How we digitalised our work processes to reach our full potential as a creative agency

Working at a creative agency means that we are constantly connected and it is our job to keep up with all the latest digital developments. Not only should our work reflect our digital expertise on the outside, but it is also vital that our internal organisation matches with the image we want to portray. How credible would we be as a digital agency if we wrote website code on a piece of paper, right? This is why we underwent a digital transformation of our internal work processes to optimise performance and to prove to our clients that we are the best-suited agency to work with. 

Work smarter, not harder

The decision of undergoing a transformation often stems from wanting to optimise an existing process. Working together as a group of creative individuals with diverse jobs, interests and working styles in the same office can be hard, but we were confident that anything is possible as long as you work smart and make most of the tools available to you. 

We elaborated an ecosystem using what we know best: apps. The aim was to create a digital system that helps us work more efficiently, manage projects & deliver them on time, and make our communication with each other, as well as with our clients, effortless. 
Let’s take a look at how we digitalised our processes using only three apps and ended up getting stuff done even quicker and better than before!

Communication

Communication is key and our main communication hub is Slack, a team messaging app. Our team members have access to a variety of channels, or group chats, but can also message each other privately to talk about projects they’re working on. It not only helps us to easily communicate with team mates and clients, no matter where they are in the world, but it is also a cool team building tool that saves us from screaming across the office when we like to order food or go for a drink after work.

Agency Management 

To ensure that all client projects are delivered on time, an agency first has to optimise their internal processes. We found the perfect digital management system that does exactly that and more. 
We use one tool to manage projects from the start right up to the finish line but it doesn’t stop there. The same tool can also be used for budgeting, lead generation, customer relationship management, billing and invoicing and for employee management purposes with features like time tracking, resource planning and requesting time off.

Most important to our clients is probably the project management part. The process starts with the creation of tasks (tickets) for each step of the project that can then be assigned to anyone who’s part of it, so the whole team has a nice overview of who is in charge of what. In these tasks, we can link our documents, add comments, update the status of the project, and most importantly, give each other feedback. The tool also works as an archive for our projects and allows us to look up anything we did in previous projects, but also lets us keep track of how much time we spend on each project. It’s a hub for anything related to our work.

Wanna get to know this magic tool? We’re keeping it a secret for now, but contact us and we might tell you more about it.

Design

Our chosen tool for designing websites, apps and all sorts of other digital graphic elements is Figma. It’s a tool in which multiple users can work together simultaneously and in real time. Everyone can make changes directly to the file and add comments to give quick feedback. This is really helpful to us, because it makes communicating with each other easier - instead of risking to formulate an imprecise message or email, we can add comments precisely to the part we are talking about. It also helps our developers, who have access to developer resources and other information in the file itself. That saves time and enables us to be more accurate when developing our projects. 

Another huge advantage is that we have access to previews that we can present to our clients and we can add each client to the document, so they can see our progress in real time. The tool can also be used as an alternative to “PowerPoint” or “Google Slides”. We can create presentation slides to illustrate specific examples and can then easily show them to the client.

Our opinion?

Managing projects and communicating with each other has become a lot easier ever since using the right mix of modern tech tools, and their use has also helped us massively in saving time. Our clients and team mates are both happy and our work speaks for itself! 

How have we optimised our creative work processes using modern tech?

• Slack for communication: The team messaging hub allows us to discuss anything about our ongoing projects. Channels for specific projects and with different functionalities help us organise and coordinate.
• Just one tool for projects, clients and human resource management: Team members can follow each step of the process of a task, create tasks, assign them to someone, attach documents and give feedback.
• Figma for design: The online design tool can be used for any graphic design work by multiple users in real time and allows us to share our progress with our clients.