Process Optimization

About the Killer Ops series: 

How can creative teams increase their value proposition? Is it possible to manage Creative Ops like a startup? Following the entrepreneurial model of Product Development, creative teams – and organizations – can develop a framework for continuous innovation, improved operations, and greater success.

What This Is: User personas are composite profiles that represent clusters of users. 

Why it Matters: Personas humanize the key themes across our creative work group, while stripping out the distraction of real identities. Personas capture the needs and behaviors of the people in our team, and also help inform your department direction and strategy.

[Read more…] about Creative Ops and the Power of Personas

About the Killer Ops series: 

How can creative teams increase their Value Proposition? How can they become better strategic partners in the organization? Following the entrepreneurial model of Product Development, creative teams – and organizations – can learn to think and act like a startup, to develop a framework for continuous innovation, improved operations, and greater success.

What’s Special About External Interviews? We’re getting the expert views of people outside our business workplaces.

Why External Interviews Matter An outside perspective will help give us context, inspiration, and confidence.

[Read more…] about A Farther Look: Get Out of the Building

About the Killer Ops series: 

How can creative teams increase their value proposition? Is it possible to manage Creative Ops like a startup? Following the entrepreneurial model of Product Development, creative teams – and organizations – can develop a framework for continuous innovation, improved operations, and greater success.

What’s Special About Internal Interviews? The focus is inward — a deep dive with your team and people from the groups you serve and support.

Why Internal Interviews Matter These help us get a clearer picture of our team’s workflow, environment and needs.

[Read more…] about A Closer Look: Talk to Your Staff

About the Killer Ops series: 

How can creative teams increase their Value Proposition? How can they become better strategic partners in the organization? Following the model of Product Development, creative teams – and organizations – can learn to think and act like a startup, and develop a framework for continuous innovation, improved operations, and greater success.

What is a MVP? Validating an idea by identifying the smallest things that could be done to get results.

Why it Matters By starting small you test your ideas, as well as gain momentum, experience and credibility in your quest to make a bigger difference.

[Read more…] about Killer Ops: Minimum Viable Product?

About the Killer Ops series: 

How can creative teams increase their Value Proposition? How can they become better strategic partners in the organization? Following the entrepreneurial model of Product Development, creative teams – and organizations – can learn to think and act like a startup, to develop a framework for continuous innovation, improved operations, and greater success.

What’s the Business Model Canvas? The Canvas is a one-page template that lays out both what you do, and how you go about doing it. It documents existing business models — or helps develop new ones — and provides a framework for you to design, challenge, invent, and change.

Why it Matters The canvas forces you to distill everything you do down to its essence — and create a document that visually explains it. The template works for businesses and start-ups, and also for teams and departments within larger organizations.

[Read more…] about Killer Ops: Business Model for Creative Operations

How can creative teams increase their Value Proposition? How can they become better strategic partners in the organization? Following the entrepreneurial model of Product Development, creative teams – and organizations – can learn to think and act like a startup, to develop a framework for continuous innovation, improved operations, and greater success.

About the Killer Ops series:

What’s SWOT?: SWOT analysis is a framework for doing research and formulating a business strategy. It analyzes strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and can be applied to existing businesses, teams and departments, and new business ideas.

Why it Matters: This is essential for developing your group’s Value Proposition. Insights from your internal research are synthesized to map ways to improve operations, use resources more efficiently, and anticipate risks to your group and its success.

[Read more…] about Creative Ops & SWOT Analysis