The creative industry has recently embraced remote work as the new norm. Whether it’s working full-time from the comfort of your home, or following a hybrid model that involves weekly office visits, this shift has reshaped how creative professionals work and collaborate.
A recent report shared by Forbes found that 75% of creative collaboration now takes place remotely. That is a shocking number considering that remote work wasn’t on several people’s cards before 2020. Thankfully, massive advancements in technology and a rise in AI tools have helped people adjust to collaborating effectively across virtual landscapes.
Still, creative teams face plenty of challenges when working remotely. Interestingly, research shows that remote work itself isn’t the real obstacle — it’s how teams collaborate that ultimately determines the success of their efforts.
That’s why it’s more important than ever for creatives to have the tools they need so they can focus their creative energy on actually creating rather than figuring out how to make a process better.
Now, let’s dive into five essential hacks for making creative collaboration both fun and productive.
Hack #1: Use AI-Powered Creative Asset Management
If you’re a creative working on a team that has many different creative assets, there’s no doubt that you’ve spent a significant amount of time just looking for the right asset. Studies show that creative professionals tend to spend hours searching for files, with some spending more than an hour per week.
This inefficiency can really hinder productivity and creativity, especially in a remote setting where team members might be scattered across time zones and rely heavily on shared digital resources. AI-driven creative asset management tools like Playbook can streamline creative asset workflows and ensure you’re never frustrated searching for assets.
Playbook uses automated image-to-text tagging and categorization to organize your design elements, photos, and videos seamlessly. Its deep-level folder browsing, kanban project views, and related asset suggestions make it easy to find the right file. Playbook’s GPT-powered AI search also assists creative professionals in managing and retrieving creative assets. These AI-powered tools enable users to easily locate past campaigns, archived photoshoots, and forgotten social media assets efficiently. Give our AI-powered search a try today.
To maximize efficiency, you can use Notion, a productivity platform, and Playbook, the digital asset management tool, together. Notion works quite well for high-level project management and documentation by offering customizable workspace features like Kanban boards, databases, and collaborative wikis for organizing project information. When working through a complex project with multiple, potentially non-creative stakeholders and timelines, you can create a linked database in Notion that references the creative asset stored in Playbook. The Playbook asset links within the Notion pages can give you easy access when you’re project planning.
Hack #2: Design and ideate with virtual design sprints
Does your design team have a specific problem that needs to be solved outside of your day-to-day creative work? Design sprints have become a popular method for tackling complex problems in a short timeframe, typically just five days. This concentrated effort can help teams achieve goals that may have otherwise taken months.
Digital whiteboard tools like Miro can make virtual design sprints more productive and encourage creative problem-solving. Their extensive template gallery is designed specifically for teams looking to host design sprints. Sticky notes, voting features, and annotation tools help users gather input from stakeholders and colleagues during brainstorming sessions or creative reviews.
If you want to take your design sprints to the next level, Playbook provides the organizational tools you need to store both in-progress and final pieces in a centralized, accessible location. This means wireframes or moodboards you create in Miro can be version-controlled and stored in one place for easy access by everyone on your team.
Big design teams like Lego, Airbnb and Slack have designed in sprints in order to quickly develop new products. A great example of a successfully executed design print was when Google was tackling the challenge of creating and prototyping a video meeting software that could run in a browser. The team tested a much smaller version of the concept in about a week in Sweden, which is now the Google Meet that we all know and love.
Hack #3 Integrate feedback directly into your creative workflow
Feedback is so vital in any creative process — but managing feedback loops in a remote setting can get a bit tricky. Miscommunication is a big risk when working remotely, as sometimes comments come across differently than they would in person. It can lead to wasted effort or missed deadlines, which is something we all want to avoid.
To keep things running smoothly, establish regular check-ins and a continuous feedback loop with tools that allow different people to share input when it’s best for them. Quick collaboration is encouraged with the built-in chat feature on Playbook, enabling you to chat through any issues with collaborators or clients without leaving the platform. Playbook also offers features that make it simple to gather input while keeping workflows uninterrupted like emoji-based quick approvals, and even guest access for external stakeholders without having to make an account.
For projects that require more detailed feedback (aka those moments when you don’t quite know how to express yourself with a keyboard!), consider using Loom. This video messaging tool lets you record your screen while simultaneously capturing your face via webcam so you can explain any feedback on designs or layouts. To go even a step further on quick feedback, integrate instant messaging platforms like Slack and make sure that everyone stays on the same page.
Hack #4: Simplify how you collaborate asynchronously
A hurdle that some global creative teams have to jump is being able to work across different time zones. The ability to work asynchronously is especially important in companies where part of your team is logging off while the other is just starting their day.
In these cases, it’s crucial to be able to choose a platform that supports seamless communication and file sharing without the need to have everyone online at the same time. Playbook’s interface is ideal for creating and storing moodboards, maintaining comprehensive style guides in one centralized place, and organizing brand asset libraries.
It’s not just about storing files. How you share them is just as vital as well. Playbook has many features that make asynchronous sharing easier: large file sharing (via email or by publishing them as a personalized drop-off page), client galleries for showcasing works-in-progress, and the ability to publish assets as web pages to make it easier for stakeholders to review.
If you’re looking to get deep into documenting things like comprehensive project guidelines and updates, use Notion’s wiki-style documentation. You can use Playbook and Notion together by embedding Playbook galleries in Notion and adding in context like asset type, project, status, and links. This way other teams and external collaborators can comfortably access everything.
Hack #5: Let AI enhance your creativity
Even after years of identifying as a creative, it’s still quite easy to hit a roadblock. When you start to feel uninspired by a blank page, AI can help spark creativity. Use AI tools to analyze what the current design trends are in your industry, to provide data-driven creative insight into how accessible your designs are, and to get suggestions for improving readability for all users.
At Playbook, our mini-apps make it easier to leverage AI to enhance your design process. You can remove and replace backgrounds for product mockups, generate AI color palettes that perfectly match new brand refresh initiatives, and save unique prompts to create AI-generated art safely on the platform all within Playbook. Try creating AI art directly inside Playbook here.
Figma’s plugin ecosystem also gives creatives the opportunity to create AI-powered designs. From plugins like Dora AI that help turn website ideas into fully editable Figma designs to The Automator plugin that automates repetitive design tasks…we’re very glad to see strides in design efficiency!
Embrace remote creative working with the right tools
Hybrid and remote working are standard around the world now, with only a third of companies requiring employees to be in the office full-time. Remote work can be great for accommodating flexible lifestyles that don’t require huge amounts of time commuting, but it also presents challenges. As a creative, adopting AI-powered tools and smarter workflows can help you overcome these hurdles while enhancing innovation.
The most important thing is to try to strike a balance and use technology as a tool rather than a crutch. Platforms like Playbook, Miro, Figma, and Notion are making working across different time zones easier for collaboration without sacrificing quality or efficiency.
Whether you’re designing a big product launch or prototyping a groundbreaking product idea – Playbook is here to streamline your team’s workflows and make collaboration a breeze. Book a demo of Playbook today, and learn why so many teams wish they tried it sooner.