Project management — it's a job that's extremely important in today's collaborative work environment, yet it's still not very well understood. Creative project management jobs are especially gaining traction as businesses are focusing more of their efforts on their online goals. 

If you like collaboration, are a strong leader, and have superior organizational skills, stick around. We'll answer all your project management questions, including:

• What exactly is creative project management?
• What day-to-day responsibilities come with this kind of job?
• How much could you make as a freelance creative project manager?
• Do you need a degree to qualify for project management jobs?
• How can you get into freelancing as a project manager?
  

What is a creative project manager?

A creative project manager is someone who oversees creative projects such as designing a website or creating and implementing an ad campaign. Clients explain what they want to get out of a creative project, and the project manager works with a team of creatives to produce a final deliverable within a set time and budget.

Creative project management is different from traditional project management because the outcomes of creative work are subjective. It’s not like you’re managing construction, where the final result is a building. Your job is to help clients develop a “concrete” goal, then oversee the creatives who actually “build” what your client expects.

Freelance Project Manager Job Responsibilities

As a project manager, you might:

• Assist clients in coming up with a concrete end goal that meets their needs. A lot of clients know what they want, but not necessarily what they need or how to go about getting it.
• Structuring the steps of the creative process.
• Set up a project management flow on Asana, Google Workspace, Trello, ClickUp, or a similar cloud-based collaboration and file sharing platform.
• Onboard new creative team members to the platform.
• Create and check in on project markers.
• Work with creatives to remove anything 
• Create ongoing progress reports for your clients.
• Evaluate whether the project is meeting the needs of the client.

Creative Project Manager Salary

The average annual creative project manager salary is between $58,491 and $70,669. Of course, this will vary depending on education, certification, and experience. 

The average freelance project manager rate is about $45/hour. For an idea of how much you could make walking into this position with zero experience (more on this later), the entry level rate of freelance project managers on Upwork is $19/hour.

Speaking of education and qualifications:

As with most careers these days, there are multiple ways to get the qualifications you need to get into this field.

Here are a few of them, from most to least difficult.

1) Go to school for project management.

Technically, you could go to school for business or project management, communications, or something that mostly fits the requirements for project management jobs.

However, that takes a lot of time and a lot of money. It just isn't really necessary — so let's move on.

2) Get certified as a project manager.

There is an entire online institute dedicated to teaching the fine art of project management. 

The Project Management Institute offers courses for those with no experience in this area, and for individuals who have some experience, but would like to specialize in a certain project management methodology.

A certification from a widely recognized institution like this will help you get noticed by clients, especially if you don't have a lot of formal project management experience.

3) Take an online course.

You could also take an online course from a mass online learning platform such as:

• ZTM Academy: Start a career or earn a side income by becoming a Freelancer. No experience needed. 
• Udemy: offers cost-effective courses with certificates of completion
• Coursera: offers courses from accredited institutions, with certificates of achievement
• edX: free courses in several areas, with the option to pay for course certificate

Once you earn a certificate, include it on your resume.

4) Get some "on the job" experience.

If you work with a team in your 9-5, offer to head up the next project. Or start up your own venture with a team. Set goals for the project or your personal venture and collaborate with others to see the project through.

If you'd like, you could also volunteer for a cause. Offer to head the next campaign and put your project management skills to use for good.

Ideally, you would get certified and get some on the job experience. But if you already have a decent amount of experience, you could probably get away with skipping the certification.

Traditional project managers don't need to know how to do every part of the project they're overseeing.

But it's much easier to oversee creative projects when you understand some of the creativity that goes into it. So, learn more about marketing, content creation, and — most importantly — measuring key performance indicators for success as a project manager.

And recognize that creativity requires inspiration, which can't be systematically manufactured. The only thing you can do is give your creative team members a thorough description of the task at hand, and some time for them to do what they do best.

1) Build a killer resume and portfolio.

There are so many ways to show off your skills now.

To demonstrate your skills as a project manager and to demonstrate that you have at least a little creativity in you, build your own website and develop your own resume.

Use a web builder like this one designed for freelancers to create an online portfolio. In it, include your certifications, case studies of successful projects, any other creative skills you might have, and a powerful bio.

Use Canva, an incredible drag-and-drop digital asset builder, to create a resume that makes you look like a graphic designer in under an hour.

Pro tip: Choose your own "personal brand" colors, fonts, and tagline. Branding is a hot topic right now, and your future clients will appreciate the fact that you are a brand.

2) Apply for freelance project manager jobs.

Remote work will probably be the norm for most jobs in 2021 and beyond. And this is especially true for freelancers, which is why you can find freelance project manager jobs on these platforms:

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• Freelancer
• Indeed
• Glassdoor

Related: This is how to craft freelance proposals that will land you the job.

3) Maintain excellent communication and time management skills.

As a rule, freelancers should always have positive client interactions. You should always respond to clients in a timely manner and meet deadlines. Otherwise, you risk your reputation — and reputation is everything in the freelancing world.

But project managers have to communicate not just with clients, but with an entire team. 

So, set up a system that will:

1. Notify you of any messages, updates, changes, etc. from any team members.
2. Automate as many processes as possible.

For example, say you are managing a client's blog. You know that once a writer is done with the draft of an article, it always goes to an editor. Set up a command in your content management system that automatically reassigns the article to the editor and notifies the editor that the piece is ready for them.

Automating everything you can will increase communication between team members while cutting down effort on your end.

Related: This is how to make sure every interaction with a client is a good one.

4) Get feedback from your clients to include in your portfolio.

Remember that thing I just said about reputation being everything in the freelancing game?

I still mean it — which is why getting feedback from clients is so important.

If you're on a platform like Upwork, you can request feedback. Feedback shows up on your public profile, which hirers can see. You can also use their feedback as a quote on your online portfolio. 

If you're not on a platform with this option, then just ask your client for a review. Explain what you'd like to do with their review. Most clients are very willing to say good things about skilled workers. 

5) Continue learning, always. 

The online world is fast-paced. New trends are born overnight, while the current ways of advertising, building products, and collaborating in general can become obsolete almost as quickly.

So keep finding the best technology out there to collaborate with teams. Keep an eye on marketing trends, new content management software, and anything else that may be relevant to the projects you might go on to manage.

When you're ready to find freelance creative project manager jobs:

Learn how to win clients on Upwork, the most popular online freelance job platform out there, with this complete guide to freelancing in 2021.

By the end of it, you'll know how to create an Upwork profile that the right clients will see, how to choose your niche area, how to craft proposals that get you hired, and more.