Joining us is Amy Tesch Strickland of Cella, a prominent figure in the creative operations community with extensive experience on both the brand and consulting sides, known for her expertise in guiding creative and marketing operations teams. You’ll hear about the strategic positioning of creative operations within an organization, the natural (and untapped?) potential of closer alignment between creative and marketing operations, and how this may be a key factor in  creative ops maturing from a tactical to a strategic function.

In this episode, I list various ways creative operations leaders can leverage AI to enhance their work. Using the T3 (Thunking, Thinking & Transforming with) AI framework I walk through some easy and accessible ways to leverage AI. To free up time by outsourcing your boring, rote work to it. And re-investing that time to use AI as a thinking partner and become. the 10x leader you can be. And continue your transition to being a strategic creative operations leader. 

This is request to you - the Creative Ops Professional - to take a moment to participate in two important surveys focused on creative operations. Links below! As we navigate the evolving landscape of our profession, understanding where we stand today is crucial. These surveys are more than just questionnaires; they are tools that will help us benchmark our current state and envision the future of creative operations.

Mark Brady, Head of Creative Solutions at HubSpot, discusses the value of self-service automation to increase content and go to market velocity and at the same time free up creatives. Said differently: Deliver More, Deliver Faster, Deliver Cost Effectively. He explains how HubSpot has implemented self-service automation through tools like Canva, web modules, and email templates, allowing marketers to create on-brand experiences. Allowing the creative team to focus on "big think" work. He also discusses the use of data to inform decision-making and measure success in self-service automation. Lastly, Mark explores how Hubspot's self-service automation journey is informing a smarter approach to how they are rolling out and getting value from the emerging crop of AI tools. 

In this kickoff episode of our AI Creative/Operations Wave Series, we are joined by Juliana Vail from Dreem.Ai This conversation starts us on our journey of surfing the gentle and not so gentle waves of the AI Tsunami. Juliana applies her expertise from 18 years of leveraging each successive wave of new technology to unlock new possibilities and value in creative workflows. With the active participation of the audience for this live recording we tackle a number of topics. This is the first in a series of ongoing discussions where Juliana and Nish along with the audience will share and explore what is happening, working and not working as we all deal with the enormous challenges and opportunities of "AI is Going to Change Everything."

In this kickoff episode of our Data & Metrics Series, we are joined by Nickole Brown from Cella. The conversation dives into the critical role of data and metrics in creative operations. Nickole elevates our understanding at the 100,000-foot view, exploring how effectively leveraging data and metrics can transition creative operations from a tactical function to a strategic role.

In this episode, I share  insights and observations from my conversations with many of you across the creative ops community. In this episode I discuss the maturity of creative operations, the need for clear definitions and paths for creative operations leaders, and the importance of using metrics and data. I also explore the emergence of meta workflows in creative operations, focusing on scale and speed, as well as storytelling. Lastly, I address emerging concerns about layoffs and the opportunities for creative operations leaders to step up and navigate through these challenges.

The 'Takeaways' episodes offer my key insights and actionable ideas from our guest interviews. Through these episodes I am sharing what I am learning and some of the dots that I am connecting along the way. 

Joining us is Paul Nicholson who just wrapped up 20+ years with Showtime Networks, a prominent American premium television network known for its wide array of original programming, movies, documentaries, and sports. This episode dives  into Paul's approach to implementing change to reduce friction in creative workflows. Learn about his  'Product Release' strategy for change, when and how to gather team input, the science and art (or is that experience based instinct) for how to  prioritize changes, how and why to sell change up the org chart, packaging change into mini releases, and measuring progress and impact along the way. All that and more.

Joining us is Dmitry Shamis whose experience includes brand and creative at SevenRooms, founding The Creative Brand, and heading creative and brand at HubSpot. You’ll hear about the importance of creative operations as a connective hub, the role of self-service tools in accelerating marketing experiments, and the need for aligning creative operations with business KPIs.

Joining us is Michelle Vincent of Mofilm, a creative agency focused on storytelling and leveraging AI in creative operations. You’ll hear how Mofilm uses AI as a creative assistant, the importance of storytelling in the age of algorithms, and the challenges of data bias in AI tools.

Joining us is Kate Sullivan of HubSpot, a leading inbound marketing, sales, and customer service software company. You’ll hear about adapting communication styles in creative ops, the value of a service mindset, and managing creative processes through unique dining experience analogies.

Welcome to the Creative Ops podcast podcast. I created it to open up conversations about our emerging field. With creative ops in its "teenage years," we need community and clarity of purpose as we grow. My vision is to drive curiosity through interviews with innovators across industries. We'll explore experiences, challenges and wins around creative ops' core of people, process and technology. I'll also share my own hot takes on key topics and trends like the impacts of AI.