With Ideasicle X The Agency Is More Than A Customer Of Freelancers, But A Participant

We’ve talked about why the platform uses four freelancers as a team, how the building and riffing are the magic, and how the virtual nature actually accelerates creativity. But what we haven’t talked about is the critical roles the customer plays in all this. In short, the agency customer not just a bystander, but an active participant. Let me explain.

Role #1: General Manager

The GM of professional sports teams, among other responsibilities, is tasked with assembling the team to put on the field. They look at cost, at talent, at chemistry with others, and many other factors. The Ideasicle X customer has a similar role filling the four freelancer slots with each idea project.

It’s actually fun to think about how this public relations person might interact with that social media person. Or how having two creative directors working with a retail expert and a creative strategist might turn out. It’s fun, but it’s also the first important decision the customer will make in preparing the job.

The Ideasicle X platform makes performing “GM duties” easy with a search function to find the right talent or experience, a way to invite eight or nine freelancers to make sure you end up with four, even a way to manage and propose custom payments to each freelancer for each job. Once the freelancers are invited, the customer can finalize the team of four amongst those who accepted the invitation (sometimes more than four accept). Now it’s time to inspire them.

Role #2: Inspiration

Once the team is invited it’s time to post briefing materials to inspire the ultimate team of four to come up with brilliant ideas. Again, Ideasicle X makes it easy to post a pdf of the creative brief and a short (under 10 minute) video of you explaining the brief to the team.

Your ability to write a great brief and post a clear video will contribute to the team’s inspirational energy. The video doesn’t have to be anything fancy, it can even be shot on your phone. But the video will allow you to explain the nuances and any creative biases you may have. Once posted, the video and pdf show up right on top of the Idea Stream, where all the idea action happens.

Here’s more on writing a great, inspiring creative brief. Now, time to tap into your inner Bill Belichick.

Role #3: Coach

The job has begun and now you’re ready to coach the team to great ideas. With Ideasicle X the customer can see the ideas as they are posted by the team as well as any builds or riffs. At this point, you have a two important super powers.

One, you can create a vibe that encourages creativity. You can post simple complements as “builds” to ideas you like. You can post your own builds and ideas. Generally speaking your encouragement will further inspire the team beyond the brief. This encouraging vibe is especially important in the first few days of the job while the team is getting their heads around the assignment.

Two, you can course correct as needed. Someone may post an idea that you think is off track and before the team takes too much time posting builds you can simply say something like, “That’s a great idea, but for this client I’m not sure the tone is right. What if we did the same thing, only instead of X we do Y?” You get the idea, but this is essentially in-game coaching to make sure the idea generating session is as productive as possible.

The nuance and skill to the coaching aspect involves not being too heavy handed in the beginning of the session. Maybe the first day or two you simply observe and post encouraging comments when you see greatness. The teams appreciate being given the freedom to explore whatever-the-hell early on. That’s the nature of creativity. But then by day three (of a one week assignment, say) you can start to do some course correcting as you think is necessary.

This ain’t your father’s freelance model.

Time was, the customer (the agency) would hire freelancers, brief them, and not see them for a week while they concepted. Not with Ideasicle X. The platform gives the customer visibility into the creative process in realtime and with that visibility comes a little more responsibility.

But what you’ll end up with is an absolute flurry of usable ideas, thought starters, and creative considerations you can further develop, comp up, and present to your clients. And that’s what it’s all about.