Most new media is destined to fail. Whether it's a song, film, website, book, video game, or advertisement, it's extremely difficult to create works that resonate with audiences.
Lean Media can give creators and media companies an edge. The innovation framework for new media has worked for some of the biggest media brands and most well-known artists, as well as smaller creative teams and media ventures. It draws on the same "lean" approaches adopted by manufacturing and tech startups, but is optimized for the unique needs and creative methods used in the media industry.
In Lean Media, author Ian Lamont shows how the framework can streamline processes, lower costs, reduce the risk of failure, and ultimately create media that matters. Packed with examples as diverse as The Simpsons, Led Zeppelin, Minecraft, and more, Lean Media outlines the framework for producing high-quality media on time and on budget.
If you create media, the Lean Media framework provides the tools and know-how to develop media that clicks with audiences. Whether you work on a large team or are a solo creator, the creativity framework can help you iteratively develop great media, informed by audience input and with a minimum of bureaucratic overhead.
If you run a media business, Lean Media can help you optimize teams, streamline decision-making, and increase audience engagement. Lean Media can also inform creative and business leaders about how to pivot a media project, or when to abandon projects that simply aren't working out.
Who This Book Is For
All kinds of media professionals can leverage the framework, including filmmakers, publishers, broadcasters, graphic designers, website operators, recording artists, video game designers, copywriters, creative directors, and performance artists.
What This Book Covers
- How Lean thinking applies to media production
- The three core Lean Media principles: reduce waste, understand audiences, and focus creativity
- How to find product-market fit for media content
- Building and managing a lean creative team
- Collecting and leveraging audience feedback at every stage of production
- Using the Lean Media flowchart and project planner to guide development
- When to pivot a media project and when to abandon it entirely
- Case studies including Led Zeppelin, The Simpsons, Minecraft, and Napoleon Dynamite
John Maeda, Head of Computational Design and Inclusion at Automattic and author of Laws of Simplicity, has praised the book's approach: "Lamont has successfully taken concepts from the Lean Startup movement and applied them to media production projects. No longer can there be the 'one visionary way' — instead, there needs to be humility (know your customer) and incrementalism (test often) as the keys to creative outcomes."
If you make media and want to make it better, Lean Media is the framework you have been looking for.
About the author: Ian Lamont is an award-winning technology journalist, author, and publisher. He is a graduate of Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and writes about Lean Media and related business and technology topics at leanmedia.org.
Ian Lamont is founder and president of i30 Media Corp., which publishes the award-winning In 30 Minutes series of guidebooks. He is also the creator of the Lean Media framework, which can help creative people and production teams develop media that matters. Lamont's career has spanned more than 25 years across three continents, including a stint in the British music industry and a six-year residence in Taipei where he worked for a local broadcaster and newspaper. Returning to the United States, he developed websites, online communities, and other digital products for Harvard University and tech publisher IDG. He later served as managing editor of The Industry Standard, winning multiple awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) and Trade Association Business Publications International (TABPI) for online projects, creative use of online, and online features.
Lamont is a graduate of Boston University's College of Communication. In 2011, he completed the Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership, a full-time MBA program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For more information, please visit www.LeanMedia.org.
