Hello, this is Director Nakagawa.
Previously, I gave a talk titled " Scheduling based on a collection of parts, as thought up by a former coder-turned-director, " but this time I would like to talk about my in-house direction work.
Difference in understanding of "man-hours" between producers and directors
This was a common misunderstanding when I was creating.
When the director asks me, "How much man-hours will this request take?", I usually tell him, "For this content, the man-hours will be about 3 days (3 person-days)." In response, the director often responded, "In that case, we can deliver it in 3 days (3 business days)."
Since labor hours are the pure number of days required for the work, if "labor hours = business days," it becomes difficult to coordinate with other projects and it becomes necessary to cover it with overtime, etc.
To avoid this, the production side needs to communicate the number of working days required at the same time as communicating the man-hours. Also, the director can prevent any misunderstanding by checking whether the number of days communicated by the production side is "man-hours" or "working days."
Create easy-to-understand materials
Have you ever had the experience of not really understanding what the director asked you to do, or of the production team receiving a response that was different from what you expected?
Even if each instruction is small, such as "make the margin under the heading a little wider" or "replace the text," when there are too many of them, it can become confusing for the production team and make mistakes more likely to occur.
Therefore, the easier the materials are to understand, the less of a burden it will be for the production side.
However, if it takes a lot of time and effort to create the materials, it will also be a burden on the director, so we try to create the materials with as little time as possible.
For example, when requesting revisions to a submitted design, you can create production materials without increasing the amount of work by pasting a screenshot of the current site or design into PowerPoint and writing comments inside it.
Also, when the director is not preparing materials, the production side can ask them to prepare easy-to-understand materials such as wireframes and instructions, as much as possible, to help reduce mistakes.
To manage detailed requests, we recommend using the task management sheet introduced in " Task management sheet for directors using a spreadsheet ."
Choose the right communication method for the situation
There are now many convenient tools available for communication, such as Chatwork and Skype.
Tools like this are extremely useful because they allow you to record things that would otherwise be missed if given verbally, just like emails.
But the most important thing is to speak up directly.
While tools can be used to communicate specific details, it is difficult to convey the overall feeling of each other's situations, so speaking up makes it easier to communicate these things.
However, there may be times when it is inconvenient for the other person to approach you directly.
In such cases, if you speak to someone in the following way, you will be able to take the other person's schedule into consideration and work comfortably for both parties.
"I'd like to explain the request I posted on Chatwork earlier, so could you give me about 5 to 10 minutes to explain it before lunchtime?"
The more family members you have, the more important it is to give careful direction
Compared to directing customers, it is easier to contact people within the company and people often know each other, so direction can easily be neglected, with requests being put off or communication only being via tools or verbally.
It's easy to think that you can call on someone anytime or make sudden requests, and that's not wrong in itself, but because you can call on someone anytime, it becomes important to respect each other's convenience and time.
Therefore, by placing as much importance on internal direction as on customers, the quality of our work improves and everyone is able to work comfortably.
As I continue to provide internal direction, as a director and project member, I would like to strive to provide direction that takes the production team members into greater consideration.
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