Beyond the Job Title

I don’t design so much as I give design or creative direction. I’m a leader, but I still give direction. I default to Creative Director, and given the level I’m at, I sometimes say Executive Creative Director. I’ve been a Chief, but that seems to scare some and confuse others.

But that’s not what this is about.

I’m talking about the role you play. Not your title, but the actual role. The way you show up. What you take responsibility for. What others rely on you for.

This isn’t about me and my experience, I’ll try to keep it about you.

What role do you play?

It’s usually a really tough question to answer, and if I told you to explain it in one sentence, I’d probably stress you out. While you think about that, and you’re welcome to add your answer in the comments, let me explain what I mean.

If I ask most people in advertising agencies what they do, I’ll get two common answers: “I’m a copywriter” or “I’m an art director.” Sometimes with “junior” or “senior” in front. But that tells me very little about the role they actually play or the work they actually do. Is it print, web, above the line, below the line, through the line? And what does that even mean to someone outside of the ad industry?

If I asked a designer in an in-house team at a fintech, most would say they’re a UI designer, UX designer, or maybe a product designer. If pressed, some might say “I do user research and user flows,” which is a bit more specific to their day-to-day practice. But few would say “I work on the user experience of banking products like how to freeze your credit card” or “I work on onboarding for the business banking app.” Not many people go that granular because they might be jumping across multiple features while working at the company.

Most are likely also distracted by chasing the junior, senior, lead titles. It’s understandable, we all want growth and to be recognised for our achievements.

Another thing that sometimes gets added by advertising folk is “award-winning,” and by designers, “user-centred.” There are lots of crafty ways to say these things.

Let me bring it back to me for a second.

I can remember trying to write a one-liner that explained what I did, something that captured the breadth of my experience. I would say Executive Creative Director, then add “from concept to execution.” Whether it worked or not, I don’t know. I don’t recall getting too many questions about it. But I felt it worked because it included the job title, which covered the seniority, the “creative” (since most things at the time were still lumped together), and the fact that I give direction. Then it explained that I work from the concept of a campaign all the way through to execution, meaning building out the full solution.

This felt important to me. In advertising, most creatives only really did conceptual work. They were paid to come up with mood boards, storyboards, ideas and campaigns, but they handed it off. The work was then done by DTP teams, directors, campaign managers, art buyers, producers, etc. Rarely did they do the final work themselves. That was outsourced. They would give final approval and still get most of the credit, as agencies were mostly in the business of big ideas.

But as a digital creative director, we often had to come up with the big idea, create all the assets, build it, and run the campaigns. Hence “from concept to execution.”

In in-house teams, there’s broadly speaking a UX phase and a UI phase. Maybe a discovery phase and a delivery phase. Research and conceptualisation, then development of visual assets. But it’s usually handed over from design to dev, and the output is often not what you originally intended. Many designers are left feeling disappointed.

But given how long these things take in corporate, “shipping is shipping” and apparently we’ll iterate next time. Or so it’s sold.

So my earlier soundbite after Executive Creative Director made sense at the time. No one challenged it. It worked. But now I find it more challenging.

Again, this isn’t about me. What about you?

I read titles and headline descriptions all the time. Very few actually say more than the job title. The ones that do try to describe what they do often end up making a really confusing statement. And I often see the same generic “user-focused” blah blah I’ve probably used myself.

Occasionally, I read something with a bit more clarity. It might explain that someone works within a specific industry or business unit, or on a specific product or feature. That certainly helps.

But what do you actually do? That’s the elusive nugget we should all be searching for.

Some of these headlines include a flex, like “award-winning.” In tech, it’s usually “ex-Google” or “ex-Facebook.” That’s just a flex, like saying “Oscar-winning director” or “three-time best-selling author.” You have every right to flex. It adds credibility.

So what do you do? What if you had to pick one statement? Maybe two. I understand how diverse your skill set has to be to get any job these days. There’s no judgement from me. I’m simply trying to work this out in my own mind. Trying to figure out if what we say makes any sense to anyone else besides ourselves.

I usually try to explain that I lead teams, building experiences people love. It says what I do. It says what we deliver, not just with my input, but together, as a team. And who it’s for. Oh, and that they actually love it.

I also have a cheekier line I use now and then. I say I’m the creative leaders’ leader. Because I am. I lead creative directors and other senior leaders. I use “creative” because “design” feels too narrow. I say “leader” instead of “director” because not all leaders direct. There are leads, heads, managers, and so on. But I’m their leader. I represent their function within the organisation.

I’m always trying to find the most elegant way to say this and to make sure it lands, which I have to admit has gotten tougher over the years. I’m asked all the time what I do, and I fumble. I throw things out to see what lands.

And if I struggle to explain it to someone in person, writing it in a way that makes sense to anyone else is even more challenging.

Do you feel the same way too?

I’d love to know how you describe yourself, in person or in your headline, outside of your job title.