I’ve been producing and making digital for a long time now (almost as long as the industry is old), and though the ecosystem, language, process, and tools have wildly evolved, the fundamentals are still the fundamentals. There’s no replacement for great talent or training, but in my experience, the less than perfect and over-budget work is generally a result of basic leadership and communication failures. The seemingly simple but very hard to execute things, even for the smartest of people. Below are some straightforward but often over-looked leadership and communication tactics and tools that I’ve learned and used over the years to a positive effect. I hope they’re helpful for the digital project leaders and producers out there.
 
1. Create team: It still shocks me when people don’t know each other on a project team weeks into development. Introduce yourself. Make sure that everyone knows each other. And take it a step further. Have lunch together. Go get a beer. Go bowling. Learn to communicate with one another in less than stressful situations. Things get difficult when you’re pushing the envelope creatively and inventing something from scratch. It will make problem-solving together all that much easier if there’s already good relationships in place.
 
2. Say no to bloat: This isn’t such a tricky thing when you’re at a small company. But when you get bigger, there often seems to be too many people in the room. During the initial project kick-off, don’t let anyone leave until you’ve identified your core project team. It shouldn’t be more than six people (generally, UX, tech, creative, production/project management, and a business type). There may be points in the project where you need to bring in other stakeholders, such as media planners, SEO, QA, and metrics analysts, and other creative leaders. But most of the time, fight size. My rule is that if someone isn’t actively contributing to the conversation, they probably don’t need to be there. Set the ground rules early and take your own notes. Speed is everything. The bigger you are, the harder it is to move.
 
3. Use printed checklists: Documentation is never a cure all, but there’s a pretty good reason why pilots use things like pre-flight checklists. They save lives. At CP+B, we use them across departments, and the Integrated Production department has a particularly great big and awesome looking one (doesn’t get lost in desk clutter) that I’ve written about and made available to all. If you use ours, I can’t guarantee it will save every project. But it will certainly help. Tools like Ta-da list are also effective, but there’s something about committing things to paper for certain tasks. It’s a physical and felt action. And in a world where most aspects of our work lives are now digital and connected, it’s good to keep some things as unwired as possible. They stand out. You remember them differently.
 
4. Meet often and smartly: Jason Fried of 37 Signals believes “meetings are toxic.” They certainly can be if not managed and led correctly (I’ve been to plenty of them), but I find that 15-minute daily stand-up or status meetings with your team are absolutely necessary. They keep people on task, create forums for self-expression, learning, and debate, and re-enforce the idea that everyone is in it together. Bad shit happens when silos develop. They need to be broken down every single day.

5. Work for the idea, not the person: If you’re worried about upsetting people, you won’t be able to lead a project successfully. Great project leaders work for the idea. They do what is right for the work, not an individual’s ego. Sometimes the right decision for the project may not be popular with a team member. But that’s just how it goes. The job of a producer is to make the work as great as it can possibly be, while also staying on time and budget. It’s always a juggling act, and if you work at a place where the premium is put on creative excellence, things will get tense. But that’s the nature of things. Don’t get rattled if tempers flare. That’s normal. Stay the course, positive and committed to doing the best work possible. The best producers I’ve ever known are the ones that are more passionate about the ideas than the people that came up with them. Work with more passion and conviction than anyone on the team, and it sends a good message. It builds trust and inspires everyone around you. And it makes it easier to deliver the news people don’t want to hear.

6. Buy a little respect: Don’t let anyone tell you money can’t buy respect. Donuts, bagels, pizza, cookouts, and beer go a long freaking way. Show your team appreciation for hard and smart work when its deserved, and they’ll show you and the project some right back. More than anything, creative people want respect in the work place. Motivation through respect rarely fails with the people you really want to reach. And to be successful, you need a highly motivated team. The project needs to become more mission than job. Get people stoked to work with you and on the project.

7. Where there’s in-decision, make decisions: Meetings can lose direction and quickly become a waste of everyone’s time. In my experience, it tends to happens most often when there’s a hard decision to make that the group can’t get past. Be the person who moves things forward. Get the team to make a decision. Constant momentum is the path to success. If you have to, steer the team back to the smaller stuff. The things that can be decided more quickly. Victories inspire confidence. And when you get into a rhythm, the bigger questions seem more manageable.
 
8. Don’t make fake estimates:. You have a treatment for a big, inventive, and difficult to execute idea on your desk. You only have a few weeks to do it. The client wants the estimate yesterday. You’re feeling the pressure from all sides. You rush to get your estimate done without fully thinking through the creative and technical requirements with your team. This is a really good way to set yourself on a path to launch something that’s broken, late, and over-budget. Sure when you’re inventing in digital you don’t know exactly what you’re building until it’s functional, but it’s absolutely necessary to take as many questions out of the process upfront as possible. Paper prototype, sketch, rapid prototype. Do whatever you need to do to get a good idea of what you’re building. The first 15% of production is the most critical part of the process. If you don’t have time to properly scope and plan, then the schedule is already blown. Start again. First try to see if you can cut back the concept without sacrificing the core of the experience. If that doesn’t work, do something else. I often compare making big digital to building skyscrapers. If you screw up the plans and don’t catch the mistakes before construction begins, you’re going to have some major financial problem on your hands. Digital is not as different as you’d think. It may be easier to fix most things, but it still takes time and money, particularly as you get deeper into software development. Be agile and solutions-oriented, but defend the integrity of the scoping and planning process, always.

9. Get mad at problems not people: Inventing stuff on tight timelines and striving to always be the best is really hard. People are going to screw up, and if you really care, you’re going to lose your cool. And that’s ok. Yell at the problem, not the person that may have caused it. It turns it into a rallying point rather than a character assassination. Those are tough for people to recover from. Getting mad at the problem allows you to work through the issue collaboratively with the person and creates an opportunity to inspire confidence in them. This is something Alex Bogusky taught me a few years back. A really great leadership technique.
 
10. Please and thank you: Guy Kawasaki covers themes such as this in his new book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, and it’s importance in life and the workplace cannot be overlooked. It’s a huge deal. Respect is an unbelievably powerful motivator, as I noted above. Say please and thank you, please.
 
11. Take notes religiously and message out: Note taking is an undervalued skill. It can make or break a project. It doesn’t matter if you do it digitally or on paper. Just be thorough. And most importantly, get the key action items and decisions out to the team quickly and concisely. People don’t read long emails. It’s a fact. Brevity is crucial. So is making your communications easy to read. Design your emails. Use colors and bold text. Make them mobile friendly. And be redundant. Post the notes in Basecamp, send in email, and make print outs. Your team should know what the key priorities are all the time.
 
12. Don’t manage through email: Email is still a powerful communication tool. As much as it’s a drag and stressor, I still use it for most of my significant communications. However don’t rely on it to manage your projects. Get off your ass and go sit with your team. Leading people is a physical commitment. If people are working remotely, get on Skype. We’re using the multi-chat feature a lot these days. Face time makes a world of difference.

Make sure your people have the right technical chops and latest and greatest tools to do the job. But don’t forget the basics. The best coaches I’ve had always made sure that the fundamentals were practiced every day. I’ve found it to be a pretty smart approach.