(Use the products because they ARE GREAT!)

What's a Front End Engineer?

• The role of a front end engineer in a modern content team.
• The role of content in a modern world.

How does a Front End Developer's skill apply to media (2016)?

The image above diagrams of most of the roles involved in content products for 2016.

• Product is placed in the middle because it negotiates workflow & new products for the different teams.

• User Experience works on what a content's customer does from interactions to analytics. They are also important when negotiating a site's information architecture.
• Design develops the site's identity & look as well as doing art direction with content editors & writers.

• Backend development focuses on the rendering data objects from the content editor input level.
• Frontend development starts when the data is massaged from data objects to the rendering of a page.

• Writer is a loose term as content can be imagery, video or word articles.
• Content Editors deal with content insertion into the product.

• Not pictured are sales/ad & core analytics people. They're also very important to a content sites success. Sales & ad people negotiate ad deals & affiliate content deals. Analytics people record & document the content product's data.

The Revenue Challenge

Front End Engineers are tasked with working with other teams to render captivating content & business oriented products.

Captivating content such as videos, collections, streams, galleries, quizzes & articles must be rendered in an exciting yet optimized manner.

Besides content, Front End engineers support testing, analytics, ads & affiliate goals.

Relevancy: content in a free era

Content is largely viewed as a free experience

via GIPHY

• Customers expect great products for free exactly how they want it.
• Businesses require great content to drive customer awareness.
• Customers enjoy marketing but on an increasingly invisible level.

• Front End Engineers are tasked with creating the happy medium of great content products & business goals.

Why this is exciting?

Content is more accessible & attainable than ever before

• Customers can consume, share & spin off good content easily.
• Content must be unique & well done to be relevant.

The Business need

Companies, like DSC & Buzzfeed, can change the game with great content.

What does this mean for the future?

For front end engineers

• Front End Engineers are currently in demand. However, it is an extremely fast-pasted industry. What was an innovation last year may have a very short shelf life at development's current pace.
• The role should be changing over the next years to no longer focus on visibility but most likely logical solutions to information architecture.

For content teams

• It is an exciting & innovative climate of constantly changing ways to deliver content.
• Most innovations don't involve a business price tag so businesses are expected to incorporate these tech innovations by users but don't get an obvious return on investment.
• This makes the financial aspects of content tumultuous.