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Advice on setting up an online division

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Subject:  Advice on setting up an online division
Author:   MikeHeroys:   view profile | all posts by this author | add to favourites
Date:   10:08:51 4 June 2008
 
Based on my experience working at and with a wide range of agencies, here are my thoughts.  I hope they're useful!

1) New business pipeline

You need to make sure you have a strong sales pipeline that's looking for new clients and generating potential projects.  In my experience, a strong pipeline is created by good Account Managers, so that would be one recruitment priority.  Make sure that they have 'real world' digital experience, as it's easy to come seriously unstuck pitching for digital projects if you don't know the potential pitfalls.

2) Project management

I agree completely with Stephen that good project management is vital to any digital group.  Digital projects are very different to print projects and you'll need someone who understands how to manage them well so you're delivering on time and on budget.

3) Design and technical

These are the two key foundations of good digital work.  You'll need someone to make your products look fantastic and someone who makes them work brilliantly.

If you're starting from scratch, I'd advise hiring the most experienced designer and developer you can afford - you're effectively recruiting your Creative Director and CTO.

4) Outsourcing

Again, I agree with Stephen that you don't have to recruit all the skills you've listed - you can buy them on the open market.  I'd start with a small core team and a range of freelancers and partners to assist with specific needs.  You can then bring skills in-house as your needs develop.

5) Strategy

Finally, I recommend that you have a really clear strategy about what you want to achieve and what sort of work you want to do.  There's a huge variety of work out there from technically-led web engineering to creatively-led Flash 'experiences'.  Different types of work require different skill sets and this will drive your recruitment at a basic level. 

I've barely scratched the surface of this subject, but hopefully you'll find the above useful.  I do consulting work with agencies on this kind of thing, so feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss this further.

Mike Heroys




 

 
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