Project Management Is Flexibility
Marketing is creative, while Project Management is controlled. It is difficult to combine the two. A balanced combination of skills and experience is required to deliver a well-planned marketing campaign.
Although creativity doesn't like to be restricted, it is essential that a project be completed on time and within budget. Communication is essential. Getting to know your client, getting the right people involved, building the right teams, and consistently negotiating with the creatives keep everyone on the same page and the project moving according to plan and budget.
It's all about managing your time. Time isn't messy. It doesn't jump backtrack, slow down, or pause. A project can be developed and implemented easily if it is planned and executed with consistency and focus. Let's look at it.
From brief to plan, draw a line
From communication to contacts, draw a line
Draw a line between contacts and teams
From teams, draw a line to represent your ideas
From ideas to development, draw a line
From development to implementation, draw a line
You'll get a smooth, continuous line or project if you join all the lines. Wrong. You can take all those lines and make a web by linking to other points, curve, misdirect, double back and link to another point. Project management is more than a collection of disconnected words or plans. Management is not about planning, managing, monitoring, or discipline. Flexibility is the key to great project management.
Management is about being ready for unexpected changes and having the ability to divert from the plan while still moving the project forwards.
Every client and project is different, so a plan must be tailored to each one. It is not about defining a straight line and then crossing each one off as they are achieved. It is more like a circular structure with many lines between. To ensure that it fulfills its purpose, the end must go back at the beginning. Final implementation must go back at the brief. It cannot be a straight line.
Project management involves knowing that straight lines can be crossed out, curled, rubbed out and moved, as well as being ready for unexpected changes. It also requires the ability to adapt to change while still advancing the project. Projects that are too rigid or messy will fail.
Experience, communication, knowledge, and organization are key to determining the difference between a chaotic and flexible approach. It is about creating a logical strategy and then implementing it creatively.