If You Want it Done Right ...

By John Dowsett

If you want it done right, do it yourself. After racking my brain, the only thing I can come up with that fits this adage is raising children. Even this is questionable. How would a child develop without teachers, coaches, family and mentors?

In the communications field we need the input of everybody on the team. We rely on it. In our case, our clients know their clients, we can't presume to come near to their level of knowledge, but we must understand it. We need somebody to ask the right questions to determine the need and direction. This person has to have the ability to communicate in layman's terms, but also be well grounded in the technical aspects of the multiple forms of media (web, video, print, audio, etc). Add to this that the target could be marketing, training or internal communication and the talent pool dwindles even further.

Like an onion, there are layers upon layers of talent needed to focus on each area. They are all connected. As an example, what follows is a typical web site development production that we are currently working on. The tasks follow:

• Inquisitor - Meet with client to determine objectives
• Inquisitor - Determine scope of work to define time lines and budget
• Inquisitor - How to position the client's company to distinquish it from the competition
• Creative Director, Producer - Develop approach and alternative approaches
• Creative Director - Define Scope of work
• Inquisitor, Creative Director - Develop an appropriate budget
• Production Manager, Creative Director, Producer - Define team
• Production Manager - Define timelines with milestones
• Production Manager - Define Collaboration of the team
• Production Manager - Manage the team
• Creative Director - Develop Wireframes and Storyboards
• Creative Director - Develop Design Mockups
• Producer - Ongoing communication with client
• Producer, Production Manager - Handle and schedule Change Requests
• Graphic Designer - Content
• Writer - Content
• Video Production Team - Content
• Programmer - Configure Hosting
• Programmer - Setup Content Management Systen and Database
• Programmer - Build site within current browser and server guidelines
• Production Manager - Quality Assurance
• Producer - Client Training

All of these tasks cannot be done by one person. There are many reasons for this, the most glaring is that for each of the team to keep up to date, or educated in the individual fields would be an impossibility. Each of these members has their own support contacts, or community to support.

This is not to say that multiple tasks cannot be completed by one person, but one cannot do all of them. All our team has some general knowledge and or capability in every role, but we cannot be experts in more than a few.

Make sure whoever is doing communications work are professionals. In the long run not only will it save you money, headaches and time but you will end up with a superior product. Make sure their resources run deep. Ask testing questions. When you find a good supplier, stick with them, but test them randomly. Many of our clients do this, and we appreciate it.

The adage of "If you want it done right, do it yourself" simply does not work in the production of media. To further drive home the point, it took three people to write this entry.

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