My Work

This page outlines some of my finest professional work and projects that cut across driving growth, revenue generation, efficient marketing operations leveraging marketing technology stacks, collaborative interaction models and project management tools and principles.

Hubspot Marketing Hub Enteprise Implementation to boost Marketing Efficiency

I joined a B2B SaaS company just a few months after it acquired a Mobile Advertising Network and it was clear almost immediately that I had a big decision to make as the new Marketing lead of the combined entity.

The company had struggled with its marketing system and processes for some time and over the years, the system grew to include over 200 website forms with over 120 form fields and values. It also had 20 automated lead qualifying processes as well as inconsistent naming conventions and structures. These all contributed to confusion and inefficiencies.

We struggled to have organic traffic; lead conversion and attribution were also relatively poor. Another issue was poor integration with third-party applications. We used a lot of APIs and we were desperately trying to stitch these data sources together.

The legacy marketing system also delayed speed-to-lead times in some situations. For example, sales teams had to wait 24 hours to get the contact information they needed to follow up with webinar attendees.

On the other hand, the acquired entity was using HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise and so I needed to decide: should we stay with the existing marketing system and bring the acquired company's customer data over? Should we try to build some kind of hybrid system? Or should the company join the newly acquired company in using Marketing Hub Enterprise?

First, I laid out my marketing strategy with set priorities first as a necessary first step before thinking of the tools I needed to implement it based on my marketing goals. I evaluated these options and ultimately chose Marketing Hub Enterprise for its usability and scalability. HubSpot is consumer-grade tech for enterprise companies and I chose it because I knew it would be easy to learn, and we could scale it with the new acquisitions.”

I, collaborating with the engineering team, undertook the implementation in two phases. First, we moved the company from its legacy marketing system onto Marketing Hub Enterprise. This gave us the chance to reevaluate all of the processes and clean house. Then we consolidated forms and standardized form fields, naming conventions, and structures and also streamlined lead qualifying processes.

This was the beginning of the company’s journey to dramatically improving and simplifying its marketing processes. At the end of the project implementation, website forms were consolidated 90% (form fields and values) and lead qualifying processes were also been reduced by 90%.

Moving to the new platform increased speed-to-lead time, with the sales team getting leads from webinars 96% faster than before. The company also experienced faster email turnaround and fewer emails overall thanks to gained efficiencies and automation.

Driving Innovation and building Marketing Technology Stacks to drive Growth

Whenever I join any organization, I always use the opportunity of coming on board with fresh eyes to question the operations of the team and generally how things are done; this can be largely attributed to my consulting background. And so when I joined a retail bank to lead their marketing strategy and operations for the Retail Division, there were a number of challenges I needed to tackle head on and pretty quickly to smoothen the efficiency of our marketing operations.

We constantly scored low on internal CSAT survey carried out by the CX team to track how well teams were servicing their internal clients. The product team, was our primary client and they constantly complained about the marketing team's turnaround time for campaign execution which was hampering their speed to market

On the other hand, I had fatigued designers due to the volume of design work relative to the design team’s capacity. They also typically designed everything from scratch as there were no automated templates

The campaign briefing process was manual as campaign creation, management and tracking were done on different applications and dashboards. This made reporting and tracking tedious and a lot of insight and learnings were slipping through the cracks.

I knew we needed streamline internal collaboration better, automate our processes and have a simplified and integrated approach to running our marketing programmes. It was also important to have a system capable of tracking attribution and ROI of our campaigns especially digital campaigns.

So besides my daily marketing activities and operations, there was now this project I needed to embark on. I drew up a business case and justification to deploy a collection of technology tools that were going to deliver the marketing strategy and goals. I mapped out the architecture and designed the solution which was to deploy a much more refined Martech Stack. After getting the business case and justification approved from the relevant stakeholders, i drew up the BRD and solutions design.

Here's a summary of the solution architecture:

The foundation was going to be the harmonization of our data sources (CRM and the Bank's data warehouse) consolidated into a CDP (Customer Data Platform) which was the melting point to give us a unified view of our customers as well as access to 3rd part data
The next element of the stack, to be layered on the CDP was a Campaign Management Platform which would integrated all the digital marketing channels and allow for campaign activities to happen in one place. It would have an in-built decisioning engine which triggered campaigns based on customer behaviour enabling marketing automation, remarketing as well as multi-testing capabilities
The final layer was to be a real-time visualization of campaign performance and attribution which was key to achieving meaningful experimentation and leveraging insights for campaign optimization and reporting

So I set out in search of a solution that would have all these capabilities, deliver on the solution and outlined deliverables at an acceptable price tag.

I went through the procurement process from RFP to bidding to finally selecting a partner. I then got the necessary budget approvals based on the proposed commercials from the preferred vendor and proceeded to have a kick-off meeting with the project team made up of various stakeholders from the Product team, CX team, Data team, external vendors, PMO, etc. I shared my vision and objectives for the project as well as roles and responsibilities of each team member. Throughout the project, I drove collaboration and cohesion within the team and managed the project using MS Projects and Jira to manage workload assignment and the issues backlog.

Post implementation, i had been able to streamline the Bank's marketing workflows, centralized campaign management and delivered a holistic view of campaign activities and results. The success of this laudable project (which got commendation from the leadership team) drove down the Bank's CPL and CPC while dvering higher CTR on aggregate.

Responding to Change leveraging Collaboration

While working as the Marketing Strategy and Operations lead, I was project lead on a website development project. I had just joined the company and one of my priorities in the first 6 months was to revamp the corporate website to reflect the company’s strategic intent, woo investors and attract potential clients. The Founder was invited by potential investors to give a pitch and the timeline to deliver a corporate website moved from 6 months to 4 weeks, from ideation to Go Live. The success of the project was critical, as it was going to be one of the parameters being evaluated at the investor pitch.

Task: I knew that the only way to deliver this high priority project within the stipulated was through effective collaboration with all stakeholders of the development team.

Action: I immediately fixed a kick-off meeting, where I shared the objectives and vision for the website revamp as well as each person’s role within the plan. Some of the ways I chose to manage the project and collaboration within the team was using Asana to assign tasks and share real-time updates on actions and for document management. I also set up daily stand-up meetings, weekly sprint planning meetings and retros to track progress and eliminate roadblocks.

We encountered a challenge during the project with one of the vendors that could have set us back weeks and caused a major delay to launch, but earlier in the project, I had led a risk assessment session during which this was identified as a potential risk and thankfully, we had a risk response plan ready, so this didn’t impact the timelines.

Result: The team worked so well together on tasks, we delivered the project in record time, within scope and within budget. I got commendation for the overall success of the project and for simplifying the complexity of the business, making the value proposition crystal clear.

Transforming Marketing Team Efficiency and Collaboration: A Case Study on Agile Adoption and Asana Optimization

This case study delves into the remarkable journey of a marketing team struggling with leveraging agile approaches to their work and underutilizing the project management tool, Asana. Through my leadership and dedication, the team underwent a 6 month long transformation that not only improved their efficiency and workload management but also fostered a culture of collaboration and agility. This case study highlights the key challenges faced, the strategies employed, and the successful outcomes achieved through the adoption of agile principles and the optimization of the Asana platform.

Background

When I joined this amazing marketing team and my mission was clear. To institute project management structures, establish a PMO and lead the team to attaining greater operational efficiency. The team's project management tool was Asana. After a few weeks understudying how work was planned for and executed it was clear to see where the opportunities were. The usage of the PM tool, Asana, was very basic and grossly inconsistent. The absence of a unified approach to work planning hindered productivity and made it difficult to manage the workload effectively. Recognizing the need for change, I took charge and spearheaded a journey towards adopting agile principles and optimizing Asana to enhance collaboration, streamline processes, and maximize efficiency.

Challenges Faced

Resistance to Change: The marketing team was initially skeptical about adopting agile principles and modifying their work planning process. Convincing team members about the value and applicability of agile methodologies in a non-engineering context posed a significant challenge.
Underutilization of Asana: The team members were not fully aware of the capabilities of Asana or how to leverage its features effectively. As a result, the tool was not being utilized to its full potential, hindering effective project management and collaboration.
Inconsistent Work Planning: Without a standardized approach to work planning, tasks were often misunderstood or overlooked, leading to inefficiencies, missed deadlines, and a lack of accountability.

Strategies Implemented

Advocacy and Education: I led the transformation initiative focused on engaging key influencers within the team, emphasizing the benefits of adopting agile principles and leveraging Asana as a central project management tool. Through open discussions, sharing success stories, and providing training sessions, the team gradually embraced the idea of a modified work planning approach.
Customization and Training: To optimize Asana, I worked closely with the team to customize the platform to fit our specific needs. This involved creating project templates, establishing standardized workflows, developing process guidelines and providing comprehensive training on Asana's features and best practices.
Continuous Improvement and Feedback: Regular feedback loops were established to address any concerns or challenges faced by team members during the adoption process. This iterative approach allowed for ongoing improvements, ensuring that the modifications were aligned with the team's evolving requirements and work dynamics.

Successful Outcomes

Increased Efficiency: With the adoption of agile principles and the optimization of Asana, the team experienced improved efficiency in planning and managing their workload. Tasks were clearly defined, prioritized, and assigned, resulting in enhanced productivity and reduced bottlenecks.
Enhanced Collaboration: Asana's collaborative features facilitated seamless communication and transparency among team members. The ability to share files, provide real-time updates, and engage in discussions within the platform fostered a culture of collaboration and strengthened the team's cohesion.
Improved Accountability: The standardized work planning approach and the use of Asana's tracking and reporting capabilities improved accountability within the team. Each team member had a clear understanding of their responsibilities, deadlines, and project progress, leading to a higher level of ownership and accountability.

Conclusion

The transformation of the marketing team from struggling with agile adoption and underutilizing Asana to becoming a cohesive, efficient, and collaborative unit showcases the power of effective leadership and change management. Through advocacy, education, and customization, I successfully led the team towards embracing agile principles and fully optimizing Asana. This case study highlights the importance of adaptability, continuous improvement, and the value of choosing the right tools