Category Archives: management

web managers meet up: Comic Relief digital production

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I attended a Web Managers meet up recently (here’s the web managers linkedIn group). One of the speakers was Rae (@raepizer) who is Digital Production Manager at Comic Relief. She gave a quick run through how they work and some of the lovely stuff they’ve produced for this year’s Red Nose Day.

Rae’s talk was great and of one the things that stood out to me was the daily stats meeting across the teams. I’m definitely going to try to get this started for our peak campaign times at work.

Here’s my notes for anyone interested:

Digital staffing:

  • Digital Production Manager with a permanent team of around 12 front end digital staff including a Senior designer and Senior developer
  • Within the team they have a tech standards person who sets standards and guidelines and oversees them – they work with the separate broadcast team to get the right video format and convert etc
  • On top of these they can have up to 20 digital contractors at once
  • They work closely with other key separate teams; Back end and CRM, Donations and hosting platform, Marketing, and Broadcast team. (I think I lost some of the detail here so happy to take additions!)

How they operate:

  • During the campaign period they have daily stats meetings across the organisation to inform how they optimise and help them be reactive
  • They have a kids steering group for all the kids related areas
  • Audience segment breakdowns are based on TV programmes eg hollyoakers
  • This year they’re going to focus on facebook, twitter and YouTube – last year they did more but it wasn’t a good use of time vs effectiveness
  • Usability testing is done each year for each new site- they do one new design per year to keep up with drupal updates and build on learning from previous year
  • For their mobile site the design was done in-house but the build outsourced.

Their ‘products’:

  • Start in May for September school site launch – they also did a CD-Rom this year as research showed school technology was behind the times and this format was best for them
  • January is when they do the big new site launch -most years approximately 2 week before the official campaign launch
  • They generally put up four new website news articles a day
  • On the Red Nose Day site the most popular sections are the Shop then the Kids area
  • At its peak the donation pack form takes more donations per second than amazon.

great digital expectations – and tips on how to manage them

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Digital is easy. Isn’t it?

Thankfully there are lots of user friendly tools and websites out there these days. Of course they have their limits as to how flexible and extendable they are. Fortunately you don’t tend to hit the limits very often when you use these tools and websites in your personal life.

This creates an interesting challenge to those of us who have to manage expectations of how quick and easy it is to deliver digital activity in the workplace. I find myself having to manage unrealistic expectations which are founded from personal use of the web. Naturally there is also the opposite ‘technophobe’ end of the spectrum but this post isn’t about that – perhaps I’ll write about that another day.

Managing expectations is a tricky balancing act – you definitely want the enthusiasm not to be damaged while the realism comes to the fore. Here are a few of my personal tactics and tips for different situations:

  • Explain the gap between the vision and the reality
    • group requirements into lists of essential, desirable and nice to have and show which are met by the suggested approach (ideally also show this for a better alternative/s)
    • communicate the effort needed and be transparent about the choices –  where possible ask them to be a partner in choosing what is sacrificed or prioritised in resource allocation and/or requirements
  • Show the reality of the approach
    • do a walk through to show if something is limited or time consuming – show an alternative too
    • create a prototype which is as close as you can get to the requirements with the approach and an alternative – the gap should then be in plain sight
    • find examples of others already doing it and ask them for their experience. Where possible – visually point out the flaws / customisations / effort
  • Do a little bit of what’s being asked
    • where risk is low deliver a small part but quickly – proving one way or another whether its worth investing more
    • when you think it’s possibly very expensive or time consuming but this isn’t changing views – get a quote from an agency – it’ll either be acceptable or support your hesitation

ways of working with your IT team (and avoiding conflict)

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There’s always at least a little bit of tension between IT and digital comms teams. They both strive for the greater good but generally have a different view of what that means. The IT team care about security, stability and sustainability. And I’m very pleased they do as a flaky network and lack of email can kill a digital strategy before its started!

A digital comms team thrives on agile, agnostic, use of new technology – having a quick turn around that takes advantage of the current wave of interest. Unfortunately this doesn’t always go down that well with the steady and sturdy IT folk. However I wouldn’t advocate uprooting and going alone.

I’ve worked in a number of models – digital tech completely outsourced, digital development outsourced and hosting in house, and currently a mix of digital tech inhouse and outsourced across the piece. So far the last model has been the most effective event though it’s resulted in more tension and complexity at times.

Why do I think this?

  • The tech side can be a time consuming distraction.
    You can delegate the maintenance stuff and get on with the new bits. If you’re in digital comms your priority should be the user experience and the comms itself – not fixing a compatibility issue that arises when a new browser is released.
  • Being too close to the tech can mean you don’t challenge it.
    It’s a lot easier to push for the next piece of functionality when your head isn’t completely buried in all the intricacies and complexities of the technology.
  • Managing integration to back office systems isn’t digital.
    When your website talks to your back office systems its very easy to get drawn into working on the integration and development of those systems. This just isn’t a good use of your time nor skills. It is a good use of IT skills – its one of the things they’re employed for.
  • Having a different perspective is healthy.
    ‘IT brains’ are often different to ‘comms brains’, together (either across individuals or within the same person) you end up with the right questions, checks and balances that result in a better more future proof result.

Unfortunately there isn’t a trick to making the model work comfortably. A two way balance of trust, defining boundaries, respecting skills, and spending time to build the partnership are all key to ensuring you get the best out of any joint working.

fluffing your lines – project management at its best

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Recently I was reminded of the performers principle of carrying on regardless even if you fluff your lines. This being based on the knowledge that no-one apart from a few knew what was supposed to happen in the first place and so, in most cases, the majority will assume the reality of what happened was planned.

I think it’s useful to bear this in mind when a project isn’t quite going to plan. There are so many times when the only option held as acceptable is the ideal. But true project management principles recognise what the lowest possible acceptable state is, as well as the highest.

Now don’t get me wrong, as a client to an agency, I always shoot for the moon. I see it as my personal responsibility that the charity gets the best for every pound we spend. I owe it to every tin shaker who has volunteered (and all the other supporters too), as well as every beneficiary who needs the charity.

However the principle of ‘fluffing your lines’ and still getting a round of applause is very helpful to keep to mind when times are looking gloomy. The other positive is that phasing new features in gives you something else to talk about after the initial big bang!

tips on working with digital agencies – choosing the right agency

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I often get asked about how I work with digital agencies to get the best from them or to cope with any issues that may have arisen. I don’t think there is a single model you can use as it really depends on the agency and the people (both yours and theirs). It obviously all starts at the point of appointing the agency.

I’m sure there are articles out there that suggest a specific criteria or questions you can use when making your agency choice (unfortunately links to any have escaped me today so please drop a link in my comments!). Yet it really starts at a slightly higher level – at the point just before you decide which agency/s to approach. So here are my thoughts…

You can typically categorise digital agencies along a spectrum, some agencies are very transparent about their focus but others will advertise themselves simply as full service. If you can identify where an agency sits along the spectrum it really helps you know if they’d be a good fit for your project. It also helps guide you on how best to manage them later on.

The ends of the spectrum

Creative (Form / aesthetic) driven

  • Great at beautiful and innovative ideas and design
  • Low/loose project management
  • Flexible and adaptable
  • Less likely to hit a deadline comfortably

Technical (Function) driven

  • Great at dealing with complex functionality or infrastructure
  • High/structured project management
  • Process driven and less adaptable
  • More likely to hit a deadline on time

Key questions I ask myself when deciding who to approach: does success focus on function or form? and how flexible is the deadline?

Does this spectrum idea work for you? Have you got an idea of where your agency/s sit?