Author: Franz Malten Buemann

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It’s very easy to spot good leadership when it happens.
Take, for instance, how an old manager of mine used to ask my advice on business strategy in our weekly 1:1s — and then provide constructive feedback on it.
While I might not have recognized it at the time, I now see he was teaching me to think about how my role fit into the company’s bigger mission.
Or, consider how my current manager seeks out learning and development opportunities for each of her direct reports. Whenever she finds a workshop or online class that could help me grow, she passes along the information.
All of which is to say: Good leadership doesn’t look, sound, or act just one way. There are a myriad of ways for a good leader to educate and inspire others.
Which means leadership is a harder skill to master than others. It isn’t like mastering Excel, which requires knowledge of specific, fixed formulas. Instead, good leadership is more ambiguous, and mastering it is less of a linear path. There will be setbacks, and moments where you feel you didn’t act as a good leader should. But there will also be incremental moments of true growth.
Whether you’re an individual contributor or already a team lead, there’s always room for improvement. Here, we’ll cover leadership development on various levels — from individual contributor to senior management and above. Plus, hear leadership tips from Google, LinkedIn, Monday.com, and HubSpot.
We’ll also explore how to achieve your career goals through actionable steps you can take to level-up and become a stronger, more effective leader.
Let’s begin.

What is a leader?
Before we dive into how to become a leader, it’s important we cover what a leader is.
At its most basic definition, a leader is someone who leads a group of people towards a common goal through inspiration, motivation, and strong vision setting.
For instance, a teacher leads her students towards the goal of learning and uses motivation and inspiration to help them reach that goal.
The motivation and inspiration aspects are key. A leader isn’t just someone who barks orders and hopes people obey. Instead, an effective leader is highly emotionally intelligent and connects with his or her direct reports to create stronger relationships before driving the group towards change.
Additionally, a good leader is someone who is effective at big-picture strategizing, and equally adept at communicating that vision to the rest of the team.
If you’re still unsure what a leader is, here are a few quotes from leaders who’ve defined the term for themselves:

“As a business leader, I think of myself as a coach. It’s my responsibility to build a strong team, design a winning strategy and execute the strategy with excellence to bring the team to victory.” — Thasunda Duckett, President and CEO of TIAA
“Ensuring that people have everything they need to achieve the missions of an organization. That’s it, all else is footnotes.” — Hans Vestburg, CEO, Verizon Communications
“Leadership is helping believe in a better tomorrow or a better outcome than you have today.”  — Marissa Mayer, Former CEO, Yahoo!
“Leadership is helping people succeed, inspiring and uniting people behind a common purpose and then being accountable.” — Paul Polman, Former CEO, Unilever
“A leader is someone who can think strategically, simplify the strategy so everyone in the organization can understand it and communicate that strategy simply, enthusiastically, and in a caring way.” — Ajay Banga, CEO, MasterCard

Now that we’ve covered a more broad, basic definition, let’s explore some skills, traits, and qualities of good leadership to understand the definition on a more actionable level.

The Skills, Traits, & Qualities of Good Leadership
Good leadership looks different for every leader. Some leaders are quiet and calm; others are rambunctious and extroverted. There isn’t a specific personality that lends itself best to effective leadership. And that’s a good thing — at its core, leadership is about leading people, and people are diverse, so you want your leadership teams to reflect that diversity.
However, there are a few specific skills, traits, and qualities that have been identified as strong indicators of good leadership.
A few high-level leadership skills include:

High emotional intelligence
A growth mindset
Strong communication skills
Reliability
Ability to give and receive feedback
Decisiveness

To learn more about leadership skills (and how to improve them), take a look at What Are Leadership Skills? [+ How To Get Them].
For now, let’s explore which skills are most relevant for various leadership roles.
Leadership as an Individual Contributor
You don’t have to manage a team to be a leader. Instead, many individual contributors are strong leaders who need to develop leadership skills to manage projects or outcomes.
As an individual contributor, it is oftentimes your responsibility to have influence across the organization to drive projects across the finish line. This includes having the confidence to convince stakeholders that what you’re doing matters to the organization, and that you’re the best leader for the job.
Some of the most critical skills of an individual contributor include strong communication skills, time management skills, ability to work autonomously, and ability to collaborate effectively.
Here are a few specific examples of how individual contributors might need to demonstrate leadership skills:

A social media marketer spearheading a new campaign across channels.
A website designer who is in charge of re-designing the new company homepage.
A blogger who notices a gap in an existing editorial strategy and wants to pitch a new topic cluster to leadership.
A product marketer who needs to work with various teams to drive traffic and leads to a new product launch.

All of these employees need strong leadership skills — including the ability to empathize, remain flexible, listen actively to other team’s agendas, and communicate their own vision effectively — and yet, none of them lead a team in a traditional sense.
To develop leadership skills as an individual contributor:
Learn to seek out feedback from the employees with which you work. Once one project is complete, ask them to complete a survey that requests information related to your time management skills, communication skills, or collaboration skills.
Leadership as a Manager
Once you’re a manager, developing leadership skills becomes more a practice of trial-and-error.
To develop or strengthen key leadership skills, you’ll want to request regular feedback from each of your direct reports, as well as your manager, to determine areas for improvement. Ask clear, actionable questions such as, ‘What is one thing you’d like me to start doing? (Specific examples are helpful)’ and ‘What is one thing you’d like me to stop doing? (Specific examples are helpful)’.
Additionally, take the time to reflect on situations to determine how you might shift your behavior moving forward. Good leaders are the first to admit their mistakes.
For instance, if you’re managing an entry-level employee and recognize you didn’t give her enough context or support before suggesting she meet with her first client, you’ll want to reflect and decide how you’ll change moving forward.
Then, in your 1:1, you can tell her: “I apologize for pushing you into a client situation without ensuring you had all the context and information you needed to succeed. Moving forward, I’ve altered our team training schedule to ensure employees have more time to find their footing before meeting with a client.”
Finally, as you move into a manager role, take the time to identify your management style. Understanding your management style can help you uncover inherent strengths (and weaknesses), and expand upon those.
To develop leadership skills as a manager:
Ask your direct reports for candid, honest feedback. Reflect on situations and iterate on your behaviors over time. Finally, identify your management style and be self-aware about your areas for improvement.
Leadership as a Senior Manager and Above
When you become a senior manager, your job shifts significantly — because you’re now leading a team of managers.  
To be effective as a senior manager, you’ll want to ensure you know how to ask the right questions. In skip level meetings, for instance, you might be speaking with employees who feel intimidated and hesitant to point out issues they’re seeing on the ground-level — but their perspective is invaluable for spotting weaknesses within the organization.
Skip level meetings can also help you determine which areas your direct reports might need coaching, as well as patterns of challenges and inefficiencies across the team.
As a senior manager, it’s also your responsibility to identify and nurture future leaders. Seek out opportunities to coach and mentor lower level leaders to ensure your organization is prepped with leaders who can drive positive change.
Finally, a senior leader is someone who motivates and inspires the department at-large with visions of the future of the company — two, five, and even ten years out. She is someone who is able to clearly articulate where she sees the business, and industry, headed, to create a sense of purpose among employees.
To foster this skill as a senior manager, you’ll want to be intentional about staying up-to-date with the competitive landscape and consistently making note of existing customer pain points and how your company might reduce friction and stay relevant in the years to come.
To learn more about this, take a look at How to Set & Achieve Marketing Objectives in 2021.
To develop leadership skills as a senior manager or above:
Practice the art of active listening and asking the right questions to discover weaknesses and gaps in your organization. Keep up-to-date with the competitive landscape. Find mentors or senior manager peers who will provide you with leadership feedback, and attend conferences or seminars to network with other industry leaders.

How to Achieve Your Leadership Career Goals
1. Identify your leadership style, and know your strengths and weaknesses.
Leadership isn’t one-size, fits-all. So when you first decide you want to become a leader, it’s vital you take the time to determine what type of leader you want to be.
If you’ve never been in a leadership position before, you can start by taking a leadership style assessment to determine your style.
Alternatively, if you have been a leader in a previous position (even informally), take a look at The 8 Most Common Leadership Styles & How to Find Your Own [Quiz] to see which style you feel you fit most accurately.
For instance, let’s say you’ve determined you fit a ‘Coach-Style Leadership’ style. Coach-Style leaders are focused on identifying and nurturing individual strengths of each team member.
Since Coach-Style leaders focus on growth and success of individual employees, it’s vital you’re efficient at communication and relationship-building.
Alternatively, if you felt better suited for a ‘Strategic Leadership’ style, you’d want to hone skills related to strategic, big-picture thinking.
Once you’ve figured out your leadership style, it becomes easier to identify areas for improvement and areas of potential weakness.
To create a more comprehensive list, take the time to make a list of your strengths and weaknesses (and collect external feedback as well) — this can help you determine, with your manager, which areas of growth will be most necessary before you can earn a leadership position.
2. Seek out opportunities to become a role model or mentor.
To become a leader, you’ll need to vocalize to your manager that you want to become one. Then, he or she can help you identify opportunities to begin practicing leadership informally.
Alternatively, try seeking out those opportunities for yourself. There are a myriad of ways to test out your leadership skills. Perhaps you sign up to become a mentor to a new employee, or grab coffee once a week with a new team member to provide guidance and support.
Outside of work, you can look for areas in your community to become a leader. For instance, you could volunteer as a mentor for a local high school.
3. Develop your communication skills.
A core tenant of strong leadership is good communication skills.
Leadership requires you to communicate constantly with various stakeholders, effectively sell them on your goals or vision, and create rapport to build trust among your team.
In a given day, a leader might go from a meeting with executives in which she needs to communicate the resourcing needs of her team, to a meeting with individual contributors where she needs to build trust, inspire, and motivate.
 All of which is to say: Good leadership and strong communication skills go hand-in-hand.
To develop stronger communication skills, you’ll want to start by practicing your active listening skills, learning how to assert your opinion in a helpful way, and asking for feedback from others on your existing communication skills. You might also seek out public speaking opportunities to strengthen your public speaking skills.
Empathy and emotional intelligence are equally critical to communicating effectively, and can help you build stronger relationships with colleagues.
For instance, let’s say a colleague comes to you with a problem. She expresses that she’s been overwhelmed and, as a result, won’t be able to meet the deadline you’d initially agreed upon for a project.
While you might be frustrated or even angry initially, empathy can enable you to put yourself in her shoes, and understand that missing deadlines can happen to all of us. Additionally, emotional intelligence can help you monitor your own emotions and react appropriately.
As a result of having empathy and high emotional intelligence, you might respond like this: “Thanks for letting me know, and I’m sorry to hear you’ve been feeling overwhelmed. We’ve all been there. Give me some time to think over how we can come up with a solution to ensure we don’t get behind on the project as a whole.”
Rather than reacting purely based on personal feelings, emotional intelligence ensures you have the skills to keep your emotions in-check and respond to situations in positive, effective ways.
4. Ask big picture questions and learn to think about strategy.
When asked, “What skills are vital to being a good leader?”, over ⅓ of HubSpot survey respondents reported ‘ability to think strategically and to think about the big picture’. That skill alone won out over communication skills, decision-making skills, and interpersonal skills.
Thinking strategically doesn’t happen overnight. When you’re in a role that requires you to be focused on ground level details, it can be difficult to suddenly pull back and analyze bigger trends, challenges, and solutions — but it’s vital for any leader to be able to do so.
Here are a few ways you can begin exercising that ‘strategic thinking’ muscle:

Ask more big picture questions in meetings, even if it’s not directly tied to your role. For instance, if you’re a social media marketer and you’re required to post Instagram stories for an upcoming product launch, you might explore questions such as, ‘Why did our executive team choose to focus on investing in development for this product in particular?’ ‘How will this product expand our value proposition?’ and ‘What narrative are we telling around this product and how it fits into our existing product stack?’

Expand your network outside of your immediate team. Grab lunches with members of the sales or services organization, and take the time to speak with those outside of your team. This will help you begin to understand what’s happening in other areas of the organization, what other teams are working on, and challenges other teams are facing.

Get organized with how you spend your time. While your day-to-day tasks are important, it’s equally vital you carve out intentional time to focus on bigger projects or professional development opportunities. To do this, you might block off one hour every other week to focus on personal brainstorming — during this time, you might write down a list of higher-visibility projects you’ve been wanting to test out, or seek out workshops and courses in your area that will help you develop skills that your team currently lacks.

Be willing to speak up. Beyond asking question in meetings, practice feeling comfortable sharing your own perspective or opinion. Show your colleagues you’re willing to communicate new ideas or get creative when it comes to existing strategies.

Research Credit: Lucid
5. Take on more responsibility.
To begin levelling up in your career, you’ll need to seek out additional opportunities to expand your skillset and demonstrate your willingness to grow professionally.
The easiest way to do this is to have an honest conversation with your manager in which you ask where the team’s needs are, and how you can help your team meet those needs. Alternatively, perhaps you’ve observed a weak spot on your team and you feel confident you know how to fix it — in that case, you might bring your proposal to your manager.
It’s vital you have buy-in from your manager since taking on more responsibility outside of your existing role could look unprofessional if your manager doesn’t know why you’re adding tasks to your plate.
If you’re interested in becoming a team manager, for instance, you might tell your manager: “I noticed we’re hiring a summer intern. If we don’t already have a plan in-place, I’m wondering if I could become the intern’s mentor or manager for the summer to strengthen some of my leadership skills?”
6. Go where the needs are.
I received this advice early in my career after I’d pitched a lengthy project to my manager. The pitch was strong — except my solution didn’t solve a big problem, it solved a small one.
My manager said, “It looks like you created this pitch with your own personal interests top-of-mind. While it’s always great if your passions can match business need, first and foremost, you need to work from the perspective of, ‘What will help our business the most?’”
She had a point. After some reflection, I realized our team didn’t need infographics designed for blog posts as much as the team needed more SEO knowledge and input. Rather than looking for design courses, I pivoted and signed up for a workshop on SEO. It was less interesting (personally), but it impacted our business on a broader scale.
Effective leaders don’t just suggest random ideas when it suits them. Instead, they start by asking the right questions and analyzing existing weak spots. Then, they work to fill in those gaps and create real change for their organizations.
7. Practice self-awareness.
Self-awareness is an incredibly vital skill for any leader.
For instance, leaders who can see how their employees view them are usually more effective, and have stronger relationships with their employees. Additionally, self-awareness can help you correctly identify what you do well, and which areas you can potentially improve.
But if you think you’re already a master in self-awareness, think again. One study estimates only 10-15% of people are truly self-aware. And, even if you are self-aware, there is always opportunities to strengthen the skill.
In this context of developing leadership skills, self-awareness can help you:

Assess your current relationships with your colleagues, and how you might improve it. (Example: You recognize you were dismissive of another colleague’s ideas in a recent meeting, and she’s been avoiding you since. With that self-awareness, you can apologize for your behavior and practice more open-mindedness moving forward.)

Analyze your own internal thought patterns, and recognize which ones aren’t serving you, to build confidence. (Example: You feel imposter syndrome every time you present to your team, and you’re self-aware enough to know it’s because you’re constantly thinking, ‘I don’t deserve to be here’. As a result, you work on self-affirmation, and create a folder on your desktop of positive reinforcements from colleagues.)

Figure out which skills you lack that you’ll need to develop before moving into a leadership role. (Example: After some reflection, you realize you aren’t often honest about your mistakes, which can make you seem untrustworthy. As a result, you put effort into admitting when you’ve failed to your manager or team.)

8. Take the time for quiet reflection.
Becoming an effective leader doesn’t happen overnight. And, unfortunately, there’s no ‘end’ to becoming a good leader. For your entire leadership journey, you’ll continuously iterate and grow.
When setbacks and failure happens, it’s important you become adept at reflection. As you put these leadership tips into practice, take the time to regularly assess how you’re doing. Leadership is trial-and-error, and as you practice new behaviors to grow your leadership skills, you’ll want to determine which feel most authentic to you.
Ultimately, good leadership doesn’t mean mirroring what others have done. It means figuring out what works for your personality and style, and expanding on those innate qualities. Since authentic leadership is the single strongest predictor of an employee’s job satisfaction, it’s imperative you take the time to grow into a leader in the way that’s right for you.

Why Goal Setting Is a Critical Component of Good Leadership
As you move into a leadership role, you might feel pulled in many different directions by stakeholders with different goals.
This is why setting goals is vital for leading a team successfully: It keeps you focused on what matters for your team.
When you create goals for your team, you’re effectively prioritizing what you will say yes (and no) to over a given period. Additionally, you’re ensuring your team clearly knows where they’re headed and how to get there — an essential component of good leadership.
Here are a few other reasons goal setting is a critical component of good leadership:

Goal setting helps you enable your employees to work more autonomously. If they know what results you’re expecting from them, it doesn’t necessarily matter when, where, or how they reach those.

Goal setting helps you stay focused on what matters most for your business. It ensures you don’t get distracted with quick wins, and instead remain fixated on long-term success.

Goal setting can spark more engagement from employees. If your employees understand the purpose and long-term vision behind their daily tasks, they’ll likely feel more motivated.

Goal setting increases a team’s creativity and collaboration. Once you’ve decided where your team is headed, you don’t necessarily need to dictate how to get there. Instead, empower your employees to brainstorm and test out interesting strategies to drive the team forward towards that goal. It’s more interesting — and likely more effective — to gather unique perspectives when driving towards a common goal.

It helps you know when to say no. When your employees come to you with interesting projects or experiments, it can be tempting to say yes. By setting clear team goals, you’re ensuring each team member uses their time intentionally in pursuit of that goal alone.

When setting goals, consider using a SMART framework to ensure your goals are clear, actionable, and specific.
The Eisenhower Matrix can also help you figure out which tasks are highest priority once you’ve determined your team’s short and long-term goals. The Eisenhower Matrix enables you to categorize your tasks in order of urgency and importance.

Now that we’ve covered goal setting as a vital component of leadership, let’s explore a few other critical factors according to Google, LinkedIn, Monday.com, and HubSpot.

What Makes an Effective Leader? Tips from Google, LinkedIn, Monday.com, and HubSpot
1. Effective leadership is humbling. 
Anders Mortensen, Google’s Managing Director of Channel Partners, says effective leadership is humbling. 
He told me, “In my early years of leadership, I was focused on the what — the results — while my team was focused on the how. It took me six years to realize that you don’t define your leadership success, it’s defined by others, and the how matters more than the what.”
Mortensen adds that he believes your definition of team will either limit leaders, or elevate them.

“To become an effective leader,” Mortensen says, “you have to make people around you better. Success is collaborative and your definition of ‘team’ will either limit you, or elevate you.”

“The broader you define ‘team’, the more holistically you’ll lead, and you’ll become the bridge-builder that solves for the entire company, versus optimizing for just your own.”
Ultimately, being a good leader means more than delivering exceptional results. It also means consistently motivating and supporting your team — through the highs, but also through the lows. 

2. Effective leaders show compassion and encourage authenticity.
Alyssa Merwin, Vice President of LinkedIn Sales Solutions, told me compassion is a key characteristic of effective leaders.
As Merwin puts it, “For many reasons, employees may struggle to show up as their full selves at work, creating barriers for them to be successful in certain parts of their roles. Whether because of caregiving responsibilities, mental health concerns, being part of an underrepresented group, or any other number of factors that make them feel different from the broader group, employees may experience increased stress of showing up to their desks — or Zoom, these days — on top of the pressure to perform in their roles.”
Employees desire the opportunity to show up as their authentic selves at work, which is a critical factor for long-term employee satisfaction and engagement. 
Merwin says, “To truly support their teams, it’s imperative that leaders not only recognize that these challenges may exist for some team members, but that they also commit to integrating diversity, inclusion, and belonging into their day-to-day operations.”
“Creating and enabling great cultures and welcoming environments is just the starting point,” Merwin adds.

“Effective leaders focus on how each individual team member is feeling and showing up to work, and they facilitate safe spaces for open discussion about how team members can better support one another.”

3. An effective leader is someone who walks side-by-side with their team. 
Effective leaders are able to provide strong, actionable support and guidance for their team. 
As Hila Levy-Loya, VP of Customer Success at monday.com, told me, “Being an effective leader is about choosing to walk side-by-side with your team — not forging ahead and looking back to check where they are.”
Being able to walk side-by-side, Levy-Loya adds, requires you to take the time to have deeper conversations with your team and understand their daily activities. “The first step in achieving this is to take the time to understand the details of your team’s work and what keeps them up at night. Get to know their day-to-day responsibilities and stresses, and in turn you will become trusted to lead an informed discussion with your team.”

Along with discussing your team’s responsibilities, you’ll want to remain transparent about the bigger picture — including your long-term vision and goals. 
Levy-Loya says, “The second step is granting your team access into your motivations so they can understand your ‘zoomed out’ view just as you do. Sharing the good, the bad, and the unknown creates an environment of trust and transparency that is crucial to achieving incredible results. With that ability to tap into each others perspectives, you and your team are able to pave the way together.”
4. An effective leader always assumes good intent.
Lisa Toner, HubSpot’s Director of Content Network, told me effective leaders always assume good intent, even when a team member makes a mistake. 
As she puts it, “No one sets out to make a bad decision or mistake. When it happens, they’re likely going to be more upset about it than you are, so no matter how frustrated you are, approach the issue with empathy, and calmly and supportively lead your team member towards a better outcome.”

“Always assume good intent,” Toner adds. “Reacting negatively will only knock their confidence in themselves — and you — in the long run.”

Ultimately, good leadership doesn’t happen overnight. To become an effective leader, you’ll want to consistently request honest, candid feedback from your direct reports, and practice self-awareness to recognize — and improve — your leadership weaknesses. 
Fortunately, your direct reports don’t expect you to be perfect; they expect you to be human. Be humble, admit when you don’t know, and collaborate with your team to leverage each person’s expertise — all of which will bring you that much closer to truly leading effectively. 

 

 

In order to radically enhance your experience with our system, we redesigned its interface from the ground up. To start, we prepared pioneer Human Interface guidelines, inspired by the latest design trends for the most intuitive operational systems. Accurate execution of the design principles led us to elevate User Experience to the level till this day unreachable by any SaaS software.

The goal we set for ourselves was to remove every obstacle between the human intention and the system action to create and evoke a perfect flow.  We reached a remarkable 60% increase in speed of operations and reduced the clicks by 33%.  

In this article, we summarize all the changes and explain our inspirations. Enjoy!

 

User-driven revolution in SaaS – Human Interface

 

The constant development of end-to-end platforms demands a new approach to design principles. We already made the most out of the classic SaaS interface. To deliver a truly revolutionary, user-driven experience, we decided to:

Design the interface from the ground up instead of developing the existing one.
Completely discard the classic SaaS design philosophy which we see as insufficient for modern CDP.
Seek inspiration in the most intuitive and seamless interfaces, even for non-professionals – operational systems like Windows or macOS.

In consequence, we achieved the effects unparalleled in SaaS programs:

Speed. Because fewer operations are needed to get to the desired feature, the new menu allows you to navigate through the system up to 60% faster, more intuitively, and with ⅓ fewer clicks, 

Seamlessness. Users who know operational systems from their daily routines will recognize the design immediately and will know how to navigate it.

Personalization. As in the case of the operational systems, users now can customize the interface according to their needs. 

Agility. There are now many ways to get to any of SALESmanago’s 650+ features & solutions, according to the user’s preferences and customs.

We designed a navigation system so friendly, seamless and fast, that we named it simply Human Interface.

 

Menu Anatomy

 

Intuitive navigation and hotkeys

 

New menu is now easily accessible with a large, green button in the left upper corner of the screen. You can also use A hotkey to access the menu (more on shortcuts later).

 

 

Navigation in the menu is now a breeze. Just hover the cursor over the chosen position, and the whole feature tree will appear. You can go straight to the needed functionality with just one click, even if it is located on the secondary list in the menu!

 

 

Another innovation is the introduction of hotkeys, which further improve the navigation within the application. Use Shift+? to highlight all available shortcuts.

 

 

Favourite features at Your fingertips

 

Quick links are a set of most frequently used features accessible instantly from the top bar. They allow you to jump to selected feature from any place in the system with one click. You can fully customize the set, the order of links, and the icons’ look to suit your needs.

 

 

To set up your own array of Quick Links click on the Manage button.

 

 

Then, choose a desired feature from the drop-down menu. As a Quick Link, you can select any feature, and then customize its icon. Then click the Save button on the Quick Link bar. Your new link has been added to the bar. 

 

 

You can pick up to 15 Quick Links. To delete existing items, click the minus icon next to the selected Quick Link.

 

 Contextual menus

 

Contextual menus, or breadcrumbs, display located horizontally below the top bar with quick links. This is a permanently visible support menu that allows you to smoothly move between features of each module. They change dynamically according to your location in the system to reflect the structure of features in each module. 

 

 

Your workplace, your colors

 

Adjust the color of each item in the menu according to your taste. Change the colors of fonts, icons, tiles, and backgrounds at will. You can change colors for groups of elements (i.e. all tiles, all icons) as well as individual items on tiles (different icon color or background color on a selected tile).

 

 

Zero click human-system communication

 

The new menu contains two search boxes. The first search box is located in the menu. It allows you to quickly find all necessary features and their subsections.

This way the experienced users, knowing what they are looking for, are now able to get straight to the desired feature from any place in the system. No clicks at all.

The second search box is located in the top bar. It allows you to quickly find a contact in your Contacts list.

 

 

Summarizing new, friendly ecosystem for operations

 

Re-shape your CDP & Marketing Automation experience with a redesigned menu navigation and an innovative approach to information architecture that provides quick access to all 650+ features & solutions
Save time thanks to simplified navigation inside the application: reduced by 1/3 the number of clicks and time cut by 60% to reach all system features
Benefit from a number of improvements, based on the latest usability trends, that will grant you fast and seamless navigation through the system 
Compose your own list of quick links, so you can access the most frequently used features directly from any place within the application, without opening the main menu
Use customizable hotkeys to smoothly access your favorite features in a split second
Enjoy bespoke user experience by fully tailoring the design and quick links selection to your needs so you can access the most important and frequently used features in no time 

 

Standard CDPs navigation and SALESmanago CDP’s new Human Interface

 

 

 

 

In order to radically enhance your experience with our system, we redesigned its interface from the ground up. To start, we prepared pioneer Human Interface guidelines, inspired by the latest design trends for the most intuitive operational systems. Accurate execution of the design principles led us to elevate User Experience to the level till this day unreachable by any SaaS software.

The goal we set for ourselves was to remove every obstacle between the human intention and the system action to create and evoke a perfect flow.  We reached a remarkable 60% increase in speed of operations and reduced the clicks by 33%.  

In this article, we summarize all the changes and explain our inspirations. Enjoy!

 

User-driven revolution in SaaS – Human Interface

 

The constant development of end-to-end platforms demands a new approach to design principles. We already made the most out of the classic SaaS interface. To deliver a truly revolutionary, user-driven experience, we decided to:

Design the interface from the ground up instead of developing the existing one.
Completely discard the classic SaaS design philosophy which we see as insufficient for modern CDP.
Seek inspiration in the most intuitive and seamless interfaces, even for non-professionals – operational systems like Windows or macOS.

In consequence, we achieved the effects unparalleled in SaaS programs:

Speed. Because fewer operations are needed to get to the desired feature, the new menu allows you to navigate through the system up to 60% faster, more intuitively, and with ⅓ fewer clicks, 

Seamlessness. Users who know operational systems from their daily routines will recognize the design immediately and will know how to navigate it.

Personalization. As in the case of the operational systems, users now can customize the interface according to their needs. 

Agility. There are now many ways to get to any of SALESmanago’s 650+ features & solutions, according to the user’s preferences and customs.

We designed a navigation system so friendly, seamless and fast, that we named it simply Human Interface.

 

Menu Anatomy

 

Intuitive navigation and hotkeys

 

New menu is now easily accessible with a large, green button in the left upper corner of the screen. You can also use A hotkey to access the menu (more on shortcuts later).

 

 

Navigation in the menu is now a breeze. Just hover the cursor over the chosen position, and the whole feature tree will appear. You can go straight to the needed functionality with just one click, even if it is located on the secondary list in the menu!

 

 

Another innovation is the introduction of hotkeys, which further improve the navigation within the application. Use Shift+? to highlight all available shortcuts.

 

 

Favourite features at Your fingertips

 

Quick links are a set of most frequently used features accessible instantly from the top bar. They allow you to jump to selected feature from any place in the system with one click. You can fully customize the set, the order of links, and the icons’ look to suit your needs.

 

 

To set up your own array of Quick Links click on the Manage button.

 

 

Then, choose a desired feature from the drop-down menu. As a Quick Link, you can select any feature, and then customize its icon. Then click the Save button on the Quick Link bar. Your new link has been added to the bar. 

 

 

You can pick up to 15 Quick Links. To delete existing items, click the minus icon next to the selected Quick Link.

 

 Contextual menus

 

Contextual menus, or breadcrumbs, display located horizontally below the top bar with quick links. This is a permanently visible support menu that allows you to smoothly move between features of each module. They change dynamically according to your location in the system to reflect the structure of features in each module. 

 

 

Your workplace, your colors

 

Adjust the color of each item in the menu according to your taste. Change the colors of fonts, icons, tiles, and backgrounds at will. You can change colors for groups of elements (i.e. all tiles, all icons) as well as individual items on tiles (different icon color or background color on a selected tile).

 

 

Zero click human-system communication

 

The new menu contains two search boxes. The first search box is located in the menu. It allows you to quickly find all necessary features and their subsections.

This way the experienced users, knowing what they are looking for, are now able to get straight to the desired feature from any place in the system. No clicks at all.

The second search box is located in the top bar. It allows you to quickly find a contact in your Contacts list.

 

 

Summarizing new, friendly ecosystem for operations

 

Re-shape your CDP & Marketing Automation experience with a redesigned menu navigation and an innovative approach to information architecture that provides quick access to all 650+ features & solutions
Save time thanks to simplified navigation inside the application: reduced by 1/3 the number of clicks and time cut by 60% to reach all system features
Benefit from a number of improvements, based on the latest usability trends, that will grant you fast and seamless navigation through the system 
Compose your own list of quick links, so you can access the most frequently used features directly from any place within the application, without opening the main menu
Use customizable hotkeys to smoothly access your favorite features in a split second
Enjoy bespoke user experience by fully tailoring the design and quick links selection to your needs so you can access the most important and frequently used features in no time 

 

Standard CDPs navigation and SALESmanago CDP’s new Human Interface

 

 

Building a unique, authentic brand is essential for any business. A strong identity helps customers understand who you are, what you do, and why you do it.
But many founders confuse their business brand with their personal brand. And while combining them may work for a select few, it’s not the right approach for most.
In my experience as a creative, brand strategist, and coach for small businesses and startups, separating your personal brand from your business both strengthens your business and allows individual autonomy and professional growth.
If you have a public persona of any kind—and if you’re a small business owner, you likely do—I highly recommend creating an entirely separate business brand, and using a “personal professional” brand platform to share insights into your life.
Here’s why:

You’ll have freedom to grow beyond your business: Many entrepreneurs end up writing a book, becoming a public speaker, or starting a new project or venture. Your personal professional brand is a perfect platform for sharing and promoting this type of work while still allowing the business to continue to operate as normal.

You can better hone your business brand: Separating all of your professional interests from the main aim of your company strengthens your business’s brand by allowing it to be more focused and intentional.

You’ll optimize your brand for growth: Even if you feel like you are your business in the beginning, if you have visions of growing a team or perhaps getting acquired, you want the business brand to stand on its own, without you. Your professional success shouldn’t hinge on your business’ success.

You are more than your business: Employers, clients, and partners often want to experience a more dimensional understanding of who you are. What causes do you stand for? What other professional groups are you a part of? What creative endeavors or interests round out who you are?

Convinced? Great. Now, here’s how to do it:
Creating Your Personal Professional Brand
I like to think of your personal professional brand as an expanded Linkedin profile. It’s a work-related online identity that goes beyond your business or company.
Source: Flight Design
Caption: My personal professional brand is all about my skill set and background—not just about my current business.
People often confuse this with a personal brand; however, I find it helpful to distinguish the two. In the past, I struggled with determining what to keep private and what to share publicly. How much of myself is needed to feel authentic without feeling like the whole world knows all my secrets (the “personal branding” approach that many take on social media)?
Creating a “personal professional brand” has been the solution: On my website and social media, I share causes I believe in, projects I’m a part of, and even sometimes a bit of my every day, like photos from a recent trip or a picture of my family. I like to think about it as “HR-appropriate”—if I’m interviewing for any type of position, partnership, or client deal, this personal professional brand would help tell a broader story of who I am.
My personal professional brand is a mix of career accomplishments and personal facts that give a sense of my personality.Are there exceptions? Of course! If your personal professional brand is your business brand—many authors, speakers, coaches, and thought leaders fall into this category—then having one brand might make sense.
But otherwise, keep them separate but direct them to each other. Here’s how this might work:
Build a Personal Professional Website
I always recommend securing the domain name for yourname.com (or something very similar), as a home for your personal professional brand. Don’t want to maintain this type of website in addition to your business website? I didn’t, either, so I created a page for myself on my company’s website. My personal professional site, arianawolf.com, simply redirects to flightdesign.co/ariana-wolf. But, if I ever want to separate them down the line, I can, and no one has taken the URL with my name.
Show up on Social—But Only Where you Shine
As a small business owner (especially one who reads this blog), you likely know the power of social media for your company. You’re probably also stressed about managing your platforms for both your business and your personal account.
Here’s your permission to not be active on all platforms if you don’t want to be. Unlike your business, you really don’t need them all. Instead, think about the site that you enjoy most and will highlight your work best, and focus your personal professional brand efforts there.
For a lot of folks, that’s Twitter, because it’s quick and easy. For more visual people, it’s Instagram. Being in a creative field, my clients like to know that I’m creatively minded, so I focus mostly on Instagram, where I share photography I’ve taken.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ariana Wolf (@simply_ariana)

My Instagram showcases my photography—a creative habit that relates to my business but that’s also uniquely my personal professional brand.
Speaking of social media, a quick note on LinkedIn. While many people default to “Owner of Company” in their title, it’s worth adding a few other descriptors about who you are and what you’re best at to your title. That way, if someone is searching for an expert or speaker and comes across your profile, they’ll get a sense of who you are outside of your business.
Build Your Thought Leadership
Finding opportunities to share your expertise, like writing articles or appearing on podcasts, is a great way to get visibility for both your business and your personal professional brand. When you have these opportunities, you can and should mention your company, but you should also share your philosophies and what you stand for as a professional outside of your current role.
For example, I was recently interviewed for a podcast where I talked about my brand philosophy. Yes, that’s something I do at work every day, but it’s also advice I bring when I’m consulting other startups or sitting on advisory boards. It’s part of who I am outside of my business.
Don’t Be Afraid to Let Your Personality Shine
I personally believe—for brands and for people—that the thing that makes you a little bit quirky is what makes it easy for others to connect with you. So, as you’re developing your personal professional brand, don’t be afraid to let those things shine! Do you love roller skating? Have an epic collection of Star Wars miniatures? Those fun hobbies might not get to take center stage in your business’s brand, but they’ll add an element of interest, intrigue, and connection to your personal professional brand. After all, they’re what make you, you—and that’s what branding is all about.

 

 

A good Marketing Mix includes the 4Ps. But, is it enough to succeed in the digital world? If not, which solutions can be used to bridge the gap? Is the Customer Data Platform the key? Keep reading to find out.

The line dividing the change from one paradigm to the next is often blurry. Until recently, one could safely say that a good Marketing Mix, or the famous 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) is effective enough to generate a healthy ROI. However, in hindsight, one can observe that this two-dimensional approach (customer-brand) definitely needs a facelift.  Everything that makes up effective marketing today will require the addition of a few cognitive layers. And here are numbers to prove it.

Research found that companies that earn $1 billion annually can expect to earn, on average, an additional $700 million within 3 years by investing in customer experience. (Temkin Group)

(Product) Companies with a customer experience mindset drive4-8% higher  revenue than their industry peers. (Bain)

(Price) Up to 43% of all consumers would pay more for greater convenience; 42% would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience. And, among U.S. customers, 65% find a positive experience with a brand to be more influential than a shiney advertising campaign. (PWC)

(Place) In a global survey, 74% of in-store shoppers who searched online before going to the store to shop, said they searched for something in-store related, such as: the closest store near them, locations, in stock near them, hours, directions, wait times, and contact information. (Google)

(Promotion) Practically all of us favor peer recommendations. As much as 92% of people, in fact, trust product recommendations from friends. In comparison, only 24% trust ads. (Zuberance)

Modern marketing tools, such as Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), can be a powerful tool in making this smooth transition. First, a bit of theory.

 

What is a classic Marketing Mix?

 

The Economist Times defines Marketing Mix as follows: 

The marketing mix refers to the set of actions, or tactics, that a company uses to promote its brand or product in the market. 

Source: The Economic Times

The Classic Marketing Mix consists of 4 components:

Product
Price
Place
Promotion.

Addressing these elements, in theory, guarantees a comprehensive approach to the overall marketing effort. So why the change?

 

New Marketing Mix: Replacing the 4Ps with the 4Es

 

There’s no denying that the 4Ps are no longer enough today. Around 2015, professionals began to redefine the components needed for success. However, instead of changing their structure, they started looking for a way to adapt to the changes which they observe in society.

 

Where does the need for change stem from?

 

It will not come as a surprise if I say that the main factors are the wide availability of all kinds of products. This is made possible by the ubiquity of the Internet and online payments, and a shift in consumer behaviors. Younger generations are paying attention to different aspects of the product than their parents. In addition, they are interacting with it in new ways in a multitude of channels. It is this globalist, egalitarian, and interactive layer that  requires a totally new way of thinking and doing  in marketing.

 

What are the 4Es of the New Marketing Mix?

 

As the marketing space react to a ever changing world, the components of an effective Marketing Mix must also change.There is now a migration to the 4Es:

Experience
Exchange
Everyplace
Evangelism.

While the 4Ps are still important, the Marketing Mix should include these components.

 

 

What’s behind the 4Es?

 

Let’s first define the different aspects of each of the 4Es. By understanding them, you can better find areas where you can leverage your resources to better develop your product and the consumer experience (CX) that follows.

 

Experience

 

More than the product itself, consumers are paying attention to the experience arising from its purchase, and use. This includes its design, quality, usability, but also social aspects ( belonging to groups, participation in popular movements, etc.).

This goes far beyond a one-dimensional understanding of the product. The experience of those interacting with the brand at numerous touch points is also relevant. This will include: 

familiarization with the brand and product, 
gradual purchase decision, 
purchase experience, 
receiving the product, 
post-purchase service, 
and a plethora of loyalty building activities.

10 top Customer Engagement metrics for a every CX Executive, and how CDPs can make your life a lot easier >>

 

Exchange

 

The price is still one of the important factors that make up a product. However, it loses its place in the rankings to the aforementioned experience. Oftentimes, you can find products online in freemium versions, or at incredibly low promotional prices. Purchasing decisions will be dictated by whether they recognize the added value of the product. This is where the greatest exchange is happening. When the choices are endless, it’s the details that matter to shoppers and win over the competition.

Leverage the specifics of the VIP sector to personalize your campaigns >>

 

Everyplace

 

Omnichannel as a word has made its way into the marketing vocabulary for good. Today, brands cannot afford to be absent from any marketing channels. A comprehensive use of the channels enjoyed by the brand’s customers and/or potential customers works much better.

However, there are several challenges. The first is to maintain consistency of the message and deliver format appropriate contents to audiences that switch repeatedly between channels.

The second challenge is to move away from third-party cookie-based marketing. In fact, leading browsers and ad networks will end their support of this practice in the near future. Zero- and first-party cookies are now preferred ways used to gather data and give consent. The fact that this is a voluntary thing will deepen the relationship between businesses and their customers. 

Masterclass of dynamic Omnichannel excellence  >>

 

Evangelism

 

For the past few years, I have seen the trend of placing more emphasis on loyalty and increasing customer retention. Loyal customers spend more money, plus they are much more likely to recommend the brand to friends. However, loyalty itself is no longer the Holy Grail. Brand evangelists are. These people aren’t just happy with the products, they feel the excitement of interacting with their favorite brand. They recommend beloved products to friends without any additional incentives. What is more, people who get such a recommendation spend more than traditional recommendations.

Why customer retention is absolutely critical to eCommerce growth >>

 

How to address the 4Es using CDP?

 

CDP platforms are powerful marketing tools that support growth in each of the 4 areas of the new Marketing Mix. Here are brief descriptions and examples of how a CDP is used in each of the named spaces.

 

Experience

 

CDP is the perfect tool for collecting, storing and using zero- and first-party data. Its capabilities allow you to deepen your understanding of the real needs and expectations of your customers. This knowledge will facilitate your strategic approach to product development, so it can best serve the people who buy it. Going further, the collected data can be used to design the overall consumer experience.

The features available in CDP, such as Alerts and Workflow, help accompany the customer throughout the Customer Journey.

 

Sample applications

 

Survey: A visitor to your site selects their preferences and interests in a survey. Using this, you can send them more interest-based content to their preferred channels.

Satisfaction: In the NPS form, customers leave feedback after purchase. By analyzing the responses, you can control the changes in the purchasing process to systematically increase satisfaction levels for future transactions.

Segmentation: Through a progressive pop-up, visitors are asked about their hobbies, favorite sport, location, and interesting product categories. This allows you to create advanced user segments which translates into the creation of more engagements, which in turn leads to increased profits.

 

Exchange

 

Since price is no longer a key factor, brands should find a better way to communicate the true value of the product. Emphasizing the unique qualities of a product makes people aware of what they are really getting within the price they pay. Finding them is much easier when you can see what your best customers are paying attention to. The best part is that you don’t have to wait until purchase though. You can highlight the added value of your products to new leads.

 

Sample applications

 

Lead nurturing: For each new contact in your database, you run an educational cycle that relates to their interests and behaviors on your site. After learning about the offer presented in the educational email cycle, the likelihood that these individuals will purchase more expensive products based on the unique features increases.

Free/Freemium: Temporarily providing free access to premium content in exchange for contact information can result in a dramatic increase in your contact base. Users see the benefits of valuable content, or they get used to the convenience of the premium version and want to continue with the brand.

Increasing the value of the purchase over time: Even if the cost of subscribing to a popular magazine increases over time However, if the content provided is well suited to the subscribers’ profile, they will often choose to continue their relationship with the publisher.

 

Everywhere

 

CDP platforms make it possible to monitor the behavior of consumers at multiple touchpoints within the brand. The result is a complete 360° profile, enriched with newer and newer information. Thanks to progressive forms, surveys, and pop-ups as well as other Lead Generation tools, it is possible to collect data and use it conveniently in preferred communication channels. These include email, Mobile, Web Push, Social Media, advertising networks or your website. It allows for effective communication in both manual and automated campaigns.

 

Sample applications

 

Offline + Online: When a person makes an offline purchase, you can also reach out to the contact online. Of course, you need to use in-store behavior monitoring, for example through loyalty programs or a mobile app. Collecting this data allows you to later enable communication in new channels, for example, through personalized Web Push notifications.

App + Web: Mobile apps complement the digital eCommerce landscape more and more. By combining and unifying data across CDP platforms, it is possible to personalize messages displayed on the website according to behavior on the mobile app.

Email + Ad networks: There are times when the people stop opening emails. CDP allows you to automatically switch between channels. For example, you can show personalized Facebook or Google ads to John Smith who deleted your newsletter.

 

Evangelism

 

Strengthening the bonds between consumers and the brand requires a lot of work, but it pays off. The tools you use in this area include: 

building user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX), 
reaching the right people with the right message, 
progressive profiling, 
lead nurturing, 
post-purchase drip campaigns, 
keeping an eye on churn and negative feedback, 
and reacting quickly to behavioral changes.

 

Sample applications

 

Preventing customer churn: Imagine that a person moves from the medium churn risk segment to high. Following this, you might send them an automatic communication that stimulates them to take up the offer. This increases the chances that the person will nevertheless stay with the brand.

Stimulating and strengthening the relationship with the brand: The new contact takes the initial activity within your website. They also responded to educational emails. The CDP uses this data to automatically move the contact to the next stage in the sales funnel. The higher stage provides slightly different contents that correspond to the level of intimacy between the contact and the brand. Additionally, appropriately set automations help to gradually profile the contact by collecting zero- and first-party data, which in turn, helps to further personalize future communication even better.

Rewarding loyalty: New contacts are new contacts, but what about those who have been with you for a long time? For existing leads, especially those who have shopped multiple times in the store, you can set up a targeted newsletter campaign with a special offer aimed at these loyal users..

 

Some final thoughts

 

Aligning your tools with your audience’s needs is always a good investment. A space with customers who exhibit increasing awareness and demands present eCommerce owners and marketing professionals many new challenges. A good CDP platform will help you address most of them. 

If you already have a platform but don’t know how to identify the 4Es for your business, be sure to speak to your Success Manager. They will be happy to help you find the right areas and implement the right actions.

 

consumer buying behavior has been defined as “the process by which individuals or groups choose, buy, use, or dispose of products or services to satisfy their needs and desires”.
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