The chief operating officer of Watershed Publishing -- a big tech geek -- wrote the first draft. It was hilarious; I read it and thought, "This is a laundry list of things he hates about me!"
But the dude makes some solid points. I honestly think the fractured marketer/dev/designer relationship in most office settings is a topic that needs addressing, especially as sophisticated interactive technology has become a de facto expectation of brand websites and online campaigns.
There's a universe of (actively-maintained) difference in the spheres where marketing and tech work; from experience, it's hard finding people willing to breach the divide.
This is counterproductive hubris crap. When working with interactive media, marketers must make an effort to get geeky (read: more tech-savvy). This will make them better marketers. On the other hand, engineers should also feel compelled to nurture their own creativity. This makes them more competitive assets.
One day at DriversEd.com, after getting the usual pushback from the senior engineer, I spat out, "Why don't you ATTEND OUR MEETINGS so you can tell us what can't be done before we've laid out a game plan!"
He smiled, shuffled a deck of cards between his hands and answered, "Because I like the way it feels to say no after your hopes have been ignited."
Funny guy.
Marketers, devs and designers: we live in the same world now. Deal with it.
2 comments:
Let's hire this senior engineer, I love him already (not!) This kind of behavior definitely shows a reverse article ("how to get along with marketers") should be required reading for many engineers.
I was disappointed by our piece though, it got less than 400 page views yesterday which is less than a quarter of what the other how-tos brought on their first day of publication. No link love either so far. Seems I didn't choose the best topic!
These things take time, you impatient geekster you.
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