Welcome to Make Creative Work

Creative work rarely falls apart because of bad ideas. It falls apart because the system around it can't support the work.

Projects stall because priorities change. Feedback arrives late or conflicts. Teams work harder to compensate for broken processes. Creative people burn out solving problems they shouldn't have to solve.

After more than 20 years leading Creative Operations, I've learned that great creative doesn't come from asking people to work harder. It comes from building better ways of working.

Creative Operations isn't just about managing projects. It's about designing the systems that help creative work thrive.

That's what Make Creative Work is about.

Every Friday, I share ideas, observations and lessons from the front lines of Creative Operations. Some come from successes. Others come from mistakes. All are grounded in the realities of building creative organizations that need to move quickly without sacrificing quality or burning people out.

What you'll find here

You'll find practical articles on topics like:

• Creative Operations
• Leadership
• AI in creative work
• Ways of working
• Organizational design
• Creative quality
• Prioritization and planning
• Change management

Some are tactical. Others are strategic. Every article is designed to help creative teams work better.

What I believe

A few ideas show up again and again in my writing:

• Great creative deserves great operations
• Better systems help people create better work
• AI is a powerful tool, but expertise still matters
• Transparency builds trust
• People closest to the work often have the best ideas
• Curiosity is a competitive advantage
• Continuous improvement beats one-time transformation

Read these first

If you're new here, these articles are a good place to start.

• AI Doesn't Replace Experts. It Amplifies Them
• Built for People
• Transparency Is the Actual Transformation
• Transformation Is a Road Trip, Not a Destination

About Holly

I'm a Creative Operations leader with more than 20 years of experience helping agency and in-house creative teams build better ways of working.

I've led Creative Operations and transformation efforts at organizations including Razorfish, Visa, Amy's Kitchen and AAA, partnering across marketing, creative, legal and technology to improve planning, governance, workflows and collaboration.

What keeps me interested isn't process for process's sake. It's designing systems that give talented people the clarity, capacity and support they need to do their best work.

I started Make Creative Work to share what I'm learning while building and improving creative organizations in real time. Some ideas come from successes. Others come from mistakes. All of them come from doing the work.

If something here helps you solve a problem, challenge an assumption or make creative work a little better for your team, then this site has done exactly what I hoped it would.

Welcome. I'm glad you're here.