Creative Ops Compass explores the operational challenges that cost in-house creative teams time, money, and strategic influence. Each episode digs into a specific problem, from stakeholder misalignment to capacity planning to proving ROI, and delivers practical solutions drawn from real teams at large organizations. Hosted by Jesse Krinsky, founder of In Focus Consulting (https://www.infocusconsulting.net) and a creative operations consultant with 20 years of experience leading and advising creative teams at companies like Thermo Fisher Scientific, The Economist, Samsung, and Johnson & Johnson.
When Everything Feels Urgent, Find the 12 Notes - with Paul Nicholson
“There are only 12 notes.” That's what a professor told Paul Nicholson, a saxophone player who could play anything put in front of him but was terrified of making music up on his own. The line stayed with him and became a mantra he repeated whenever things got crazy and chaotic: when something feels overwhelming, strip it down to what's actually essential.
In this episode, Paul, now a creative leader with more than 20 years’ experience building and running in-house creative teams, and the author of There Are Only 12 Notes: Leadership Lessons from Music (https://www.amazon.com/There-Are-Only-Notes-Leadership-ebook/dp/B0H6KQS5LW/), discusses what that idea looks like in practice at three levels: a team member who's resisting a change, a department going through several changes at once, and a boss who adds to the chaos instead of calming it.
Key Topics Discussed
How to find out the real reasons your team members resist changes
Why one-on-one conversations land better than a town hall when you're introducing a change to stakeholders
How to simplify an urgent request without cutting corners
What to do when the leader above you wants to rebuild the entire process after every mistake
Connect with Jesse
Take the free Creative Ops Assessment at www.infocusconsulting.net/assessment (https://www.infocusconsulting.net/creative-ops-assessment)
Connect with Jesse on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessekrinsky (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessekrinsky)
Have a creative ops challenge you're facing? Want to be a guest on the show? Reach out at jesse@infocusconsulting.net (mailto:jesse@infocusconsulting.net)
8 Sept 2026
Most Production Problems Are Actually Alignment Problems - with Roma Ahi
Take the free Creative Ops Assessment at www.InFocusConsulting.net/assessment (http://www.infocusconsulting.net/assessment)
Show Notes
Blown budgets and missed deadline are typically seen as production problems. Roma Ahi, President of Makers (https://www.makers.to/), sees it differently: by the time an issue reaches production, it's really an alignment problem that started weeks earlier and just took that long to surface.
Roma also explains why she recommends placing a Chief Production Officer in the C-suite alongside the CMO and CCO, the clear signs that a brief wasn't aligned before it went out, and why in-house teams need the the standing to walk away from an impossible ask.
About the Guest
Roma Ahi is the President of Makers, a production agency that works alongside in-house creative teams and external agencies on projects ranging from social content to national campaigns. Before joining Makers, she spent eight years as VP of Production at a Toronto agency, leading an integrated production team across video, experiential, digital, and events for major financial, CPG, and beverage brands. Her path there ran through broadcast TV, politics, and news, giving her a wide-angle view of how production gets done across very different industries.
Key Topics Discussed
The depth-versus-breadth split between in-house teams and external agencies, and how teams on both sides undercut their own value by trying to claim the other's strength
Why in-house teams rarely ask their production or agency partners for strategic advice before a brief is even written, and what that costs them
Why performance metrics are so rarely shared with the people making the work, and what changes when they are
Connect with Jesse
Connect with Jesse on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessekrinsky (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessekrinsky)
Have a creative ops challenge you're facing? Want to be a guest on the show? Reach out at www.infocusconsulting.net (http://www.infocusconsulting.net) or jesse@infocusconsulting.net (mailto:jesse@infocusconsulting.net)
20 Jul 2026
Why In-House Creative Leaders Must Stop Waiting for Permission
In this solo minisode, Jesse breaks down a mindset most in-house teams don't realize is holding them back: waiting for permission to change.
Jesse discusses "identity-based resilience" (the idea that lasting change starts with deciding who you are, not just what you'll do differently) and walks through what that looks like in practice for a creative team that's stuck in reactive mode.
In this episode:
Why believing nothing will change is often what guarantees it won't
The three-step shift: decide, define, act
Why this is as much about protecting the business as it is about protecting your team
Get your team's starting point:
If you're not sure where to begin, take the free Creative Ops Assessment at infocusconsulting.net/assessment (http://infocusconsulting.net/assessment). It takes about three minutes and shows you exactly where your team stands today.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
2 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
2 ratings
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