Imagine asking the question “What is a digital professional?” to a crowd of digital practitioners and one can only imagine the massively divergent set of ideas and opinions.  Just think about it for a moment: “What is a digital professional?  Someone with a ton of on-the-job experience?  The best development guru?  The best account director? The best interactive designer? The individual with the most creative ideas? One with the highest EQ?  The best team player?

Quantifying attributes to describe those successful in the digital space is difficult at best.  For those who are successful in today’s digital arena, the term polymath comes to mind: a person whose expertise spans a significant number of subject areas. 

I recently spent a few days at Adobe HQ in San Jose on behalf of SoDA for the Adobe Ed Leaders conference, and I had the benefit of engaging a lively discussion with a number of top digital educators, exploring the gaps that exist between digital industry and higher education.

For successful digital agencies, finding talent is an ongoing challenge.  Our industry is generally growing at a rate that suggests demand is outpacing supply.  While it’s true in most industries, the adage “good talent is hard to find” holds especially true in the digital realm, particularly due to the rapid pace of change and skill diversification in our nascent industry.

For all of the Universities and Colleges who have bravely tackled the mission of creating a dedicated digital offering, it is a continual challenge to remain on top of the various changes that are happening in the industry, let alone mapping new curricula to such changes. 

As Education is one of the three core areas (Best Practices and Advocacy are the other two) of SoDA’s mission, it is important for SoDA to facilitate ongoing dialogue with some of the nation’s top educators to understand what can be done to stay abreast of a continually changing landscape.  

While there’s a great deal of work to be done by both educational institutions and digital agencies, here are a few common threads that sparked some lively discussion:

• What exactly is a digital professional?  While it’s difficult to pin down a Wikipedia-style definition, we can at least start by generating baseline attributes common in various digital roles.
• Cross-departmental collaboration is critical to digital success. As the industry matures, the notion of traditional “departments” and “roles” is dissolving daily.  Digital is a team sport.
• Building bridges: where are the spaces that exist for industry and higher education to collaborate?  What new models can be explored to tighten communication between these seemingly disparate worlds?
• Soft skills are as (if not more) important than hard skills.  It’s what you know, and it’s you apply it.  Style, approach, and critical thinking, particularly in service-based organizations, are key skills to success.
• Nothing is ever “final” in digital.  Shifting a mentality from one of product finality to “perpetual Beta” is an ongoing reality.
• The shape of our industry is continually in flux and means that we need to rewrite the rules of engagement as often as necessary. Teaching improvisation rather than fixed methodologies will, in the long run, allow for digital thinkers to rely on a “toolkit” of frameworks, rather than a rigid processes.
• We need problem solvers, not solution experts.  The digital world is marked by daily failures.  Those that thrive in the digital world are those who experiment, fail, and make it better the next time.

As is likely evident from the points above, there’s a ton of work ahead, and much is still unknown.  That said, the point here is that we’ve begun to explore some exciting possibilities.  SoDA looks forward to engaging with higher education on a regular basis, and welcomes your engagement and feedback on this topic.