Anyone who’s made something creative knows how much of a person’s soul goes into the end product. A creative project requires the creator to pour their heart and imagination into every step of the process, from the first wisp of an idea to the finished product. So, how does someone mix the incredibly personal creative process with business?
That’s what designers do every day. Their vision needs to be tempered by metrics, company goals and feedback, both internally and externally. Given the intimate nature of making art, it’s only natural that designers can get protective of their projects, but it’s quite possible to strike a balance between their vision and client needs.
Enter: The creative manager. A designer that has moved into managing a team of designers, the creative manager is able to empathize with the designer and communicate between them, clients and the rest of the company in a way that honors all parties involved.
“Designing is a collaborative effort,” said Caesars Sportsbook Design Lead Ross Crutchley. “A designer is involved in every part of the process, from discovery to release to monitoring a feature’s success. This means interfacing with a lot of people, since designers sometimes need to work across multiple teams to deliver a best-in-class product.” A successful design leader makes collaboration easier and more enjoyable for all involved.
Creative management is a difficult position, but an essential one. A good creative manager gives designers space to flex their creative muscles while still meeting client expectations and deadlines so everyone feels satisfied with the end result.
To learn by example, Built In NYC sat down with Crutchley, along with creative managers from fuboTV and BentoBox. They discussed the challenges and opportunities of the position, and what other leaders can do to foster a positive and collaborative culture on their teams.
FuboTV uses its technology to add interactivity to TV viewing — a process that requires a significant amount of creative design. Patrikios highlights that creative managers are responsible for taking the lead on team culture. If leaders are open to feedback and change, their team will be too.
From a manager’s perspective, what sets a creative and design team apart from others in a typical tech company?
In a typical tech company, the creative team is one of the few groups that works cross-functionally to impact every aspect of the business. The creative team at FuboTV is a perfect example — we contribute beyond marketing to support branding, product, ad sales, corporate communications and more.
From a manager’s perspective, this introduces a few considerations. For example, if the creative team is to properly intake and deliver cross-functional projects, it needs a good understanding of each function’s audiences, goals, success metrics and other important dynamics. The manager may need to establish the relationships and lead the conversations that give the creative team that level of understanding.
Another consideration is conflicting priorities. If multiple cross-functional partners book the creative team at the same time, the manager may have to play traffic cop and negotiate between functions to avoid over-stressing the team. If you’re successful, you’ll have a happy team with steady workflow and great cross-functional relationships.
What initial challenges can designers expect when they first move into management?
You may start doing less designing and more administrative work or strategic planning. This takes time to get used to, but the creativity you poured into your design work will be put to good use reviewing other people’s work, developing their potential and creative problem-solving.
Something else to expect is that you may now be accountable for the success of your team or projects. This means that the executive team or other leaders may look to you for updates on project status or performance. While this may seem daunting, it’s a great opportunity for internal marketing — showcasing your team’s talents and wins within the company. This will build your team’s reputation as high performers, and your reputation as a thoughtful manager.
As a manager, you may also be in a position to hire new team members. Just like designing, interviewing candidates is a skill that takes time to master. If you’re new to interviewing, look for people who will add value to your team, not just in skills but in diversity, experience and outlook — as well as great portfolios.
How your team responds to challenges — finding a way or staging a revolt — is the difference between a healthy culture and an unhealthy one.”
What tips would you offer to a new manager on a creative team for building a positive and collaborative culture?
It requires your participation. Culture flows from the top down, so if you want your team’s culture to be positive and collaborative, you have to set that example.
For instance, if you want your team to be more collaborative when giving and receiving feedback, they have to see you being open to feedback. Ask them for comments on your work, and take the time to try what they suggest.
Your team’s participation in its culture is as crucial as yours. Ask them how they feel about the culture and what they want it to look like. If they complain about the culture, encourage them to take action to fix it. The sooner they take ownership of it, the sooner they’ll see the value in supporting it.
Know that your culture will be tested daily. As the manager, there’s a good chance you’ll have to ask your team to work on projects with tight deadlines and other challenges. How your team responds — finding a way or staging a revolt — is the difference between a healthy culture and an unhealthy one.
Strong cultures take time to build, but can collapse in an instant. Be patient, persistent and purposeful in your words and actions.
At restaurant marketing and commerce platform BentoBox, managers make sure to support designers’ creative endeavors outside of work. This includes managing a creative blog on Medium, but can also involve giving designers time for personal projects.
From a manager’s perspective, what sets a creative and design team apart from others in a typical tech company?
I’ve worked within many different departments across all kinds of work environments, and working within a creative team has been one of the most distinctive. Given the imaginative nature of their work, a designer or creative is open-minded with a supernatural ability to think outside the box.
There’s also this concept of how a creative team supports company goals. At BentoBox, we define success as our customer’s success, and this is distinctly true of our web design team. While we are ultimately beholden to the numbers backing company performance, we are largely driven by creating a product that is both beautiful and functional — our methods lean more on the qualitative vs. the quantitative. As a manager, you have to find a way to measure success from both angles in a way that is both meaningful for the company and keeps your direct reports inspired.
What initial challenges can designers expect when they first move into management?
There are a few challenges that have come up, but nothing that is insurmountable, especially with the right coaching. The most pronounced test is the departure from being a hands-on designer to overseeing the team’s work. It can be intimidating to provide constructive feedback, particularly when it leans more on the critical side, but that can be tempered by establishing a relationship with your reports based on trust and empathy.
The other challenge is flexing one’s analytical and data-driven muscles to track KPIs and measure the team’s success, in addition to the subjective feedback of their overall design skills. Broadly speaking, to be a creative manager is to have a foot in two different worlds at the same time.
To be a creative manager is to have a foot in two different worlds at the same time.”
What tips would you offer to a new manager on a creative team for building a positive and collaborative culture?
There are a number of things that I’ve learned over the years, but here are a few ideas that I’ve found to be successful. First, create a mission statement as a group that defines your ultimate shared vision and serves as a north star for the team and the work that you do.
Second, meet with your team members individually to understand their career and personal goals; create real, actionable milestones to measure their progress; and use part of your weekly or bi-weekly check-ins to talk through any updates, insights and blockers that they’re encountering along the way.
And finally, set aside time for them to work on creative side projects outside of their expected workload, either individually or as a team. Amongst other things, the BentoBox team manages their own creative blog on Medium. It is incredibly important to support the team’s non-work-related creative ambitions — often, that opens up new inspiration that they can bring to internal projects.
At sports betting and mobile casino company Caesars Sportsbook, the most important role of a creative manager is to implement consistent processes for designers — from design, to testing, to review.
From a manager’s perspective, what sets a creative and design team apart from others in a typical tech company?
Design can be subjective. It’s a subject that raises a lot of opinions from stakeholders and colleagues. Designers are faced with conforming to a system or guide for consistency, but at the same time, everyone wants to tell them how to design.
Designers can be very attached to their work, working hours or days to perfect it, so they can become protective. They require more guidance, because designing is a collaborative effort. One change to something in one of the apps can have an impact on another. In tech, a developer’s work either works or doesn’t; designs need to have a process and be data- and user-driven. They also need to be tested and validated by stakeholders.
What initial challenges can designers expect when they first move into management?
Designers can be protective and very opinionated. That requires a manager to have people skills and be able to adjust their approach according to the individual’s skill level and attitude. The manager needs to be skilled and have experience in the domain. Each designer will work in a different way, and some may be self-taught. As a manager, you must apply a consistent language and design system for designers to follow, including creating a UX process and including user testing, research and design validation. Consistency is crucial.
A design manager needs to have people skills and be able to adjust their approach according to the individual’s skill level and attitude.”
What tips would you offer to a new manager on a creative team for building a positive and collaborative culture?
Have buy-in from your design team. Don’t implement from a top-down mentality. Allow the team to make decisions and build solutions together. Also, empower designers to make decisions and own them. Make sure to create and cultivate safe places where designers can share their work and receive constructive feedback. Make sure people are accountable.
