At Bravado, Universal Music Group's merchandise company, I worked on royalties for the shirts and tour merchandise people buy because they love an artist.
Part of my work involved preparing contract terms for a royalty system, which meant reading the agreements and turning them into information somebody could use. The rate needed its basis, the advance needed its recoupment terms, and the exceptions needed to stay attached to the right agreement.
It took careful reading. I happen to love reading contracts, which I'm aware is a strange thing to say, but an exception several pages away can change the answer you thought you'd already found. That was a substantial part of the work.
I also reconciled royalty reports, reviewed calculations and helped answer questions when a figure needed explaining, alongside colleagues who brought their own knowledge to the process. The regular reporting continued while we worked on the system transition.
What stayed with me was how much there was to learn from the existing reports and the people who understood them, because a calculation can carry decisions made long before you arrived, and asking why it works that way is part of understanding what the new system needs to preserve.
The agreements and supporting records gave us something to check against when comparing results. Agreement between two calculations is useful; understanding why they agree is what lets you rely on them.
I want those differences explained before asking people to depend on a new system, and I want the people who understand the earlier work involved in that conversation.
Tell me what you're working on.