For artists-turned-startup-leader, there’s a fine line to walk: You can’t abandon the passion for your craft that got you where you are in the media and entertainment industry, but now you’ve got a boatload of other considerations to reach success.
It’s no longer enough to make decisions based on what your listeners want to hear or viewers want to see. Now you also need to deliver on the promise of a digital product that can delight your users, keep them engaged, and grow beyond your initial user base to guarantee success.
As an artist, you had a vision of reaching your audience with a memorable experience. You also know that the best way to reach your audience is with digital products.
But as a CEO and leader, you have to think like a customer and balance your resources, not to mention drive revenue. You need to answer questions like:
- Do you offer a flawless audience experience?
- Does your product have an engaging interface with outstanding performance?
- Is your platform both technically and economically feasible?
- Do you have the right product and technical resources to deliver on your audience’s expectations?
You’ll soon discover that your customers want entertainment and exceptional digital technology that differentiates you from your competitors. And if you want to scale your company, you’ll need a proven product strategy with solid technical architecture that reaches your growing audience.
In short, you’ll need to think like a developer.
Marrying vision and delivery
For many entertainment companies, their products are very personal, representing the creative genius of the CEO, leader, or founder. Every decision about delivering on that vision is a personal reflection of the leader, and they’re involved at every step of development.
The problem is that many leaders know their art, but also think they have to become an expert at technical development. This approach can be a time waster, dragging a creative leader into unnecessary details that delay delivery of their audience promise and waste valuable resources.
Artistic leaders should embrace that developers also have a vision based on their expertise. They’re responsible for building a digital bridge between the leader’s creative vision and the audience’s expectations.
So how can you guarantee that your founder’s vision is translated into the end-result digital product? Project strategy.
With a sound product strategy, developers know how to marry the entertainment vision with the audience’s digital experience. Both elements are necessary for exceptional digital products.
Developers bring art, music, and events to life, on a large scale, to create a greater artistic impact. As a leader, you’ll need experts who understand product strategy, have expertise in the right platforms to create your product and set it up to grow, and know how to scale companies with entertainment products.
Reaching your audience
On the surface, audience needs are simple: They want what they want when they want it. And when they’re ready to download your latest release or navigate to your app online, your platform has to be ready to handle a massive influx in volume without missing a beat.
The digital user experience is a critical component of audience expectations. As a leader, you’ll need to have a team that can deliver on your promise with an engaging platform, streamlined processes (think the checkout or search processes), and an outstanding entertainment product.
Thinking like a developer means you have a product strategy that prioritizes your audience’s needs, provides a reliable digital interface and offers memorable products. And you’ll need the technical expertise of a partner who knows the entertainment industry to help you reach audiences with a sound technical architecture and a unique user experience.
Optimizing time and resources
Your artistic vision requires resources. That’s why your product strategy and technical partners need to clearly understand your business goals and help you manage the bottom line.
It’s easy to get caught in a vortex of development delays and less-than-optimal technical architecture. Knowing where to invest your time, money and effort takes industry expertise and can help avoid expensive delays that keep you from getting your entertainment product to market. If you’re handling your technical work in-house, that means giving your development team the resources to understand their end user (working with internal specialists can help with that). Or, if you’re bringing in outside help, your technical partner should have the expertise to guide you through challenging decisions that drain your budget.
Vision, product strategy and delivery, and scaling your company aren’t mutually exclusive. To succeed, you’ll need to optimize your resources so you can deliver a great experience and move on to your next great idea.
Developer expertise for artistic vision
Thinking like a developer will enhance your product vision, not deter from it. Outstanding design, testing, and delivery is also an art form, helping you reach your audience and scale your company.
So when it’s time to shift from performer to product-focused leader, don’t get caught in the cycle of trying to be involved in every step at all times. Start with a team you trust, build your product strategy to keep your vision at the center of development, and deliver a product that delights your users from day one.
Looking for a development partner with deep media and entertainment experience? DockYard has worked with some of the biggest names in streaming, music, and more. Get in touch today and let us know how we can make your success happen.
