A long time ago, Lektorium's team was tiny There was a producer and a cutter. The producer used to work as a manager, guidance counselor, a videographer, a course speaker, an editor... After a little while, it led to a burnout. A course team is a creative team. On one hand, it's really important to keep a creative atmosphere, the team should feel free. On the other hand, it's necessary to agree on terms and organize the process. That's why now a course is created by a manager, a producer, a cutter (even two), a proofreader, a launch supervisor, an author and his assistant. Let's examine what does a manager do. It is a person is the course team who agrees on deadlines and budgets and controls them, delivers final materials to the customer... By the way, one of the common rules in Lektorium says that the manager talks to the customer and the producer talks to the author. In our opinion, this division of roles is important because it lets the producer focus on content's quality. The third function of the manager is a midpoint assessment. It helps the manager to correct the project as early as possible because the nearer the end the smaller your room for maneuver is. After some point, the manager is like an extra who can't do anything. Also, the manager's job is to solve all the problems. He/She's like Mr. Wolf - he/she's right there when the problem appears. A good manager knows that in every project something always goes wrong. It never goes as initially planed. One more important function of a manager is taking care of the other team members. A good manager doesn't spread his/her anxiety around and doesn't burden the team with his/her pain. He/She knows that while everything is fine his/her main role is not to disturb the team. Really, don't distract them! If they don't need you - that's great! You have some time to invent something cool and interesting. The next function is taking care of the customer. It's really great when instead of formal communication the manager shows concern and helps to all solve problems and questionable issues that arise during the project. Honesty is a type of care. What qualities are necessary for a producer? That main thing is that he/she should act as a guidance counselor because we work with educational content. Producer helps the author to pack his/her knowledge into an online format. Producer has to be a psychologist as well because he/she works directly with the author, but there are many other people in a team to organize and negotiate. Each producer is a bit of a designer as well because he/she and a cutter creates a course design and persuades to choose a particular style for the whole course. Also, a producer is a bit of a cutter as he/she makes a draft choice of materials after a shooting. He/she is a cold calls specialist too. Remember all the people to be organized during the project? Not all of them are responsible. Who is a cutter? He develops a course design, makes lectures montage, works with graphics and animation as well as the sound. So, a cutter should be able to use related editing software, be curious and have a sense of beauty. Course Launch Supervisor's core functions include communication with the author (so, he/she should be a bit psychologist too), communication with users (kindness and sociability are required) and launch and support of the course on a platform (which requires technical skills in working with the platform and attention to details. An author is the heart of a course; he is responsible for subject content. What is important here? First of all, the author's conscious motivation - he should be particularly interested in course creation. Profound knowledge of his/her subject is extremely important as well. Interest in the subject and ability to get others interested in it is also necessary. Willingness to try new formats (which means being flexible and ready for a large audience) is equally essential. A course assistant should know his/her subject matter, he/she should have the right motivation (which means he/she should be interested in the course itself, not in the author's protection). And, of course, it's great when the assistant is a reliable person. Please, notice that I didn't tell you about some specific titles, it's more like a set of duties. They might be combined, divided or rearrange depending on your goals and resources available. Tasks might be assigned in various ways inside the team. You've got an absolute freedom of choice.
