I did a little bit of work-whine posting towards the end of January (thanks for your patience) and now that the stress and chaos of that time period is over, it dawned on me that you might be curious to know exactly what my job entails.
Well, here goes…
My official title is “Product Development Manager” at the craft company where I work. My unofficial titles include, but are not limited to (I know I’m going to forget some of them) customer service supervisor, designer, instruction writer, book editor, photographer, spec sheet writer, graphic artist, freelance coordinator, computer program person, sales presentation coordinator, part-time salesperson, backup phone operator, hooker, stitcher, model finisher, trade show organizer, trade show booth decorator, licensed product approval person, researcher and spell checker.
And I do this for not one, not two, but THREE companies! Since I joined the company we have absorbed two others so I guess I should also add a title like transitionist to all the others above.
As you might suspect, doing all the above for three companies is very chaotic. When you add that chaos to the creativity end of things, remembering that creativity is NEVER neat, you get an office that looks like this…
That would be my desk as viewed from the side wall. Please don’t ask me to clean it up — I know exactly where everything is in that mess. Honestly I do!!! (author’s note: point proven yesterday 2/15. Co-worker came up to the office, stood by my desk and asked “um…in this…um…mess, do you have the CD with the printer test files on it?” I leaned over to the file on my floor (next to tote bag in above pic), grabbed the CD and said “this”? Co-worker was stunned! I smiled and went back to work.)
That’s how my work area looks when you get to the top of the stairs and enter the office. Any wonder why my assistant and I are the only ones who regularly come upstairs?
And this lovely view is what I see when I stand in front of the cabinets behind my desk! Many of the cardboard boxes you see hold the models, signs and booth decorations that came back from the trade show. Yeah…that ended nearly 2 weeks ago, but with all the post-show follow-up and other emergencies that needed attention, emptying boxes fell so far down the to-do list that they’ve nearly fallen off it!
Now, back to all my responsibilities…
Customer service supervisor, book editor and backup phone operator are self-explanatory, but the rest? I’ll be as brief as possible…
I often design quick and easy projects that are needed. Though I can design complex projects I don’t do that for the company. I have a supply of freelancers that include designers, graphic artists, model creators and photographer, hence my freelance coordinator title. At the same time, I do each of the aforementioned jobs on a smaller scale. For example, I photograph all our models for the kit packaging, but when it comes to book shots, I use the photographer. I put my graphic artist skills to use for many sales sheets and all instructional layouts, but books, kit packaging and other materials going to off-site print houses all route through our graphic artist. And when the charts submitted by designers require changes, well, yours truly makes them (unless said change are major).
We have freelancers who create all our awesome models, but when there’s an emergency I spend my evening and/or weekend hours latch, locker or traditional rug hooking OR cross stitching. Hence the hooker and stitcher titles. HAH — bet you were wondering about the hooker part!
When all models are done, I have to finish them. That means I’m either sewing or mounting/matting/framing them – all of which are done at home not in the office (I refuse to lug all the finishing supplies to the office). Sometimes I curse the skills I have…
Once the models are done it’s time for sales presentations. If they’re e-mail presentations then it’s all about me. For a few of our customers the boss leaves it up to me as to what should be presented. When the presentations are in person, the boss gives me all the information and I pack up the models for their flight. In both cases I use my graphic artist skills to create the printed matter.
Because I am the person e-mailing the sales presentations I became THE contact person the buyers use for all our companies. In addition to the submittals, I also have to fill in and submit the endless paperwork for items that are being purchased. Each company has an overall form for the entire line as well as individual product information sheets. Unfortunately, no two companies have the same information sheet so each must be filled out individually. Note to self — talk to the boss about sales commission… 
Spec sheet writer and instruction writer are a tag team. I write all the instructions for all our kits and once they’re done, I do the instructional layouts then write the spec sheets that tell our factory what is needed in each kit.
Computer program person is NOT computer programmer. Not at all. What I do as a computer program person is assist my co-workers when they can’t figure out how to do something within a program. A key issue that constantly pops up is how to get something to print on one page instead of two. I so wish everyone would remember where the “fit to one page” feature is!!!
As our licensed product approval person I need to submit preproduction samples (finished models), packaging and sales material to the licensed properties following the guidelines for each. We have several active licenses (Thomas Kinkade, Disney Dreams Collection, Precious Moments, Care Bears and individual artists) and two more in the works. My penchant towards being a “dot the i’s cross the t’s” kind of person is a huge advantage in this area…
When discussing trade shows, know that everything except shipping requirements lands on my desk. And I do mean everything, from booth electrical, labor and carpet contracts to booth configuration, decorations, signs, sales brochures/catalogs and hotel reservations. Though two of my co-workers set up the booth walls and lights, it’s my responsibility to cover the walls with product. While at the show I meet with designers and artists, walk the show to see what’s new and demonstrate our products nearly non-stop.
You might be surprised to discover that most of my researching time is spent on things other than trends and the competition! I’m often asked to jump into researching things like office production printers/copiers and paper suppliers. Once I am told to get involved I forever become the “go to” person for any issues even remotely related to the subject…
Spell checker responsibilities are exactly what they sound like — I have somehow become everyone’s spell checker. Sheesh, if only computer programs came with such a feature!!! Seriously, I get phone calls from co-workers asking me how to spell words!!! Unfortunately the boss turns spell checking into correspondence composition and I frequently spend way too much time sitting in his office while he composes e-mails, my job being supplying missing words and/or spelling words aloud.
As you might have guessed by the wide variety of responsibilities that I have, I work for a very small company. My boss is the owner of the company and the in-house Product Development Department is 2 people strong – me and my assistant. Yay for freelancers!
For 9-10 months of the year my job is totally fine — chaotic in spurts but more than tolerable. For 2-3 months a year, the time frame I am now exiting, my job is pure hell. The closer the late January trade show gets the more the boss gets awesome new product ideas — all of which must be designed, executed, photographed and included in all printed material. That stress combined with freelancers who miss deadlines thereby requiring me to finish stitching/hooking the projects at home during my nights/weekends can stretch me to my limits. Add to that Murphy’s Law, multiples of which have me constantly coming up with alternate plans to get everything done, and well, you can understand why I vented those few days before the trade show.
These past two weeks post show have been just as chaotic and somehow twice as stressful, but all of that is noticeably waning. By the end of this upcoming week, work life should return to its normal pace — one that is sporadically chaotic but always under control.
I leave you with this tidbit of information…
The Disney Dreams Collection is complete with 4 large (16″ x 12″) and 4 small (5″ x 7″) counted cross stitch designs that are completely stitched. For the larger designs that means there are more than 63,000, yes, sixty-three THOUSAND stitches!!! But they are SPECTACULAR —- just take a look at Snow White Discovers The Cottage!
A completed design this incredible makes everything so worthwhile…
Wow! Nothing more to say except “Great Job”, as in doing, not necessarily having (for most people)!
Oh my gosh, I got overwhelmed just reading about your job! Wow. I have no idea what your salary is, but whatever it is, it isn’t enough!
That company is seriously lucky to have you Judy.
[...] As most of you know by now I have been blessed with every creative gene that exists in my family. My boss would even agree as he often tells me that few people craft/create as much as I do. As spot on as that observation is, the same boss often says that creative/crafty people are not smart enough to be effective businessmen/women and don’t have the brains to be responsible outside of the creative arena. Hhhmmm…what does that say about said boss’s judgement to relocate me from MA to CA so I could do all this stuff for his company? [...]