What’s an Interactive Producer?

Many different hats. Photo by Franco Folini

“What’s an Interactive Producer?” I’ve gotten this question a few times when I tell people my job title. To answer it in 5 seconds-or-less, I compare it to other types of producer jobs often explaining that, in the same way a Television Producer is ultimately responsible for a show, an Interactive Producer is often the person in charge of web sites or mobile projects.

It’s primarily a content-focused job, but depending on the company you work within, you may be producing very different types of content (writing, audio, games, video, etc.). For example, in the past week I have fulfilled the role as…

• blogger
• photographer
• video producer
• director
• editor
• script writer
• marketer
• designer
• front-end developer
• community engagement
• strategist
• new business developer

Yes, just this past week — and these aren’t the only tasks I’m called upon to do.

Every Interactive Producer I know has a different background and each of these backgrounds is a strength. As you can see from my list of tasks this week, we’re called upon to do a lot of different things. Lines blur between roles and as such a developer could be just as good of a producer as a writer or photographer.

I recently found myself explaining my job to someone who really wanted to break out of communications and into the interactive industry. She was worried her skills wouldn’t translate. Fortunately, due to the communicative nature of our industry, her skills will be quite valuable. My advice to her and to anyone who wants to work in the new media industry is to simply learn as much as you can about lots of different interactive pieces. You never know what you’ll be called upon to do, so every skill is a strength.

The jobs page on this site should be up & running shortly. I’ll be focusing on posting jobs that relate to the new media industry and offer some tips about working within it both as staff and entrepreneur.