I learned to be super-efficient already in my teens. Having to juggle school, work, hang out with friends, and commute to soccer practice six times per week (with a two-hour commute each way) required some extensive planning, logistics, and time management. Even if I didn’t think of it in terms of vision, mission, strategy, and tactical execution at that age (the labels showed up much later during my career), it was still pretty much the same game.
If you have a vision and a goal to achieve, you need to outline the mission on how you (and your team) will get there as well as the strategy and the tactics that ensure you will grow. You’ll want to do it quickly and safely–and try to enjoy the ride as much as possible. And, of course, celebrate the win when you get there.
For some people, planning, logistics, structure, and organization can be challenging. Managing time comes naturally to me; however, for some, it’s something to be learned. I think, for me, it came through my DNA, but I combined it with a lot of practice.(and I’m still optimizing).
Some key learnings that helped me tremendously, and continue to guide me are:
- always try to improve with automation (doing the same thing over and over is not my game).
- 80% is very often good enough (stop perfecting it until you really know it works).
- go low-maintenance (I call this the Thuja principle, i.e., if you plant a Thuja it, it requires very little maintenance over time).
So you can say this book that I have co-written with my dear friend Lynn (queen of words), with the vision of always developing and delivering delightful experiences, really came out of being efficient.
Now, in the context of being in a CRO/CMO role and having to juggle investor pressure, building teams, processes, structures, systems to deliver on growth targets… while, at the same time, developing a great employee and customer experience, my efficiency was tested. It was kind of like flying an airplane, swapping out the engine, while serving the passengers with a smile.
As most of my career has been in the tech + Start-Up environment, I came to realize that I kept repeating some of the same elements at these Start-Ups. Things like how to build the foundation, how to learn about the customers, competitors, the product, the sales, marketing, and customer success strategy. I found myself doing similar tasks at every Start-up. Remember, doing the same thing over and over is not my game :-)
And so I developed recipes and templates (in my head) that I re-used at every Start-Up. These Recipes, Templates, and the Methodology have now been turned into written form, and is blended with Lynn’s wide expertise on strategy, marketing, and experience into our book, SavvyX: The Smarter Growth Recipe for Start-Ups. Even more, to help readers get faster results, we developed 75+ Recipes and Templates that are ready to be used right away.
We hope this book, along with the companion Recipes and Templates, will help your Start-Up move quicker in developing your unified GTM strategy as well as knowing what works and saving you from burning through your resources too quickly.
I love structure, organization, and processes, but not everyone does, so to make it more digestible, we included inspirational quotes throughout the book as well as Bloopers and Learnings stories. It will save you time to learn from others for sure. And, if you want to share your Bloopers and Learnings, please drop us an email - you can help others with what you know.
Share your Bloopers and Learnings.
Happy sharing and enjoy the read!
Jessica
Image: Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash
About Jessica Sundstrom
As a multiple-time CMO and CRO, Jessica Sundstrom is known for her ability to cut through the noise to get to what’s essential for achieving business targets. Her philosophy is that business success is made possible by people working together with shared values toward a common vision while contributing their personal best.