[IxDA Discuss] Producer, Strategist, Experience Lead

[Trip O'Dell]

You've pretty much described my job description as well. Although my  
company designs interactives for physical environments using game  
technologies and sensor systems - not as much on the web side.  My  
responsibilities include sales, strategy, conceptualization,  
discovery, technical and creative management, client, project and  
team management. My title is Creative Director. I think the  
distinction between interaction/usability and "design" or aesthetics  
is a false dichotomy - its all about a cohesive experience - which in  
my mind is design. You could come up with many web-bubbley titles for  
the position - "experience architect", "interactionist", "VP of Cool"  
- whatever - I like creative director because is ambiguous enough to  
encompass a number of hats, and conventional enough to avoid client  
eye rolls.

I have a producer on my team that helps me to manage some of the  
project details, but for the most part, its all on me. It is a lot to  
put on one person, but in my experience, its not optimal to silo work  
on an interactive into distinct disciplines. Someone has to own the  
grand vision.

Trip

On May 1, 2007, at 8:53 AM, Mark Green wrote:

> There was an interesting discussion last week about a job posting
> from our company, Wechsler. But I was traveling and unable to respond.
>
> We're a fairly small team and the Producer role developed
> organically. That person takes charge of the project and all direct
> contact with the client from kickoff to launch. He or she handles
> most of the discovery/strategy/IA phase, and then directs editors,
> designers and site builders to complete the project. The direction of
> these professionals is more in terms of usability and adherence to
> strategy than dictating aesthetics. When prompted, I tell people that
> I'm a combination project manager, IA and web strategist.
>
> Upsides of this structure: it's efficient and the project benefits
> from a unified direction. Downsides: it is a lot to ask of one person
> and more voices in the strategy phase could help (although there are
> usually plenty of voices :)).
>
> I'm most curious if people feel there is an emerging standard
> structure for how interactive projects are handled and what the
> "standard" roles are. I also wonder if there's a better title for our
> "Producer" role. We've talked about Web Strategist and Interactive  
> Lead.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark Green
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