People are at the heart of good DAM governance
Once you identify the need for governance for your DAM program, your next step is to assemble and align your team.
Any technology platform with diverse use cases and users, like a digital asset management system, needs strong ownership and clear rules of engagement amongst a committee of champions if they intend to succeed and ultimately improve content management practices. Whether your DAM system only supports marketing and brand efforts, has gated levels of access for an array of product lines, or is a growing repository made to drive consistency amongst business units, you have to be clear on what its mission is in your organization, and populate your governance team with representatives that can speak to those perspectives.
Over time, mission, vision, and goals of a DAM will shift and change, making it all the more important to have the right people in place to manage that as a team.
Governance personas
The easiest place to start when forming a DAM governance team is to map people to personas. Personas focus on roles, responsibilities and their impact, and don’t emphasize title as the primary indicator of the person’s contribution. Many early generation DAM programs operated solely on the basis on positional authority (ie: the person with the highest title and the loudest voice drove the agenda). Typically, this approach is limited by the biases of that loudest voice, relies on compliance rather than true adoption, and prevents virtuous collaboration amongst teams. With a persona-based approach, there is a documented way for everyone to contribute and play the right position that meets the needs of the organization at the right time.
Note: This breakdown serves as a guide. Adapt names and responsibilities to account for your organization’s unique functional and cultural needs so that your DAM program is as successful as it can be. Be sure to document, share, and audit this structure for effectiveness, making revisions as needed.
Persona 1: DAM Governance Chair
Responsible for mobilizing the rest of the DAM Governance team. Manage the roadmap of initiatives and backlog of requests for the DAM program, and is the main point of contact for all things DAM internally and with your DAM vendor. This should be a senior or lead digital asset manager who is able to work up and down the org chart.
Persona 2: DAM Manager
Responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of your DAM system, working with the Governance Chair and Users on surfacing and solving requests. Typically will be junior to mid-level digital asset managers or specialists.
Persona 3: DAM User
Users who regularly access and use the DAM, representing teams or wider departments. Shares questions, feedback, and insights on behalf of their teams (ie: Marketing, Sales, Creative, etc).
Persona 4: DAM Partner
Users who support the DAM in a more focused capacity, provide a specific consultative service, and benefit from visibility on the DAM program. Typically includes representatives from IT (supporting technical set up, integrations, custom builds), Finance (budget, contracts), Legal (rights metadata, litigations), and others.
Persona 5: Leadership
Manager/Director+ and other senior figureheads who maintain visibility through program updates or escalations. As needed, clears away blocks or disputes regarding budget, partnerships, strategic direction and adoption.
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Between these five distinct roles, DAM champions, contributors and others can emerge at any level and find an opportunity to lend their support to the DAM’s success. In smaller organizations where DAM has a small presence, someone may need to hold multiple roles.
Personas in action
At the dawn of a new DAM program, things may begin with a Creative Director with a bold vision to make their creative team more effective. They’ve onboarded a DAM system with the goal to drive better brand consistency and house key creative assets for a small but mighty marketing organization. Initially, they may need to split their attention and responsibilities as Governance Chair (coordinating efforts), DAM Manager (configuring the system, uploading and curating content) and Leadership (managing people and representing their department). Juggling three roles may be necessary until they’re able to hire a dedicated digital asset manager who can fulfill the day-to-day work of running a DAM.
That newly hired DAM Manager can eventually step up into owning Governance Chair responsibilities while building up a loyal base of Users and Partners within the organization. As time goes by, the Creative Director, seen as the DAM program’s originator, could comfortably step into an advisory role, where they can continue to spread the word about DAM across their organization, leading to more organic growth and adoption. That first DAM hire continues to take the program to new heights, building upon the initial work that the Creative Director started.
The possibilities are endless, which makes governance a very exciting cornerstone of any DAM program. With people in place, all sorts of activities, from evaluating and implementing additional product features and integrations with the DAM system, to coordinating the next content migration and inviting more teams to using the DAM, can have a layer of governance to manage the discussions, decision making of the DAM team.
This is part of a series of articles on digital asset management governance. Stay tuned for more entries as we dive deeper into how it can rescue troubled DAM programs, discuss examples of governance in action, and share other best practices.
If you’re ready to start optimizing your DAM program, now is the perfect time to contact us!