Creative Operations Consultant

WHAT PROBLEM WERE WE TRYING TO SOLVE?

Verizon Wireless hired me to solve an interesting problem: “How do we transform our internal production team into an in-house agency?” They had a talented team of visual designers, UX & UI designers, copywriters, and project managers. They also had a record of outperforming the company’s agencies of record. There was a strong argument they were cheaper, faster, and better than the competition, but they weren’t yet operationally organized to start competing in earnest. They needed help creating a foundation, transitioning, and repositioning themselves while managing and executing their current workload.

PHASE 1 – DISCOVERY

The primary objective of the discovery process was to compare the current production model's roles, responsibilities, processes, operations, and relationships to an agency model.

The significant difference between a production house and an agency is how their clients perceive them. Agencies are viewed as strategic partners; they help clients solve business problems and have more innovative, more talented resources. More prominent agencies have internal production capabilities and will try to capture that business, creating more competition.

The Discovery process included stakeholder interviews, gathering and analyzing the existing processes and tools, team structure and people’s roles and responsibilities, the work the team created, and expectations of the existing model.

USER INTERVIEWS

The interview format was very casual. I asked each participant what a typical day was like, their process for getting their work done, and if they saw any areas for improvement. Each interview was slightly different because everyone’s experience was different. The interviewees provided me with process documentation; they discussed the tools currently being used and their opinions about the team’s relationships with other stakeholders.

•     20 Formal interviews

•     15 Team members (UX, Graphic Design - UI, & Project Management)

•     5 Stakeholders (Senior Leadership, ISO team members in other departments)

EXISTING DOCUMENTS

During the interview process, I gathered and analyzed ~40 documents. All members of the team interviewed submitted work from that month.

PROJECT LIFECYCLE

I created a map of a typical project lifecycle and used the map to flag issues and successes as I found them. I’ve listed one example below the map.

01 - PROJECT INITIATION

The team used a work-order type of process. The briefing materials and steps that followed reflected this. The team had evolved beyond this type of work, so the brief and subsequent steps were lacking when working on strategic projects. Wording on the Brief leads the stakeholder to submit and solve the creative problem, limiting the innovative solutions the team could provide. The language used on process documentation was Site-centric vs. User-centric, which caused teams to meet more often to clarify meaning and intent.

I proposed creative-specific briefs for different types of work and implemented them into the project initiation part of the process.

PHASE 2 – Documentation

I spent a month documenting my findings. Please get in touch with me if you’d like to see a copy of that document. This case study includes many of the elements in that document.

PHASE 3 – DEFINE

This phase was defining what the team wanted the agency to look like. I created a vision-based framework with the intent of another round of interviews with team leadership and stakeholders. The framework is below, but the project was put on hold indefinitely after a company-wide reorganization.

VISION-BASED FRAMEWORK

DEFINE WHO YOU ARE

• your “reason for being,” vision, and aspirational mission with business and team objectives (see the Vision-Based Framework)

DEFINE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

• carefully consider how you refer to the people whose lines of business you support

DEVELOP YOUR TEAM CHARTER

• define your organizational model with roles, responsibilities, and interdependencies and a summary of operating practices

BUSINESS MODEL OPTIONS

work was paid out of departmental budgets. All the work appeared to be one line item with one price, regardless of the effort or resources used.

I proposed using a Chargeback model, which is about running a creative services department most efficiently to maximize Verizon’s profits. Several in-house agencies recommended this. I provided the benefits, different options for billing clients, and recommendations for communicating the changes once they decided what was best for them:

CHARGE-BACK BENEFITS

• Increased awareness of how much it really costs to do creative projects—

• Recognition of the value of an internal group compared to outside agencies—not just the cost, but things like brand knowledge and quick turnaround

• Increased efficiencies by reducing endless rounds of revision

• Increase resource flexibility—it’s much easier to add staff to meet demand

• Clients are less likely to misuse your department

CHARGE-BACK implementation

• Develop a change management communication plan

• Work with finance and define your model before you start. 

• Theoretically a Charge-back model should decrease allocated costs to each business unit and free up funds for new creative services services

• Track charges very carefully, evaluate your chargeback strategy for accuracy, and then fine tune your model.

CHARGE-BACK OPTIONS

• Fixed hourly rate

  • Bill each resource individually at their respective rates*

  • Average hourly rate for pool of resources –blended rate*

  • Rates based on job function

• Fixed project fees

  • Need a price list of different types of project, does one exist?

• The business funds a percentage of in-house team

• Retainer 

  • Paid in advance of work, reconciled monthly

• Fixed fee

  • Billed a fixed amount monthly for agreed upon services*

• Time and Materials

  • Client is charged after a project is done based on accurate, daily employee time sheets*

PHASE 4 – Create & execute A plan

I laid out another framework to start the transition from a production model to an agency model:

1. DEFINE LONG & SHORT-TERM GOALS

2. HAVE CLEAR ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

3. MAKE SURE THE NEW GOALS CAN BE MEASURED BY LEADERSHIP

4. ESTABLISH MILESTONES WITH DATES FOR COMPLETION

My manager and I didn’t get to create the plan. The project went on hold for over a month when Diego Scotti was hired as the new CMO of Verizon Wireless. Then, the project was canceled by the department head.