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High-Volume Creative Production & Client Recovery

CREATIVE PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY

Context

Leading a high-output creative team

I led a team of seven designers responsible for producing all in-store printed Catalina coupons across the United States. The team handled a high-volume, fast-paced workflow, producing between 10 and 13 distinct creative requests daily, each with tight turnaround times and strict brand requirements.

Kroger was one of our largest and most important clients.

The Challenge

Over several months, Kroger began submitting a growing number of revisions. In many cases, the revisions were not due to technical errors, but rather dissatisfaction with perceived design quality and consistency.

The increased back-and-forth created:

  • Rework and inefficiencies

  • Rising frustration within the team

  • Risk to a key client relationship

  • It was clear the issue was not purely executional, but one of expectation alignment.

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PAPERCLIP IMAGE

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My Role

As Creative Production Manager and team lead, I was responsible for:

  • Client communication and relationship management

  • Quality control and workflow oversight

  • Team performance and morale

  • Process improvement under pressure

  • I acted as the primary point of contact between Kroger and the design team.

Actions Taken

1. Direct client alignment

I initiated a candid, in-depth conversation with the client to better understand their concerns. Kroger’s stakeholder was very clear and firm about their expectations and priorities, and expressed concern that design quality had declined. Through this conversation, I clarified:

  • Visual priorities

  • Non-negotiables (“musts” and “must-nots”)

  • What success looked like from the client’s perspective

2. Internal transparency and reset

I shared this feedback openly with the team, framing it as an opportunity for improvement rather than blame. This helped reset expectations and reestablish a shared goal.

3. Focused expertise strategy

We temporarily assigned our strongest designer exclusively to the Kroger account. The role was not only to execute, but to:

  • Collect direct feedback from revisions

  • Identify patterns in revisions

  • Translate expectations into clear internal guidelines

4. Knowledge transfer and systemization

Based on this learning, we created a set of Kroger-specific design guidelines and used them to train the rest of the team, ensuring consistency without long-term dependency on a single designer.

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Outcome

  • 80% reduction in revisions within the first week

  • Significant decrease in rework, saving time and reducing team frustration

  • Restored trust and smoother communication with the client

  • Improved internal clarity and confidence across the team

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