What Collaboration Tools Enhance Teamwork for Creatives?
To help creatives enhance teamwork on projects, we asked creative directors and CEOs for their top recommendations. From mood boarding to Zoho, here are seven tools and methods these leaders suggest for better collaboration.
- Enhance Teamwork with Mood Boarding
- Upgrade to Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams
- Collaborate Efficiently with InVision
- Utilize Miro for Real-Time Brainstorming
- Simplify Decisions with FigJam
- Optimize Workflow with Asana Automations
- Leverage Zoho for Seamless Collaboration
Enhance Teamwork with Mood Boarding
One of the best methods we have used that significantly enhances teamwork on a project is mood boarding—we find that mood boarding as a team allows us to share our personal insights, reference points, and opinions in an open and honest way at the start of a project. This allows everyone's voices to be heard at the start of a job and makes visual connections between these ideas easier to make. It also means that the more junior members of the team can inevitably make an impact on large projects in ways they didn’t realize. It helps build confidence as a team as everyone feels they can add their own take on an idea, concept, or style.
The key to making it work is to have a ‘no wrong answers’ approach to how you create the mood board. Allow people to generate their own themes, explore concepts in their own ways, and allow each team member to get involved in the process. Everyone will start to feel valued, and the project will feel more rounded as a result.
To add even more clout to the job, include a stage of presentations (for team members who feel confident in doing so)—this allows further exploration of ideas, opens things up for debate, and allows a deeper understanding of the explored themes and ideas as a team.
Upgrade to Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams
A few years ago, when the company I work for was smaller, we only had a standard Adobe Creative Cloud plan that our one designer used. Back then, we didn't see the need to invest in an Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams plan. As we've grown and developed a whole design department, we finally decided to invest in the Teams plan despite its hefty price tag. This upgrade has been a game-changer for us. Not only does it allow our team to share creative assets remotely without the hassle of sending files via email or Slack, but it also enables us to edit files together and collaborate directly. This feature has made our workflow much more efficient. We've found that it enhances creativity by making collaboration smoother and more seamless. Overall, the Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams plan has been instrumental in supporting our company's growth and success.
Collaborate Efficiently with InVision
Texas Blood Money Media specializes in aggressive social media marketing and graphic design. One tool that significantly improves teamwork is using a collaborative digital design platform like InVision.
InVision allows our creative team to work on projects together in real-time, leaving comments, suggestions, and feedback as we go. Designers can upload their work, and the whole team reviews, leaving comments pinned to specific parts of the design. This helps us quickly iterate and improve concepts without long email threads or confusing feedback.
For a recent project rebranding a musician client, InVision was crucial in streamlining collaboration between designers in two different cities. We were able to have full creative sessions together, pinning comments, uploading revisions, and critiquing color palettes and type treatments. This remote collaboration using InVision saved weeks of work and ensured we delivered a cohesive, hard-hitting brand identity that resonated with the client’s rebellious style.
Tools like InVision provide a platform for dynamic teamwork, especially when handling chaotic projects with aggressive deadlines. Our team thrives on this kind of coordinated creative intensity, and InVision helps us work as a cohesive unit to deliver unforgettable designs, no matter the location or time zones. For any agency focused on out-of-the-box work, I highly recommend InVision.
Utilize Miro for Real-Time Brainstorming
As the founder of Rocket Alumni Solutions, a startup focused on building interactive touchscreen software, I highly recommend Miro as a collaboration tool. Miro's digital whiteboard allows our distributed team to brainstorm concepts, map user experiences, and iterate on designs in real-time.
For example, when designing our athletic recognition product, my team used Miro to map out various user flows and get feedback from all members regardless of location. This sped up our design process and ensured we developed the optimal solution for our clients.
Miro integrates easily with other tools we use like Slack, Google Drive, and Jira. This connectivity improves teamwork by keeping all project assets and discussions in one place. The software is also very affordable, offering generous free plans that have served our needs well as we've scaled from 5 to over 20 employees.
Simplify Decisions with FigJam
If you want a tool that does everything, then it's FigJam that rests under Figma.
But if you want advice on how to make it work, then remember to give the power of visual decisions to a two-person team. You see, the client is always going to come back with their own set of changes, so adding a layer of internal discussions is only going to make the process more complicated.
Decide on the strategy, lock in the core elements, and let the creativity flow.
Optimize Workflow with Asana Automations
Asana has helped me go from 14-hour workdays to 4-hour workdays.
You're going to hear me say 'Asana,' and you're probably going to go 'ugh, so generic,' right? 'Everyone talks about using a project-management tool for collaborating across a team!'
But I don't know if you understand (I sure didn't) all of the capabilities Asana actually has when you're doing repetitive tasks. Take me—I write SEO content for myself and for other clients, and the process is generally the same. Do keyword research. Write the article. Edit the article. Send it for publishing.
Asana has automations, works with Zapier, and has literally saved me hours of work in my full-time work. Instead of having to send back-and-forths via WhatsApp to my team (VA), I can use so, so, so many of the features to batch my work.
Here are some ways I've used Asana to help me cut back 10 hours of my workday:
- Automating the status after checking off a subtask
- Using Zapier to create a tag that automatically notifies a team member to publish a blog post
- Copying and pasting from Excel directly into Asana
- Automatically creating a Google Doc when I create a tag and pasting all of my Asana description content into it (no more copying and pasting and formatting!)
I've tried every single project-management tool, and somehow, Asana is the only one that has the UI and features that minimize my clicks and automate communication between my team. I don't know how they do it, but I'm dang thankful they do what they do, and highly recommend it to any creative who wants to optimize their process.
The best part about Asana is that you don't need a crazy complex business to get started. You can simply use the 'My Tasks' section as a simple to-do list. That's it! Let it grow and flourish from there based on what you need—that's part of its magic!
Tip: Hire an optimization/automations specialist who specializes in Asana. They will help you audit your current process and figure out where to use Asana/Zapier/other automations to help you save HOURS. And, you can learn from the automations they create to get inspired to make even more!
Leverage Zoho for Seamless Collaboration
As the owner of OneStop Northwest, a digital agency focused on branding and marketing solutions, I highly recommend Zoho's suite of tools for visual collaboration. Within Zoho, our team leverages Cliq for instant messaging, Backstage for event management, and ShowTime for presentations.
For example, when rebranding a major tech client, my team used Zoho ShowTime to present initial design concepts and gather feedback in real-time. This allowed for quick iteration and ensured we delivered a solution perfectly custom to the client's needs.
Zoho's tools integrate seamlessly, keeping all discussions, files, and tasks related to a project in one place. Their software is also very budget-friendly, with many useful features offered in free or low-cost plans. For any visual-creative team, Zoho provides an affordable set of collaboration tools to streamline workflows and boost productivity.
