3 types of people who will drive positive change in your company

Who is needed to shape the culture of growth in the company?

As a result of conversations with leading Google marketers, three types of workers were identified who will start positive changes in the company. This is the discoverer, patron and representatives of Team X.

Discoverer

The main function of the discoverer is to make changes. Such people love to challenge the status quo, their hearts demand change. They cannot live without experimentation, testing new ideas and are ready to beg, borrow or even steal the resources necessary for their implementation.

According to Max van der Heyden, who analyzes consumer reaction to product interactions at Google, the trend in startups is that one or two people do the optimization. The discoverer is usually a mid-level employee: for example, it could be a designer or an analyst.

To find out who is the pioneer in your company, find out who asked for help with A / B testing or any other experiments for your own project.

Patron

The patron can be found among top-level employees and their deputies. It is he who identifies the discoverers and supports them with the resources necessary to promote their ideas. These resources may include money, time, talent, and the ability to prioritize a project. Usually, the patron does not take part in the experiments themselves, but he does justice to their importance and creates all the conditions for their conduct.

Team X

Team X is a small multi-functional group of experts that makes testing possible. According to Jesse Nichols, head of web analytics at Nest, such groups often consist of three people: an analyst, an engineer, and a designer.

Place this group in one room so that the members focus only on optimization. Thus, an idea that usually takes several months to complete can be implemented in a couple of weeks.

Jesse Nichols

What characteristics should these company breakthrough catalysts have?

To better understand what specific qualities a person involved in testing and optimization should have, marketers who actively practice A / B testing and online experiments were interviewed. The results were pretty intriguing. While optimization requires data manipulation and analysis skills, characteristics related to emotion have also come to the fore. According to marketers, the most significant qualities were the ability to logical analysis, communication and storytelling skills, as well as leadership qualities.

In conversations with people using innovative marketing technologies, the topic of storytelling constantly surfaced.

As good as the information itself is, it won't help others if you don't find a way to properly convey it to the public.

You must be able to explain where certain numbers come from and how important they are.

Jesse Nichols suggests carefully documenting the testing process and its results. In his opinion, all this will come in handy when you need to present data to managers and demonstrate what new you can offer the company.

Leadership qualities are also manifested here. Testing and optimization workers must have the ability to influence the culture of the organization itself and continue to innovate despite obstacles.

APMEX head of analytics, Andrew Duffle, says the user experience should not be limited only by the company's current resources. Therefore, they are constantly experimenting: testing how creative and non-creative approaches work, how SEO content affects user engagement, and conversion optimization affects traffic to unpopular pages, the impression from their viewing, and even the sensitivity of users to the price of various products.

It's important to have the courage to experiment big. If you spend all your time just optimizing what already works, you are unlikely to achieve exceptional performance.

Adam Lavelle Development Director, Marketing Agency Merkle

It all takes time

Most companies employ one or two pioneers who are optimizers by nature, experience, and interests. Some companies even specifically hire employees for a job like Conversion Optimizer. But a company really only makes a breakthrough when all its employees, no matter what level they are at, are deeply involved in its activities and constantly look for opportunities, with the support of leaders, to challenge the status quo.

This requires changes at the level of the company's culture itself. This process is quite slow, it does not resemble a sprint in any way. It can take a year or more for people to understand the importance of experimentation and get inspired by the idea of growth.

If your discoverers, patrons, and Team X work together, they will not only perform well. They will spread new standards and values throughout the organization. Then you will find that your company has developed a culture of growth.