At the beginning of the quarter we set company wide Rocks (a fancy Traction terminology for Goals). These rocks need to be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. As we near the end of Q1 here in 2021, just after a full year of the world going into lock down, I thought it important to reflect on our Q1 Rock. While completing the goal is certainly important, the journey is what matters and what a journey it was!
Last year, with COViD, everything changed. Luckily we have been a remote digital marketing agency for the last 9+ years, working from home may not have have change, but our individual environments did. Some of us had partners now working from home too, children at home, or complete isolation for those who live alone. Our clients were thrown into these scenarios too which effected how we mentally shifted in supporting them. 2020 became the year of empathy and triage... be there for one another and power through. Which we did and we're stronger for it.
However, power through can mean put your head down and get it done. Don't question how it gets done, don't try and change too much, because there's enough change in the world we don't need change at work either.
At the end of 2020 people learned to live in the new normal - not necessarily easily, but found ways to create bubbles, send kids to daycare safely, or, like me, move entirely. Things feel settled, which mad Q1 a great time to reflect and look at what have we been doing and what can we do better.
For Q1, the leadership team, made it a priority to sit down with every single team member, ourselves included, and ask two fundamental, yet tough questions:
- What are your time vampires? What are you doing day in and out that is not a good return on your time?
- If you were given time in your day back, what would you want to be doing?
15 people. 15 hours. 35+ items that need to be "bulldozed". Hours upon hours we can optimize.
We called these Bulldozer meetings. What can we bulldoze out of your way, off your plate, so you can do what you want and love to be doing in the best interest of our clients and your career?
Here are a few things we learned:
- Our Strategic, thoughtful Account Directors have been spending 50% or more of their time just making tasks in Asana. If they had that time back they would want to create a central location of where SEO and PPC projects live so both sides can collaborate better. They would want to be more strategic when thinking about a client's business and help the team think of new and exciting ways to solve those problems. Be more proactive.
- Our Expert Analysts spend 2+ hours a week moving data from CRM systems into our reporting platform. If they had that time back they'd spend it looking and analyzing the data to find the story and provide trends to the SEO and PPC experts who can then make faster, strategic decisions.
- Our SEO Team logs into multiple tools everyday to see data for each client. If we could aggregate that date into one place, and overlay it to form a story they could also make faster strategic decisions on behalf of our clients.
As the leadership team we are so excited (NERD ALERT!) to dig into all 35+ time vampires, and systematize with process and resources to automate as much as we can. Our team deserves to love their job and love what they're doing and in return our clients deserve the best part of our experts in everything they do.
As an Agile organization, it's important to always be learning to grow and do better as individuals and a company which is why this Rock was so important. We never want to accept status quo or "it is what it is". How can we all work together and always do better?
It's exciting to think about how we plan to level up in the coming months... get ready clients! It's important to celebrate our wins too. Which we have many! Check our case studies and see what we've accomplished in digital marketing with so many great Tech and Healthcare clients.
