Author: Franz Malten Buemann

I was wondering if yall can please be kind enough to take a few minutes to answer a survey I have created for my market research project. The content of the questionnaire is about computers in particular. Your answers are confidential. Thank you, much appreciated. Here is the link to the survey: https://forms.gle/amqt73rELbSWnHGh8 submitted by /u/headshotBean [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Substantial_Pair_294 [link] [comments]

 

 

1. Name, position, in SALESmanago since…

 

Krystian Kuta, Sales Manager for the UK & DACH region. I have been with SALESmanago since November 2018, when I started in an entry-level position.

 

2. Coffee, workout, meditation – how do you start your workday and get ready for conquering the world?

 

To be perfectly blunt, I am not really a morning person. I need to think as little as possible during the first 20 minutes of my day, so my alarm clock is set to “snooze,” and after 10 minutes of additional sleep, a short “autopilot” process starts—espresso and shower (always ending with cold water). This is a one-two combination as the coffee starts to kick in right after the shower, so from there, I can consciously prepare to spend the rest of the morning conquering the world.

 

3. How did you find your way to your current role at SALESmanago?

 

I remember the moment when I went up to the 2nd floor to be interviewed by Greg himself. The funny thing is that I was feeling extremely uncomfortable from the very start because I came suited up, with a tie and everything, whereas the whole office (Greg included) was super-casual . I didn’t appreciate the start-up vibe back then, so I thought that I would fail the interview miserably. Fortunately, the reality turned out to be completely different, and I was hired on the spot. It was easy from there and, step by step, I went through a BDR to AE and then, when the opportunity came, I took a manager position, which is where I am right now.

 

4. Which of the SALESmanago values speak to you the most?

 

It would definitely be Execution & Performance, together with Appreciation of Individual Effort/Commitment. It is no surprise that I chose those two because I have been in sales since… forever. Nevertheless, from my first day here, there has always been room for impact-hungry individuals to get outside the brackets. Most importantly, SALESmanago has helped by creating an environment in which people can reach their full potential. This is what I’ve been seeing for more than four years!

 

5. What three words would you use to describe yourself?

 

Helpful, Positive, Organized

 

6. You are on a deserted island, and you can choose one person and one thing from the company to be there with you. Who and what will they be, and why?

 

This is simply an impossible task! There are so many interesting people in the organization, and I’m pretty sure that I would have a fantastic time (our company parties are proof of that) with every single one of them. One thing I know for sure is that I would not leave for the deserted island without a ton of sweets from the office

 

7. What have you recently done for the first time in your life?

 

Lately, everything has been revolving around the thing that I will be doing for the first time in around August this year:being a dad!!!

 

Imagine this: You open your inbox, and there sit a dozen new articles that you’d be thrilled to share to social media. Simple as that!Welcome to the world of email newsletters, where experts from a wide spectrum of topics are finding and sharing the best content they discover—perfect for you to read, to buffer, and to share with your social media audience.There are a ton of great newsletters to choose from … almost too many. Every so often, I spend time decluttering and re-establishing what content I should be subscribing to, reading, and using as a resource for links to build out my social media calendar – both personal and professional.Having seen a ton of great newsletters pass my way, I’d love to share a short list of the best newsletters out there (many of which have become personal favorites).Check out the list below. And I hope you find some great new content!For even more great content to share …Newsletters are one of the many places to find inspiration for adding fresh content to social media. Here are a couple of other resources from the Buffer blog to give you even more ideas:25 Places to Find Incredible Content to Share17 Unique Places to Find Great Content13 of the Best Newsletters in 20201. Robinhood SnacksPreview.I read the Robinhood Snacks newsletter daily, no matter what. While this list is in no particular order, this one is intentionally first. It’s likely the newsletter that got me hooked on newsletters in the first place.Their content helps me stay constantly on top of financial business news in a non-boring, non-dry, and super simple way. I’ve always struggled with staying afloat of financial news because of the language, but Robinhood’s easy explanations and punny flavor of writing makes it not only comprehensible, but enjoyable.2. Morning BrewThe Morning Brew collects interesting stories in business in general (not just financially-focused). It’s also a great source of links across different topics to use for social media publishing.3. Below the FoldNow while most newsletters help you understand the major headlines of the day, Below the Fold serves a different purpose. The content is what you would have found if you still had a physical newspaper and were flipping to page two, covering important stories not making headlines and, as a result, easy to miss.Bias alert! My amazing team at Acciyo puts this weekly newsletter together, but we work hard to dig up stories you’re not hearing anywhere else but still impact your world.4. Buffer’s social media newsletterPreview. (You can join by clicking the email CTA in the middle of this post.)Yes, this is the newsletter for the very blog you’re reading right now. The weekly newsletter is short and sweet — full of all the latest social media news from Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and more, plus the newest tools and trends.5. Vox SentencesWhile Vox has an extensive offering of newsletters, Vox Sentences takes the cake as my favorite. With all the lengthy newsletters already in existence, Vox Sentences is a daily that truly puts the “brief” in “news briefing.” They excel at covering major new stories into concise bullet points.6. NextDraftFor a different flavor of content in your mix, turn to NextDraft, a carefully curated list of the ten most interesting things within “that swirling nightmare of information quicksand” we call the internet. Brought to you by Dave Pell, a life-long news junkie with an affinity for great puns, this daily newsletter is loved by many — including Rainn Wilson from The Office!7. NPR’s Pop-Culture Happy HourContinuing on the different flavors path … NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour is an absolutely delightful newsletter that offers insightful opinions about the latest hit TV show or movie. The tone is fun, casual, but still very mature/insightful. Want to impress your co-workers with thoughtful analysis about Succession? PCHH is the perfect source!8. Non-Obvious InsightsNon-Obvious Insights follows the same theme as Below the Fold, mentioned above, but specifically for marketing content. The newsletter highlights articles within the marketing world that have not been widely covered, all in a clean and simple design without leaving you overwhelmed with text.9. NPR’s Life KitAnother treat from NPR, Life Kit is a periodical newsletter that covers a wide range of topics including personal finance, health, parenting, education, journalism, and art. Chances are, Life Kit has covered a topic that’s relevant for your social media content.10. NYTimes Morning BriefingPreview.One of their many valuable content efforts, The New York Times’ Morning Briefing is efficiently summarizes the top news stories of the day and offers a long list of feature stories that are worth a 20-minute read. A great place to look when you have that extra time and want to dig deeper.11. Moz Top TenWe all know and love Moz’s content, but their Top Ten newsletter specifically delivers fascinating insights about the latest news in SEO and digital marketing as a whole. Their approach is unique in that they send a semimonthly email with 10 articles that go deep in information you don’t have the time to hunt down yourself.12. The Professional FreelancerAs marketers, we’re either hiring freelancers or sometimes freelancers ourselves — whether full time or as a side hustle to our day job. The Freelance Feels newsletter offers practical advice for how to succeed as a freelancer writer without succumbing to stress and anxiety. It’s delivered weekly on Friday.13. The Daily PitchWorking in tech, I love to know how the tides are changing. Whether it’s movement on investing in female founders, which companies are IPO-ing, or any other insights on the ever changing world of VC, PE, and M&A … The Daily Pitch from Pitchbook makes it easy to stay constantly informed. It’s fun to see the drama that emerges from time to time, too.14. The Soapbox ProjectNews can be messy – especially news on climate change. The Soapbox Project provided bite-size stories in three minutes a week with actionable next steps. Every month they run a series taking you from Read → Listen → Act → Reflect.Which newsletters are your favorites?I hope I’ve hit on a few of your favorites in the list here, as well as given you some good ideas on possible new ones to grab!Which newsletters do you subscribe to? Which are your favorites? Which ones have you found to be most helpful with finding content to read and share?I’d love to hear all about it in the comments!This article was originally published in February 2015. We refreshed it and updated it in December 2020.

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What problems and obstacles do you face as a project manager? For many, scope creep, poor communication, and task delays top the list.
To state the obvious, project management can be tricky. Without careful planning and strategizing, it can feel like you’re f working blind.
So, if you’re in a project management position, starting with the basics is your best bet. Here, we’ll break down projects into five phases to help you better understand what needs to be done and when.

The Project Management Lifecycle
The Five Stages of Project Management
Stage 1: Project Conception and Initiation
Stage 2: Project Planning
Stage 3: Project Execution
Stage 4: Project Monitoring & Controlling
Stage 5: Project Close
The future of project management is looking brighter than ever.

The Project Management Lifecycle
Regardless of size or scope, all projects follow a similar process. In project management, this process is called the lifecycle of a project.
A project lifecycle generally consists of four phases: initiation, planning, execution, and closure. Some project managers, however, add a fifth phase called monitoring and controlling.
The additional step can help managers keep the project on track and ensures that issues are identified and addressed promptly.
As a result, five-phase models are considered more agile and effective in helping projects succeed. In fact, the Project Management Institute (PMI) also promotes a five-phase lifecycle.
In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at each stage in the project management lifecycle.

The Five Stages of Project Management
Every successful project goes through the same five phases: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and controlling.

Stage 1: Project Conception and Initiation
Every project begins with conception and initiation. During this phase, an idea becomes a business plan, complete with goals, project charters, and stakeholders.
This is also when project teams come together—with the project manager—to build a broad roadmap for the project.
Teams should address a few questions at this stage, including:

What is the purpose of this project?
What are some potential obstacles?
Who are the key stakeholders?
Does it have a minimum or maximum budget?
How long will this project take?

As part of this phase, the project sponsor (the person who requested the completion of the project) approves the budget and timeline.

Stage 2: Project Planning
Once you’ve defined the project on a broader level, it’s time to nail down the details.
During this phase, the project manager develops a detailed plan for executing, monitoring, and controlling the project. This typically starts with setting goals.
When defining the goals of a project, S.M.A.R.T. and CLEAR methodologies are the most popular.
The acronym S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Using this framework ensures your goals are clearly defined, realistic, and achievable.
Let’s look at an example. A vague goal might be, “Develop an app that streamlines order fulfillment.” Using the S.M.A.R.T method, this goal would look something like, “Develop an application that reduces order fulfillment time by 20%.”
The acronym C.L.E.A.R. stands for Collaborative, Limited, Emotional, Acceptable, and Refined.
In this methodology, the project team works towards a goal that is specific and achievable within the project deadline and budget. Everyone should be passionate about achieving it, and it should relate to the overall project objectives.
The plan should also include milestones and deliverables so that everyone knows what needs to be done, who handles what, and when milestones must be completed. It also includes a breakdown of tasks, a timeline, a communication plan, a risk mitigation strategy, and a plan to deal with worst-case scenarios.
There are several ideologies you can employ to plan for this stage. By using agile project management, development resources are effectively used, and client needs are met.
As well as keeping everyone up-to-date on progress, it allows for quick and easy changes to be made. Agile project management makes it possible to manage software development projects more effectively and efficiently.

Stage 3: Project Execution
As soon as the planning phase is complete, it’s time to start implementing the plan. It’s here that the actual work gets done.
During this stage, project managers establish workflows, assign tasks to team members, and ensure that everyone is on track. They also keep stakeholders and teams in the loop as the project progresses.
With so many details to juggle, many project managers leverage collaboration tools like Asana, Trello, and HubSpot’s Project Management Software to track tasks, timelines, and budgets in one central location.

A well-designed project management tool will keep you on track and help you accomplish your goals. For a list of the best project management software, check out this helpful guide.

Stage 4: Project Monitoring & Controlling
Stage four usually runs concurrently with Stage three. After all, in order to monitor a project, it has to be running in the first place.
During this phase, the project manager works with their team to resolve any issues. This involves periodic reviews and updates of the plan to reflect changes in the scope of the project or in the availability of resources.
It’s also important to monitor progress against the plan and take corrective action when necessary. For instance, it may be necessary to revise the timeline to accommodate for unexpected delays or changes.
On top of that, project managers can monitor progress against key performance indicators (KPIs) or critical success factors (CSFs). For instance, you can measure if your project is on schedule and budget or if specific tasks are being completed.

Stage 5: Project Close
This is the last phase of the project management lifecycle. This is when you hand over the deliverables to the project sponsor for approval. During this phase, the team disbands and any contractual hires for the project will be terminated.
After closure, the project manager conducts a final review that documents the lessons learned from the project, as well as any necessary data that can be useful in the future.
Team members and stakeholders also discuss failures and successes during the presentation of the report. This helps to improve performance and productivity across the organization.

The future of project management is looking brighter than ever
Traditionally, project management was done with pen and paper or, at best, a spreadsheet. Because of the complexity of projects and the dispersion of the workforce, these methods have become ineffective.
Keeping track of progress and meeting deadlines requires a digital-first approach. HubSpot’s project management software is one tool that can definitely help with project management.
With this software, teams can streamline their workflows, track their progress, share documents, and manage their tasks.
On top of that, the HubSpot CRM platform enables you to easily integrate it with your other sales and marketing tools. This makes it easy to keep track of progress and ensures that everyone is on the same page.
Additionally, the software provides users with real-time insights into their workflows, enabling them to identify bottlenecks and adjust accordingly.
So, if you’ve been looking for ways to level up your project management, here’s your chance. Grab your project management template below to keep track of your team’s progress and streamline your workflows to increase efficiency.

My founder story is, in some ways, like many others. I saw a problem that needed solving: Men don’t have as many instant fixes for acne as women do. I met my co-founder Nick Bunn who had experienced the problem firsthand and believed in the same vision of faster acne care, while providing complimentary skills: he brought an excitement for marketing and operations, whereas I had knowledge of branding and design. Together, we saw an opportunity to reimagine the acne experience, and FRONTMAN was born.The unusual part of my story? All of this happened during my junior year of college. Maybe it would have made more sense to wait until after graduation to dive into our idea, focusing on our studies and daydreaming about our future company in moments between classes instead of working on it in earnest. But I was ready to work on something real, so we dove right in—and I’m so glad we did. Because we got started early, we were able to launch within a year after I graduated, hit six figures within a year after that, and triple that number the following year. Not to mention we’ve grown from one product to ten, expanded to Amazon, and landed our first retail partnership with Urban Outfitters. All within two years of officially putting our brand into the world.Here are some of the reasons that starting a business in college helped us, and how we used our unique position to set ourselves up for success after graduating.Annelise and her co-founder NickWe had the benefit of timeThis likely isn’t news to anyone, but starting a company takes time. This is especially true for product-based companies like ours. It took us nearly two years to finalize our products because of how much effort went into iterating (plus the notoriously slow speed of the CPG industry).Before we could start marketing and selling, we had to work with scientists and dermatologists (including my mom!) to create product formulas. We had to find product manufacturers to work with, and then get samples to test for feedback and start the process all over again. We had to get money to pay for said samples. And, having never worked in this industry before, we had to learn as we went at every step. Luckily, we had time to spare until we really needed this to support us. I recognize that this isn’t the case for every student. While I was fortunate to have a lot of financial support through college, my co-founder Nick did not. Prior to starting FRONTMAN, he and I had worked with a student-run company and launched a small agency that offered on-campus brand activation, which gave us each some income, and Nick also picked up a bunch of flexible part-time jobs like rideshare driving to support his needs while having time to work on the company.We were also able to create more flexible schedules than most working adults can. Again, this may be different for other students, but I was less focused on classroom learning at that point and ready to work toward my professional interests after graduation. So I looked for less demanding classes that would give me the time and brain space to focus on the company. That’s not to say it was always easy. For instance, I remember one particularly hectic month my senior year where I was going back and forth from Boston to New York every weekend to take meetings for FRONTMAN. But I found that schedule easier to juggle than the six months after I graduated when my founder and I were both working other jobs while finalizing our product for launch.We took advantage of any school resource we couldIn an ideal world, we would have filled our class schedules with business courses that could give us the knowledge to support our growing idea. Unfortunately, our school didn’t have a business major and historically hasn’t been very supportive of student startups, so we had to get creative. We did find one class in the engineering department that focused on research and development (R&D) and gave us credit for spending time working on our idea. That class also had a pitch competition at the end of the semester, which we won, giving us around $10,000 for our development budget. For us, unfortunately, that’s about where the official school resources tapped out, but there are many schools that offer much more support for student entrepreneurs, and I recommend that college founders take advantage of as much as they can.We had a vast network who were excited to help usThat’s not to say our school gave us nothing. The biggest unofficial resource available to us was a network of incredibly smart and accomplished alumni, who gave us some much-needed perspective from people a little farther ahead in their careers. Some even became our early advisors and investors.Whenever I learned about an alum who may have been able to support our goals, I’d reach out saying: “I’m really interested in starting a skincare line. This is where we’re at. You have great experience in [subject area]—could I have a few minutes of your time to get your advice?”People are surprisingly motivated to help college students out, especially when they’re alumni of your university. They think it’s cute that you’re trying to start something, and they want to pay it forward. It could have felt belittling, but instead I was able to use it to my advantage to learn from experienced contacts who might not have been as eager to help any working professional.We used our peers to brainstorm, to product test, and moreThe other network we had access to at school was our fellow students. First and foremost, I met my founder at school and would not have been able to start this business without him.Being in that R&D class also surrounded us with other students who were working through the same challenges we were—almost like a mini (and much less competitive) accelerator. We were able to help each other navigate different processes and approaches, bounce ideas off each other so we didn’t feel like we were making decisions alone, and share our connections to make our networks even broader. Outside of class, we also found it helpful to tap into students who were just excited to work on something real. For every hurdle we faced or need we had, we realized there was probably someone on campus who knew more about it than we did. We worked with a lot of student marketers who were excited to work for free on projects they could add to their resume. We had a lot of really good conversations with other students about parts of the business we were stuck on. Plus, we were able to use our peers as guinea pigs to get real-time feedback as we developed our products, which really shaped the direction of our final offerings.Frontman skintone acne treatmentWe had a really safe testing groundPerhaps more than anything, I appreciated having a safe testing ground for both developing our product and learning how to be a founder. It felt like there was very little risk to giving our idea a go while we were still in college, that there was so much less to lose than later in life when we might have more obligations. It also felt like we were given more leeway to mess up along the way and that the bar was lower than it is for more experienced founders. For instance, when we first started, I was such a nervous public speaker. My first pitches weren’t nearly as good as they are today, but I still got some early interest from advisors, investors, and partners simply because I was energetic and compelling. Meanwhile, through practice, I was able to learn how to present my ideas more concisely, how to capture people emotionally, and how to come across as competent despite my age. I feel much more confident now having had the time to experiment and learn in that college environment. It laid the foundation for me to be a good entrepreneur now. Do I think every student who has dreams of being a founder should get started in college? Not necessarily. I was surrounded by many who just “wanted to start something,” which I don’t believe is a good recipe for creating a long-lasting and successful company. You need to have an idea that you physically can’t stop thinking about.It’s also by no means easy, but starting a business is never going to be easy. If you think you’ve identified a real problem that you’re excited to work on a solution for, why not get started now? It just might become a reality, too.