Do you produce good work?
I’m pretty sure you feel like you do good work. And I bet you do good work.
You can probably make it better, though—much better—by striving for higher production quality.
Think about the last presentation you attended. Maybe the message was great. But didn’t the big typos and confusing layout take something away from the message?
What about the last proposal that you received? When you found mistakes that the vendor should have caught before presenting it to you, didn’t you lose a little confidence in them?
What about the podcast you were really excited about but was hard to hear because the audio quality was terrible? Something was lost, no doubt. Maybe you couldn’t even listen at all.
You might have found a great YouTube video. Maybe you really, really liked it and got a lot of value from it. But subconsciously (or consciously) you noticed the shaky camera and weird shadows from poor lighting. That likely diminished the experience a bit. And your impression of whoever produced it.
It happens everywhere. Just last week I was reading a news story on a major website. It had three typos in it…and it was only a few hundred words long!
But just because low production quality is becoming more common in this fast-paced information-overloaded world doesn’t mean you have to let your work suffer.
In fact, high production value is a great way to make your work stand out.
When your work consistently comes across as high quality, it reflects well on you. People will notice that you pay attention to detail. That you care enough to put your best effort in.
The same is true if you are leading a team or a project. If you think and act like a good producer, you will get better results.
The producer is responsible for making the thing happen. The whole thing. The producer looks at the big picture, but also all the details. The producer figures out how everything fits together.
The producer prevents things from falling through the cracks. And deals with the stuff that inevitably falls through anyway.
The producer does whatever it takes to make sure that the entire project is high quality. Sometimes that means communicating the vision clearly. Sometimes that means motivating the staff.
Sometimes it means ordering the pizza.
Or running to the store to get the missing part. Or reading the report five times. Giving someone a ride home. Picking up the coffee. Scheduling a meeting. Or sweeping up after everyone has left for the night.
It’s about doing whatever it takes to make sure everything is done and done well. It’s about aiming for completeness and accuracy, but also for high quality and a coherent total package.
That extra polish stands out. You notice it yourself in the work of others. So why not put that into your own work?
It makes a difference. For you. And for everyone you hope to impact with your work.
