3-2-1 vote
A few weeks back, I wrote about why deciding team values is not a democracy. This week, I want to talk about something else that is often treated as a democracy, but shouldn't be: marketing.
No one thinks you should decide your data architecture, your security posture, or your pricing model by employee vote. But when it comes to messaging, brand, and storytelling, suddenly everyone's an expert.
Curiouser and curiouser
Early on at Textio, I worked with an engineer who had wide-ranging skills and curiosities. Though his background was strictly technical, he was interested in all parts of the business. He engaged with colleagues and formed opinions about product, HR, and operations, among many other areas.
In general, I encouraged his curiosity. Especially at an early-stage company, people who work beyond rigidly defined swim lanes are an asset. You want people who feel accountable for the success of the whole endeavor rather than people who optimize for their own part at the expense of everything else.
One day, this engineer found me in the kitchen after work. "We need a new logo," he told me.
"How come?" I asked. "What's wrong with the current logo?"
"Nothing," he admitted. "I just think it would be fun if we had a contest for employees to design a new one."
That engineer in the kitchen meant well and wanted the best for the company. He thought that a logo design contest would be fun and engaging for the team.
"I have another idea," I said. "How about we have a contest for employees to redesign our product UI? Or maybe our data models or our packaging structure!"
"How would that even work?" he objected. "People would have no clue where to start."
"Exactly," I said.
In his mind, logo design was "just" drawing a picture. Anyone could do it! He didn't recognize how a logo changes a brand's perception, tells a company's story, and ties into the company's design framework and market reputation. And because he didn't see our logo as a meaningful investment for the business, in his mind, it made all the sense in the world to democratize its design.
This just in: Non-marketers are not automatically good at marketing
That engineer was not unique. In my time as Textio's CEO, I had non-marketers (okay, mostly engineers) pitch me ideas like:
- Build a version of Textio for dating profiles to get press attention
- Open-source the product for a week to attract engineering candidates
- Superimpose a Textio score on individual LinkedIn profiles to hold people accountable for their bias
- Put QR codes on bathroom mirrors at Hawaii airports to drive traffic to our free trial
Not like, "Here's a funny comment at a party," but like, "This is a great idea, and I expect us to do it."
I typically responded by asking practical questions such as, "Can you think of any downsides to having our proprietary models based on sensitive customer data blasted all over the public internet" and "How many Maui vacationers are writing job descriptions in the departure lounge?"
Asked these questions, people generally acknowledged that maybe there were some details to work out. But in all cases, they started out with the assumption that their marketing proposals were as credible as anyone else's and deserved serious consideration. With genuine good intention, they shared their ideas.
By contrast, I can't recall a single time when a non-engineer pitched me their proposal for our backend architecture or coding standards.
So why does everyone think they're a marketer?
It's true that, typically, engineers are more confident than others about their ability to jump into other people's jobs with ease. But it's not only engineers who deliver shaky marketing concepts with conviction. Other non-marketers do too: Product people, investors, even finance and HR people often have difficulty seeing the difference between their own brainstorms and the work of a marketing pro.
Maybe it's because everyone has experience being marketed to. We can all point out ad campaigns we love or hate and brands we think are cool or lame. We have real lived experience as the audience, and we know what we like. Maybe that experience gives us confidence in our ability to dream up stuff that other people will like too.
What we don't always know, because this is the part that takes skill and experience, is why people like what they like, or how to deliver what they'll like with the right packaging, timing, and channels so it will be heard.
We're all the audience sometimes, but that doesn't make us marketers.
Kieran
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