should also be flexible as long as shifting the schedule is agreed upon and communicated with the client. A laid-out schedule should be recorded somewhere where all the team can access and track it. It’s helpful to use tracking tools that notify you when something is off track or a deadline was missed on a project and tell you how far along you are on the timeline.
2. Delegation and Splitting Up Tasks:
Within the timeline, smaller tasks will be created in order to facilitate the bigger task meeting its goal. This is a matter of teamwork and delegation. Most projects will follow the same set of rules and actions to deliver but need a project lead to make sure each action is taken and make sure every team member knows their task and what the deadline is. Someone has to take care of the bigger picture as these tasks are being taken care of, or else the client’s needs will be forgotten.
3. Prioritization:
A part of delegating tasks to team members is also making sure the team is clear on what tasks take priority and also awareness of the bigger picture – what clients/projects need to be prioritized. Prioritizing tasks involves what is needed to get the project/deliverable to the next level, what is most time-consuming, and what requires all hands on deck. Prioritizing projects is a big overlook of all clients and needs, what the business’ overall schedule looks like, and also simply what has the next major deadline.
4. Time Blocking:
As the project lead manages all the tasks and keeps track of the bigger picture, it’s important for every worker to time block. Many things may need to be done at once, and with other projects coinciding, it may be difficult to see that the end result is doable, but if the team all plans their days efficiently and gets down the workflow for every item and project, then estimating time and blocking off time to work will come easily.
5. communication
Communication is key in any team, but especially at a creative agency that manages many different projects at once with very different clients. You must ensure everyone is on the same page and assigned designated tasks. If someone’s internal deadline cannot be met, communicate that with the project lead and then the team can work together on whether to move the deadline or take tasks off the person’s plate if it is too full. Keeping everyone up to speed can be achieved by a shared project timeline that is updated regularly and shared with the team and by meeting regularly on projects.
6. LEARN FROM MISTAKES
And finally, mistakes will be made no matter what; the important thing is to learn from them as a team and as an individual. We must take responsibility and discuss issues and mistakes when they arise – is there something we need to change in the workflow? Do we need to use different tools? Should we do more training? These are questions the team can ask themselves when faced with internal and external errors.
These are just a few essential aspects to managing deadlines and deliverables, which we use for our own creative agency but can certainly be applied to many different businesses. It’s like maintaining a well-oiled machine. Each aspect plays a role in the grand performance, guaranteeing an on-time delivery!
If you wish to learn more about our business and what work we do, please check out our website and the services we offer and feel free to reach out if you have a project you wish to work with us on.
If you wish to learn more about our business and what work we do, please check out our website and the services we offer and feel free to reach out if you have a project you wish to work with us on.