The Business of Creativity is a series from Emily Cohen and Hunter Vargas of Casa Davka, a consultancy that helps creative firms evolve their business strategies and practices.
While nuanced, the distinction between account and project management roles and functions within creative teams is significant. Within your team, it is important to detangle one from the other, considering the different responsibilities as well as skill sets these roles require and even the connotation and weight that different titles carry. And, while the account and project management roles can—and sometimes should—be merged within creative firms, let’s first break the responsibilities of these roles out in the purest of terms.
Account Management
- Focus on building and growing relationships with existing clients
- Know the ins and outs of the client’s needs
- Represent and advocate for the client internally
- Often supports on:
- Business development by:
- Growing a client’s business
- Being involved in new business meetings
- Developing proposals
- This is often a growth opportunity for this role
- Strategy by:
- Supporting strategists (and creative leads) with their unique client insight and understanding
- Being involved in strategy development
- This is often a growth opportunity for this role
- Project management by:
- Collaborating with the other team members to find the right balance between and navigate client vs. internal needs
- Business development by:
- Responsible for client management, including but not limited to:
- Keeping the client informed and on track every step of the way through a project
- Leading and facilitating client communications and meetings
- Being a resource and asking the right questions to the client to ensure project success and continued relationship growth
- Thinking strategically about client’s needs, feedback, etc., to ensure their business objectives are being met
- Navigating the delicate balance of client satisfaction and happiness while ensuring project scope, profitability, etc.
Project Management
- Focus on guiding projects from A to Z
- Know the ins and outs of internal processes
- Represent and advocate for internal goals and the team (e.g., morale, workload, etc.)
- Often supports on:
- Operations by:
- Researching, developing, implementing, maintaining, and onboarding the team on the best, simplest, and most appropriate processes, systems, and tools
- This is often a growth opportunity for this role
- Business development by:
- Supporting proposal development and negotiations, specifically in terms of scoping, prices and estimates, and timelines
- Client management by:
- Collaborating with other team members to find the right balance between and navigate internal vs. client needs
- Leading select client communications and meetings
- This is often a growth opportunity for this role
- Operations by:
- Responsible for project management, including but not limited to:
- Keeping the internal team and partners (e.g., freelancers, contractors) informed and on track every step of the way through the development, management, and negotiation of the project:
- Schedules and timelines
- Budgets (and profitability)
- Task assignments
- Resourcing
- Leading and facilitating internal communications and meetings
- Being available and asking the right questions to the team to ensure project success
- Thinking strategically about internal workflows, business and profitability goals, etc.
- Navigating internal challenges, conflict, scope and schedule creep, etc.
- Keeping the internal team and partners (e.g., freelancers, contractors) informed and on track every step of the way through the development, management, and negotiation of the project:
To Merge or Not to Merge
Both account and project management roles are crucial within your firm, but should these be the same or different roles? Let’s break it down.
Separating Account and Project Management
The model of separating the account and project management roles works best at larger firms and agencies that have:
- Clients that require a lot of support and management (i.e., typically larger clients with many stakeholders, decision-makers, layers of management, etc.)
- Multiple projects they’re working on under each client at any given moment
- Projects where there are many moving parts and pieces (e.g., advertising and marketing projects)
By separating these roles, you create efficiency by having people on your team with dedicated responsibilities to handle the workload and management requirements of this client and project structure. That is:
- Account Managers are dedicated to the client:
- Focused purely on relationship-building, being the client advocate, being acutely aware of their needs, growing their business, etc., without the distraction of being involved in the day-to-day management of bringing a client’s projects from A to Z
- They are the client’s day-to-day partner and resource
- And, sometimes, having someone in this dedicated role holds weight for larger clients who expect to have a dedicated contact with this title (e.g., Account Manager, Client Partner)
- Project Managers are dedicated to the project and internal team:
- Focused purely on managing the day-to-day management—from negotiating resourcing to keeping tabs on the team on task assignments—of bringing a client’s project from A to Z without the distraction of being involved in navigating the client relationship
- They are the team’s day-to-day contact and resource
- And, sometimes, having someone in this dedicated role holds weight for the internal team that then has a dedicated point person (e.g., Project Manager, Producer) for project questions, concerns, etc.
By separating these roles, you can also create an effective “good guy, bad guy” scenario, where the Account Manager and Project Manager work together to strike the right balance between client and internal needs and priorities. For example, consider a situation where a client requests to shift or delay the agreed-upon schedule. The Account Manager can defer to the Project Manager to address the situation by responding and/or providing more context to determine if a “no” or pushback is warranted, then explaining what is possible, what the implications of the delay to the project overall will be,” etc.
That said, tensions can arise if the Account and Project Managers do not consider their goals the same and take action without considering and involving their counterpart when applicable. For example, consider a situation where the Account Manager promises a quick turnaround on a deliverable or another round of edits to a client without checking in with the Project Manager to see what is doable; this could obviously create internal conflict.
Therefore, Account and Project Managers must find a way to always be (or at least end up) on the same team and support each other even when their priorities differ. They must carefully navigate the “good guy” and “bad guy” roles, ultimately presenting as a united front to the client and the internal team.
Merging Account and Project Management
On the other hand, the model of merging the account and project management roles and functions works best and, ultimately, more efficiently at mid-sized firms that have:
- Clients that require less hand-holding (i.e., fewer stakeholders, decision-makers, and layers of management)
- Only one or two projects they’re working on under each client at any given moment
- More defined projects with fewer moving parts and pieces
At these firms, typically, the Account/Project Manager’s responsibilities are roughly spread across the client and project sides:
- Project Management (30-40%)
- Client and Relationship Management (30-40%)
- Operations Management (10-20%)
- Business Development Support (10-20%)
By merging these responsibilities into one role, you create efficiency by having one person on your team dedicated to all the ins and outs of a client and their project(s). That is, an Account/Project Manager, in this capacity, always has the full context of everything from client idiosyncrasies to internal resourcing challenges to ultimately strike the right balance between client and internal needs and priorities.
Depending on the needs of your team, the Account/Project Manager can be supported by someone more junior (e.g., an Account/Project Coordinator) to handle more day-to-day project trafficking responsibilities such as asset sourcing, timeline updates (with oversight), task management, etc.
That said, it can prove difficult for a Project Manager to feel comfortable pushing back on a client when, for example, there is scope and schedule creep, as they are also responsible for nurturing and growing the relationship. Often, because of this, when a firm has this merged model, the firm principal is involved in more client and relationship management to ensure the continued satisfaction and growth of the client.
Account/Project Managers functioning within both account and project management roles must be incredibly strategic and thoughtful in aligning client and internal priorities. They must carefully navigate the “good” and the “bad” guy roles to serve both the client and the internal team.
When You Don’t Need Either Role
If you are a team consisting of four or fewer creatives or creatives-adjacent, you do not need anyone in a dedicated account and/or project management role just yet. For smaller firms, the firm principal should take the lead on account and project management, with the support of a more mid- to senior-level team that can handle and manage the day-to-day client communications and the projects they are working on.
Whichever Way You Go
Whether your firm merges the account and management roles or not, a couple of skill sets are crucial for both roles:
- An interest in and thorough understanding of the type of creative work the team does
- The ability to:
- think creatively
- solve problems
- manage and navigate conflict
- communicate effectively and concisely
- work with a variety of personalities
- pivot easily when new priorities arise
- be organized and detail-oriented
And, these roles can only be successful if they are clearly defined both internally and externally. The client and your team need to understand who to go to and for what, who has decision-making authority, and in what capacity, etc. This question of “who” should further be supported by detailed job descriptions, clear reporting structure, standard operating procedures (SOPs), communication guidelines, leadership support, etc., that reflect how account and project management roles come to life and by who within your team.
Ultimately, whichever way you go, the responsibilities of the account and project management roles and functions within your team are critical. These roles are the foundation for how your team builds and maintains client relationships and successfully takes a client’s projects from A to Z. So, whether these roles are fulfilled by two separate people and teams, the same people, creative team members responsible for managing their own projects, or the principal of your firm, they are a must-have.
Read more in the Business of Creativity series:
How Creative Businesses Can Advocate for our Firms, Our People, and our Profession
Strategies for Building Your New Business Pipeline
Hunter Vargas and Emily Cohen are business partners and consultants at Casa Davka who offer customized business solutions to creative firms so they are able to refine, evolve, and elevate their strategies and practices. Emily has been in the business for over 30+ years, partnered with 500+ leading creative firms, and is a frequently requested main-stage speaker. Hunter is an experienced marketer, project manager, client partner, and business development manager. They also happen to be a mother/daughter pair, so they work together seamlessly, complementing (and challenging) each other in many ways.
All illustrations by Luis Miguel Rendón (@batz_art_).