From July 2010 I was employed by music recommendation and streaming service Last.fm as their Data Griot. The role initially called for someone to produce daily blog and audio copy for an editorial franchise syndicated to websites owned by Last.fm’s parent company, CBS. It very quickly blossomed into something different.

By the time I left in May 2012 I had produced site messaging for new features and apps, written three adverts screened on the London Underground, helped pull together data visualisations at live events, drafted new brand-positioning documents…

…project managed the rebranding of a live events franchise, handled deprecation messaging, helped set in place guidelines for downtime announcements, formalised copy guidelines for use across the service and its apps, written the copy for hundreds of buttons, dials and toggles…

…produced about half-a-dozen ‘social media strategy’ documents, taken a crash course in information architecture and content strategy, spoken about the service and its users at live events, helped conceive of a little gang of ‘brand ambassadors’, learned two project management methodologies…

…sliced data to explore user types and behaviours for our sales team, led the editorial process of Last.fm’s ‘Best of’ franchise in 2010 and 2011 (following up on work I’d done for them as a freelancer in 2008 and 2009), and written daily audio scripts broadcast to more than 9 million terrestrial and HD radio listeners in North America.

It was difficult and brilliant work, and it left me with a job title I’ll need to explain for the rest of my life.