Project Management in 2021: Key Statistics & Insights Creative Teams Must Know

The events of 2020 forced massive changes in how creative teams work together to deliver projects. With little warning, many transitioned from in-person collaboration to trying to replicate the same processes in a remote environment, with mixed success.

The good news is, these challenges have shone a light on opportunities to rethink the way work gets done. By understanding the current state of project management – what‘s working well and what needs to evolve – teams can implement meaningful improvements this year.

Project.co recently surveyed over 400 professionals across industries to uncover the key project management themes, trends, and benchmarks heading into 2021. Here‘s a deep dive into the most important findings and what they mean for your creative team.

Task Management: To-Do Lists Are Essential, But Not Always Enough

One of the clearest signals from the data was the power of to-do lists in helping individuals and teams stay organized and productive:

• 95% said having a daily task list is good for their mental health
• 96% said it makes them more efficient and effective in their role

This held true regardless of other factors like company size, industry, or job title. The act of getting tasks out of your head and onto paper (or pixels) reduces stress and provides focus.

However, to-do lists alone are not a panacea:

• 45% of people still report missing or forgetting about tasks at least occasionally
• 90% of those not using daily to-do lists say this happens regularly

Productivity experts recommend the following to-do list best practices:

1. Keep lists short and manageable, with only your most important tasks
2. Write tasks as specific action items, not vague multi-step projects
3. Assign deadlines to create urgency and commitment
4. Review and revise your list at the beginning and end of each day
5. Use a task management app to access your list anywhere

While simple, these habits can make the difference between a to-do list that alleviates stress and one that becomes a source of it.

Collaboration Conundrum: Knowing What Others Are Working On

Everyone seems to agree that transparency into each other‘s work is critical for team success:

• 94% said having visibility into what colleagues are doing improves overall productivity

So it may come as a surprise that:

• Less than half (42%) reported being able to easily see what others are working on

In the past, this might have happened through informal conversations around the office or a quick chat by the coffee maker. But with remote work now the norm, it takes proactive effort to keep everyone on the same page.

Some tactics top-performing distributed teams use to boost transparency:

• Conducting regular stand-up meetings to share daily priorities and progress
• Using collaboration software with shared task lists, calendars, and files
• Establishing communication norms like posting key updates in Slack
• Creating cross-functional project teams to interact outside silos
• Leading by example with executives modeling open information sharing

While individual focus time is important, a culture of collaboration starts with making work visible. An easy way to gauge this is to ask each team member: do you know what your colleagues are working on right now, and why it matters? If not, it‘s time to open up those lines of sight.

Client Communication: The Risks of Relying on Email

When asked how they primarily communicate with clients about projects, respondents overwhelmingly cited a familiar tool:

Two-thirds said they mainly use email, far outpacing other methods like project management platforms (9%), video calls (8%), or even old-fashioned phone conversations (8%).

But this default reliance on email can cause major headaches in complex projects:

• Important messages, files, and feedback get buried in long email chains
• Key stakeholders are left out of threads, causing confusion and rework
• Digging up past communications about project specs or decisions is a pain
• Large attachments create storage and access issues over time
• Maintaining data security and client confidentiality is tricky

That‘s likely why, when asked their preferred way to interact with businesses as a customer:

• Only 47% chose email, while
• 1 in 4 said they prefer using a dedicated project management tool

Centralizing client communication in a purpose-built system enables:

• Threaded conversations with only relevant people looped in
• A full record of all messages and files in one searchable spot
• Controlled access to sensitive data and intellectual property
• The ability to reference project briefs, timelines, and SOWs in context

While moving clients away from email may take some upfront education, the long-term benefits to efficiency and experience are well worth it. Start introducing these tools early and often to set expectations from day one.

Hitting Deadlines: A Pervasive and Persistent Challenge

If there‘s one thing keeping project managers up at night, it‘s schedules:

• Only 16% of teams report always completing tasks and projects on time
• Nearly 2 in 3 say they miss deadlines at least occasionally
• More than a third admit to regularly forgetting about deliverables entirely

While there will always be unforeseen obstacles and changes in any project, chronic lateness often stems from a few root causes:

• Overly optimistic planning with insufficient buffer time built in
• Lack of clear process for getting client input and approval at key stages
• Poorly defined roles resulting in confusion over who is responsible for what
• Failing to break large deliverables down into smaller, measurable milestones
• Not regularly communicating progress and blockers amongst the team

Some ways to mitigate these schedule risks:

1. Adopt a robust project planning methodology to estimate timelines realistically
2. Assign clear owners for each deliverable and track their progress
3. Set incremental checkpoints for client feedback rather than one final review
4. Have contingency plans and backup resources identified ahead of time
5. Celebrate successful on-time delivery and reflect on why it happened

With the right planning, communication, and accountability, more predictable and punctual project delivery is achievable. It just requires the same rigor and discipline as any other business priority.

Time Tracking: Copious Data, Chronically Underutilized

For many creative firms, time literally equals money. Yet when it comes to accurately tracking and analyzing hours worked, there are sizable gaps:

• 15% of companies that bill hourly don‘t track time at all
• Of those that do track time, only 13% believe it‘s captured extremely accurately
• 60% say they don‘t review time data retroactively to identify efficiency opportunities

Put simply, most teams are sitting on a treasure trove of project insights that they‘re not bothering to mine. Without reliable data on how long tasks take, it‘s nearly impossible to scope and price future work correctly, or find areas to continuously improve.

Common objections to implementing more rigorous time tracking include:

• "It feels like micromanagement and kills creativity"
• "We don‘t have an easy way to capture time as we work"
• "The admin burden takes away from billable client projects"
• "We‘re not sure how to extract meaningful takeaways from the raw data"

But in an increasingly data-driven world, avoiding time tracking is no longer an option for agencies and firms that want to stay competitive. Some ways to systematize it:

• Use software that logs time automatically based on activity, not manual entry
• Integrate time tracking with your project management tools for context
• Make time entry a required step before submitting work or expenses
• Schedule a recurring meeting to review time reports and apply learnings
• Celebrate individuals and teams that model good time tracking hygiene

Ultimately, understanding where time really goes is the first step to being able to shape those investments more strategically. Small changes, compounded over many projects, can have an outsized impact on profitability.

The Upshot: Creativity Loves Constraints

If the overall theme of this research had to be summed up, it would be this:

Structure enables creative success, not stifles it.

Far from keeping teams in a box, implementing the right guardrails, processes, and tools actually frees up mental energy to focus on doing the work, not just talking about it.

Consider how much creative potential is squandered when:

• Team members are stressed about what to prioritize or forgetting deliverables
• Stakeholders don‘t have visibility into progress and decisions
• Clients are frustrated by missed deadlines and feel out of the loop
• Leaders can‘t tell which projects are on track or veering off course
• Employees are burning out from lack of boundaries and unrealistic expectations

Contrast that with a well-oiled project management machine, where:

• Everyone is aligned on goals, roles, and responsibilities
• Work is made visible so collaboration happens fluidly
• Communication is centralized and contextualized
• Time is tracked so estimates and pricing can be refined
• Deadlines are hit consistently through proactive planning
• Data is captured to measure results and fuel future improvements

The difference is night and day. By embracing a culture of creativity and organization, teams unlock their full potential.

Whether you‘re a designer, developer, marketer, or studio owner, advancing the state of project management in your org is a worthy investment. Identify the biggest opportunity areas from this research, start with a narrow test of a new approach, and commit to iterating over time.

Big change happens through small, intentional steps. You‘ve got a wealth of data showing you where to start walking – now it‘s time to put one foot in front of the other.

Ready to level up your projects this year? Download the full Project.co State of Project Management 2021 report for even more insights and advice.