A few years ago, I wrote about the one word that changes how I answer every question.  Well, that is SO 2015.  I have a new favorite phrase now: “How should I think about XYZ?“

As a child, my father said the same thing to me before school every day: “Ask good questions.” That is, to this day, one of his only pieces of advice.  (“Do what you think is right,” is another one, as is one passed down from his father, “Don’t waste time on crudite at a cocktail hour”).

But back to “Ask good questions.”

As I’ve progressed through my career, themes of independence and decision-making have continued to express themselves.  Not going to a leader with a problem without also suggesting a solution; managing up; thinking big; being proactive.  These are time-worn adages that have served me well.  But they aren’t prescriptive.  How do you do these things?

When I’m in a crunch or a panic, it is my instinct to default to a “safe” question.

• What do you want me to do?
• How should I handle this?

This is a terrible instinct.  

It demonstrates to the person I’m talking to that I want them to take on more of the hard work of solving the problem.  And it suggests that I don’t have an opinion.  

Most often when I examine this instinct, it’s coming from a place of fear.  (Incidentally, a great source of bad instincts.  If you are ever short on bad instincts, look there.)  I know what I want to do, but I’m afraid of the impact, or of others’ opinions of my decisions. 

When I can adjust this to “How should I think about xyz,” and even add some color about my fear, I enable the other person to do a better job of coaching me.  Here are two examples:

• Typical: Dwight is not delivering at the level we expect from him.  How should I handle this?
• Better: Dwight is not delivering at the level we expect from him.  How should I think about structuring feedback most effectively. 
• Even Better: Dwight is not delivering at the level we expect from him.  I’m worried he will react poorly to this feedback and cause a cultural issue on my team.  How should I think about structuring feedback most effectively. 

• Typical: You just cut my budget in half.  Which programs should I drop?
• Better: You just cut my budget in half.  How should I think about prioritizing my program spend?
• Even Better: You just cut my budget in half.  I’m worried that the programs I can still run won’t be enough to meet all our goals.  How should I think about prioritizing my program spend? 

Coachability is one of the most important characteristics we can display to signal growth potential.  Inviting others to coach us is next level.

I’m building a new product marketing team at Mendix, and I’ve hired my first several team members.  They’re talented.  They’re hardworking.  They’re curious.  They’re fun.  They’re technical.  They’re awesome.  We’re going to be the world’s best ever product marketing team. Just one thing, none of these people are not product marketers.

I mentioned this the other day to a colleague, who asked, “why are you doing that?”  

The answer flew out of my mouth before I could think: “Because I need people who speak Customer.”

This team includes people from product management, expert services, sales engineering, and a former customer-side architect.  They haven’t joined the team knowing what a launch plan looks like, how to brief an analyst, or how to write a compelling messaging brief.  But each one of them already knows how to talk to potential customers in a way that resonates.  And if product marketing isn’t about that, what’s the point?

I’m not saying product marketing is easy – it’s not. I just think it’s orders of magnitude harder to teach someone who’s never had the exposure to customers to create content that resonates with them, than it is to teach people who have internalized customer voice and pain how to channel that into compelling marketing.

Product marketing has changed dramatically since I started years ago. Success isn’t measured by number of assets created, amount of time spent on a launch plan, or even happiness quotient of sales teams.  Success in product marketing is about moving the needle on things as macro as global market direction, as micro as customer acquisition, and everything in between.  

Look, I may have buried the lede here, but the truth is that product marketing is the center of the universe.  It’s a critical part of the engine that’s driving the growth of the company.  It sits in the intersection of product strategy, product launch, messaging, competitive positioning, and sales. 

And some of the best product marketers aren’t career product marketers at all.

My kids are learning to share and to play together.  The other day, Big (5) wandered over to Little (3) and asked if she could also play with their magnet toys that he was actively using. They were spread out on the ground and he was trying to build something. The conversation went like this:

Big: Can I play too?

Little: Sure!

Big: What can I do?

Little: 

Little had no idea how to answer that question.  And it wasn’t because he didn’t want to share. It was because he didn’t know what he was doing yet – he didn’t know how to delegate because he didn’t know what he was building yet.  He wanted to give Big a job, but he didn’t want to give her the honor/responsibility of figuring out what they would build together.

I think it’s really important as a leader to understand what I’m doing before I delegate. This is relating to the rock fetch post I wrote a while ago – how sometimes you don’t know what you’re asking someone to bring back until you see what their first specimen looks like.

Delegation is related, but different. If you’re going to trust someone to do part of a task for you, I think you do need to know what you’re goal is before you can delegate.

Over the past few years, predictions around the demise of retail have reached a fever pitch.

As a consumer, I’ve switched much of my shopping from brick and mortar to online – I’m a rabid customer of Amazon (Prime of course), and barely visit Target anymore.  We’ve started using Instacart more often in favor of a trip to the supermarket.  And twice this month I used Drizly for alcohol delivery. This is the First World, people.

But I guess I didn’t realize how bad retail was until a few trips to the mall I made recently.  I was looking for placemats.  I started at TJ Maxx, where I knew right where they were.  They had five of one kind that I liked, but I needed six. That’s par for the course for TJ Maxx, so I wasn’t too disappointed.

Next I tried Macy’s. There was a sign near the door that said, “This Macy’s has Women’s clothing and Children’s clothing.  For Menswear and Housewares, visit our other store located in this mall.  OK, except there was no map, no indication where the other store was, and nobody to ask. I mean, can you imagine going to a website and having it say, “For Menswear and Housewares, visit our other URL.”

Finally I tried Sears. Disaster. No signs, nobody to ask, and I gave up when I got to Washing Machines.

On a more recent and equally disappointing shopping trip, I was looking for black sandals.  I went to DSW, only to find that the majority of the shoes on display were available only in size 5 and size 9 or 10.  C’mon man!

I get it. Retail is dying, so stores can’t afford to hire as many employees, so the quality of service goes down.  But this is a vicious cycle. This lack of service means that I won’t shop retail again for a long time.  I will order multiple items from Amazon and Zappos and return what I don’t want. So much for going green.

I think what will happen is that retail will bifurcate to the super high-end (like Gucci, Louis Vutton, and Prada) and the super low-end (Walmart and Target).  The midrange will disappear.

It makes me wonder whether there’s a viable model similar to the old Best or Service Merchandise stores.  These were stores popular (at least in NJ) in the ’80’s. There’d be one of each item in a showroom, then you’d go to a salesperson, tell them what you wanted, and it would be waiting for you at checkout.

What if I could go to the mall, see and touch merchandise, then have it arrive in my house using 2-day Prime shipping in the right color, shape, and size. I still might do what retail wants me to do – that is, leave with more than I came in for, but I’d be assured it’s the right stuff.  There’s no way return rates wouldn’t drastically plummet with a system like this compared to today’s online model.

So come on, retail, keep it together.

We did a marketing program a few weeks back that was, by all accounts, very successful.  We got a great ROI with immediate sales opportunities, and an excellent set of leads in our core target market with which to build our database.

The only problem?  I have no idea why it worked.

It wasn’t that different from things we’ve done in the past. We marketed to a similar audience, with similar messaging, over similar media.

The thing about marketing is that at some point, it needs to become repeatable.  At some point, it can’t just be about finding something that works and getting excited, it has to be about finding something that works, getting excited, and then figuring out how to do it again. And again. And again and again and again.

Much like you can’t trust scientific results that are not replicable, you can’t build a marketing strategy around programs that are not scalable.  There are some easy wins available early in the game, but at some point scalability becomes just as important as success, because the economics of not having scalable marketing programs don’t work anymore.

So I’m off to analyze the project more completely.  Was our follow-up better?  Did we market on a different day of the week?  Was the offer worded differently?  The CTA color different?  Or has something changed externally in the market that is driving a different response to the same offer?

Because until I know the answer – know why this was successful so I can execute it again – I can’t truly call it a success.

I’ve read somewhere that Starbucks updates each store every five years, and does a more complete facelift for each store every ten years. I used to think this was for cosmetic reasons. However, with the introduction of pre-ordering drinks from the mobile app, I’ve changed my mind – redesigning stores is necessary for this sea change in how we buy coffee.

If you’re not familiar with ordering Starbucks on your mobile app, it’s pretty simple. You can choose any Starbucks drink or food item, customize however you’d like, choose your local store, pay on your phone, and then go to the store. Your drink is waiting for you on the bar when you arrive!

It’s nice because it’s fast, there’s no waiting for a barista to prepare your drink, and if you happen to like a half-caf, skim, no whip, three pump white chocolate mocha with a caramel drizzle, well then you skirt the shame of needing to order that out loud in front of other humans.

The latest estimate I found was that 7% of orders were mobile orders last September, but in some locations up to 20% are mobile at peak time.  I’d bet you a Frappuccino that number has gone up.

This has created two interrelated problems at Starbucks stores. One, the stores are currently staffed and managed to handle multiple people walking in and ordering drinks. With increasingly more people using mobile ordering, I’ve noticed several times when there are one or more cashiers waiting for customers to arrive, while the barista(s) are behind on drink orders, since so many are coming in through the mobile app.

The other problem is one of store layout. This is why Starbucks’ policy of updating stores every few years will be crucial to this working out. The thing about walking into a Starbucks is that most of them are designed with a lot of thought put into the experience of walking in. It’s clear where to go to order, it’s clear what direction the line goes in, it’s easy to browse merchandise while you’re waiting (which is good for Starbucks, I’m sure), and then it’s clear where to go to wait for your drink.

Now, however, many customers are coming into stores to pick up drinks they’ve already ordered. It’s not always obvious how to wend one’s way through the tables to get to the bar. It’s not always obvious who to talk to for your drink. There’s not always enough space at the bar for the proper number of people to wait for their drinks. There’s not always enough counter space to store the drinks that are ready.  And while you’re waiting for your drink, you can’t easily browse merchandise.

The square footage of stores is probably not the problem here, but the layout is. It’ll be fun to see what the newest Starbucks stores look like that are designed to optimize for mobile ordering rather than an exclusive in-store experience.

This isn’t a post about meditation – not really, it’s about online advertising – but it starts with meditation.

The part that is about meditation

I’ve been trying to learn to mediate/practice meditation/begin meditating. Whatever you call developing mindfulness. It hasn’t been going too well, which people tell me means that it’s going very well. OK, then.

One of the issues I have is that I thrive on reading things, rather than listening to them. True, I used to have a long commute and lived on podcasts, but other than that I’d always rather read something than, well basically, do anything else.

There are people who tell me I should sit with the discomfort of listening because that’s part of the package. And I trust them. But I don’t think many people understand my relationship with reading, so I also started looking for apps that have a daily written meditation I could read.

I stumbled on this set of apps from a company called dailypedia. It’s cool, they have a daily quote from people ranging from Gandhi to Steve Jobs. I chose four apps – one is quotes from Mother Teresa, one is quotes from Marianne Williamson, one called “Living Spiritual Masters” and one called “Life Wisdom.”

With me so far?

The part that’s not about meditation

I open the first app, and an ad pops up. It’s for Amazon. I don’t think about it. The next app I open shows an ad. It’s for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. 

The koan

Why, I mean WHY ON EARTH, would I sign into a meditation app and get a Call of Duty ad? Is there any reason that there would be a correlation between people who download meditation apps and people who play first-person-shooter video games?

How online advertising works for complete beginners because I’m not qualified to tell anyone else

Now I know a little about online advertising. That’s not sarcastic – I literally know only a little about it – enough to place Google Ads, manage a budget, and somewhat evaluate how it’s doing. I hope to get better at this in the coming year, but that’s where I am right now.

I thought about it. First off, most ad networks (companies like Google who place ads all over the web and mobile apps) use pay-per-click advertising. That is, you only pay for the ad if someone clicks on it. Just showing the ad doesn’t cost the advertiser (in this case Call of Duty) anything.

Next, I realized that usually when you create an ad, by default it’s shown all over the network you purchase it on – that is, all over the sites that have chosen to get revenue from that particular set of ads.

Now if you’re the app publisher, you want to maximize revenue. So you might start by accepting any kind of ad that the network wants to put in your app. Over time, you’ll whittle it down to the ones that people click on, not wasting real estate on un-clicked ads.

If you’re the publisher, you want as many people as possible to see your ad. So you might start by showing your ad everywhere. Over time, you’ll whittle it down to the places that you get clicks, avoiding places like meditation apps where the only clicks are accidental bleary-eyed mistakes by well-meaning consumers of the app just trying to get to their damn Mother Teresa quote because it’s only January 5^th and they’ve already forgotten twice this year.

It’s even possible (and let me say that I think this is unlikely) that there is a large number of people downloading meditation apps because violent video games have made them feel unsettled, and it’s a major untapped market. Call of Duty doesn’t pay unless someone clicks, so they’ll advertise everywhere. The publisher wants to maximize revenue, so they’ll see what works.

And if you’re the ad network, you just want as many ads in as many places as possible to start, then you want the publishers and the advertisers to tweak as necessary for their needs.

Except.

Where this breaks down is that the app has just totally lost me as a customer. I’m new at meditating but I’m also self-actualized enough already (imagine that!) to know that if I am trying to be mindful by reading a quote by Mother Teresa every morning, seeing a video clip of Call of Duty feels Wrong.

It’s time we stop hating on marketecture.

For those of you unfamiliar, marketecture (a portmanteau of marketing + architecture) was originally defined as “any form of electronic architecture perceived to have been produced purely for marketing reasons.”  However, it has grown into a more general derisive term used to describe semi-technical diagrams.

Here are a few examples of marketecture.

People who dislike marketecture criticize it for being lightweight, not technical enough, and slide fodder. They want real technologists explaining real technologies in a really technical way.

But I’m here to speak up for marketecture. First off because it’s part of my job to create it, and also because I’m a real technologist explaining real technology in a really technical way.

The thing is this – the right way to teach someone something new, about a new system, or process, or (dare I say) architecture, is breadth-first.

A small detour into search algorithms, but don’t tune out – this won’t be too painful, even if you’re not technical.

There are two categories of how computers search for things. As an analogy, think of how you might attack a crossword puzzle. Let’s say you fill in a word, “PRODUCE”. The first thing you probably do after that is start trying to fill in the word that crosses with the P in PRODUCE.  Let’s say that’s the word “PACKAGE.”  But what do you do after that? Do you try to fill in the other words perpendicular to PRODUCE? That’s breadth-first. Or do you try to fill the word that crosses the A in PACKAGE? That’s depth-first.

So going back to marketecture, I would put forth that we learn (and should teach) breadth-first: Here’s the entirety of the thing I’m going to explain to you, next, let’s zoom in one level and examine that next.

And that’s what marketecture is great at: breadth-first explanations. Here’s an overview of the concept/process/system. It doesn’t depict every detail at every level. It’s not complete, but it’s not inaccurate. Think of a block diagram for a CPU, or a diagram of the human circulatory system, or of the electrical wiring of a skyscraper. Not complete, but not inaccurate.

I’ll also add this completely unscientific study of every presentation I’ve ever delivered. When I’ve been asked to skip or hurry through the marketecture slides, I am invariably peppered with questions 4-7 minutes later that were addressed in my marketecture slide.  When someone is texting through the beginning of my presentation, their first set of questions once we’re into the technical depth is invariably marketecture content.  And when someone is looking over my shoulder to find someone more “technical” to talk to at a tradeshow, their questions are always, always, covered in my marketecture diagram.

Just like it’s time to stop trivializing marketing, it’s time to stop hating on marketecture.

Today is my 17th careeriversary.

That’s right, 17 years ago today I started my first job in the storage industry, as a technical trainer for Legato Networker, working for Cambridge Computer Services at 355 Western Ave.  I had no idea what storage or data protection were, I hadn’t really ever had a “real” job prior, and I was living in someone else’s apartment until September 1, when my own lease started.

Here are some things I’ve picked up along the way.

On Learning

• Always be learning.  My dad is not the only one to have given me this advice, but he’s the one whose saying it I remember the most clearly.  And it’s true.  When I stop learning in a job is when I get bored, complacent, dissatisfied, and unmotivated.
• Take time to learn.  My boss Kevin at Dell taught me this.  He put unprecedented amounts of time for learning into plans for onboarding new employees, as well as into ongoing plans for existing team members.  He truly saw it as part of one’s job to do that learning.
• Learning means making mistakes. Publicly. I’ve had to do a lot of learning – and failing – in front of other people.  But I’ve found that It’s important to get comfortable doing this, or I don’t learn quickly enough to get anywhere.

On the home front

• Outsource everything possible.  As a working mother, I’ve paid close attention to advice from female senior executives.  This was the best piece I’ve gotten, from various people – outsource whatever I can: laundry, dinner, transportation, cleaning, etc., so my time with my family is my time with my family.

On not being intimidated

• Everyone is a person.  I am almost never intimidated.  Everyone is a person with concerns, with goals, and with a world outside of work.  So I just talk to them as I would anyone else – I’ve developed the confidence to know that I have a right to be heard if I’m in a conversation with someone.  Also, I try not to forget about the actor-observer asymmetry fallacy.  TLDR: It might be you, not me.

• Speak up.  My best opportunities at work have come from going to someone with an idea to solve a problem or to improve something, when it wasn’t my job.  My best contributions are often asking questions that nobody else wants to or thinks to ask.

“Maybe we should manage our tech support cases on a bulletin board visible to everyone”

“I can project manage our 12-person team into producing two whiteboard videos apiece.”

“Sure, I’ll figure out how to get 80 people on a tour of our labs, in 10 groups, one of which only speaks Japanese.”

And when I didn’t ask for a title or a higher salary, I didn’t always get one.  When I did, I did.

On Career Trajectory

• Get through unpleasant times by picking a date in the future.  When I’ve been thrashing in a role about whether to stay or not, I stay put. Then I pick a date in the future and forget about leaving until then, at which point I can re-evaluate, knowing it’s not a split-second decision.  I’m happier during the waiting time too, knowing that it’s finite.
• A network decides a career.  What everyone says about having a good network is true, and then some.  After my first job, all my job offers and opportunities have come from my network. I landed here at Infinio because it looked like a cool place, and mrDiva was connected to Matt who worked here because I had introduced him to Gina several months earlier.  So, I try to keep in touch with people, maintain relationships, and be generous with favors.
• Know when you get the call.  Sometimes opportunities come up that are unexpected or not exactly what I want. I’ve had to recognize which of these are opportunities I shouldn’t turn down, even if they take me on a different path than I expected, and figure out how to say yes.

Years ago, right when we found out I was pregnant with babyDiva, and mrDiva had just graduated from his MBA program, he got a job opportunity of a lifetime. The timing was strange, it would mean a cross-country commute, and he had never done what they were asking him to do. But it was so obvious to me that it was “the call” and he had to say yes. He did, and it has been more than he ever expected.

• Say yes then figure it out.  I recently read a great blog post that now of course I can’t find anywhere about always opting to move into a role where you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s scary as hell, but great advice.

When I was on maternity leave for each of my children, I got a call about coming back after leave into a bigger job – a job that I didn’t know how to do.  Sure, I said, both times, wanting to get back to Netflix.  Shit, I said, both times, when I came back.  And Got It, I said, both times, 90 days in.

Let’s see what the next 17 years have in store.