MDW Boulder April '11 | Matt Howell_New Teams and Process for Making Digital Work

BOULDER DIGITAL WORKSPROCESS AND STRUCTURE

Thursday, April 28, 2011

2

Mayhem on Madison Ave Don Draper’s Revenge

or


3

What I believe:

Whether we like it or not, advertising agencies are getting into the software business.


4

“It is much better to have a smaller share of an exploding industry versus a growing share in a declining industry.”

- Rishad Tobaccowalla, 4A’s Conference

By no means are traditional channels going away, but...


5

My experience:

Then: small Now: big


6

The challenge:

How can we transition teams, processes and cultures that have for 50+ years, been focused on producing one thing, very quickly get good at producing something entirely different. Without ruining what’s already in place.


Thinking about process and structure.

The work.

The people needed to build the work.

The process through which the work is realized.


1: The work.


What we’re making is different than it was 18 months ago.


Yahoo’s Duncan Watts, in his “influencers” research, used a lighting many fires analogy that points to the fact that digital media drives cumulative advantage. He suggests brands are better off “placing lots of bets to give the best chance of starting a full forest fire - lots of fires in lots of promising places.”

The cost efficiencies of digital media allow marketers to hedge bets and not bet the farm on one thing - make ten and see what takes.

For starters, we’re making a lot more stuff.


Bet it all on a couple :30’s.

Grow through volume / diversity.

A new metaphor.



1. Our work is now more varied.


http://vimeo.com/4238052














































http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK59Beq0Sew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK59Beq0Sew

http://www.youtube.com/user/OldSpice























http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fte5VQ44W5Q























Diversity breeds sustained activity:steady levels of awareness, conversation, advocacy

Campaign in market:increased awareness, conversation, advocacy

Put more out there, more frequently.

TraditionalCycle

DistributedCycle

Campaign goes dark:conversation volume drops markedly


Digital work is typically the product of a very large number of small but important decisions carried out across a quick, iterative development process.

2. Our work is also more complex.


Project Teams

Agency / Client Leadership

CD’sAD’s

GADCCO

AE’sAD’s / CW’sProducersProject ManagersSupport Staff

Account / Client Leadership

Hierarchal structure incompatible with this process.

time


2: The people needed to make the work.


The work itself is materially different, and those differences should be reflected in the composition of the teams.

Procurement groups ask that we create more work for less money.

Two big, recent influences on the way we staff.


A simple fact.

Maintaining the same team structure + process while expecting a markedly different work outcome, is, well, crazy.


Shift team composition to focus on making.

IASAS

IAEAE AE AE

AD

IP BPT

Interactive A.M.

Account Leader

IP IP IP EP

AD AccountLead

Account Management

BP

fig. 1 fig. 2

Producers

DUX

User Experience

Developer

P

EEditor / Motion

Graphics

Lead Planner

P LeadPlanner

Int. Prod Traffic Broadcast Producer

SM

Social Media Manager

EP

Event Prod.


Becoming nimble by flattening and creating groups.

Team 1 Team 2 Team 3

x-disciplinary leadership team

Hierarchical Org StructureTeams work with greater autonomy / accountability


Knowledge across disciplines

Core discipline expertise

Rebuilding teams around a new building block.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/95/design-strategy.html?page=0%2C1


The T-shaped team.

Goal: Be brutally reductive. Strip team to its essential components, add only when necessary. Bigger = worse.

Creative Technology Production UX

2


The T-shaped team.

Concept /Design + Tone

ImplementationProject / ClientManagement

Functionality /User Interaction

Creative Technology Production UX

2


A wrinkle: diversity of new work is blurs ownership.

Narrative-driven ARG lead by creative team. Community + tool based service lead by UX and Social teams.


3: The process through which the work is realized.


Bloated teams = slow, waste of time.

Poorly designed teams.


Poorly designed physical environments.

Use co-location / technology to mediate gaps.


Email volume = communications breakdown = trouble.

Poor substitutions for collaboration.


Process must work for you, not vice versa.

Restrictive processes that will suffocate creativity.


Bespoke process, accept variance + risk

Applying the appropriate process to a project.

Replication, minimization of risk, error


Small, empowered teams.Tight co-location.Deep, informal client participation.Minimal, flexible, iterative process.Embrace the unexpected, anticipate change.


A traditional proxy for digital process.

The shoot.

But imagine if the shoot lasted three months instead of two days.


You can change your culture through work.


Above all. Try new shit. Fiddle with new things. All the time.

No one has this figured out.

Shift burden from proving why you should experiment to why you shouldn’t.

Doing nothing is going to put you behind.


BOULDER DIGITAL WORKSTHANK YOU


MDW Boulder April '11 | Matt Howell_New Teams and Process for Making Digital Work

Documents

diversity of new work

different work outcome

creative team

team structure

strip team

iterative process

social teams

designed teams