Recently, I completed an interim role leading a new marketing team at Silex Technology, a network technology provider and Qualcomm exclusive design partner primarily serving medical and factory applications. My two key focus areas were to:
Introduce structure, define roles, and develop team processes that drive transparency and accountability of both individuals and the team
Train and advise on implementation of a product tiering and launch process to streamline and grow the impact of each launch investment/opportunity
Up to this point, the marketing team had fallen short of achieving stated goals and executing activities, and individuals on the team struggled with project and task ownership as a result of unclearly defined roles. Working with the Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Zac and I rolled up our sleeves to organize the team, set goals, establish a regular meeting cadence and agenda, and develop report card-like reporting that facilitated efficient and clear accountability.
In one quarter, the team accomplished some big objectives, including:
Developing product tiering and launch processes, and executed multiple launches in the quarter
Defined roles and quarterly goals for the marcom manager, product manager, and marketing coordinator
Through use of EOS, established the weekly team meeting agenda, and created tools to report out project status and results using SharePoint, Trello and HubSpot
Completed and published nearly all backlogged content and developed a content plan for the upcoming quarters
Developed a marketing activity plan for the 2nd half of the year
Built relationships with technology partners and executed multi-continent activities, including a release with the Japanese parent company and the technology partner announcing use of their technology in IoT applications with Amazon Web Services
The team improved execution in short order due, fundamentally, to improved accountability. As the image below shows, they blamed others and offered excuses less and instead owned projects, tasks and deadlines and worked more collaboratively to resolve issues, big and small, with “forever” solutions.
Here is what Zac had to say about the engagement:
How do we become better individuals and organizations? How do I distill my vision of what is possible into actions? How do I align those actions to achieve the sense of accountability that drives results? As a trusted advisor, Rebecca helped me find the clarity to find the answers to these questions.
Recently I engaged Rebecca’s services to help implement a reorganization of our marketing team. The goal was to build a top-notch marketing team in-house. This included hiring and training the new team, clarifying roles and responsibilities and developing a structure for sustained accountability. Rebecca was proactive and involved every step of the way. She helped me build the right team. Defining exactly what we needed, then finding and hiring the right technical and cultural fit for the organization.
Rebecca refined our focus by introducing and facilitating the development of the product tiers structure and product launch plan by tiers. Through the introduction of the EOS (including Quarterly Rocks, Weekly Scorecards, Action Item tracking, and Issues processing) she improved transparency, accountability, and measurement of the marketing team's efforts. Rebecca led the weekly marketing team meeting to ensure effective execution. She was an excellent mentor to our new marcomm manager. She modeled the meeting leadership to transition to the marcomm manager and provided ongoing coaching. She helped clarify when ownership of tasks was not clear, priorities were not aligned or deadlines were not met. Rebecca’s involvement had a tremendous impact and helped create an organized, effective, and accountable marketing team that will contribute to increased ROI and future success.
How would you rate the level of accountability and execution on your team? Is it time to take a time-out and assess and strengthen the transparency and accountability of your team?
To learn more about interim team management or individual coaching services, email info@rivevisor.com or complete the Contact Us form and Rebecca will be in touch.
