I have never been working as a manager outside of the creative space. I work as a project manager and CEO for UI/UX design boutique for almost four years at the moment. At the same time I work as CEO for PR boutique. All of this taught me how to work with creative people and here is a bases I learned.

Sprint is Going After You

Basic difference between designers and managers lays in the understanding of the work-process and process itself. If manager is someone who has to assist numerous calls, always be in touch and control every tiny piece of life, designer is more about creativity, than about the control. That is why designer always goes with manager to form a fully effective work unit.

However, manager may make mistakes while trying to put designer in the frames of the sprint. Since design is an art work, that still requires inspiration, design normally can’t be controlled by minutes. There may be moments, when you will have to move sprints just because designer “had no inspiration” or “could do nothing”. This will sound as a madness for the manager, but for the designer this is reality.

But There is Always a Balance

So balance here may be found in the simple understanding of the idea, that: sprint should always be there along with the daily schedule to plan work in overall. However, at the same time, sprint as well as a schedule should always be flexible, so you will be able to give designer a freedom to work how he can do it in the best possible way.

To understand each other better, you may try different things:

• interviews with designers, to talk over the issues and projects;
• workshops with designers and managers, so they will share a world-view and be able to understand each other better;
• create borders and agreement regarding the changes and fixes; for example there is always a possibility to make changes if you talk about them in the certain time and there is never a chance to make fixes if this is last-moment call.

One of the biggest issues of the humanity in overall is a skill of understanding each other. Having no talks between each other, having no flexibility and no window for some freedom there will be no chance to grow and cooperate. Art people all require organization, but the simple truth is in the fact, this organization has to be simple.