The growing gig economy of knowledge workers

It’s earning season and we’re seeing more rounds of significant layoffs among creative professionals. The last time there was this much disruption to the creative talent market was, well, not that long ago! About 10 years ago, we saw all of Silicon Valley begin fighting over creative talent with the same force they did over tech talent. That drove the move from agencies to in-house.  The situation got so uncomfortable for former WPP CEO Martin Sorrell that he lashed out at Meta’s Sales leadership (two of whom were his former lieutenants) in a tense meeting at the Cannes Festival of Creativity.

A lot of us are setting up our own shops on a bet that the dominant new way of working (on the most exciting projects) will be through boutique practices…

How times have changed: many thousands of those same creatives who were the subject of talent wars have been unceremoniously laid off, some multiple times now. Where are we going? (notice the shift to first-person plural).  A lot of us are setting up our own shops on a bet that dominant new way of working (on the most exciting projects) will be through boutique practices. It’s basically gig-work for knowledge-workers. 

So if I’m right… what does the advent of a knowledge-worker gig economy portend?    

1. Work organized around projects: Right now, creative work is grounded in a company’s org chart. We think this will change to look more like the way Hollywood works, creative teams will be hired onto specific projects to develop programs and initiatives, get them off the ground, and maintain them through obsolescence. I imagine we’ll all be managing portfolios of 3-24 month term projects, after which teams disperse and (hopefully) get hired into other exciting projects.
2. Hyper-specialized practices: It’s been a difficult world for generalists in the last 2 years as companies shed workers who may do well working across a few functions (hello, Program Managers). In the knowledge-worker gig economy, workers with yoda-like mastery of a narrow set of skills will do best. Develop your specialty.
3. Creative Unions: This new category of gig working will not be the same as driving for DoorDash or Lyft. These workers can ensure they have fair contracts, clear legal rights, and access to a stable of high-quality benefits they’re used to. I think collective bargaining will help us get there. 
4. Small Biz Infrastructure: Platforms that will win are those that help these small businesses manage their work more efficiently: from setting up LLCs, to managing contracts, accounting, finance, & benefits, to AI assistants that enable creatives to focus on developing and executing great ideas.