There has been a large shift in our organization in the past couple
years. Previously, Marketing was responsible for our brand, look-and-
feel of print and online products and determined a majority of how
our online presence would function/flow. The Product team, with all
due respect, was more secretarial who just took notes of what
stakeholders wanted and then left it up to Marketing to determine
everything front-end. This did not work out very well, and they
replaced all but 1 person from the Product team. The new Director
brought in myself and another Product Developer who came from the
more technical/web development side of things. We immediately
started introducing concepts like usability, user research, IxD,
etc. Progress was very, very, very slow at first, but as their web
presence was in such bad shape, we had a lot more leverage than one
would think.
Flash forward nearly two years.... Marketing and Product work much
more collaboratively. It still gets a bit tempestuous as the
Marketing and Product senior mgrs battle for control at times, but
overall, the two teams are very clear on what each brings to the
table. In Product we push them more for brand and design goals for
our projects. Our web visual designers must clear and collaborate
work with the Marketing print designers, but overall it runs very
smoothly.
The UI decisions are now completely made on the Product side (with
assistance from our web developers, designers, etc.). We are the
ones who handle the info design and flow, create prototypes and test,
test, test, test, test. We keep Marketing in the loop on where we
are headed, but truthfully, they respect our work and decision making.
We still have a ways to go, but we're getting better at working
together. I will say I often find myself treading lightly because I
want/expect a lot from a Marketing group. Historically, "Marketing"
within our parent company solely equates to SEO and SEM. Market
research, brand identity, etc. are all pretty foreign around here.
Within our division/company, they have grown beyond just that. I
still push for more of a strategic approach to our positioning and
such, but like everything else, it's a learning process on both
sides. So we'll just have to wait and see where we are in another
two years...
Hope this helps,
Erin
erin walsh | product developer | For Rent Media Solutions™
150 granby street, 16th floor | norfolk, va 23510
p:757.351.8444 | f:757.961.4827
[email protected]| www.FRMediaSolutions.com
You Have Multiple Marketing Needs... We Have Multiple Solutions!
On May 6, 2009, at 3:14 PM, timoni grone wrote:
Hey folks,
I'm curious to know how marketing teams and product teams interact in
other
companies. For example, who is in charge of the brand and look-and-
feel? How
is collateral designed? Is there a separation between the two teams,
or is
it all very seamless? Who makes key UI decisions?
Cheers,
Timoni Grone
www.blog.timoni.org
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