Linear Project Management for Creative Agencies: A Simple Guide

Linear project management helps creative agencies organize projects into sequential phases, from brief to delivery, without friction or missed deadlines.

This guide explains what linear project management is and how it manages your agency's operations. It also compares linear vs. iterative project management, explains when to use each approach, and provides a step-by-step guide to linear project planning. 

What is Linear Project Management?

Linear project management moves projects through predetermined phases in sequence. Each phase is completed before moving to the next. 

Unlike agile or iterative methods, linear project management follows a "waterfall" progression where work flows in one direction. 

What does this mean for creative teams? 

The fundamental principle is sequential progression:

• Each phase has specific deliverables that mark a phase as complete, 
• Work moves forward, not backward, 
• Changes to previous phases (or work) affect the project timeline and budget, 
• Tasks follow a predetermined path from start to finish. 

For creative agencies, this translates to a workflow where:

• Discovery and planning must be complete before design begins, 
• You need design approval before the actual design starts, 
• Complete quality checks before sending to clients, 
• Send to the client for reviews and feedback. 

All these mean that a sequential project management workflow has these three principles: 

1. Clear production milestones: Each project phase must have specific entry and exit criteria. For example, the design phase (or content strategy phase, depending on your niche) can't start without a brief. Or at least an insight into what the client wants. 

The brief should specify what should be done and when it should be submitted. 

2. Asset dependencies management: Specify if a task depends on previous work. 

For example, your developers can't start coding before designers finalize their work, and your designers can't start until the copywriters send deliverables, especially if you're a cross-niche or full-service agency. 

Remember, if the copy changes after work starts, your designers or developers might need to start all over again. So, if you're using a linear project management process, it's best to complete one phase before proceeding to the next. 

3. Managing changes and billing for it: Some clients might want to introduce something new even after you've completed some deliverables. 

In this case, ask for what they want, assess your current capacity, factor in how it will affect current projects, and analyze the time it will take. Finally, bill for it so the client understands it’s a separate request, especially if you have already completed the task based on their previous approach. 

For example, when a client wants to change an approved logo while you're creating business cards, you need to: 

• Send a change request form, 
• Tell them to list affected deliverables— deliverables they want to change (cards, letterheads, email signatures), and
• The details they want to change.
• When you receive it, calculate additional design hours, 
• Specify the cost: "$X per hour × Y hours," 
• Update the timeline: "Delivery moves from March 1 to March 15" 
• Get a written sign-off from the client to show that they acknowledge this change.

How does this help creative projects? 

Linear project management keeps everything organized and structured. It:

• Sets clear milestones for deliverables, 
• Establishes checkpoints for client approval, 
• Creates predictable creative project workflows for team members, 
• Manages project scope through defined project phases, and 
• Tracks progress against a predetermined timeline. 

Now that you know how the linear approach helps, here’s a comparison between this and the iterative management approach. 

Linear Project Management vs. Iterative Project Management

An iterative project management method allows for continuous refinement and parallel workflows. This means many things can happen at once, and you can make changes to the whole project. 

Here's a table showing the use cases and differences between either method.

Now that you know the difference between linear vs. iterative project management approaches, here are the typical phases for linear projects.

The Five Phases of Linear Project Management for Creative Agencies

For a creative agency, follow this process to create a structured workflow for your clients and your team: 

1. Initiation

This is where you explain what needs to be delivered before the work begins. You share creative briefs, add client requirements, and mention the project's scope to your team and the client. 

A creative brief is the project's strategic direction. For a website redesign project, this means documenting the specific goals. The brief also includes 

• Details about the target audience, 
• Brand guidelines, 
• A project timeline,
• Color preferences, 
• Success metrics that will guide design decisions

And every other information the team needs to know. 

You should also have a list of all the client requirements, which should include every technical specification the client wants you to consider. 

For instance, a website project needs details about hosting requirements, security needs, browser compatibility, and mobile responsiveness. This also includes the client's preferred review process and who needs to approve work at each stage. 

So, instead of vague terms like "website redesign," your scope should be "a 10-page WordPress website with custom eCommerce integration, mobile-responsive design, and two rounds of revisions per page." This clarity prevents scope creep and sets clear expectations. 

You can use ManyRequests’ customizable intake forms for this phase. 

When clients make requests for a task or a new project, the intake form is used to collect required information upfront. ManyRequests automatically creates a task box from the request, and you can assign the task to a team member. This way, every piece of information that will help with the task is provided in detail. 

2. Planning

This is where the briefs start taking shape. 

The planning phase starts with resource allocation. In this phase, you check your team for people with availability and the required skills for each task. 

A website redesign might require a 20-hour UX designer, two 40-hour visual designers, and a 15-hour copywriter. This detailed capacity planning prevents bottlenecks and ensures the right team members are available at the right time. 

Then, you continue with creating deadlines. This helps you break the project into tasks or milestones— milestones that include buffer time for client feedback and revisions. 

Next, pricing. If your designers bill at $100 per hour and you've allocated 40 hours for design work, that's $4,000 for design alone. Add costs for stock photos, fonts, or specialized software to get the total project budget. 

Lastly, consider client approval processes for each milestone. This helps you establish where work stops for client review. Using ManyRequests' client portal, you can set up automated notifications for every message, including deliverables. 

You can then forward deliverables to clients so they can use the markup tool to give feedback directly on designs. 

3. Execution

Here, your team converts plans into deliverables while maintaining production quality and consistency. 

This process must follow your predetermined sequence. For a brand identity project, designers start with logo concepts and then move to color palettes, typography, and supporting elements. Each designer knows what to create and when to prevent duplicate work or missed elements. 

Also, asset management becomes crucial as files multiply. Your team needs to: 

• Name files consistently (ClientName_AssetType_Version), 
• Store working files in dedicated project folders, 
• Track version history of designs, 
• Organize client feedback by version, 
• Maintain a central library of approved assets. 

ManyRequests helps streamline team collaboration by centralizing all project communication. Designers can share work-in-progress files, receive feedback from creative directors, and track revision requests in one place. 

When a client comments on a design, you can point at each comment so the assigned designer can resolve the issue without the usual long email threads. Here’s an example. Each “...new added comment in…” points to the specific comment in the task box: 

4. Monitoring and Control 

This is where you monitor progress and ensure your team members send their work before deadlines. 

You can do this by asking the team for updates to know where they are and whether they need help. 

You can use the ManyRequests task chatbox to do this, too. The team members will be notified via email of every new message and will be prompted to reply: 

You should also factor in client feedback in the monitoring and control phase. To prevent chaos after sending a deliverable: 

• Collect all feedback in one place, not across emails and messages, 
• Track the number of revision rounds used versus allocated (one revision round in the two revisions the client has), 
• Document every change request with timestamps, if necessary, 
• Note which team member has to implement each revision, 
• Record time spent on changes for accurate billing. 

Review deliverables against these quality checks: 

• Does the work match brand guidelines?
• Have all requested revisions been implemented?
• Are files organized according to client specifications?
• Is all content proofread and approved?

This systematic monitoring helps you deliver polished work without compromising client satisfaction. 

5. Closure 

Complete these steps after submitting the final assets to clients: 

• Send a completion checklist of all delivered items to the client, 
• Confirm all revision rounds are complete, 
• Verify the client has access to all assets, and 
• Ensure all invoices are acknowledged. 

If you need to, package all assets logically: 

• Master design files (PSD, XD), 
• Web-ready files (JPG, PNG, SVG), 
• Print-ready files (PDF with crop marks), 
• Font files and licenses, 
• Brand guidelines or usage documentation. 

Also, you might need to document key activities such as: 

• Final versions of all deliverables; 

Screenshot of my v3 work with Ben Goodey: 

• Change requests and approvals, 
• Time spent on each phase, 
• Lessons learned for similar projects, 
• Client preferences for future work. 

All these help you prepare for similar situations in the future while avoiding mistakes in the just concluded project. 

ManyRequests helps organize this phase by: 

• Storing all project files in one accessible location, 
• Tracking client approvals and feedback automatically. In fact, a review box pops up when a client marks a project as complete: 

• Managing invoices and payments. You can use ManyRequests to automatically create an invoice, so you don't have to worry about administrative activity. 

Now that you know how to organize your project process using the linear project management approach, here are some project management tools.

Project Tracking Tools for Agencies

1. ManyRequests

ManyRequests helps creative agencies manage client projects through a dedicated client portal. 

🔥 Best for: Creative agencies that want to communicate with their clients & team members, take client project requests, assign tasks to team members, and manage the entire workflow in one portal. 

Key features include:

• White-label client portal branded with your agency's colors and logo, 
• Design annotation tool for precise feedback on images and PDFs, 
• Real-time project status tracking and updates, 
• Customizable intake forms for creative briefs, 
• Built-in time tracking for billing accuracy, 
• Task management with a list and Kanban board view, 
• Automated invoicing through Stripe integration. 

ManyRequests also integrates with popular tools through Zapier, so you can connect it to your existing workflow tools, such as Slack for notifications or Google Calendar for deadlines. 

Use ManyRequests for free for seven days here. No credit card required. 

2. Airtable 

🔥 Best for: Agencies that need to organize and track large volumes of creative assets across multiple projects and clients. 

Key features include: 

• Visual galleries to preview and organize design files, 
• Specific links to projects to manage each tasks with the team members and with clients, 
• Multiple views (calendar, kanban, gallery), 
• Automated project updates based on specific actions. 

3. Asana

🔥 Best for: Creative agencies that need clear task delegation and team collaboration across multiple projects and clients.

Key features include:

• Project templates for repeatable creative project workflows, 
• Task dependencies for design and approval stages, 
• Custom fields to track project status, 
• Timeline view for project schedules, 
• Workload management for creative teams, 
• File sharing and feedback feature. 

Asana helps creative teams track who's doing what and when, just like ManyRequests. The difference is that it's largely for small businesses and enterprise brands. You can read our comparison with ClickUp and Asana to learn more about Asana. 

4. ClickUp

🔥 Best for: Agencies that need extensive customization for complex creative project management. 

Key features include:

• Multiple project views (list, board, calendar, Gantt), 
• Custom status workflows per project type, 
• Time tracking with billable hours, 
• Proofing tools for design feedback, 
• Document collaboration, 
• Client guest access. 

You can read our comparison with ClickUp and Monday.com to learn more about ClickUp. 

5. Monday.com

🔥 Best for: Agencies that prefer visual project planning and need high-level views of all creative projects.

Key features include:

• Visual workflow builder, 
• Project status tracking with color coding, 
• Resource management for creative teams, 
• Custom dashboards for different departments, 
• Client-facing boards, 
• File storage and sharing, and 
• Progress tracking with timeline views. 

You can read our comparison with Monday.com and ClickUp to learn more about Monday.com. 

FAQs About Linear Project Management

How do we handle urgent client requests in a linear workflow? 

Create a process for every change requests. This may be a simple form asking them for details on the change and, perhaps, why they’re making the request.

Then, assess the current workload to see how it affects the project timeline and communicate all this information with the client. 

You can automate the change request process through ManyRequests’ customized form. Here, clients can fill out a form to tell you what they want and why. You'll be notified immediately after they hit submit. 

What if clients want changes to already-approved phases? 

Assess how requested changes affect dependent tasks. Let the client know that it'll affect prior deadlines and cost a bit more. Let them know the new deadline and the extra bill for the request. 

If it's a separate request, you can use ManyRequests’s add-on service feature to create custom service details for them. You can decide to charge a flat rate or charge per hour. 

How do we prevent bottlenecks during client approvals? 

Set clear approval deadlines in your project timeline and automate reminders. Mention that delays in client feedback will extend the project timeline. You can also include this in your service agreement. 

Can linear project management work for ongoing retainer projects? 

Yes. Break retainer work into monthly cycles, each with its own linear workflow. For example, monthly social media content follows: planning → creation → approval → scheduling → reporting. 

How many revision rounds should we include? 

The standard practice is two rounds of revisions per deliverable. But you can specify if you want another approach. Any additional rounds should trigger a change request with associated costs. 

What's the best way to track progress in linear projects? 

Use ManyRequests project management software so you can monitor all tasks and exchange messages with clients all within a dashboard. 

What are you waiting for? 

Click here to learn more about ManyRequests, and click here to sign up for a seven-day free trial. No credit card required.

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