Posted by Ellie Mirman on Mon, Jan 18, 2010 @ 07:03 AM
The New York Times had a great article a few days ago with an interview with SunGard CEO on their flat organizational structure. A lot of the points really resonated with and reflected life at HubSpot. Though I may have not thought about this when looking for a job, I realize that the organizational structure - and seeking out a flat organization - can really impact my happiness level and personal growth. Some favorite snippits from the interview:
"Top-down organizations got started because the bosses either knew more or they had access to more information. None of that applies now. Everybody has access to identical amounts of information."
This typically gets reformulated at HubSpot in relation to the changing nature of learning and purchasing in the business world due to the Internet. Of course, the Internet puts information at everyone's fingertips. On top of that, it's the employees who are in the muck of things that really can understand the challenges of the business and their users and can come up with great solutions.
Conde discusses Yammer as their collaboration tool of choice, allowing them to distribute valuable information across the organization straight from users to every single employee.
At HubSpot, I see our wiki allowing for incredible conversations and a flattening of the organization. How better to participate in a conversation with our CEO or VP Engineering or Partner Program Manager if you work in Sales or Engineering or Customer Support? Our challenge now is getting all the new employees to embrace the wiki and feel comfortable enough to jump into these conversations.
"If you start micromanaging people, then the very best ones leave. If the very best people leave, then the people you’ve got left actually require more micromanagement."
Micromanagement stifles your top performers, and top performers will go where they can truly achieve. At HubSpot we talk about being cathedral builders - where everyone is contributing to this greater vision that is common to all of us. Not only does this make us excited and driven to achieve this goal, but also - in the absence of strict managers - we are all aligned towards the same, business-changing end goal. You open yourself up to creative solutions and new ideas to tackle your goals.
"My advice to young people is always, along the way, have a sales job."
I cringe at this at first, because I would hate to be in Sales. But I get the point here. At least in my interpretation, this is about being responsible for driving real business results and being able to articulate the value of what you're selling - whether it's a product or yourself - to a skeptic. Obviously the CEO of SunGard is likely to be a smart cookie, but he really does point out a lot of the truly important things to an organization - the people and their qualities that lead to success. Focusing on their intellectual curiosity and reasoning processes and writing ability, for example, shows that it's about getting the right ingredients as opposed to trying to reformulate a pre-packaged meal. It's very cool to see this coming out of such a huge organization from which you might expect something a little more traditional and up tight.
Read the full interview with SunGard CEO Cristobal Conde here.
Posted by Ellie Mirman on Sat, Jan 16, 2010 @ 05:44 PM
Today I drove out to Worcester to speak about Marketing Transformation and The Future of Marketing at the UR Enough Workshop at Holy Cross University. Below is my presentation - enjoy!
Posted by Ellie Mirman on Mon, Dec 28, 2009 @ 09:01 AM
Whenever I get into a conversation about the meaning of life, I immediately roll my eyes. I honestly can't stand that conversation because it seems so irrelevant to me. In my opinion, there is no singular meaning of life and it's not worth our time and energy to discuss it.
Instead, focus on what you can do with your life.
Funny enough, this thought was sparked by a book I just finished, Brazen Careerist. It's a book by blogger/writer/advisor Penelope Trunk on the topic of career advancement. The book and her blog are interesting reads.
One part that really stood out to me was a study she mentioned by Princeton professor of economics Alan Krueger. The study showed that "when it comes to workplace success, it doesn't matter if your get into an Ivy League school, it matters if you apply. Those who applied and those who got in had the same amount of success beyond those who did not apply." The takeaway? "What matters is ambition and self-image, not getting the best grades or having the best test scores."
What I love about this study - and generally what is shown in the book - is that what matters in life are your goals and your ambition to achieve those goals. It's not about WHY you're here, but WHAT you do while you're here.
The book has lots of similar thought-provoking bits. It's nothing so revolutionary that you'll fall out of your chair, but it certainly kept me engaged and kept me thinking. It's a quick and easy read and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in "career development books".
Photo credit: miss blackbutterfly
Posted by Ellie Mirman on Wed, Dec 16, 2009 @ 10:16 AM
I'm happy to announce that in just over a month, I'll be heading down to Miami for the MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2010. I had a fantastic time last year, but I'm ten times more excited about this year's event. Why? Here are my top 5 reasons:
1. See My Old Email Marketing Friends
Last year I met so many fantastic people. I got to finally meet some long-standing twitter friends, and meet a lot of new folks. Coming from an organization where I was the only email marketer at the time, hanging out with all email marketers was a dream come true. I've come a long way since then and can't wait to geek out all over again about email marketing.
2. New B2B Track!
The new B2B track is reason alone to go to the summit this year. The one thing that would have made last year's event better was more B2B content. There will be no less than 8 specifically B2B sessions this year, delivered by MarketingSherpa folks and real B2B marketers.
3. Could I Be Winning an Email Marketing Award?
I am up for a few of the MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Awards this year. It would be quite exciting if I actually won - considering usually the winners are very big name agencies producing B2C email marketing campaigns. An award going to a small B2B company that does all their email marketing with ~2 people? Amazing!
4. Keynote Speaker: Joseph Jaffe of crayon (and Free Book!)
This year MarketingSherpa is bringing together their usual group of fantastic speakers, plus a fantastic keynote speaker: Joseph Jaffe, President of the marketing agency crayon. His session, "Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones - Email's NEW Critical Role," is based on his book - which all attendees will also receive.
5. Miami in January? Yes, Please!
Of course, if the summit were in freezing cold Minnesota, I would surely still be going. But on top of everything, the summit is taking place in warm, sunny Miami, Florida. So in the middle of the ugliest, coldest time in New England, I'll be heading down to geek out in the sun.
I will surely be blogging and tweeting (hashtag #sherpaemail) about the event in the coming months, so stay tuned. Or, join me at the 2010 Email Summit (and just for reading this, get $600 off the ticket price).
Posted by Ellie Mirman on Fri, Nov 27, 2009 @ 12:13 PM
I came across the Rules of Productivity presentation on one of my favorite blogs about happiness in the workplace, The Chief Happiness Officer. In it are some interesting takeaways (often pulling from data, my favorite) on how to maximize the productivity of a team.
Rule 1: Working more than 40 hours leads to decreased productivity. You can get a short-term boost by working more hours, but the team will require a recovery period that counteracts the seeming short-term productivity boost.
Rule 2: Every crunch has a cost. This refers to the necessary recovery time. In addition, the recovery period can often outlast the period of increased productivity. Instead of having forced bursts of overtime, try giving flexible work hours like a 4-day week of 10-hour days.
Rule 3: Productivity of "knowledge workers" (vs. factory workers) declines after 35 hours (not 40 hours). When creative workers are forced to work longer hours and get less sleep, the quality of their output goes down dramatically.
Rule 4: Teams that work overtime think they are doing more but actually accomplish less. During crunch times, perceived productivity remains much higher than actual productivity. I found this note particularly interesting:
One of the more fascinating side effects is the perception of both teams with management. Since Team A has more ‘butts in seats’, they are often given more resources, promoted more and generally considered to be better workers. Unfortunately, due to the burden that overtime places on workers, this is not a self fullfilling prophecy. It is quite common that managers put all their eggs in the basket that ends up self destructing. The solution is better metrics so that managers can gain a more objective understanding of how projects are doing.
Rule 5: Teams of 4-8 people have higher productivity. As your team grows, it's best to plan how to split the team into these smaller groups that can then interact with each other as needed.
Rule 6: Seating the team together in a shared room increases productivity. This makes sense, since these are the people you communicate with the most. Having them in a separate room also helps in minimizing external distractions (but what if most of the distractions come from within your own team, I wonder?). Other important notes: give at least 50 sq ft per person and set up side rooms for private conversations.
Rule 7: Cross-functional teams also increase creativity and productivity. Having a team consisting of people with different perspectives also helps reduce groupthink and helps increase breakthrough solutions. Note that having members of these teams part time rather than full time results in a 15% drop in efficiency.
Rule 8: Schedule your team at 80% to allow space for creative thinking and side projects. Of course, always have a backlog of projects you can pull from as needed, but leaving time for side projects can increase happiness and increase creative problem solving for all projects.
Overall some interesting food for thought for bringing back to your own team.
Posted by Ellie Mirman on Fri, Sep 25, 2009 @ 07:31 AM
Last night I finally made it out to my first DartBoston Pokin' Holes event and I was on a panel of three critiquing Launch Into Boston.
Overall, it was a great experience - met some great people and got to talk about a really interesting business. Full video is below, but here are the basics:
DartBoston: DartBoston is a community of young entrepreneurs and professionals in the Boston area.
Pokin' Holes: DartBoston holds a live weekly video podcast and event called "Pokin' Holes" that evaluates and provides feedback to young entrepreneurs starting new ventures.
Launch Into Boston: This week we evaluated Launch Into Boston, a service for recent college graduates and young professionals to transition into life in Boston.
Panelists: Jason Evanish, Neha Patadia, and myself, and moderated by DartBoston's Cort Johnson
Big thanks to Cort and DartBoston for inviting me to join the panel. It was a great time and I'm sure I'll be back!
Posted by Ellie Mirman on Fri, Sep 18, 2009 @ 07:23 AM
This weekend marks the start of the year 5770. Tonight we celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year - also my favorite holiday.
I've never been really into New Year's (January 1), either because of when it falls (smack dab in the middle of the school year) or because of my lack of New Year's traditions. It's Rosh Hashanah that's full of traditions for me. Same situation with a lot of "American" holidays that, for me, have Jewish counterparts:
- Thanksgiving - Passover
- Halloween - Purim
- Valentine's Day - really?
It's this time of year that I really do stop and think about my life, the past year, and the new year ahead. It's a celebratory and reflective time and one of the (unfortunately) few times that really get me back to my Jewish roots.
This week also marks my two-year anniversary (or, the start of my third year!) at HubSpot. It's easy to lose track of time - in general, and especially at HubSpot - and forget where I am. What's great about the mark of a new year is that it gives you an opportunity to recognize how far you've come and think about where you want to go from here. A nice checkpoint to ground yourself.
Rosh Hashanah also gives me an excuse to eat delicious, sweet food, see family and friends, and generally be happy about life (cheesey, I know, but I'm a cheesey person from time to time). With all that said...
Shanah tovah u'metukah (a sweet and happy new year) to all!
Photo by chany14
Posted by Ellie Mirman on Thu, Sep 03, 2009 @ 10:23 AM
Sup dawg, I heard you like The Office, so I put The Office in your office so you can play The Office in your office.
The [Marketing] Office: How @HubSpot Learned Twitter ("The Office" Spoof)
Credits
Director, Producer and Film Editor: Rebecca Corliss (@repcor)
Cast
Mike "Michael Scott" Volpe (@mvolpe)
Dan "Dwight" Zarrella (@danzarrella)
Rick "Jim" Burnes (@rickburnes)
Ellie "Pam" Mirman (@ellieeille)
Karen "Angela" Rubin (@karenrubin)
Prashant "Oscar" Kaw (@prashantkaw)
Dan Tyre (as himself)
Posted by Ellie Mirman on Wed, Aug 05, 2009 @ 01:55 PM
Recently, Netflix published their internal "freedom & responsibility culture" document on slideshare (which was subsequently picked up by TechCrunch). One of the really interesting points I drew from the 128-page document was the importance of Context -- or, the Why -- of your job.
Why is "The Why" Important?
- "High performance people will do better work if they understand the context." Context gives people a purpose for doing their work. People feel they have an impact on the business and aren't just working for the weekend.
- Context aligns people to reach the right result. This reminds me of one of the lessons taught in Made to Stick about identifying your company's core principle, which helps multiple people coordinate to achieve a common goal.
- Outlining context - as opposed to a process - leaves room for creativity, innovation, and new efficiencies. It is only by trying out new things that we can find new ways to solve problems.
It's a pretty cool document to check out if you have some time.
You can also check out this video/slide presentation Dharmesh Shah did recently for us over at HubSpot.
Posted by Ellie Mirman on Sat, Jul 18, 2009 @ 08:52 AM
My worlds are colliding in a wonderful way - my very funny uncle, Eugene Mirman, made this video all about inbound marketing. Enjoy!