[ Operating model ] The Proving Ground
We run our own companies on the same tools and process we use for clients.
Alterra runs its own companies on one crew, one pipeline and software we wrote. A method only reaches a client after it has worked on us.
Four stations
Station 01 / 04
Brief.
Every job starts as a written brief with a date it works back from. The brief is a file the whole crew reads, so nothing depends on memory.
Station 02 / 04
Build.
Builders work to the brief in one shared design pipeline. Each owns its own files, so work never collides.
Station 03 / 04
Check.
A critic reviews every piece and automated gates must pass before anything is scheduled. The checker never made the work it judges.
Station 04 / 04
Read.
Performance is read on a schedule and the lessons are written back into the brief, so the next run starts better.
Rules
- 01
Briefs are files, not memory.
Every role is a written brief. Each project ends with lessons written back into it, so the next run starts better.
- 02
Checkers don't build.
The agent that judges the work is never the one that made it. Builders overrate their own work.
- 03
Sources are cited.
Then & Theory films say how we know what we know, and the research behind them is kept.
- 04
People own money, contracts and direction.
Agents never spend money, accept licences or open accounts. People set the standards and the strategy.
For clients
When you hire Alterra Studio, you work with a small team led by Ryan Hofmann, and the slow parts of the job are already automated: research, versioning, checks, renders. The time goes into the decisions that make the work good.
We run our own companies on the same tools and process we use for clients.