Our flagship course is a producer training and coaching programme, privately taught to production teams.

Live Training

Programme contents:

  • Being clear about the producer’s purpose keeps the talent focused on what we need them to do, and gives them absolute confidence to do it because they know why it matters.

    This class:

    > Examines how producers “lead from behind” by creating space for ideas to unfold, emergently and organically

    > Explains how vital the inherent complexity and unpredictability of creativity is for producing new and novel work

    > Defines the competing desires of a typical project’s stakeholders and explores how to manage those tensions

  • For ideas to grow, they have to evolve. How they evolve and what they evolve into depends on when, to whom and how often producers expose the ideas to scrutiny and feedback.

    This class:

    > Examines how producers “lead from behind” by creating space for ideas to unfold, emergently and organically

    > Explains how vital the inherent complexity and unpredictability of creativity is for producing new and novel work

    > Defines the competing desires of a typical project’s stakeholders and explores how to manage those tensions

  • Every brilliant bit of work is built on top of the same four elements: a clear understanding of the issue, a solid and actionable insight, a platform-agnostic idea and one or more platform-specific implementations of that idea.

    This class:

    > Breaks down each element to explain where it comes from and why it’s needed

    > Describes the qualities and characteristics of each element

    > Demonstrates the relationships between the elements through a case study

  • Many producers mistakenly believe that scope is fixed at the point of contract, but in creative services, most scoping happens after the contract is signed and is a continuous act of balancing cost with quality.

    This class:

    > Breaks down the scoping process and examines why most teams struggle to manage scope

    > Explains how to facilitate and fuel blue-sky thinking without blowing budgets or timelines

    > Provides a unique tool to demonstrate how to size possible solutions and assess their viability

  • A production strategy helps the team make decisions that follow a logical pattern and support the priorities of the business or studio. Without one, the producer’s decisions won’t always align with company expectations.

    This class:

    > Explains what production strategy is and how it enables smart decision-making in the face of unexpected change

    > Explains how to formulate effective production strategies

    > Explores the relationship between effective production strategy and team wellbeing

  • The producer role is half creative, half commercial; selling-in ideas is an everyday activity and many producers are expected to sell projects as they move up the career ladder into leadership roles.

    This class:

    > Explains what a value proposition is and how it facilitates sales

    > Breaks down example propositions from a variety of creative firms

    > Demonstrates how an idea has a value proposition in the same way a business does, and how to communicate it

    > Sets out the principles and discussion topics that inform pricing design

    > Examines a range of price models and example strategies to apply to them to creative sales

    > Provides a repeatable framework to generate price options

  • When a job starts, your team is a series of independent groups with different, sometimes competing, goals. Kick-off is the first opportunity to orient them around a common goal, avoiding conflict and confusion down the line.

    This class:

    > Describes what ingredients must be present for teams to thrive

    > Provides a whiteboard canvas to navigate kick-offs designed to cultivate those ingredients

    > Explains the need to set and reset expectations within the team, and between the studio and client

  • Many producers struggle to manage clients because they’ve never been taught how to navigate difficult conversations, causing project scope to blow up and/or strain in the relationship.

    This class:

    > Provides a tool for producers and clients to agree in advance how they will navigate unexpected events/requests

    > Provides a tool to help producers explain the production process, introduce milestones and describe critical moments

    > Provides a tool to help producers establish how the client will make decisions and approve work

FAQs

Q: How much does it cost?

A: We price the programme specifically for every client. One of the skills we teach is how to price creative work — how the right price has nothing to do with what it costs and everything to do with what the prospect is willing to pay. We practice what we preach.

Q: How long does it take?

A: The programme runs from 8-10 weeks. Each week there is 1 live session which lasts around 1.5 hours.

Q: Is it remote or in-person?

A: Majority remote, although we do offer the occasional in-person session. More on that below 👇🏻

Q: Is the programme suitable for our most senior people?

A: Yes. Particularly the content focused on business and sales. No producer is formally trained to do the job, so even seniors have surprising knowledge gaps. You can read reviews from EPs, founders and company directors at the bottom of this page if that helps!

Q: Are numbers capped?

A: No. We’ve had groups as big as 35 on calls before. The larger the group, the more interesting (lively) the discussion! It’s also perfectly OK for colleagues from other disciplines to listen in.

Q: When can we get started?

A: We can usually schedule your first session within 4-6 weeks of cleared payment.

Q: Do you deliver training in person?

A: We have and can, but not for every session. It’s easier if you are in London. If you are overseas, we can try to coordinate in-person sessions with planned business trips. Email and ask if you’d like to do something in person; we are mostly up for it!

Q: What happens if one of our team misses a session?

A: All our prices include an option to have your sessions recorded in case folks are on deadline/holiday/out sick.

Our alumni work at some of the industry’s most creative companies