The 6 Phases of an Optimized Creative Workflow
Creative projects are best executed when they’re divided into phases and task orientedThe reason lies in the simplification and optimization that these phases provide. Else, the creative workflow becomes chaotic, confusing and inefficient quickly.
According to a globaledit analysis, 50% of their enterprise and mid-market clients are interested in optimizing and simplifying their workflows to focus more on the critical objectives. That’s exactly what creating phases does—simplify and optimize.
Here are six phases that’ll streamline your creative workflow and increase its efficiency.
Phase 1 — Project Intake
Traditionally, project intake involves the creation of a brief that identifies the goal and requirements of the project, timeline, budget, and other primary information.
You can optimize this phase by creating brief templates and getting all the key information at the onset of the project. This helps save time in potential sessions where several meetings have to be held while also waiting for the client to agree with the given input.
This phase is the most crucial step as it lays the foundation of the workflow. Based on the clarity of the requirements, automating downstream tasks becomes easier and streamlined. From assigning and scheduling tasks to tracking progress, project intake remains the foundation of the following steps.
Automation streamlines the process of gathering feedback and creating briefs. Depending upon the requirements of the requester, dynamic intake forms with flexible fields can be generated. Automated reminders and feedback are directed to a central hub to kickstart projects immediately.
Phase 2 — Discovery
Discovery sets up the foundation of the project. It involves everything from researching on competitors for product differentiation to identifying the risk areas, mitigating them and setting goals for different phases of the project.
This helps in optimizing the creative workflow process while also enabling the client to know what to expect during each phase of the project.
Phase 3 — Concepting
The stage of concepting is not homogenous. Clear-cut objectives for a project do not always lead to the same ideas by two different creatives. It involves a lot of brain-racking, sharing of ideas, sometimes a combination of these ideas that finally lead to the concept that has to be implemented.
With the number of ideas communicated in this phase, a creative workflow management tool like globaledit makes collaboration simpler and easier. It brings all the project materials and creative assets into one place making accessibility and locating these files easier than ever. Being able to comment on drafts also makes it easier for all the stakeholders to be aware of the progress of this phase.
Phase 4 — Implementation
After conception of the project, the implementation phase begins. But before that, tasks and resources have to be assigned to team members, which is one of the defining factors of project efficiency. How do you accurately set your team structures and responsibilities without any delay?
Again, a creative workflow management software will be your savior here. Project assignment and tracking are not difficult when a central dashboard keeps it organized for you. These solutions also allow you to share content and collaborate on each project layer with granular control, updates, comments, and feedback.
Phase 5 — Production
If you’ve optimized the previous four phases, production won’t be too chaotic. You can also leverage creative management tools to make this phase much smoother, faster, and efficient. For example, having metadata assigned to your assets automatically will make the post-production, searchability, and distribution seamless.
From set up and uploading assets to editing and retouching, all the steps of production of assets need to be optimized for maximized ROI.
Phase 6 — Close-out
Close-out includes getting feedback from the client and key stakeholders, making the required changes, and handing out the final piece. This phase includes the most grueling part of the workflow: review and approval. How do you ensure that you gather accurate feedback from the client or stakeholders?
There are various tools and creative workflow management software like globaledit that involve a single platform where clients and coworkers can collaboratively comment, vote, and provide feedback on various assets. They can illustrate the changes required with Markup Editor where annotation can be added to one or many assets.
Once the project is completed, you can have an overview of project metrics like time taken for overall approvals and edits, the number of versions of assets per project, and the overall length of the project cycle for future predictions regarding similar projects.
Globaledit helps you in every stage of your creative workflow by serving your unique business needs. Request a demo to find out how.