[webproducers] Re: What's in a name... Producer - Project Manager
- From: Tony Zeoli <tonyzeoli@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: webproducers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:09:48 -0400
Morry,
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Producers have Project
Management experience, but they play a more "creative" role in the daily
content production of web, mobile, gaming, photo, video, music and other
interactive or non-interactive content for ingestion by an audience.
Straight PM's, in my experience, play very little, if any role in the
creative production of content. While they manage the production process and
report back upwards to senior management in terms of time lines, logistics
and other scheduling and resource management responsibilities, my perception
is that PM's are gifted at organization, not production.
There may be some PM's who argue that they are gifted creatively, and maybe
they are, but I argue that is not their core responsibility. And, that's why
we have "Producers," who can PM, but lend their creative and stylistic
sensibilities to a "production." However, Producers, I believe are not
naturally Project Managers. They understand how to organize, but they are
not necessarily using the project managers tool set or taxonomy to drive a
project from concept to completion.
In my experience, a Producer reports into a Project manager, or they work in
parallel. An Executive Producer and Director of Project Management play
vastly different roles in the end game.
Now, I've seen so many companies create a "Program Manager" position, where
you are responsible for both the production and project management of a
project. That tends to be on the web side or things, but I haven't yet heard
about Program Management in traditional audio or video production
environments. I see Program Management more of an interactive role, where
you understand and can implement three key responsibilities: Product
Development, Project Management and Production of content. Whereas you may
start along the road of producing some content into the environment along
with the assigned producers, but your not playing a daily production role
after the application or production has launched.
What irks me, is that these roles are mashed up all the time. I'd like to
see HR and hiring managers stick to a defined set or responsibilities, but
in this economy, they want you to be a jack of all trades and master of all
trades, instead of master of none.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen jobs posted for Producer who needs
to have experience programming php, xhtml and css, as well as implementing
JQuery, JSon, Flash, Flex, asp, jsp, and the list goes on. They try to cram
every type of experience into one role. I think it's tragic and takes away
from the product. Sometimes, it's great to have people who know everything,
but if you lose that person, you've depended to much on one individual. In
addition, one person can only know so much. Whatever happened to
"collaborative environments," I don't know. In my current position, I play
PM, PD, Producer, IA and UxD. It's way too much, but it's my job...I have to
do it, I guess. Well, I don't have too, but you get the point. If I didn't,
where would we be. We have PM's, but sometimes they have me so immersed in a
project, the PM's are afraid to step in and take control.
Anyway, enough about me, lol. I'm just saying, as this industry continues to
evolved, the mash-up continues to be defined by non-experts, and there's
little ability to push back on those definitions, unless your organization
(like WebProducers.org) has the power, visibility and perseverance to define
and standardize the Producer role. I don't know how necessary that is today,
or unnecessary, but it's a thought.
- - - -
Best regards,
*Tony Zeoli, Founder*
Netmix.com
m: 917 705 4700
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On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 6:25 PM, Morry Galonoy <morry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Ok so to get back on topic I thought it might be a good time to
> address the differences between being a "producer" and a "project
> manager".
>
> This has come up a few times recently on the lis and I thought it
> might be a good chance to have an open discussion on the topic. While
> some places have specific roles and responsibilities for those working
> as a producer vs a project manager there doesn't seem to be any iron
> clad definition or standard. When I started this group people were
> using both terms and we even did a survey at one point and producer
> was the most preferred title.
>
> Here's what we say on the website: "Web Producers Organization (WPO)
> is a professional organization created to support producers and
> project managers, of interactive and web-based media. Our titles are
> varied and often ambiguous* but if you?re responsible for managing
> interactive projects we?re you?re community. Our aim is to be your
> connection to the industry and other professionals and help you get
> your job done better, smarter, and more efficiently. (*producer,
> interactive project manager, team lead, consultant, web manager)"
>
> So let's have an open discussion about this with the understanding
> that there is no set definition and that the role varies. That said it
> would be interesting to see how you define producer vs. project
> manager. What are the similarities and differences in your
> organization if any?
>
>
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