If that’s the case, the below pointers may help, or at least, resonate.
Unlike most PM roles, where you’re responsible for three project deliverables: “to brief, to budget, and to deadline” (the words of a militant manager still haunting me), a creative PM/AM is wildly different. In an agency, it’s a precarious balance of emotions; pride; needs; communication; and egos - as well as ensuring you fulfil that brief, budget, and timeline. Couple that with: ever looming deadlines; the odd needy client that love an out of hours catch up; a sprinkling of late nights; and endless takeouts – what’s not to love?
Here are some of my tips for surviving and thriving as an AM/PM/AE/AC in an agency.
1. Tread with caution
Designers - and those in the creative sphere - are fragile souls. They pour their hearts and minds into quite literally everything they do. Their thoughts, ideas and outputs are their babies. Put yourself in their shoes: they’ve slaved over thousands of ideas, spent numerous hours perfecting that kerning on that word; crafted the most potent and succinct paragraph of copy having been provided four sides of A4 from the client to fit onto an A7; R&D’d all night to make that curser turn into a glowworm when you hover over that word, all for the client to say, ‘can you just…’.
As a PM it’s your responsibility to deliver bad news - often to both your colleagues and clients - so tread with caution. Please, I urge you, always ensure to bear in your teammates excruciating journey to this point when delivering the not-so-great client feedback.
Peer to peer, be empathetic and kind. I implore the tactic of HAM it up: make it sound like you’re about to deliver the worst news ever; apologise profusely; be responsible for all bad things to have ever happened; agree with everything they say and then deliver the news. They often breathe a sigh of a relief, say “oh, is that all?” and skip on their merry way!
Then, do the exact same to the client.
Repeat process, ensuring all parties know everything is always entirely your fault.
2. Bribery (internally) gets your everywhere
Another trick of the trade that works wonders is bribery (within your agency only, anti-bribery is a thing). Food is the bargaining tool of choice. Mostly confectionery goods. As a PM it’s your job to get the best out of the team so in your first few months, get to know your team - more specifically their eating habits. You should know their favourite sandwich, their coffee order, which biscuit will get them to ‘make the logo bigger’, how many Oreos it’ll take to ‘make it pop’ and what Deliveroo selection will make them stay behind and wait for the client amends.
It’s in my humble opinion that PM’s should be armed with a monthly food budget to spend on fellow colleagues.
3. Communication is quite literally everything
I know I said no learnings at the beginning of this but if you’re going to take anything away from this post as a PM it should be this…
CALL THE CLIENT. Pick up that phone and speak. Even if you’re dreading the conversation, it’s the best method of communication and reminds those at the other end that you’re an actual human with a soul. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I’ve seen it (and done it) all too many times.
Picture this, PM needs to advise client on revised costs based on out-of-scope requirements. Instead of calling the client, PM opts to send an email with new pricing. Client responds ‘fine’. PM goes into frenzied panic about losing the client. As a bunch of mostly verbose, friendly, extroverts, PMs assume the client must be wildly upset having just responded with a single word.
However, in reality, the client is a busy on-the-go marketing manager. They’ve simply replied via their mobile, between meetings, in an efficient manner so not to hold you up.
Now, had the PM called, they’d be able to deliver the news, gauge the tone and answer any queries whilst continuing to build rapport and maybe even get a heads up on new potential work as ‘Susie’ is just going into a meeting with her MD to discuss budgets for their new website.
See, what a better result. It took half the time, no re-reading the email time and time again and no crippling anxiety trying to decode quite what ‘call me’ may entail.
Once you’ve called, always follow up with an email confirming what’s been agreed (paper trails are your friend after all).
Summary
Project management, especially in the creative sector is the most fun position hands down. You’re the crutch of the agency: the emotional support, the galvanizer; the finisher; the one that brings it all together. In the eyes of clients, we’re heralded as absolute heroes having saved the day yet again, but really, we all know we’re just low-key feeders.
