Meredith Bailey, founder and CEO of Streamwork, has led product groups of tech giants like Google, YouTube, Warner Bros and Apple.
Bailey’s private expertise with the problem of managing stakeholder suggestions within the artistic course of impressed her to create the platform. StreamWork goals to streamline the assessment course of for artistic groups, saving time and vitality by facilitating fast and succinct suggestions gathering throughout a number of stakeholders and departments.
We caught up with Bailey to her ideas on the way forward for the communications business.
What e-book, podcast or different media do you suggest to different comms professionals?
An oldie however a goodie: I like the e-book Creativity, Inc. I first learn Creativity, Inc. after I was working in advertising and marketing at Google, and it helped me re-evaluate easy methods to strategy artistic brainstorming and suggestions. The e-book provides an inside have a look at how Pixar develops its world-renowned animated motion pictures. What I like most is how Pixar assembles a “Braintrust” for each film the place stakeholders and friends are requested to offer candid suggestions on easy methods to enhance the prevailing storyline. The e-book impressed me to use this identical methodology to how I work with my crew, and the idea can also be foundational to StreamWork: we’re targeted on making it simple for groups to gather candid enter on artistic on the proper time and in the best place.
What’s your favourite device you employ repeatedly for work?
Slack has been a game-changer for our crew, particularly given our firm is totally distant. With crew members primarily based within the US, Netherlands, Canada, Ukraine and Poland, it’s faster and simpler to message each other by way of Slack versus ready for responses to lengthy e mail threads. We love Slack a lot that we just lately constructed an integration with Slack into StreamWork in order that customers can even have the flexibility to go away visible suggestions on visible belongings.
What excites you most about the way forward for communications?
We’re on the cusp of actually thrilling improvements in artistic and communications with the arrival of AI. Greater than ever earlier than, there are alternatives to hurry up and automate artistic workflows to assist distant groups work extra effectively. Contemplate Adobe Firefly, as an example, which makes use of AI to allow groups to conjure up photographs primarily based on textual content prompts. I labored in advertising and marketing for over 12 years at Apple, Google, YouTube, and Warner Bros and had the chance to work throughout a whole lot of campaigns. I felt the ache factors concerned in accumulating stakeholder suggestions and wrangling approvals on artistic belongings firsthand, and determined to stop my job and construct a platform to automate this course of. My focus has been on using improvements in collaboration and automation to unravel the artistic challenges which might be presently being neglected, however that each artistic crew is going through day by day. What excites me most is that as an business, we’re simply getting began.
What communications problem retains you up at night time?
Earlier than I turned a founder, I labored in advertising and marketing, so I’m always difficult myself to reevaluate and enhance the messaging we use to place our platform. As we’ve expanded to new buyer segments – together with branded merchandise firms and universities – we’ve wanted to dramatically shift how we place StreamWork, and that is typically not a simple job. An important consider any communication technique is to take heed to the tip buyer and perceive how they clarify their ache level. From there, you may rework, retool and adapt your resolution to deal with their core wants. My crew and I are always talking with our clients (each current and new segments) to listen to how they clarify the platform in their very own phrases in order that our messaging and product can higher work in service of their finish targets.
What’s the most important problem you’ve overcome in your profession?
I began constructing StreamWork when my son was solely 3 months previous, and I’m now pregnant with my second baby. Balancing motherhood and constructing a enterprise on the identical time hasn’t been simple, and I can’t declare I’ve executed it alone. I’ve been fortunate to have entry to childcare and the help of my household and associates. Along with this, a lot of our crew members are primarily based in Ukraine and have wanted to make various sacrifices to proceed to work on StreamWork regardless of dwelling by means of a warfare. Having members of the crew work remotely all through wartime is a fragile and hopefully unusual scenario, and one thing that has been undoubtedly tough. Navigating easy methods to help them and hold them and their households secure, whereas concurrently working collectively to construct StreamWork, has been one in all my best challenges.
What’s the greatest recommendation you’ve ever gotten?
One of the best recommendation I’ve ever gotten is to dam out the noise. Whenever you’re engaged on a challenge, product launch and even constructing a enterprise, there are 1,000,000 and one issues to work on, take heed to and think about. What’s important is to determine what’s vital, and block out something superfluous. A fellow founder shared this recommendation with me after I began constructing StreamWork, and it’s actually caught with me and might be utilized to all types of eventualities. On the subject of start-ups, maintaining your eye on the tip purpose and the answer you’re constructing to assist clear up your buyer’s ache level is what issues. The remaining is simply noise.
Isis Simpson-Mersha is a convention producer/ reporter for Ragan. Comply with her on LinkedIn.
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