I went to film school and for all of film school’s quirks, my friends who broke into the industry have a fairly easy job explaining what they do for a living.
“I work on film special effects.”
“I write for a late night show.”
“I’m an animation editor.”
I went into advertising, but not the straightforward advertising where I could tell people “I write TV commercials.” I started in social media strategy before Twitter existed, then moved to digital strategy and eventually brand strategy. Every step of my career has brought me further away from an easy explanation of what I do. And every functionally good definition just sounds like buzzwords.
I’ve tried to explain it to my brother, who is a composer, and my mom, who was a computer programmer, to no avail. My dad gets the closest, but he also worked in the adjacent publishing industry for 20+ years.
My favorite description doesn’t do a good job of explaining what a strategist does, but it does do a good job of explaining what strategy is for. Strategy is 10% getting the right answer and 90% asking the right question.
Strategy isn’t about being the end-all-be-all or solving all the big problems. Sometimes strategy is best suited to identify the real problem then get out of the way. One of the little hints of a good strategist I look for when hiring is someone who is able to hear the question beneath the question, listening past the request and into the felt-need. When you understand that, you understand the real question.
Strategy is at its best opening doors to big ideas, clearing the path so creatives can do great work, and living in the connective space between product, marketing, creative, and content.
“I work on film special effects.”
“I write for a late night show.”
“I’m an animation editor.”
I went into advertising, but not the straightforward advertising where I could tell people “I write TV commercials.” I started in social media strategy before Twitter existed, then moved to digital strategy and eventually brand strategy. Every step of my career has brought me further away from an easy explanation of what I do. And every functionally good definition just sounds like buzzwords.
I’ve tried to explain it to my brother, who is a composer, and my mom, who was a computer programmer, to no avail. My dad gets the closest, but he also worked in the adjacent publishing industry for 20+ years.
My favorite description doesn’t do a good job of explaining what a strategist does, but it does do a good job of explaining what strategy is for. Strategy is 10% getting the right answer and 90% asking the right question.
Strategy isn’t about being the end-all-be-all or solving all the big problems. Sometimes strategy is best suited to identify the real problem then get out of the way. One of the little hints of a good strategist I look for when hiring is someone who is able to hear the question beneath the question, listening past the request and into the felt-need. When you understand that, you understand the real question.
Strategy is at its best opening doors to big ideas, clearing the path so creatives can do great work, and living in the connective space between product, marketing, creative, and content.
Good strategists are prompters, empowerers, encouragers, and synthesizers. A good way to integrate strategic work into your life is to stop trying to be the first one to answer the question and start trying to be the one who listens more closely and finds the right question. Even if you still have to answer the question, it'll make your answer better every time.