Building Your Creative Team

Building out an in-house creative team for original content creation is unlike any other department your company will assemble. It’s a very instinctual process that relies more on gut feel than it does anything else. It’s also an imperfect science since there is no specific playbook on ‘how to be creative.’ Sure there’s equipment and software to learn, theories and examples to follow, but in the creative world there are literally zero rules on how a project should be created.

So how do you hire people who don’t fit into a box, don’t follow a checklist and certainly don’t follow the rules? I’ll admit, it’s not an easy process to build a really, good team if you’re not experienced in the creative field.

Having worked in many creative roles and built 5 very successful creative teams over the past 20 years, here’s some pointers to help you navigate the process.

Culture and Cohesion are Paramount for Any Creative Team.

Before we even go any further, a good creative team has cohesion and a strong, unified culture.

A superstar creative talent who puts their needs and wants above the rest of the team can be an incredibly divisive force. The value of that superstar may come at a price of losing valued members of the team. More than any other department in a company, a creative team works best when everyone gets along and has each other’s back. When I’m hiring, culture and fit are much more important than the actual skills. Skills can be improved, attitude is much more difficult to change.

What Will Your Team Do?

Have a clearly defined responsibility and/or goal for this team before you start the hiring process. Those responsibilities will evolve over the lifetime of the team, but right now, today, as you prepare to build out your team, what does that team have to do?

Generalities like ‘video, graphics, audio projects as directed by the management team’ is not a responsibility. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of video and audio project types out there. There are dozens of different styles in those projects that require different types and levels of skill sets. If your management team is not experienced in leading creative projects, there will be disappointment and confusion in ‘direction from the management team.’

Get more specific in the responsibilities. This is a good exercise for you too, so your management team has a good understanding of what will be expected from the creative team.

Creating video VLOGs for the company website and social channels. Short to long marketing videos and demonstrations for use by our sales team featuring both live action interviews and animated elements to show the inner workings of the products. 3 audio podcast titles, with 2 podcasts per month for each title. Facebook and LinkedIn Live events.

Those are very specific projects and elements. 

If you have no specifics for the team to create, then you may not need a fulltime team. You might be better off outsourcing your work until you figure out the specifics, then start hiring internally.

How Much Content Will You Create each Month / Year?

As a follow-up to that previous question, how much content do you foresee your creative department creating each month and each year?

Look at your company calendar right now. You probably have trade shows, events, promotions, new product launches and the like that you’re going to want materials for. Videos, audios, graphics, print, animation, etc… 

A typical trade show involves multiple video elements that are playing in the booth or the table setup. Some sort of graphical banner and/or table top slicks and flyers. Maybe some promotional videos before the show to encourage folks to come by and see your new product. Maybe a web banner for promotion and possibly an entire web page. Depending on the amount and complexity of your trade show investment it could take a few days to months to create the elements for that show. 

The amount of material you’re going to output every single month is a determining factor for who you hire and how many people to hire. More output means faster turnarounds while managing quality and that usually comes with experience. Not always, but usually.

What Resources Are You Willing To Commit?

Starting a new media department means investing in media equipment. Cameras, audio equipment, computers, software, monitors, etc… If you are starting from scratch, expect to spend a minimum $10,000 for equipment and probably another $2500/year minimum for subscriptions, clip art, music, etc…. You should NOT expect your creatives to come in with their own equipment. You supply the equipment.

If you’re not willing to commit at least $10,000 up front for the initial purchases of equipment, you should hold off on hiring a creative team.

Do You Understand The Role(s) You’re Hiring?

If you are a company or corporation that has nothing to do with media production or social media of any sort, then the answer to that question is most likely; “No. No you don’t understand the roles.” It’s obvious from the job descriptions.

When I first started searching for jobs here on LinkedIn I would search for the exact job title I was looking for. Not many jobs showed up. Then I went much more general, like “Video” or “Creative” and hundreds of jobs would show up, only they were mislabeled. “Video Editor” was really an Executive Producer. A “Video Producer” was really a video editor. “Digital Media Specialist” was really a Creative Director. “Creative Directors” were really junior editors.

Most company HR departments have absolutely no clue how to evaluate a creative position because it’s a weird field for those who have never worked in it. HR is looking for specific software, camera and equipment knowledge along with a set amount of experience or college training. Checking those boxes means absolutely nothing for hiring a good creative.

A video editor with 10 years of experience cutting a specific style on a specific software may not be as good a match for you as someone self-taught, editing only one year, but creates exactly in the style you’re trying to do. On the other hand, meeting deadlines, juggling multiple projects simultaneously and managing multiple client expectations only comes with experience that college or self-teaching can’t give.

Understanding the specific role and what that person is going to do for your company is going to give you the best chance to hire the right person. If you don’t understand the various roles in the creative field, seek out a consultant in your area or online. I’ve consulted with multiple companies to help them better understand the type of role they’re trying to fill and even helped write the job descriptions. In some cases, you may have the consultant conduct the initial interviews to help determine if the person is a good creative fit and then you can conduct the final interviews to determine the culture fit.

Does Education Matter?

This has been an interesting topic not just in the creative field, but across the job hiring landscape as companies ditch the educational requirement. Personally, I have ditched the educational requirement for all my creative hires. Why?

Today there are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites and resources to learn both the technical processes and creative mindsets of the creative field. LinkedIn purchased one of the premier creative resources, Lynda.com and rolled it into LinkedIn Learning. You can learn pretty much everything you need to know about getting into or moving up in the creative field directly from LinkedIn Learning where your instructors include top award-winning creative talent. Shameless plug, I have an introduction to video producing and video budgeting in LinkedIn Learning.

Rolling through a college degree program does not necessarily mean you know more than a person who studied online or through other practical courses. In my case, I graduated from the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. Impressive on my old resumes, but the reality is, I learned most everything I knew about video production at the time from Dutchess Community College BEFORE I got to Syracuse.

When looking at people with 1 or more years of experience, the college degree is completely irrelevant. Once you’re ‘in the wild’ everything changes at a bullet pace in this field. Every month there are new cameras, new software, new techniques, new delivery platforms, new standards, new, new, new. What does that person know now, today? Do their skills match what your requirements are going to be? Most important, are they a self-starter who has the drive to continually improve their skillset? 

As I mentioned earlier, we’re in a world where “new” is an almost daily occurrence in this industry, today’s creatives have to stay aware of the changes.

Does Experience Matter?

Yes and no.

Experience matters for the leadership and for select positions depending on the complexity and amount of content you’re outputting each month. The amount of experience also depends on the leadership style. Does the leadership mentor young talent or do they want to hire seasoned veterans they can just turn loose and go? I say a mix of both is the best way to build out a successful team. Experienced veterans help to guide the younger talent while the younger talent comes up with unexpected ideas that challenge the veterans. It’s a win-win when it works out right and this honestly is a gut call based on experience in the creative field.

I’ll give you a couple of specific examples from my previous position to explain.

For a Director of Photography (aka DP) we hired an experienced veteran of reality, documentary and broadcast television. He knew many camera formats, lighting techniques and audio techniques who could raise the level of the video production. The type of knowledge and experience he had can only be learned by experiencing multiple sets and situations. Now he came from a world where everyone was essentially an “A Player” so there was an adjustment to working in a small, corporate department vs. a multi-million dollar set with dozens of crew members.

When we hired a Video Editor and Production Coordinator, the DP objected to both hires. Coming from his top tier production background, neither candidate was experienced enough for the roles with our Production Coordinator literally coming straight out of college.

From my seat and how I’ve run my teams in the past, the editor candidate was short on experience but long on storytelling. His work showed that he could craft a story and he was a great counterpoint to the existing video editors. The production coordinator candidate was impressive with her professionalism right from the start. No experience as an actual production coordinator, but strong editorial and organizational skills, and her references were excellent. Both turned out to be stellar hires who strengthened the team. 

Show Me Exactly What You Can Do.

The only way to know exactly what your creative candidate can do is to look at their work. 

For video you should be able to look at a website, YouTube or Vimeo page and for graphic arts, they should have a portfolio site. That allows you to see their body of work, not just a super slick presentation. 

A super slick video reel gives me the highlights of the candidate’s best scenes. You want to see entire video pieces and you want to know what the candidate did in that piece. Camera, lighting, editing, sound, graphics, etc… Have them tell you what they did in each project, let’s see that they can craft a story. 

For graphical portfolios, ask them to break down the layers and elements to show what they created and what was stock or elements that were given to them. 

You don’t have to understand video production or graphic design to know if you like the work or not. Can you see your company, your product in that style of work? Or can you see that the person has the ‘bones’ to build upon and grow into the creative you need?

The Rule of Two

If you’re starting a creative team, start with two people. One-man bands get overloaded very quickly, even with just a little work. With two people, the workload can be shared and the content is created much more quickly.

Additionally, you can hire for two creative strengths. Person one is stronger in video and audio production, but weaker in graphic arts. Person two is stronger in graphic arts and social media. They complement each other and can share the tasks for any project. 

So there’s a few things to consider if you’re preparing to build out a creative team. If you don’t know the creative field or fully understand the roles you’re hiring for, seek out a good creative consultant to help you narrow the field. Good luck and have fun!

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Walter Biscardi Jr. is the Executive Creative Director at High Road Craft Brands in Marietta, Georgia. He is a 30-year veteran of storytelling and branding for a global audience. He's built multiple creative operations encompassing video, graphic and web design while managing teams of up to 100 people. He’s created original content for networks such as Food Network, PBS, CNN, The Weather Channel and Sky News and for brands such as Sesame Street, PING, The Home Depot, Georgia-Pacific, High Road Craft Ice Cream, The Carter Center and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation He is a LinkedIn Learning author, writer for CreativeCow.net and on WalterBiscardi.com. He's also the Creator of Contemporary Living Network, a lifestyle SVOD featuring quality edutainment and actionable, real-time purchasing. We call it, Life Worth Living. Credits and honors include multiple Peabody, Emmy and Telly Awards.