When I worked in advertising, there was no one more valuable than a producer. They were the heartbeat of any project.
The producer was the biggest hustler in the room. Working out budgets, scouting locations, securing that perfect director, finding the right set. They were the ones making miracles happen, often outside, phone in hand, chain smoking while closing the deal that saved the campaign. You could always find them out there, pacing the pavement, cigarette in one hand, mobile in the other, solving three problems at once before stepping back inside like nothing had happened.
They were irreplaceable.
So when digital came along, it made sense that smart agencies borrowed the model. Some shops built strong digital producer roles into their teams, and they made a huge difference. Those were the people who could bring together developers, designers, writers, and motion specialists to deliver rich online experiences that simply could not have happened otherwise.
But when I moved in-house to build product, I noticed the gap immediately.
There were stakeholders. There were people called product owners and product managers. They were accountable on paper. But they were not the hustlers. They did not have the deep networks of skilled practitioners they could call on to pull something extraordinary together. They were not the ones who had spent decades figuring out how to make impossible timelines and shifting budgets work in practice.
Even when I joined an agency that worked with early-stage startups, the role was missing. The work was smart, the strategy was thoughtful, but there was no seasoned producer who knew how to navigate production itself.
Of course, product is built differently. It is a world of discovery, iteration, and continuous loops. But that does not mean production is irrelevant. If anything, it makes it more necessary. Because the gap is not just about delivery. It is about experience. It is about foresight. It is about having someone who has lived through enough projects to know where the risks are, what to factor in, and how to smooth the path so designers and engineers can do their best work.
In tech, few people can honestly say they have been doing this for more than a couple of decades. Fewer still have built the kind of production network that advertising producers relied on, where a phone call could assemble the right team almost instantly.
What is often missing today is a dedicated producer with true delivery know-how.
Too many people know just one part of the process and have strong opinions about it, but struggle to map out an end-to-end product roadmap without leaning on senior leadership for every detail. A producer bridges that. They work alongside senior creative and technical talent to deliver with precision. They anticipate the unforeseen. They keep a project on time, on budget, and fully resourced.
They also do the maths. They help make the case for budget increases when scope shifts. They know how to manage stakeholders when timelines slip. They understand the mechanics of production deeply, without needing to be a practitioner themselves.
That is why I believe many experienced creative and technical people could transition into this role. It needs judgement, networks, and a calm head in the middle of chaos more than it needs ownership of any single discipline.
To the producers I have worked with over the years, I salute you. You made the impossible happen. In product design, we still need more of you.