Talents Boutique hired two Creative Managers for a confidential multi-brand eCommerce company operating on Amazon and TikTok Shop in the US market. The search took seven weeks from launch to the offer stage.
The company initially planned to hire one specialist to coordinate its entire creative function. During the selection process, however, it became clear that the scope covered two distinct areas. The client ultimately hired one Creative Manager for Amazon and another for TikTok Shop, UGC, and creator operations.
Case at a Glance
|
Client |
Confidential multi-brand eCommerce company |
|
Product categories |
Beauty, fitness, and tools |
|
Platforms |
Amazon and TikTok Shop |
|
Original role |
Creative Manager |
|
Final result |
Two Creative Managers hired |
|
Working format |
Full-time, 100% remote |
|
Preferred location |
Eastern Europe and the Balkans |
|
Time to offer |
Seven weeks |
The Client’s Hiring Goal
The client is an eCommerce company operating four brands across the beauty, fitness, and tools categories.
As the business grew, managing creative production across multiple brands became increasingly complex. The company worked with external creative resources and needed someone who could bring more structure, coordination, and ownership to the process.
This was not a hands-on designer position. The Creative Manager needed to oversee how creative work moved from a business request to a finished asset.
The role covered:
- Managing creative briefs, revisions, and deadlines across four brands
- Coordinating an external creative agency, freelancers, and creators
- Translating business needs into clear creative assignments
- Reviewing completed work and providing actionable feedback
- Maintaining the quality and consistency of creative output
- Supporting UGC production and creator outreach
- Helping build TikTok and social media processes
- Coordinating Amazon product and advertising creatives
- Using AI tools to develop content ideas, drafts, and variations
- Introducing structure where processes were still being developed
The company initially considered a part-time arrangement with the possibility of expanding the position as its creative and social media workload increased. As the scope became clearer, the final hiring model evolved into full-time employment.
Must-Have and Nice-to-Have Requirements
The client was looking for candidates with one to three years of experience in creative coordination, content management, or eCommerce marketing.
Must-have requirements
The essential criteria included:
- Strong organizational and project-management skills
- The ability to manage several creative briefs and deadlines simultaneously
- Strong spoken English
- Clear communication with agencies, freelancers, and creators
- A good creative eye
- The ability to provide specific and practical feedback
- Experience with Google Drive and basic project-tracking tools
- Familiarity with Canva or similar creative platforms
- An understanding of UGC and creator culture
- Interest in TikTok, social media content, and emerging trends
- Comfort using AI tools for content ideation, drafts, and variations
- A proactive approach and strong sense of ownership
- The ability to work independently in a small, fast-moving company
Nice-to-have requirements
The client also valued:
- Previous agency-side experience
- A background in design, video editing, or photo editing
- Experience coordinating UGC campaigns
- Direct involvement in TikTok or Instagram creator campaigns
- Familiarity with Amazon product images, A+ Content, and advertising creatives
- Experience with AI-assisted content production
These additional skills were useful, but we did not want to exclude strong creative coordinators simply because they had not personally produced every type of asset included in the role.
Why the Search Was Challenging
The main difficulty was the combination of creative judgment and operational ownership.
A candidate could be highly organized but lack the creative awareness needed to review assets. Another person could be a talented designer but have limited experience coordinating workflows, external contributors, and several brands at once.
The successful candidate needed to combine:
Creative judgment + project coordination + communication + eCommerce understanding
The person also had to be comfortable joining a growing company where not every process had already been documented.
In practice, candidates needed to demonstrate that they could:
- Manage creative projects across four different brands
- Communicate effectively with an external agency
- Turn business objectives into clear creative briefs
- Review creative work and explain what needed to change
- Coordinate multiple projects without losing track of priorities
- Work with UGC creators and support creator outreach
- Understand the different content needs of Amazon and TikTok Shop
- Use AI tools to improve the speed of content ideation and production
- Build repeatable processes rather than wait for detailed instructions
The original scope also combined two different creative environments. Amazon required structured product, listing, and advertising assets, while TikTok Shop required a stronger focus on UGC, creators, social content, and fast-moving trends.
That distinction became increasingly important as the search progressed.
Our Recruitment Approach
We focused on candidates with experience in creative coordination, content management, eCommerce marketing, and agency environments.
Rather than searching only for one exact job title, we looked for evidence that candidates had already managed the work surrounding creative production: briefs, feedback, contributors, deadlines, approvals, and cross-functional communication.
Our sourcing channels included:
- The Talents Boutique internal candidate database
- Talents Boutique’s WhatsApp and Telegram professional communities
- Relevant job boards
The search concentrated on Eastern Europe and the Balkans, in line with the client’s preferred talent pool and working-time requirements.
During recruiter interviews, we assessed practical evidence of ownership:
- How did the candidate organize multiple creative requests?
- How did they decide which projects should take priority?
- What information did they include in creative briefs?
- How did they communicate revisions to designers or creators?
- Could they identify why a creative asset was not working?
- Had they coordinated freelancers, agencies, or content creators?
- How did they track deadlines and approval stages?
- Had they worked with Amazon, TikTok, UGC, or social content?
- Were they comfortable creating processes from scratch?
- How did they use AI tools in their work?
This helped us distinguish candidates who had participated in creative projects from those who could take responsibility for the workflow as a whole.
The Recruitment Funnel
|
Recruitment stage |
Result |
|
People who expressed interest |
148 |
|
Candidates interviewed by Talents Boutique |
7 |
|
Qualified candidates presented to the client |
6 |
|
Candidates hired |
2 |
|
Search duration |
Seven weeks |
|
Sourcing channels |
Internal database, LinkedIn, professional communities, and job boards |
The difference between initial interest and recruiter interviews reflects the specificity of the position. Many people were attracted to a creative role, but only a small number demonstrated the necessary combination of coordination, communication, creative judgment, and eCommerce experience.
The Result
Talents Boutique successfully hired two Creative Managers.
The original plan was to find one person who could gradually take ownership of the company’s complete creative function. During the recruitment process, the client recognized that the responsibilities fell into two distinct areas.
One specialist was hired to focus on the Amazon side, including product creative, agency coordination, briefs, and assets supporting the company’s Amazon brands.
The second specialist was hired to focus on the TikTok Shop side, including UGC, creators, TikTok content, social media, and the processes required to coordinate creator activity.
Both candidates demonstrated:
- Strong creative coordination skills
- Clear communication
- An organized approach to multiple projects
- Relevant eCommerce understanding
- The ability to take ownership of workflows
- Comfort working in an environment where processes were still being developed
Hiring two specialists allowed the client to align each candidate’s strengths with a focused area of responsibility. It also avoided expecting one person to manage Amazon creative, TikTok Shop, UGC, creator outreach, external agencies, and social media simultaneously.
The result was not simply two successful hires. It was a more practical structure for the company’s growing creative function.
What This Case Shows About Specialized Recruitment
A recruitment search can reveal that the original hiring brief needs to change.
In this case, the challenge was not merely finding a person with enough skills. The scope itself contained two different jobs.
Continuing to search for one candidate who could cover every responsibility would have made the profile unnecessarily rare and placed too much operational pressure on the eventual hire. The stronger decision was to separate the work into two focused positions.
The most important steps in this search were:
- Distinguishing creative execution from creative coordination
- Assessing ownership rather than relying on job titles
- Identifying the different requirements of Amazon and TikTok Shop
- Evaluating candidates’ ability to build processes
- Recognizing when one hiring brief should become two roles
- Matching each successful candidate with the area that best suited their strengths
Specialized recruitment is not only about finding candidates who match an existing description. Sometimes it means using the recruitment process to understand what the business actually needs to hire.
