Hiring and Managing Creative Strategists Properly at Your Agency: A Process That Drives Success
At Foxwell Digital, we’ve found that building a successful creative team requires a balance between hiring the right people and managing them effectively. Creativity is essential, but without the proper structure, even the best talent can struggle. Whether you’re adding new creatives to your team or refining your processes for an existing team, the right approach can lead to stronger, more consistent outcomes.
Here’s how we approach both hiring and managing creative talent to ensure success.
Finding the Right Creative Talent
Hiring for creative roles isn’t just about ticking boxes for technical skills. You need to find individuals who are passionate about their work and committed to continually refining their craft.
Filter for Passion and Active Engagement
It’s not enough to hire based on a résumé alone. You want candidates who are already creating—whether it’s through personal projects, freelance work, or theirs or a brand’s organic social media content. These creative individuals are not only passionate about their field, but they’re also in tune with the latest trends. As one of our Foxwell Founders members puts it, “There are a lot of people who say they want to do creative work, but only a few actually do.”
Use Trial Periods to Assess Fit
Once you’ve found a potential hire, consider implementing a trial period of 30, 60, or 90 days. This approach lets you assess their technical skills, ability to collaborate, and adherence to your processes without making a full commitment upfront. During the trial, provide clear guidelines and tasks. If the candidate delivers strong work and integrates well with your team, you’ve likely found a solid fit. This trial period also allows for an easy exit for either party at any time, should either party learn the role isn’t a fit.
Managing Creatives: Balancing Structure and Flexibility
Hiring the right talent is just the beginning. Managing creatives effectively is key to getting the best out of them. Striking the right balance between structure and creative freedom allows teams to flourish.
Process Alignment and Collaboration
Even the most talented creatives can struggle without the right processes in place. Collaboration is crucial, and it’s important for creatives to understand that their work is part of a larger ecosystem. At Foxwell Digital, we’ve seen how ensuring that designers, editors, and strategists follow structured processes—like time tracking and project management protocols—leads to higher-quality, more consistent work. As one team member said, “Your work is not isolated—it’s collaborative.”
Break Down the Creative Process
A common hiring mistake is looking for a “unicorn”—someone who can handle everything from ideation to execution. This often leads to overworking and unrealistic expectation at best, and disappointment at worst. Instead, divide the creative process into specialized roles. Let a creative strategist handle big-picture ideas while editors or designers execute them. This approach enhances quality and allows each team member to focus on their strengths.
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Clear expectations and strong quality control are essential in creative environments. Without these, even talented teams can fall short.
Set 30, 60, and 90-Day Goals
It’s unreasonable to expect new hires to perform at full capacity from day one. Instead, establish clear goals for their first 30, 60, and 90 days. This gives them time to adjust to your systems and processes while also providing a way to measure their progress.
Quality Control (QC) as a Team Effort
No matter how skilled your creatives are, a strong quality control process is essential. We use a custom QC checklist for each client, which ensures consistency in brand tone, messaging, and design elements. While a dedicated QC person helps, it’s everyone’s responsibility to ensure their work meets the standard before it moves forward. This collaborative approach to quality control keeps projects running smoothly and ensures accountability across the team.
Aligning Creativity With Strategy
Successful creative teams aren’t just focused on making things look good; they’re also driven by a clear strategy. Each piece of content should serve a larger purpose within a campaign or marketing plan.
Strategize for Long-Term Success
A good creative team doesn’t just work on the immediate task—they plan ahead. A strong creative strategist sets up a project pipeline that includes ideas, scripts, and variations. This allows the team to continuously iterate and improve, ensuring that each piece of content is aligned with long-term campaign goals.
Balancing Creativity and Structure
Creativity thrives when there’s flexibility, but too much freedom without structure can lead to chaos. At Foxwell Digital, we’ve found that a clear, adaptable process is the key to balancing creative freedom and operational efficiency. Regular training, ongoing communication, and frequent check-ins ensure that everyone remains aligned and can keep producing high-quality work.
The Bottom Line: Creativity and Process Go Hand-in-Hand
Creativity and structure can coexist and even enhance one another. With the right talent in place, clear expectations, and a strong quality control process, creative teams can thrive. Whether you’re hiring new talent or refining your current creative workflow, the key to success lies in balancing creative freedom with operational efficiency. In the end, great things happen when you set up creatives with the processes they need to succeed.