Creative leadership, from idea to finished work.

The refresh was already in place when I took on the role. I needed to understand the response before deciding what to change. A request for a shorter video could mean several things: the story was hard to follow, a character exchange was distracting, or children needed more chances to participate.

We couldn’t wait for new scripts to move through production before responding. I led recuts of existing episodes while working with the show’s director and writers on future programs. That gave customers revised material sooner and gave us time to address the writing more thoroughly.

For the recuts, I asked for shorter openings, simpler language and a clearer teaching takeaway. I wanted character moments to support the story. For future scripts, I also worked with writers on more invitations for children to respond or move. I guided the creative direction and made the final editorial decisions; the writers and production team put those changes into practice.

Customer Success reported encouraging early reactions to the revised episodes and requests for more. I followed up with customers to ask what felt different, so we could keep learning from their experience rather than treating delivery as the end of the conversation.

My contribution: Customer conversations, creative direction, final editorial decisions and follow-up. Collaborators: The show’s director, writers, editors, production and Customer Success teams.

Following an acquisition, I moved from creative producing into post-production leadership. We had brought a large freelance workload into a smaller internal team. Requests kept increasing, and I could see that asking the same people to work harder at every stage wasn’t a workable answer.

Junior editors had mainly handled organization and preparation. I started trusting them with first cuts, where they could practice shaping an episode. Senior editors still refined and finalized the work, but they no longer needed to carry every early creative decision themselves.

I paired that autonomy with support. Senior editors coached juniors through peer evaluation and review, and I asked them to make their expectations clear. Show-specific rubrics and shared preparation standards gave everyone a better understanding of what a good handoff looked like.

We met growing production demands with a different division of responsibility. Junior editors gained experience making creative decisions, and senior editors took a more active role in developing them. I had to give both groups room to work while keeping review and accountability in place.

My contribution: Developing team capacity, expanding junior responsibilities, and delegating standards and coaching. Collaborators: Junior editors responsible for first cuts, senior editors responsible for refinement, finalization and coaching, and the wider production team.

We wanted Spanish-speaking children to hear the performances in their own language. That meant finding a partner who could work with singing, shouting, scenes with several speakers and changing camera angles, while keeping the character of the original work.

Once we selected Deepdub, I developed the scope and review plan with production leadership. I worked through onboarding and helped fit the partner’s work into our schedule. Editors, sound, localization, reviewers and the delivery team needed to understand what they were receiving and what came next.

When issues surfaced, I shared our reviewers’ feedback with the partner and followed the corrections through revised delivery. I stayed with that process as we established clear expectations and learned how to work together.

Deepdub performed the localization, supported by our production and review teams. I chose the partner and helped make the relationship work in practice. The Spanish versions give children a way to experience the stories in their first language, with dubbing designed to feel natural and easy to follow.

My contribution: Partner research and selection, production workflow, review coordination and follow-through. Collaborators: Deepdub for localization and corrected files; internal production leadership, editors, sound, quality control reviewers and delivery teams.