The Ultimate Guide to Project Management in Agencies and Creative Companies
While the creatives may get the spotlight, nothing would get out the door if it wasn’t for the agency project manager. You know there is a lot more to project success than completing a list of tasks and so do we. We at Function Point love project managers, so we made this page as a go-to resource for you to learn more about the skills you’ll need to always keep developing to manage the many people, processes and pitfalls that make every project interesting, and problems you encounter with teams, task and the general discipline of project management in a creative company. Check back here often as we update the page with new resources each month.
Time Goes By…
How to bend time like the ninja project manager you are. Get 26 hours out of every day. Get 8 work days out of every week. If only, right? Time management is part of running efficient projects. Learn how to make the most out of the deadlines you have for your team’s projects without stressing everyone out:
Money Money Money
If you want to grow your project management career, it will be key to understand how a project’s budget can impact your projects’ success. We know you didn’t choose an accounting career, so we’ll keep this information applicable to project management in creative agencies. Dive in and learn more:
The A Team
You’re only as good as your team dear task-master (we can call you that, right?) so how do you manage the people side of your projects? How might you be able to influence hiring at your agency? What do you do to make a new team member feel at home and get them up to speed as fast as you can? What do you do about conflict? We know you’re in project management and not HR, but having some of these skills honed as you develop your project management career will help you deliver more successful projects.
Planning Your Project
We know you skimmed down the page to this section first. After al,l planning is your middle name. But there is more to success at a creative agency as a project manager then being able to do a solid plan. What if the plan gets knocked down or off course? What if more business-y things in the agency start to derail your best plans? These resources will help you to see how project management fits into the agency business in a bigger picture and help you to be a more valuable contributor to the success of your creative agency.
Tools and Tech
Yes, we’re aware you’re overwhelmed with emails and ads everyday touting the latest app, tool and software that you NEED as a project manager – now. It’s so easy to get distracted by the new shiny object, and it can get overwhelming to know what you REALLY need to have in place to successfully manage your projects and workflow. In this section, we’ll share best practices around all the tools and tech for project managers out there, talk about some of the pros and cons for each, explore whether the size or focus of your agency may influence the types of tools you might need, and dive deep into how to leverage the functionality in the tools you have to improve your productivity and add
value to your organization.
- Project Management Software or Agency Management Software? What’s the difference…
- Why Your Agency Might Need More Than Project Management Alone
- A Project Manager’s Guide to Getting the Most out of their Agency Software
- Project Manager As An Asset Not Taskmaster