Looking back at how quickly our communications space has expanded is dizzying. I was talking with a group of people I hope to work with soon and one asked me how I would communicate changes and DAM updates with the team. I answered without a second breath: “The way they will actually read it.”
Some teams (and the holy grail, whole companies!) have clear lines of communication with processes in place that mean that teammates know where to find the latest, accurate information when making decisions. It really doesn’t matter the method - I have seen everything from inter-office envelopes of marked-up photo proofs, external hard drives of RAW files along with selects, Excel spreadsheets with lists of approved files and notes, and modern creative workflow systems that encourage collaboration along with sign-off. The methods have varied over time, and new technology can mean faster, global, and more searchable communication. Or it can mean learning the wrong information quicker and then spreading it to more people.
When I think about how successful teams communicate, 3 non negotiables:
Culture of transparency, not blame: there will be mistakes. What can turn a small mistake into one that costs time, money, and possibly someone’s job, is a culture of blame where everyone is afraid to alert others of mistakes early enough to limit the damage. In teams where transparency is valued, DAM pros feel comfortable calling out typos or the wrong version being shared, resulting in a cleaner platform.
Standard lines of communication: whether a company's intranet, investor's page or a brand site with the latest approved language and media, knowing where the single source of truth lives and can be referred back to means that every teammate can know the copy they are publishing or video they are sharing contains the right information. Ideally, these lines are simple and limited, then linked to future communications (like style guides or weekly internal newsletters) so any edits are reflected and you don’t need to sync multiple systems. In DAMs, removing duplicates and ensuring naming conventions are enforced can reduce miscommunication.
Explore new technology to make it work for your team: We know GenAI is the latest technology to dominate all discussions. And its capabilities across content, media, image, and technology fields will continue to expand as new tools employ it along with future iterations. As more DAM systems explore GenAI within the tools themselves, we will learn which results, like auto-tagging in the recent past, same time and improve our assets. But if you start requiring, say, ChatGPT as a step in content production without learning how it will affect brand voice or violate your company’s proprietary information (or worse, a client’s) terms, any time saved will be lost with new tasks and reviews you don’t currently employ. Just like you wouldn’t use Photoshop to make all your products lime green, just because you can, test out how GenAI can remove current pain points and share these successes broadly while learning from others.
Once you have figured out the basics, remember why we communicate in the first place - to connect. If your team is global or remote, how are you going to work across time zones or days apart? The good news is that there is no 1 good answer, as long as what you decide works for your team and you continue to stay open to better methods. I have seen offices require certain overlapping hours (like 12-6 ET for cross-US teams) or days in the office together (like Tuesday Team days or 1 week together to kick off a new project). Here are some of the favorite communication tips I have gathered, and as I look for a new role, would like to bring into wherever I end up:
Set up 1-on-1s with as many colleagues as you can right away - they can be 15-minute weekly Zooms or coffee once a month, but you’ll build trust and learn about their viewpoints, or even upcoming projects early enough to help shape them. Start with onboarding and add as new coworkers join.
It can be fun to work together, apart - sometimes an open Zoom or sitting across from each other in a conference room while each of you are working on different parts of the same project can encourage collaboration and offer a space for quick questions and suggestions that wouldn’t warrant a phone call or even chat message. Try showing off the work-in-progress (unlike those killer crits in art school) to spark conversations on how to move forward together. Parallel play isn’t just for toddlers.
Standardize repeated communications - from team updates to creative briefs to calendars. Stop wasting time starting from scratch each time you have a project release or new language supported on your website. Save templates to ensure the data shared is uniform and easily comparable to earlier efforts. You’ll reinforce brand design and language with each repeated pdf, email, newsletter, or video.
Find communications champions - I’ve served in this role, but it can be anyone on your team who is comfortable discussing technology issues with marketing or design questions with the content team. These connectors keep each team from becoming a silo and build trust too.
Continue the communications after the project is live - often teams skip the debrief and move on to the next priority, due to time constraints or being DONE with that work. But a quick, collaborative, recap of the problem, steps, resources, and outcomes of the project can reinforce its impact and celebrate the work and workers involved.
Try a few ways of communicating if the first isn’t successful - no one should need to send a “per my last email” email but the frustration you feel when your call, email, text, Slack, chat, letter, carrier pigeon or telegram is being ignored is real. There have never been more methods of communication to use, which means there have never been so many to review. That very important note you added to the group chat at 9 AM could require lots of scrolling up for your colleague to see at 4 PM.
Let the medium fit the message - I’ve found that for words, chat is best for collaboration at the same time, email is best for longer questions that can be handled async, and documents are good for collaborating on articles or longer scripts where comments and edits can be tracked. For image or video editing, Workfront, monday.com, Wistia, and AEM - along with countless workplace collaboration tools - each offer ways to make notes directly on the assets to remove confusion, but sometimes a Zoom or conference room to review together can remove round of review too. I also like monday.com and Workfront for project management overall, whether for large-scale projects or just for individual weekly task planning.
Finally, nothing is more important than communicating with respect - no one will remember why you wanted that headline orange, but they will remember if you screamed at Dave that the pink he chose was hideous. Being passionate about the work we do is one thing; being rude, dismissive, or steamrolling conversations is another. Regardless of your role, others were also hired for their skills and intelligence, and spending a minute to ask questions about the design or copy choices can either solidify or ruin a relationship. Assume positive intent and you are more likely to receive it.
If you want to continue this conversation, I have been using Calendly to schedule quick calls. Feel free to set up a 30-minute time-slot to discuss collaborating, upcoming events or just catch up on all things assets. One more way to communicate!