The unanticipated shift to a remote workplace has completely altered the once-standard processes for creative leaders and their teams. Without the ability to collaborate face-to-face, many creatives have found themselves siloed in their day-to-day responsibilities, burnt out, and overwhelmed by snowballing requests. With the implementation of defined work management processes, creatives are able to gain back the time, motivation, and inspiration needed to once again produce high-end, top-quality work.

At Adobe Workfront’s recent virtual thought leadership event, Creativity in Process: How Marketing Work Management Brings Agility to Creative Work, panelists in the creative space came together to discuss how enhancing digital work management can improve the efficiency, productivity, and workload capacity of teams.

Moderator Scott Monroe, Senior Manager of Product Marketing at Adobe, began the discussion by asking the panelists to describe what a hybrid or remote work environment will look like for their teams moving forward.

Meredith DeLeon, Global Creative Director of Customer Journey at National Instruments, believes her team will be taking a hybrid-focused approach in the future to help facilitate a more collaborative work environment. “We’ve been really successful, but it has had challenges as far as collaboration goes,” she explained. “I do see us going into the office to meet more for brainstorming when needed.”

Sid Anand, Delivery Lead of Accenture Interactive at Accenture, spoke on the ways that remote work has aided his team in collaborating more efficiently. “We’ve really demonstrated a high efficiency of getting work done in high throughput with collaboration tools,” he shared. Sid added that the removed travel requirement has resulted in more time for team members to focus on the clients and their needs, leading to higher approval and customer satisfaction.

With this heavy focus on client requests comes a slew of project management responsibilities that hinder creatives from efficiently allocating enough time in the day to create. Scott proceeded to ask the panelists how they ensure that their teams are managing their time properly so that they’re not bombarded with these administrative duties.

“We now have this marketing and creative operations team that is forcing the divide between what is brand creative and the processes and steps that will facilitate a marketing project from start to finish,” answered Nicolle Wilson, Director of Creative & Design at GameStop. She highlighted the value of establishing this divide so that the creatives can be given the proper time to produce work, rather than manage it.

David Mataya, Global Director of Creative Services at Honeywell, added onto Nicolle’s point by explaining the importance of designing project management into your creative processes. “It’s a separate and distinct discipline and it needs to be dissolved into the organization rather than just done by default by individuals,” he stated.

Once given the proper tools and time to deliver end results, creatives must then address how they can remain connected to both their work and their company’s strategic goals and initiatives.

“Where we see success is pulling all of the key stakeholders in from an integrated planning perspective upfront so that it’s not just working in silos,” answered Sid. He added that by integrating the right tools into his team’s processes, he was able to streamline the generic workflow and align everyone with the project’s overarching goal and purpose.

Nicolle added that communication is a driving factor of creative success at GameStop. Her team is constantly aligned on the big business initiatives and strategies, and they are working on ensuring that this information is properly communicated to all members of the team, including juniors and associates. Otherwise, she explains, they’re simply “designing in the dark.”

To wrap up the panel discussion, Scott asked the panelists what they believe the future of creative work will look like.

“I think that we’ll be able to take more chances,” answered Meredith, “as I’ve already seen that we can be a bit more bold with our work.” She added that she has already noticed a resurgence of characteristics in her team’s creative work that are more bespoke, personal, and human than ever before.

David mentioned that his team is focused on implementing a quality-focused approach across all touchpoints of the customer journey. “I hope that the future of creative work is as heavily focused on the quality of the content as it is on the marketing mix and the technologies,” he stated.

As the digital workplace environment continues to evolve, creative leaders will need to ensure that the right processes, tools, and strategies are implemented to make work processes more streamlined and intuitive. With time and practice, this enhancement of digital work management can improve the efficiency, productivity, and workload capacity of creatives, ultimately leading to long-term success.