Creative Operations: The New Frontier of Management Revolution
Team management has never been an easy task – especially when your team is comprised of talented and opinionated creative professionals. From creative differences to sudden inspiration blocks, you have enough on your plate to contend with every day. Amidst the wonderful creative chaos of managing your team’s daily operations, you need reliable and unified software to help you keep things in (relative) order.
But how do you select the right software for you and your team? This is an easy one – just use our guide and decide for yourself! Our creative operations tools guide offers an overview of the different solutions available to you.
A (Brief) History of Creative Operations
Before we explore the types of solutions, let us first explore the origins of creative operations.
‘Creative operations’ was born out of the organic interaction and inevitable intersection between the need for project management and existence of human creativity. Ever since we developed our capacity for novel thought and visualization, we have blended the two to bring concepts from the world of ideas to the world we inhabit. So, it should come as no surprise that projects and creativity are also codependent. After all, creative ideas need the structure of project management to come to life, and no project can be developed without the creative innovation necessary for implementation.
In the present day, the discipline of creative operations has, quite befittingly, found its way into the digital world. Project management, asset management, and asset distribution tools are available to cater to the evolving needs of creative teams and those who lead them. And, when software solutions abound, it is paramount that you gather all the information you need to make the best-informed buying decision for you and your stakeholders.
Further readings: The History of Project Management, The History of Human Creativity
Which Categories of Creative Operations Tools Exist?
A great place to start your software evaluation process is to know which solution types are available to you. From manual processes to fully automated ones, there are solutions for all budgets and needs. Please find a list of the different solution categories available below:
1. Email/Manual Solutions
This first category is one of the oldest digital solutions. Email is a standard tool that helps you perform simple tasks. When you use it effectively, you can create successful email marketing campaigns. Oftentimes, unfortunately, email is too simple a solution to use for effective creative project communication.
2. Stacked Solutions
This category encompasses a set of separate, individual tools offered under a single package. Such tools have varying project management and automation capabilities, which you can use to complete different aspects of a project. However, a significant drawback is the lack of a unified overview and poor communication between tools.
3. Home-Built Solutions
Usually created by an internal IT specialist, these solutions are tailored to your business. In creating them, businesses can save on external costs, but their lack of longevity, integration capabilities, and limited access to data and analytics can pose quite a challenge.
4. Creative Operations Solutions
These solutions offer full integration and automation capabilities turbocharged by universal communication between constituent tools. And the resulting experience? A seamless process that makes project and asset management a breeze. Then, frequent updates and the addition of new features offers you an ever-evolving toolkit at no extra cost. Still, the sometimes-higher upfront cost and long customization set-up period are factors you should consider.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Each Creative Operations Tool Category?
And Which Type of Solution Is Best for Creative Management?
We may be biased in our suggestion since we offer a creative operations solution ourselves. Despite this fact, we can honestly say that a creative operations solution is the most thorough and advantageous solution type. As a creative team leader, you need a toolbox with advanced project and asset management capabilities and tools that communicate seamlessly. And we offer just that!
Instead of taking our word for it, read what our customers say about us:
Join the 600+ brands that trust Lytho with their creative operations needs every day!
Creative Operations Solutions: How Have They Revolutionized Creative Management?
The following statistics speak for themselves:
- Top-performing workers in a digital enterprise spend 45% of their time working collaboratively, including sharing large volumes of assets. By using a Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool, these workers can lead to a 20-25% boost in productivity. (How to Increase Productivity with Digital Asset Management, FinancesOnline, 2021)
- Then, 67% of teams have used creative operations performance metrics to justify adding additional team members. (2022 Q4 Creative Operations Report, Lytho, 2022)
- And, users of software for creative operations/project management are 426% more likely to be viewed as successful. (Trend Report: Marketing Strategy 2022, CoSchedule, 2022)
We at Lytho help you streamline your entire workflow and harmonize all brand collateral under a single, uniform platform. Are you ready to take your creative operations to the next level? Then, feel free to reach out to us by scheduling a demo. Our experts will tell you all about how our creative solutions can boost the effectiveness of your creative projects. We look forward to speaking with you!
