The E-commerce Content Creation Podcast

Summary

In this episode Daniel is joined by Larry Gerrard, studio leader at Gymshark. If you have a pulse and are active at all on Social Media, we're certain that you’ve heard of Gymshark. An absolute favorite brand amongst fitness influencers, Gymshark has experienced incredible growth over the last several years, and we connected with Larry to talk about his approach to building the right foundation to make sure his studio team is supported. 

Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com

Summary

Joining Daniel for this episode is Ashley Snarski of Medline. At Medline, Ashley manages the post production teams but with a bit of a twist, as part of the e-comm content team, and not as part of the production process which is more typical in our industry. Ashley shares with us a bit about how this org structure came about, and what impact it has had on their workflow and speed to web. 

Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com

Summary

On May 4th 2022 The E-commerce Content Creation Podcast was recorded in front of a LIVE audience at Photo Studio Operations 2022 in New York City hosted by Henry Stewart Events. Recording an episode in front of a live audience is something we have wanted to do since virtually day one of this show, and this event in New York was the perfect opportunity. David Hice of Aritzia joins me for a second round as a guest and we dig a little deeper into some of the topics from his first episode as well as take audience questions

Key Takeaways

• This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Henry Stewart Events Photo Studio Operations 2022.
• Daniel learned not to clip his lav mic to a name badge lanyard, sorry Calvin.
• Know you KPIs! A project managers mindset for the studio requires a deep understanding of the capabilities of your studio and how that capability impacts studio KPIs. 
• Granularity in your metrics can be difficult to achieve, but provide deep value to studio leadership in order to forecast production throughput. 
• This information can help inform the "Why." Why the studio can or can't do something, and help your cross functional partners understand the impact of the ask. 
• Insulating your creatives (to an extent) can help protect their ability to create without getting bogged down in non-value added processes. 
• We need to do a better job of learning what is creative and what is technical. Creatives sometimes get wrapped up in technical processes and mistaking it for a creative process. 
• Anything we can do to reduce certain touch points, and remove the possibility for parts of the process to fail, can help enhance the creative parts of the process. 

Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com

Summary

Sean Arbabi joins Daniel on the podcast to talk about the relationships and disconnects that can happen between the studio and adjacent stakeholders. Sometimes you need a "zoomed out" that can help build fluency between departments and allow for more effective communication and facilitate problem solving. 

Key Takeaways

• Its all about inputs and outputs, and being aware of what impacts you have downstream, along with what upstream processes impact you. 
• Saying "I don't know" is powerful. You don't need to know and you're doing a disservice by trying to know
• The "Fake it til you make it" attitude can exacerbate this
• Real talk: The relationship between studio and merch team can sometimes be complicated. On this podcast we love our merch partners, but sometimes there is a lack of understanding of how a studio operates and that the approach to imaging requires the same type of project management as any other department. 
• When you aren't willing to say "I don't know" you risk oversimplifying someone else's role, and that can lead to friction and problems. 

Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com

Summary

Project Management as a discipline isn’t exactly second nature to many studio teams around the world, but employing a bit of project management thinking can help inform studio stakeholder relationships, and set your studio up for success. David Hice of Aritzia joins Daniel for this episode to talk about exactly this. 

Reminder

You can save $100 off your registration fee for the Henry Stewart Events Photo Studio Ops Forum 2022 in New York City on May 4 with discount code CONTENTPOD100. We will be recording a live episode of the show at the event. Hope to see you there!

Register Here

Key Takeaways

• Even in 2022, the idea of the studio as a magic box persists. Project management thinking and communication can help alleviate this. 
• A note on scaling - scaling can go both ways. Build process that can scale up AND down when the needs arise. 
• A clear understanding of KPIs and how to measure them is critical to the project management mindset. The studio needs to know what it can and cannot do and articulate that clearly. 
• Constructive feedback on the complexity of creative requests can be very helpful to stakeholders understanding what is or is not possible. 
• This mindset can also lead to allowing creatives to CREATE more than they manage. 
• The right tools can build fluency and unify the language in the studio. 

Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com

Summary

This episode features an event preview with Stacey Tyrell discussing her session at the Henry Stewart Photo Studio Operations 2022. Daniel runs down some select highlights in the agenda and then interviews Stacey about her session which will kick off the event. 

Reminder

You can save $100 off your registration fee for the Henry Stewart Events Photo Studio Ops Forum 2022 in New York City on May 4 with discount code CONTENTPOD100. We will be recording a live episode of the show at the event. Hope to see you there!

Register Here

Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com

Summary

Last week our episode featured some high level discussion about automation in the studio with Marc Berenson. This week Marc is back and he brought friends! In a first for this show we had 4 guests, the team at Stanley Black and Decker that Marc worked with to find ways to automate their repetitive tasks, and save time and effort. As Dan Berzak, head of this efficiency team,  tells us, it’s about leveling not only the playing field, but your own expectations on what you can do. 

Reminder

You can save $100 off your registration fee for the Henry Stewart Events Photo Studio Ops Forum 2022 in New York City on May 4 with discount code CONTENTPOD100. We will be recording a live episode of the show at the event. Hope to see you there!

Register Here

Key Takeaways

• Building off of episode 56, we talk to the team that built a useful and accessible automation system.
• One of the keys to success this team learned is to make scripts and actions as modular as possible.
• Level the playing field, find the lowest common denominator. Don't get too specific.
• If you can get 100 assets 50% of the way to completion with automation, thats better than getting 1 asset 100% of the way.
• Leveraging tools the studio had already, the team was able to improve accessibility to images, speed up the review process, and provide updates in real time.
• The team learned not to overuse tools in each platform, so as not to bake in to many changes.
• Thinking of the entire process as additive is a great way to prevent overcooking your images.
• Marc theorizes that the future of Photoshop actions may be actions that are triggered by keywords or other metadata.

Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com

Summary

We’ve talked a lot on this podcast about agility, scalability and automation. It can sometimes sound like a huge undertaking to pivot a large in-house studio towards automated processes. Automation doesn’t have to be a huge project. Automation can begin with the tools any studio is using today. Marc Berenson joins Daniel on the podcast for this episode to talk about some of his learnings during his time at Stanley Black and Decker, and what he’s been working on since. 

Reminder

You can save $100 off your registration fee for the Henry Stewart Events Photo Studio Ops Forum 2022 in New York City on May 4 with discount code CONTENTPOD100. We will be recording a live episode of the show at the event. Hope to see you there!

Register Here

Key Takeaways

• Elevate the right people above the process, to assess the workflow, tools involved, and any existing scripts or automations being used ad hoc. 
• Build your automation like bricks in a wall. Make a good foundation and build from there. 
• It's possible to take automation too far, don't overdo it. If unexpected things are happening, you need a way out quickly. 
• Leverage the possibilities you have today. Then you standardize and now it's beginning to scale. 
• Stay tuned for part 2 with Marc where we meet the team involved in their scrappy automation efforts and talk about what they found. 

Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com

Summary

Over the last year, we've learned a lot by doing this podcast. Discussing topics covering creation production, through all stages of the process and with key stakeholders, we've started to develop a better understanding of the evolution of creative production and that's helped us make some educated guesses about where the future might take the industry. Recently Daniel had the opportunity to discuss some of the history and future of e-commerce content creation with CBU Photography program's senior class, and in this solo episode of the show, he goes a little deeper on the industry of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 

Key Takeaways

• Creative Production for the modern e-commerce company is just starting to mature.
  • We are just now getting to the point where we have 10+ year veterans of these specific processes in the industry. 
  • Will we begin to see specific technical programs related to creative operations? Probably. 
• Brands and Retailers have realized the strategic advantage that their production processes represent. We are shifting from cost center to having strategic value, even in some cases to profit driver. 
• The future of e-commerce will be ushered in by the creative teams, the make up of the teams may look different, the titles may be different, but it will be todays photographers, stylists, digitechs, graphic designers and artists that usher in the next era.

Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com