Selecting Creative Projects - 7 Steps You Need To Know

Choosing creative projects can create a minefield of pros and cons. Many opposing factors can come into play: time vs money, creative freedom vs restrictive guidelines, client expectations vs your abilities. To help you navigate these factors, this framework explains seven key areas to consider.

There are obvious surface-level positives and negatives to most projects. If you look beyond this, you will find that most projects are often layered. There are often hidden positives that most people don’t notice. If you are aware of these, it will add to the thoroughness of your decision-making process. You can then begin to plan for a situation where everyone wins.

This framework will enable you to break down a project and develop a clearer understanding of the key factors.

Let’s work through the 7 steps for selecting a project.

1. Surface

At a surface-level, you will find the top-level questions that should be clear for most projects.

• What problem are we trying to solve?

• What are the project goals?

• How long will it take?

• How much will I be paid?

• Is the brief open?

• What are the advantages of this project over another?

Understanding the goals of a project before you begin gives you a clear direction. If you can see a clear goal, you can better understand your role. This also helps in understanding the client and how you can best help them to achieve their goals.

Money and time are always going to be factors. The balance of these has to be right. No one wants to be underpaid for the time it takes to complete a job. That can lead to bitterness and loss of motivation.

2. Setting boundaries

In selecting any project you need to understand what you will be doing, and what you are going to produce. This defines the boundaries of your role. Working out what you are going to do helps to manage the client’s expectations. If a project is undefined, you could be required to jump into an area where you don’t have the required knowledge or experience.

Working on a specific part of a project is simpler than managing a large project with lots of moving parts. If the project involves working across multiple deliverables for different teams and points of contact, there will be a heavier focus on project management.

Understanding the boundaries of a project can also be beneficial in ways that are not immediately obvious. If you finish ahead of time or want to impress the client, go beyond the boundary and overdeliver. It can underscore your value and help to build a better relationship.

3. Alignment

Do you believe in the product or service? This is the most important question to ask in choosing whether to work on a project or not.

This is especially important in the start-up world. If you think that the product is too late to the market, or very similar to another product, it may struggle to find an audience. Certain concepts may be too niche to ever be commercially successful. These factors may not be dealbreakers, but you need to be aware of them when starting any project.

For many creatives, belief is linked to passion. If you are not passionate about the product, it will be difficult to maintain your enthusiasm. You may find yourself 6-months into a project that is getting bogged down by overthinking or indecision. In that scenario, it is very difficult to maintain the level of enthusiasm required to see the project through.

4. People

People are at the heart of every working relationship. Being able to work with a range of different personality types will help in any project. Not everyone would classify themselves as creative, and they may not be used to working with creatives.

• Who will I be working closely with?

• What is their sense of taste?

• Will I have to educate them in the creative process?

• How professional are they?

There may be an opportunity to build relationships with interesting people. You might have the opportunity to work with a different department or team. The project may expose you to a new industry. There may be an opportunity to connect with a mentor or develop a friendship.

You may be someone who feeds off other people to generate creative ideas and refine your decisions. In that case, working remotely could create a challenging environment for you.

Knowing yourself and knowing what kinds of people you work best with is a huge factor in deciding to commit to a project.

5. Knowledge

Learning is not limited to creative skills and expertise. A project may involve a lot of client negotiation, strategic thinking, or project management. Developing soft skills like these may not be as sexy as creative work but they are very useful to have in your professional toolkit.

In a broader sense, these skills can be applied to other aspects of your life, they are not limited to work. Knowing how to schedule events, run a meeting, or plan for roadblocks are applicable to all kinds of situations.

Being able to learn a new software package is a big plus. Knowing your way around a program can save time and make you more efficient. If you can master a specialized software package, that skill can lead to new work in the future.

Tools do change, but the core fundamentals for spreadsheets, word processing, and presentation software will last for many years. Core knowledge can often apply across design programs. Bigger software programs have been around for so long that they still dominate the industry. Adobe is not going out of business any time soon. Mastering this software will open up a range of opportunities.

6. Plan for failure

Some products will fail. That is a fact. Before you begin, you have to think about what that will mean for you.

• Will a failure negatively impact my career?

• If the project fails, will it taint my reputation?

• How will failure affect your attitude toward taking on similar work in the future?

Failure is okay as long as you learn something from it. Most of the projects we hear about are the success stories, we don’t hear about the failures.

There are very few failures that are terminal. Bill Belichick was fired as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, that didn’t end his career. He went on to become one of the most successful coaches in the NFL. Steve Jobs was ousted from the company he helped create. He was able to turn that around and transform Apple into one of the most valuable companies in the world. These examples are high profile, but they are not the exception, everyone has to deal with failure at some point in their life. Our response to failure is what defines us.

7. Plan the next move

From a pragmatic point of view, you need to plan your next move after the project. This plan should be flexible enough to incorporate the success or failure of the project. You will need to have an exit strategy in place if the project is destined to become a burning pile of rubble. That being said, you still need to be professional about an exit.

You also need to plan for the positives.

• If I gain this experience, will it open up a new career opportunity?

• What freedom will it buy me?

• What will I learn from working with this person?

• Where will these relationships lead?

• Will this enhance my resume?

• Can I use the work for self-promotion?

Ask the right questions

This 7 step framework is designed to help you select your next creative project. There can be many hidden positives if look for them. Choosing which projects to work on should be treated as a design challenge. You have to ask the right questions at the start of the process and understand what is involved and what the positives are.

Armed with the right knowledge, selecting your next creative project should be easier.

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