Guiding principles
Every project must have a clearly articulated end goal. Ownership must be explicit and visible. Progress should be intentional, not assumed. Commercial clarity is as important as creative clarity. And finishing well matters as much as starting strong.
If the end goal or commercial intent of a project cannot be clearly stated, the project should pause until it can.
What qualifies as a project
A project is any piece of work that has a defined client or internal stakeholder, has a start and end point, requires coordination across roles or departments, and has creative, technical, or delivery complexity. If work meets these criteria, it should be treated as a project and managed accordingly.
The five project phases
All projects move through the same five phases, reflected directly in Monday.com. A project should only move forward when the intent of the current phase has been met.
Purpose: To understand the brief, define the end goal, and establish ownership.
This phase is for understanding client or internal requirements, clarifying objectives and success criteria, assigning core project roles (PM, Creative Lead), and identifying early risks or unknowns.
To move forward: The project end goal is clearly defined, ownership is assigned and visible, and scope and constraints are broadly understood.
Purpose: To shape the creative and technical solution and establish commercial clarity.
This phase is for creative exploration and concept development, technical feasibility and solution design, shaping the delivery approach, and producing and refining the project quote. Quoting sits within this phase — a project remains in Development until the quote has been reviewed, agreed, and approved.
To move forward: Creative intent is clear, the solution is technically feasible, the quote accurately reflects scope and approach, commercial terms are agreed, and the project is approved to proceed. If a quote is not approved, the project remains in Development or is closed.
Purpose: To prepare an approved project for delivery.
This phase is for locking decisions following quote approval, producing technical and operational paperwork, finalising schedules and logistics, confirming resources and responsibilities, and ensuring readiness across all teams. Pre-Production does not begin until the project has commercial approval.
To move forward: The project is fully approved, scope, budget, and timelines are locked, technical and operational plans are in place, and the project is genuinely ready to deliver.
Purpose: To execute the work and deliver the agreed outcome.
This phase is for delivering the project, managing change and risk, communicating clearly with stakeholders, and protecting quality and creative intent.
Expectations: Status reflects reality. Issues are escalated early. Changes are managed deliberately. Decisions and communication are documented.
Purpose: To close the project properly and learn from it.
This phase is for capturing learnings (positive and negative), celebrating successes, recognising individual and team contributions, and closing out any follow-up actions.
Projects should not fade out — they should finish with intention.
Project roles & accountability
Every Zeal project must have clear, named ownership. To remove ambiguity, improve coordination, and protect quality, Zeal 3.0 defines two core project roles, with each project also linked to an Account Manager at client level.
Roles are not titles for hierarchy. They exist to ensure decisions are made at the right level, creative intent is protected, delivery is predictable, and information flows clearly. When ownership is unclear, quality and trust suffer.
Project Manager
The Project Manager owns the successful delivery of the project within agreed time, budget, and resource constraints. They are responsible for project planning and timelines, budget tracking and cost control, risk management and issue escalation, coordinating people, process, and decisions, owning all project information and follow-through, ensuring systems reflect reality, and managing the delivery relationship with the client.
The PM does not own creative direction — but does own delivery discipline, coordination, and predictability. Support may exist. Ownership does not split.
Creative Lead
The Creative Lead owns the creative intent of the project from first response to final delivery. They are responsible for creative vision, narrative, and experience, interpreting the brief and client feedback, making creative decisions throughout the lifecycle, protecting creative intent during trade-offs, and final creative sign-off.
Creative ownership does not stop at concept. The Creative Lead remains accountable through delivery.
Account Manager
Each client is associated with an Account Manager. They own overall relationship health and trust, provide continuity across multiple projects, understand the client's wider goals and context, identify opportunities for future collaboration, and act as a senior escalation point if required.
Account Managers are not assigned as a delivery role on individual projects and are not responsible for day-to-day execution. This separation protects clarity and avoids mixed messages.
Ownership at a glance
Account Managers own the long-term relationship.
Creative Leads own the creative relationship.
Project Managers own the delivery relationship, coordination, and flow of information.
These roles collaborate closely, but they are not interchangeable.
Decision-making and escalation
Authority is clear. Creative decisions sit with the Creative Lead. Delivery, coordination, and prioritisation sit with the Project Manager. Long-term relationship decisions sit with the Account Manager.
When uncertainty arises, decisions should be tested against role ownership, SPED principles, and the client outcome.
Escalation is expected when required — it is a tool, not a failure.
If clarity, quality, or delivery is at risk, escalating is a sign of good project management.
Change, risk, and escalation
Change is expected, but must be managed deliberately. Changes to scope, cost, or timeline must be acknowledged. Trade-offs should be visible and intentional.
Client-first mindset
A client-first mindset means focusing on our mission of becoming the most trusted lighting and visual production partner, considering how decisions land externally, communicating clearly and early, being proactive rather than reactive, and acting as partners, not just suppliers.
Client-first means
Prioritising client experience and outcome. Considering how choices land externally. Acting as partners, not suppliers. Building long-term trust.
Client-first does not mean
Saying yes to everything. Undervaluing the team. Compromising standards. Absorbing unreasonable scope without discussion.
When to reference this page
This page should be referenced when a project feels unclear or stuck, there is disagreement over what phase a project is in, a project is drifting without progress, a project is awaiting quote approval, or there is uncertainty about whether a project is ready to deliver. It provides a shared language and framework for alignment.