Overcoming Challenges in Large-Scale Creative Project Management
Large-scale creative project management is a complex endeavor, especially when overseeing the creative work for multiple brands simultaneously. At adQuadrant, we manage creative efforts for over 20 brands – each with up to 30 projects happening simultaneously. The scale of our operations demands a strategic approach to balance priorities, manage resources, and ensure every piece of work meets our high standards.
In my role as the project management team lead, my teams and I have encountered many challenges, from fluctuating project volumes to maintaining project consistency across diverse brands. Successful project management in the digital space requires more than just keeping tasks on track—it’s about anticipating challenges and implementing strategies to overcome them.
This article will share key lessons and approaches that have proven effective in managing large-scale creative projects, providing practical insights for other project managers to refine their processes, mitigate risks, and deliver exceptional work.
Key Challenges in Managing Large-Scale Creative Projects
Juggling a bunch of creative projects at once, especially for large ecommerce brands, comes with its own set of unique challenges. However with the right planning and strategy, you can tackle them head-on. Here’s how to navigate the obstacles and come out on top:
Resource Allocation
Managing multiple projects at once can really stretch your team thin, leading to delays or compromised quality. For ecommerce brands, this can mean missing out on big opportunities and creating less impactful campaigns. That’s why it’s crucial to have flexible staffing models and backup resources ready to jump in (when needed), ensuring that projects stay on track without sacrificing quality.
Competing Priorities and Risk Management
When multiple high-priority projects overlap, you may experience bottlenecks that negatively affect your timeliness and quality – especially during peak seasons (like Cyber 5). To keep things running smoothly, regular team check-ins and smart use of work management tools are key for aligning priorities and spotting risks early.
By identifying potential issues like tight deadlines and resource shortages ahead of time, you can plan strategies to handle them, like adding buffer times and having backup resources ready to go.
Innovating While Executing
In fast-paced environments, balancing innovation with ongoing project management can certainly be a challenge. The key is to develop new processes while maintaining workflow efficiency. By promoting a culture of continuous improvement and maintaining open, regular communication, teams will have the ability to refine processes in real-time without compromising quality.
At adQuadrant, our teams utilize proven project templates that allow work to flow seamlessly, even as new processes are developed – ensuring that teams can easily shift priorities, adjust deadlines, or reassign responsibilities as needed.
This adaptable approach ensures that as projects evolve, teams can easily shift priorities, adjust deadlines, or reassign responsibilities as needed.
Maintaining Consistency Across Brands
Making sure creative work stays consistent across multiple brands, each with its own unique identity and goals, starts with creating and thoroughly understanding comprehensive brand guidelines. Tech plays a critical role here, with standardizing processes and project-specific rules (in platforms like Asana), which makes it easier to stick to brand requirements across all projects.
The Role of Asana in Streamlining Processes
Managing a large-scale of creative projects requires an organized and efficient approach, especially when dozens of campaigns and creative assets are simultaneously in motion. This is where Asana becomes invaluable – with tools to streamline processes, increase automation, enhance collaboration, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
One of Asana’s valuable features is its ability to break down large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. Each project request can be divided into sections or even subtasks with clear ownership assigned to various team members. This keeps projects moving forward efficiently and allows for easy progress tracking.
By breaking down complex campaigns into smaller, more digestible pieces, project teams can ensure that every element, from ad creatives to organic assets, are executed on time and to the highest standard.
On top of that, Asana’s AI capabilities help spot potential bottlenecks and fine-tune workflows. For large-scale projects, where delays in one area can ripple through the entire campaign, AI-powered insights can highlight projects that may be at risk of falling behind, allowing teams to proactively address issues before they escalate.
Balancing Agility with Structure
Successfully managing a multitude of projects requires striking the delicate balance between agility and structure. For large ecommerce brands, this balance is essential to staying flexible enough to react to market shifts and client needs while ensuring that projects are delivered on time and within budget.
At the core of this balance is having a solid framework that provides clarity and direction, coupled with the flexibility to adapt as needed.
Tools like Asana and Slack are invaluable for establishing this structure, but flexibility is equally important. Iterative feedback loops allow teams to regularly review progress, assess what’s working (and what’s not), and make quick adjustments.
This adaptability means that even as projects evolve, teams can swiftly reprioritize, shift deadlines, or reassign responsibilities without losing momentum.
Real-time collaboration is also crucial for keeping that agility. Asana facilitates this by enabling team members to tag each other in tasks and comments, so everyone stays in the loop.
Complementary to Asana, Slack plays a critical role in keeping communication flowing across both internal and external teams.
Automation further supports the balance between agility and structure by handling routine tasks that could otherwise slow down the process.
For example, when a task is completed in Asana, automated rules can trigger the next step in the workflow, notifying the right team members and keeping the project moving forward seamlessly.
Together, tools like Asana and Slack ensure that any changes—whether driven by client requests, new market opportunities, or internal strategy shifts—are communicated and swiftly acted upon. For ecommerce brands juggling multiple projects at once, this level of communication and collaboration is essential.
Managing Stakeholder Expectations
Managing stakeholder expectations is crucial to ensuring smooth execution and successful outcomes when you’re working with a large-scale of creative projects. For ecommerce brands with multiple teams and clients, clear communication and proactive expectation management are key to maintaining alignment and avoiding potential conflicts along the way.
Setting Realistic Expectations
Setting realistic expectations starts with creating clear and achievable deadlines from the start. This is especially important when dealing with requests that have tight turnarounds.
By communicating these timelines to all stakeholders upfront, everyone will be on the same page in regards to what’s feasible; helping to mitigate the risk of disappointment later on.
Regular Communication
Consistent communication is the backbone of managing expectations effectively.
Regular check-ins and updates throughout the project lifecycle are a must. Whether through scheduled meetings or updates in Asana, keeping stakeholders in the loop about the project’s progress helps maintain transparency and alignment.
This ongoing dialogue helps tackle any concerns early on, allowing teams to adapt to changes in scope or unforeseen challenges without derailing the entire project.
Flexibility in Expectations
While structure and planning are vital, flexibility is just as important when managing expectations. In large-scale projects, unexpected changes are inevitable—whether it’s shifts in market trends, new client requests, or internal adjustments.
A flexible project management approach allows teams to adapt to change without compromising the overall project goals.
Promptly communicating any necessary adjustments to stakeholders, along with potential solutions, keeps the project on track and builds trust, making sure everyone stays aligned.
Handling Cross-Functional Collaboration
Successful collaboration between cross-functional teams—such as creative, marketing, and development—is crucial to meeting tight deadlines and delivering high-quality results.
Effective teamwork across these diverse disciplines requires clear communication, well-defined roles, and the right tools.
Establishing Clear Roles and Responsibilities
From the start of any project, it’s crucial that everyone knows their role and responsibilities. This goes beyond individual tasks – it’s about understanding how each person’s work contributes to the bigger picture.
For ecommerce brands, where multiple teams often work on different aspects of a campaign simultaneously, defining roles early helps prevent overlap, ensures accountability, and keeps the project moving smoothly.
Regular Communication and Knowledge Sharing
Quick stand-ups and check-ins, typically lasting 10-20 minutes, give teams a chance to provide updates, flag roadblocks, and coordinate with others as needed. These meetings (or huddles) are essential for identifying issues early on and resolving them before they escalate, ensuring that all teams are aligned and working towards the same goals.
Beyond individual projects, knowledge sharing is a powerful tool for strengthening cross-functional collaboration.
At adQuadrant, regular knowledge shares occur through company-wide Slack channels and weekly newsletters from Ryan, the head of creative. This culture of sharing insights and best practices helps teams solve challenges more creatively and effectively, ultimately leading to stronger project outcomes.
Supporting and Empowering Teams
Project management serves as the bridge between teams, making sure that everyone is clear on priorities and that any conflict is quickly resolved.
By advocating for the needs of each team while keeping the project’s overall objectives in focus, project managers empower teams to make key decisions within their areas of expertise.
This approach not only speeds up workflows, but also fosters a sense of ownership and accountability for the project’s success.
Celebrating Achievements
Celebrating small wins and milestones is vital for maintaining morale, especially in large-scale initiatives.
At adQuadrant, a rewards-based system integrated with Slack helps recognize and celebrate achievements regularly. This culture of acknowledgment keeps teams motivated and reinforces a sense of community, which is essential for sustaining momentum throughout complex projects – especially when working with remote teammates.
Risk Management in Large-Scale Projects
Developing Contingency Plans
Once risks are identified, it’s necessary to develop contingency plans for each. In creative project management, one of the most common risks are delays in content delivery.
To tackle this, project managers often build buffer time into each phase of the project, set interim deadlines, and ensure backup resources are available.
For ecommerce brands, this means having a plan in place to handle delays, ensuring that the overall project timelines remain unaffected.
Ongoing Monitoring and Flexibility
Risk management doesn’t end with planning; it requires ongoing monitoring and adaptation throughout the project. Conduct regular review meetings to assess potential risks as the project evolves.
Flexibility is a key component of effective risk management. In large-scale projects especially, having the ability to scale resources up or down as needed is invaluable.
For example, maintaining a pool of freelancers or external vendors on standby allows you to quickly address resource shortages without impacting the project’s progress. This flexibility ensures that the project can continue moving forward, even when unexpected challenges arise.
Empowering Teams and Learning from Experience
At adQuadrant, we encourage our teams not only to complete their assigned tasks but also to actively consider and address potential risks. This shared accountability promotes a culture of vigilance and ensures that any flags are addressed promptly.
Additionally, documenting what went well and what didn’t once a project has concluded is an invaluable practice for improving future risk management.
By reviewing how risks and challenges were handled and considering how the situation could be approached differently in the future, teams can refine their processes and become better prepared for upcoming projects.
Implementing Large-Scale Creative Project Management Strategies
Successfully managing large-scale creative projects isn’t just about following well-laid plans or leveraging advanced tools—it demands a mindset that embraces complexity as an opportunity for innovation.
The ability to pivot, adapt, and grow amid challenges is what distinguishes a good project management team from a great one.
For brands, this means going beyond managing tasks and timelines; it’s about fostering a culture of resilience, where every challenge is viewed as a stepping stone to refining processes and elevating creative output.
As we navigate an increasingly fast-paced and competitive market, the true value lies not just in delivering on time but in consistently exceeding expectations—both internally and externally.
This requires leaders who can inspire cross-functional collaboration, encourage proactive problem-solving, and maintain a clear vision – even when the path is uncertain.
In doing so, brands don’t just survive the demands of large-scale projects; they thrive, setting new standards for what can be achieved through strategic, adaptive project management.
About the Author: Erica Tahan is the Project Management Team Lead at adQuadrant. She is a NJ native that received her undergraduate degree in Communications & Public Relations from MSU. With over a decade in digital advertising, she’s had the opportunity to work on some of the world’s biggest brands & has a passion for bridging projects, process & people. Outside of work, Erica can be found wrangling her two kiddos, riding her Peloton, crafting, or cheering on the NY Yankees & Jets.
