What is cross function?
Cross function describes work that cuts across the lines on the org chart. In an agency it means strategy, creative, production, design and account working together on a job from the start, instead of each doing its part and passing the file along. In a client organization it means marketing, product, legal and sales in the same room when the campaign is being decided. The term is used both for the structure (a cross-functional team) and for the habit (working cross-functionally).
It is the opposite of the relay race, where each department finishes its leg and hands over a baton that has usually been dropped at least once.
Why it matters
Why cross function matters
Integrated work needs integrated teams. A campaign that has to live as a film, a social program, a retail moment and a press story cannot be made by four departments working in turn, because every decision in one affects the others. Cross function puts those decisions in one conversation. The result is faster, because problems are found when they are cheap, and better, because the idea is shaped by everyone who has to make it work.
It also builds judgment. A strategist who has sat in an edit writes better briefs. An editor who has heard the client's business problem cuts differently.
In practice
How cross function works in practice
- 01
A cross-functional team is assembled for the job, with one lead and a clear brief, and it stays together through the project rather than being consulted at stages. Meetings include everyone whose work the decision touches. The project tool is shared, so the producer sees the strategist's notes and the designer sees the shoot schedule. Disagreements are resolved in the room, by the lead, against the brief.
- 02
In a client organization it usually needs sponsorship: someone senior who says this campaign is run by one team, not reviewed by six departments in turn. Without that, cross function collapses into cross-approval, which is slower than the relay race it replaced.
At RIOT
Cross function at RIOT
RIOT is small enough that cross function is the default: strategy, creative, design and production share one room, and the person who wrote the brief is on set. The 2022 rebrand of the Washington Commanders, a sports franchise changing its name in public, shows what that produces. The rebrand film, the new identity trailer and the Major Tuddy mascot reveal with its Making the Mascot documentary were identity, film and mascot handled as one body of work rather than three departments' outputs.
Watch out
What people get wrong about cross function
Mistaking a big meeting for cross function. Twelve people in a review is not a cross-functional team; it is an audience. The team is the handful of people who make the work, each from a different discipline, with the authority to decide. The other mistake is no lead. Cross function without a single accountable person becomes consensus, and consensus produces the average of everyone's idea.
