Lessons Learned From a Film Producer About Making Software

This last week, I had my leadership team in town for the first time in a while for some planning meetings, and some team building¹. I am always looking to learn from different disciplines, so I thought it would make sense to impose that on them as well.

Innovation is nearly always some sort of cross pollination from another discipline², so I wanted to bring someone to speak to us who worked outside of technology and that I thought we could learn important ideas from to help us focus in on the work of the rest of the day. So I reached out to Daren Smith to see if he would be willing to come and talk about the process of producing films and TV. Having read his article about producing profitable films, I thought there were some strong parallels between our work and his that would help us approach our own from a slightly different frame of mind.

He was willing! It's always great when people are willing to go along with your hair-brained schemes. We talked about the things my team would be working on after, and some of the things that I hoped they would get out of it, and he was off to the races to pull together a presentation and prep for Q&A after it.

I want to share a couple of lessons, and some mental reframing, that I walked away from the presentation with.

Never Turn Your Back on Either Group

I am pretty sure he phrased this better than I am here, but the core of it was the idea that the producer is responsible to both investors in the film, and the cast and crew of the film, and that turning your back on either group causes problems. If you always side with the investors, you make a cheap and incomplete film. If you always side with the cast and crew, you slide towards being unable to produce anything at all because you run out of money or time.

This was a clearer articulation of the idea of the first team/second team that I was introduced to earlier in my career. Or at least it resonated with me in a better way.

As a leader, we have a responsibility to both our investors/managers and to our team. Turning away from either one is a recipe for disaster. The way to success is helping to find a balance between the two, and through making sure that expectations on both sides are clear and that communication is happening between them.

Send me a short story not a script

From the Q&A session, this was a gem that I almost missed.

The importance of checking for the skills you actually care about and not the skill that seems most relevant. As Daren explained, writing a screenplay and telling a compelling story are not the same thing. A screen play is a blueprint for making a film, not a story in and of itself. So when writers want to send him screenplays, he tells them instead to send him a short story that encapsulates the idea. This way, he can see if they can tell a story well, which is the skill he most wants to ensure that they have.

We likewise need to make sure that as we interview for roles that we are checking for the actual skills of the job, not the skills that seem most obvious to the role³. What is actually important for this person to be able to execute?

Check for that.

The Obstacle is the Opportunity

A reference to the book of the same name, but this was an idea that we returned to over and over throughout the day. When we talked about not being able to do a thing, someone would inevitably point us back to this, and we would consider if there were other ways we could do it. Looking for the opportunity in the limitations that we have as a team.

Remember to look outside your discipline

This one is me :-).

It wound up being a great opportunity to learn about another discipline for the team, and kept us on track for the rest of the day. I really enjoyed it.

The next time you have your team gathered for a leadership event, remember to consider what other disciplines you could learn from. I know Daren is planning on adding this type of engagement to his workshops, so if you are interested, reach out to him.

Either way, get out there and learn from other people, and see what you can bring back to how you work!

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