STUDIO DESIGN PART 2 (Quick Read Version)
STUDIO DESIGN AND BRAND STORY PART 2
We have years of tested Office Design and established conventions to draw from but these don't map easily to the new phenomenon of Content Creation Studios.
In the boom period to launch in-house studios brands had no choice but to borrow design ideas from :
warehouse and retail
production line process
commercial rental photography studios
e-com was an unknown gamble, little money was pushed into real design or team planning for growth. Many of the successful early pioneers became the blueprint to copy. As the pioneers moved on, refining and growing, other brands became stuck in outdated models of working.
Example of a chaotic legacy org chart with confused reporting lines and owners
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
As Brands launched small studios shooting simple content any image was able to convert sales. With phenomenal organic growth, super basic process flows became embedded. Org charts were quickly created for small studio operations but soon presented real obstructions when scaled for larger teams/multiple studios.
THE BURDEN OF HISTORICAL LEGACY
Studios were built from compromised ad-hoc space, taken from another team. The success of basic operations impacted how some Senior Managers view the studio. This led to overestimating the positive impact of small changes (in location, headcount and facilities). A backwards looking mindset can poison a brand for years.
Without proper strategic planning a familiar cycle of disappointment in the studio content begins, followed by low engagement and high team turnover. This will only increase if creative content decisions make more demands of a studio without increasing spatial and resource requirements.
COMPARISONS WITH OUTSOURCE CONTENT CAN BE UNHELPFUL
Third party studios studios can :
pivot quickly,
deal with complexity
charge a premium
act outside of a large integrated structure,
leverage targets against freelance talent
utilise dedicated Workflow tools
No in-house studio will produce the same results without increasing its autonomy (inc budget/headcount).
ORGANIC GROWTH SHAPES DESIGN
In the e-com explosion, organic growth was the dominant factor in studio design. Many brands remain caught in the organic growth stage.
Both organic growth and strategic growth studios can flourish, but organic will feel hectic and uncertain, show high turnover and peaks of engagement/disengagement. Career progression may also be limited.
Organic growth success can hide many long term problems :
Short term / quick fix solutions become the Final Process
Localised knowledge in teams becomes dominant
Team members stagnate in roles without progression
Over reliance on individuals as problem solvers
All these factors impact scalability, onboarding of new team, confidence in systems, retention, cost, innovation, belief in Managers, ability to define daily success.
ORGANIC GROWTH MUST GIVE WAY TO STRATEGIC GROWTH
Strategic growth planning enables :
Modular studio sets
Purposeful workflow tools
Suitable headcount
Plans for growth
Future proofing technology
Testing
AM I IN AN ORGANIC GROWTH STUDIO ?
Yes if :
Studio is a reactive space, always trying to respond to new demands and changes.
Current software workflow consists of in-house developed tools that primarily have other uses.
Product cycles in batches through the physical studio space creating peaks, backlog and bottleneck.
At the start of each day you are unclear what success looks like.
STRATEGIC GROWTH STUDIOS WILL ALWAYS ASK
is this scalable ?
do we know how to define success ?
can we create standards others can follow ?
what are the up/downstream impacts of new process ?
what will it cost and how do we test it ?
what was the feedback on the test ?
who owns this, who does it impact ?
UNIQUE SPACES
In-house Content Creation, requires unique spaces, combining users of differing needs
Production teams and batching (manual movement and desk based)
Creative teams and Freelance talent (creative/emotional needs/product access)
Ops and Copy or Post roles (desk based/product access/visual spatial indicators)
Entry level Product positions (manual movement/clear systems)
These present challenges of spatial harmony and process design.
To produce truly engaging content, studio teams need
to thrive/feel valued.
communicate effectively via shared software tools
processes that consider daily spatial impact.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
As brands grow in the digital space the customer desires to interact more with a brand and its content. Many in-house studios still exhibit symptoms of organic growth process as they try to elevate content creation, but they pursue goals hugely different from when their studio launched.
WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
Content creation will become more diverse.
The PDP experience will blur
Increased intake of user content (seamless experience)
Increased intake of third party content (seamless experience)
New or enhanced experiences of Video, VR and AR
Basic Video such as catwalk/walk on-off will no longer be effective
Studios must easily produce multi-channel output at same source
Live content engagement will be key
Content Creation studios must help build a fully formed experiential customer interaction.
This requires seamless process flows.
Brands should view Studios as dynamic, fluid, responsive spaces (built on process)
Put the customer and core community at the heart of the story
Localised tribal knowledge will need to move to User intuitive app use.
A ‘content creating customer’ will value user systems that map a familiar path between brand studios
IN SUMMARY
After organic growth it is strategic growth that must kick in and planning is key. Studios and the processes within should be designed, tested and fit for purpose (an ongoing process). This will help teams achieve scale and future stretch goals. Reactive studios are stressful, costly, have high turnover, rely heavily on key people at high risk, and make it hard to maintain internal customer relationships.