Category: Marketing Automation

Have you ever set up a form on your site, only to forget to check the entries that were submitted? Creating an HTML form that sends an email after submission is one of the simplest and most effective ways of resolving this issue.

Here, we’re going to walk you through how to create a form that sends an email to you, as well as the customer, to ensure the form was received.

Ideally, browsers would allow you to route form submissions directly to an email address. However, the reason they don’t is that emailing directly from an HTML web form would reveal the visitor’s email address, making the user vulnerable to malicious activities, such as phishing.
Adding a mailto: address to the form can be a potential way to circumvent this challenge. This option activates the default mail client on the user’s computer, prompting them to send the form over email. The web browser sends a request to the email service provider, not to the specified address.
There are a few problems with the mailto: option. For example, it isn’t 100% compatible with all browsers, it isn’t very user-friendly, and it’s impossible to control the formatting of the data when the form is sent by the browser.
Beyond that, a warning message will pop up when the user goes to submit the form, letting them know that the information they’re about to send will not be encrypted for privacy.
Below, we go over a few options for creating an HTML form that emails you when a new entry is submitted.
The option you choose depends on how you work and what platform you’re using. This is to say that things are a little different if the plan is to use a mix of HTML and different scripts. Below, we go over the different options available.
Method 1: Create an Email Send Form Using HTML (Not Recommended)
Using just HTML? From starting fresh, here is a sample code for use:
See the Pen How to Create an HTML Form That Sends You an Email by HubSpot (@hubspot) on CodePen.
This code will create a form that asks for the contact’s name, message, and includes a submit button (not visible in CodePen). Note that this code is basic — it won’t look super snazzy. For a more beautiful one, you’ll have to add some more lines of code specific to your needs.
While you can use just basic HTML, this isn’t the ideal option. This form doesn’t directly send to email addresses, but rather opens an email client or tool window to submit the form. This can spook the user out of submitting the form at all.
So, what HTML code allows you to send form submissions directly to an email address?
To make the form work with your email server and send it to a mailbox, PHP is the answer — let’s explore that option now.
Method 2: Create an Email Send Form Using PHP (Advanced)
To create a form subscribers can contact you with, the PHP script is going to be your best friend. I know, another acronym. This one stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, and this language collaborates with HTML to process the form.
Before jumping into the process, let’s break down a few form basics.
A webform has two sides: The front-end, seen in the browser by visitors, and a backend script running on the server.
The visitor’s web browser uses HTML code to display the form. When the form is submitted, the browser sends the information to the backend using the link mentioned in the “action” attribute of the form tag, sending the form data to that URL.
For example: <form action=https://yourwebsite.com/myform-processor.php>.
The server then passes the data to the script specified in the action URL — myform-processor.php in this case. Using this data, the backend script can create a database of form submissions, direct the user to another page (e.g. payment), and send an email.
There are other scripting languages you can use in the backend programming, like Ruby, Perl, or ASP for Windows. However, PHP is the most popular and is used by almost all web hosting service providers.
If you’re creating a form from scratch, here are the steps you can take.
Step 1: Use PHP to create a page.
For this step, you’ll need to have access to your website’s cPanel on your hosting platform.
When you’re creating a webpage, instead of using the “.html” extension, type “.php” instead. This is similar to what happens when you save an image as “jpg” versus “png”.
By doing this, the server will know to host the PHP you write. Instead of saving the empty HTML page as such, save it as something like this: “subscriberform.php”. After your page is created and saved, you’ll then be able to create the form.
Step 2: Make the form using code.
In this step, you’ll write the code to create the form.
If you’re not sure how to create forms in HTML, check out HTML Dog’s resource for a primer on the basics.
The following code is what’s needed for a basic form:
Because this is similar to the HTML-only write-up, these lines will also create a name for the form and an area for subscribers to type a custom message and send it to you.
An important difference is the action=”subscriberform.php” part. This portion of code is what will make the page send the form when submitted. Recall that in the first example, that wasn’t an option.
Step 3: Make the form send an email.
After you create the form and add all the proper fixings depending on your design preferences, it’s time to create the email portion.
For this, you’re going to scroll to the beginning of the page (the very beginning, even before defining the HTML Doctype). To enable sending data in the email, we have to add code that will process the data. Copy this code or create something similar:
Everything inside the first and last lines will tell the webpage to make these functions perform as PHP. This code also checks to see if a subscriber uses the form. From there, it checks to see if the form was sent.
Further breaking it down, “mail” sends the completed form as an email to “your@email.address,” and the subject line is what follows. In the next line, you can write a copy of the email message inside the quotes, to be sent from whichever email address you choose.
Once the form is submitted, the page sends the data to itself. If the data has been successfully sent, the page sends it as an email. The browser then loads the page’s HTML — the form included.
With that, you have the basic code you need to create the form.
Note that this is just one way to do this — alternatively, you can also create a form using a builder, and then embed it onto your website.
Method 3: Create an Email Send Form Using a Form Builder
If you’re not using WordPress to build your website and are not coding-savvy, you may be at a loss as to how you can create a form, especially if your CMS doesn’t offer a drag-and-drop page editor.
(Hot tip: A drag-and-drop editor can make it much easier and simpler to create an email-sending form. Try CMS Hub — it’s 100% free.)
Each of the below tools allows you to build a form that sends an email without any coding needed from you. The best part is that you don’t need to change content management systems if you don’t want to. Instead, you can embed the form onto your website using each tool’s embed code.
1. HubSpot: Best Email Form Builder Overall

HubSpot includes a form builder in the free tier of all of its products. Because HubSpot already has your email, it will automatically send you a message when a new entry is submitted.
HubSpot’s form builder is linked with other tools in the platform, including Marketing Hub and CMS Hub, and doesn’t require any previous technical knowledge. If you want to extend the form to include marketing capabilities, you can do so as well.
For example, you can build custom forms that connect to your contacts list. You can also customize those forms and trigger automatic emails based on the completion of your forms. Note that the latter requires a premium upgrade.
If you want to learn how to receive an email after a form submission, take a look at our Knowledge Base article.
2. Forms.io: Best Quick Email Form Builder

Forms.io allows you to quickly create a form in its drag-and-drop interface, then embed it on your site using HTML embed code. You’ll receive an alert or notification, and you can then manage responses in the tool’s backend. It’s free for 10 users, but if your company will need more seats, you can have access for $14.99/month.
3. Jotform: Best Email for Builder for Multiple Forms

If you expect that you’ll need more than one form, Jotform is a great choice. It gives you several options for embedding forms on your website: JavaScript, iFrame, or the entire source code of the form. You also have the option of creating a lightbox or popup form.
Jotform is free with its branding. Pricing starts at $24/month.
Check out more form builder tools here.
Method 4: Create an Email Send Form Using a Plugin
If you’re running a WordPress website, we have good news: You have a plethora of form builder plugins available to you, most of which come at the excellent cost of free. These tools will all send an email upon receiving a submission.
1. HubSpot Form Plugin: Best for Lead Generation
If you’re planning to use your form as a lead generation tool, then we highly recommend using the HubSpot form plugin. It links directly to your HubSpot account, allowing you to use it in conjunction with HubSpot CRM, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and more.
2. WPForms: Best for Embedding Anywhere

WPForms is a drag-and-drop form builder that allows you to configure it to email you upon receiving a submission. You can also embed the form anywhere on your site, including the sidebar and footer.
3. ARForms

ARForms allows you to receive email notifications based on conditions you’ve set, but you can also get email notifications for all submissions. You can also integrate it with other tools in your tech stack, including HubSpot, PayPal, and Google Sheets.
The Perks of HTML Forms that Send Emails
Whether you want to convert more visitors to leads, collect information for your sales team, or create more loyal brand advocates, forms are imperative to an inbound strategy. If you don’t have a form on your website, you could be missing out on more leads, higher conversions, and happier long-term customers.
The problem is that it’s easy to forget checking the responses, and even easier to get submissions but have no searchable record of them. Forms that send an email back to you keeps information in your inbox for reference and ease.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Videos tell a story. Whether you’re writing an original video script or using a video script template, your script is essential to that story.
And videos are powerful selling tools. 92% of marketers say that video is central to their marketing strategy.

But creating videos can be intimidating. It’s complicated whether you’re a writer, marketer, or movie producer. There are many steps to planning, editing, and producing videos and each step is important.
Writing an effective video script can mean the difference between video success and failure. This post will show you how to write an effective script for your videos. Are you ready to get started?
Even the most basic video will be better with a video script. Creating a video is complex. Most video projects include:

Lighting
Sound
Sets
Cast and crew
Equipment

Each of these elements can be tricky to execute, and when they combine, it’s easy for mistakes to happen.
But your script will include details that make the process run smoothly. A video script is vital to help your team prepare for and organize the video-making process.
Plus you and your team will be more confident and produce a better video with a comprehensive script.

1. Choose your target audience.
Any marketing project is better with the right buyer persona. This is especially true with video.
Because videos often take more time and investment than an online ad or blog, it’s important that your video speaks to a specific audience.
So, before you start developing characters or a brief for your video, you need to figure out who your video is for. Your target audience for your video script can impact:

The length and format of your video
Where you post your video
Setting, costume, and lighting

If your video is for brand awareness, you may be broadcasting to a large and diverse audience. But what if you’re introducing a product or feature? In that case, you’ll want to focus your audience on the buyers that are most likely to feel the pain point your product solves.
If your video is for employee or customer retention, you might want a different approach. You’ll want to review data, reviews, and testimonials before you begin your script brief. This will help you create the story and dialogue that your audience will respond to.
2. Set a goal for your video script.
Videos are usually team projects. Without a single focus, every person could come to the video with their own idea of what it’s about. As the project continues, this can turn a simple video into a convoluted mess.
That’s why it’s important to start your video script by just thinking about your goal. So, before you jump into a storyline, character, or setting, figure out the why.
Why are you making this video?
Do you want to teach people about your product? Are you introducing a new pricing structure? Are you trying to expand into a new niche?
If you’re not sure about your goal, think about the problem you’re hoping this video will solve.
For example, say you’re struggling with conversions for a new product.

Is it because you’re breaking into a new niche? A product video on the right social media platform for this niche might be right.
Do users need better instructions? You might want to add a product tour or instructional video to your website.
Are you getting good reviews? You may want to partner with influencers to build a reputation for this product.

Don’t jump into your video script without deciding on a single goal.
Then, use your goal to set the metrics you’ll use to measure the video’s performance once it goes live.
3. Choose the main character for your video.
Video marketing helps you show your viewers what your product can do instead of telling them. And characters are essential to storytelling.
Choosing the main character for your video before you begin your script will help you focus on telling a story, not just selling an idea. This will help your audience connect and engage with your video.
You may already know that your main character is your ideal customer or your CEO. They could be a celebrity, a cartoon of your product, or a narrator who speaks in your brand voice.
But if not, before you start writing your video script, decide who will be the focus of your video.
If you don’t know who your main character is, go back to your goal and target audience. Think about who your buyer persona wants to hear from as they reach that stage of their journey.
Next, outline your main character. You can use the habits, quirks, and voice of your main character to paint a picture for your audience that helps them remember and relate to your video.
Once you’ve figured out your main character you can decide how they relate to your product. Do you want to talk about their back story? Are you going to talk about a specific experience they had and how your product helped?
4. Create a brief.
Creating a brief allows you and your team to document the answers to the most important project questions. This helps everyone involved understand the who, what, when, where, and why of your video.
Say you’re three-quarters of the way through the editing process. If your boss or colleague wants to completely redo half of your video, that’s a huge problem.
Challenges like this can impact your budget, timing, and campaigns. But with a brief, you can refer to the goals and project plan your team mapped out together, and say, “Actually, that’s not what we agreed to.”
Then, you can move forward.
Focus on your goals, topic, and takeaways in your brief.
A brief doesn’t have to be fancy, nor does it have to follow a specific formula. But there are several key questions it should include to craft an effective video script.

What’s the video topic? (The more specific, the better. For example, if you’re in the house painting business, you might choose a topic like, “buying the right paint brush”).
What are the key takeaways of the video? What should viewers learn from watching it?
What’s our call-to-action? What do we want viewers to do after they’ve finished watching the video?

You can easily create a brief in Google Docs to serve as a living, breathing template that you revise over time – and that your team can collaborate on.
5. Use your brief to write an outline.
Once you’ve picked a topic and written a brief, it’s time to start constructing your video script. We recommend starting with an outline to give structure to your video script. This way, you can break your video into subtopics and decide how your dialogue (or monologue) will progress.
Are you basing your video script on a blog?
You can’t just rewrite a blog post and call it a day – there’s a specific way to write a blog-based script so that it shapes an effective video. Alicia Collins can teach you a bit more in the video below (and yes, we wrote a script for it).

Like Alicia says in the video above, a video script shouldn’t simply regurgitate the blog post word-for-word. Blog posts are ideally written to be conversational. But there are pauses and verbal explanations you’ll need to add to your speech patterns that you wouldn’t have without your script.
But, using the blog post’s subsections is a helpful starting point when figuring out how your script will progress from one section to the next.
Are you writing an original video script?
Start with a well-structured outline. Many video scripts follow a three-part structure that includes:

An introduction and hook to draw viewers into your video
A problem, pain point, or question comes up
A conclusion and resolution of the problem, including a call-to-action

This is a basic video script structure, but there are many ways you can go as you outline your story. This structure will help you write a script that covers the details that make your video believable and useful to your audience.
As you create your outline, think about where natural transitions happen.
For example, say you’re writing a video script about the life of a new product. You might outline your script with the steps a business might take to launch a product, including:

Coming up with the idea
Doing market research
Designing the new product
Producing a test product
Editing the product for mass production
Audience testing
Marketing and sales strategies
Product launch

Your primary goal is to engage your target audience with a situation they can connect with. This can help them understand how the challenges you share in your video relate to the problems they want to solve in their own lives.
6. Start writing your script, section by section.
Your video script doesn’t have to be fancy. You’re not trying to submit this script for any awards – its purpose is strictly functional. A good script makes it easy for the people on camera to get their messages across while sounding and acting naturally.
Write conversationally.
Writing a script isn’t the same as writing a college paper or marketing research report. You want to write the script how you want the video subject to speak.
Saying, “I’m gonna create a video after reading this blog post” on camera will read much better than, “I am going to create a video after reading this blog post.” Keep sentences short and crisp and try to avoid compound sentences.
Make it thorough.
A script doesn’t just include dialogue. If your video will require multiple shots, characters, or scenes, include these details. Be sure to include any necessary information about the set or stage actions, such as a wardrobe change.
Basically, you want the script to be thorough enough that you could hand it off to someone else to shoot, and they’d understand it.
Write for the audience and the platform.
Make sure you’re keeping your script conversational for the people you’re trying to connect with – and infuse humor, tone, and inflection accordingly.
For example, if you’re writing a short-form video for Facebook, you might want to consider keeping your script choppier with sentence fragments. But if you’re producing a long-form explainer video for your website, make sure you’re as thorough as possible.
Script every single word.
It’s understandable to think you can just jot down the main bullet points for a script, and then just wing it on camera, especially if you know your subject matter.
This approach makes it tough to communicate a message as clearly and concisely as possible and it usually results in a lot of redos.
So, we suggest scripting every last word. Doing this will keep you organized during filming and save you loads of time later.
7. Edit your video script.
Writing is tough, and it’s easy to get stuck if you expect your video script to be perfect on your first draft. It’s worth doing two to three rounds of edits to cut any unnecessary words in your writing.
These are a few more tips for editing your script so that the video script can make your final video shine.
Give yourself a break.
Step away from your script after you write it, and don’t go back until you can look at it from a fresh perspective.
Check for transitions.
Dialogue and actions will move your story forward. So, look for moments in your script that feel abrupt or awkward. Then, add details that will help your viewers understand what is happening.
Cut the extras.
Great writing and interesting dialogue will be bad for your video if they don’t advance your story. Edit out these parts and save them for a later project if you think they can be useful.
8. Do a verbal run-through off-camera.
Now that you know how to write a script, it’s time for a table read. This is the part where you practice bringing your script to life on camera.
Why practice? Because some words look great on paper, but once you read them aloud, they just don’t sound right. Reading your video script out loud can help you make the language more conversational and your sentences shorter.
You can read your script aloud while editing, but the table read is where you really get to fine-tune the tone. It’s when you can nix anything that sounds too proper, improper, robotic, or otherwise inappropriate for the message you want to convey.
Check out this video for a fun example of a table read:

Video Script Template
Writing a script from scratch is way harder than starting with an example.
This video marketing starter pack includes a free video script template. Take a look at this HubSpot video below.

Next, check out how we’ve used HubSpot’s video script template below to include the elements described throughout this blog post.

Download the template and get started today.
Video Script Example
There are many different ways to write a video script. Usually, the format you use will depend on the length and complexity of your video. Adding columns can help you organize crucial information like:

Dialogue by scene
Run time
Effect and audio cues

Besides the video script template above, the examples below are other ways you can approach your video script.
Single column script:

Two-column video script

Four-column script:

Image Source
1. Create a powerful beginning.
You have more viewers during the first 10% of your video than at any other time. So, your top goal when writing a video script is to hook viewers at the beginning so that they keep watching until the end.
Use the first few lines to introduce the main character or narrator and what the audience is going to learn by the end of the video. You can offer in-depth details later in your video.
For example, if you’re teaching viewers how to optimize their blog for SEO, your introduction might be:
“Hi there! I’m [narrator’s name] from [company], and in the next [length of video] minutes, I’m gonna teach you how to get your blog ranking on Google.”
And don’t forget that some viewers will be watching your video without sound. Viewers who are silently scanning your social media or website will still need to quickly understand what your video is about.
2. Be concise.
When it comes to marketing, shorter videos tend to be more compelling than longer videos. In fact, 68% of people said they’d rather learn about new products and services through a “short video,” according to a survey by Wyzowl.
To make short videos, you need a short script. Don’t write a script any longer than two pages. If you can keep it to one page, even better.
The result is a video that’s succinct, engaging, and allows for a simple editing process.
3. Write in short paragraphs.
Time is important when you’re writing a script. If you’re reading at an average pace, you’ll cover about two words per second.
Short paragraphs make it easier to understand the timing of your script as you write and edit it. They also make it easier to use a teleprompter.
So, try to keep your paragraphs to 3-4 sentences at most.
4. Support any B-roll with the proper callouts in your main narrative.
If your video will transition from a person speaking in front of a camera to a close-up shot of your product or a demonstration, write these cues into your script.
This way, anyone who reads it knows to introduce these things to the viewer.
What is B-roll?
These secondary shots are often referred to as B-roll, which take place while the person continues to speak off-screen. B-roll is one of the main differences between a blog post and a video script.
For example, if a blog post reads, “take a look at the graph below,” it’s clearly referring to a graph embedded below that sentence. This phrasing won’t work on camera.
Instead, your video script might read, “in the graph you see here” – while you show the graph on-screen.
Give cues to your characters or narrator.
These written exceptions help cue your talent to take certain unspoken actions while reciting the script. It’s also a good idea to add open loops so that your audience has an idea of what is coming next. This will make them more willing to wait through a section that they mind not find engaging.
5. Use graphics to make your video stand out.
Visual cues are important to add to your script. Graphics help you make your dialogue easier for viewers to understand and remember.
Options for graphics you can add to your videos include:

Photos
Animations
Infographics
Moving text

It can be tempting to add visuals just for the cool factor. But every image you add should offer value to your viewers. And if you think about these visuals as you write your script they will feel more natural in your final video.
6. Add some variety to your script.
Writing video scripts is fun, so make sure that the fun shows. As you write and edit your script, try new things to spice up your dialogue, visuals, and structure.
These are a few ideas that can help you add something new to your script writing.
Create backstories for your characters.
For example, say your main character is talking about finding a better toothbrush. If her back story is that she was a cookie-loving pastry chef who’s prone to cavities, sharing her back story lets your audience know what inspired her when she was first starting out.
Use opposites.
Opposites are a popular concept in improv acting, and they can help when you’re adding variety to your script.
For example, say your script features two ambitious characters. One could be ambitious because they got poor grades in high school and they want to prove themself. The other is ambitious because they have always performed well in school and they want that to continue. These different motivations will help make their conversations more interesting.
Get inspired.
Films, videos, books, and pictures can all help you create a more vivid world for your video script. You can apply your inspiration directly to the scenes you write or use it for motivation when you’re feeling stuck.
Think visually.
Another way to add variety is to step back and look at the big picture. Writing an outline of your script on notecards, or using a card for each scene can help you get a sense of where your script may need some work.
7. Plan to repurpose your video content.
While a great final video is your ultimate goal, you’ll also want to plan for the future as you write your script.
Most marketing videos won’t just post to a single platform – your team will share clips on social media, in email, and during presentations.
So, it’s smart to plan for repurposing. As you write, think about moments in your script that could be engaging on their own.
Even if you’re writing a script for a short video, try to write with quick clips in mind. For example, if you’re creating a two-minute video, plan to pull out a few five-second clips.
Use your video script to create incredible videos.
A video script can be a quick outline or a carefully written work of genius. Either way, it will form the foundation of your video and have a major impact on your results.
When you’re scripting you can let your creativity run wild, test new ideas, and push boundaries. Use these steps, tips, and templates to invent and experiment. Get to work and help your business soar.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Every successful business also has solid email deliverability. It’s not without effort. They most likely have a team of email marketers building strategies that ensure successful email campaigns without any throttling, bulking, bouncing, or spamming. Simply put, email deliverability is the ability to deliver emails to recipients’ primary inboxes. Sounds easy enough, but there are…
The post How Can Audience Engagement Improve Email Deliverability? appeared first on Benchmark Email.

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I’ve been working at Buffer since 2014, and even before I joined, I was always impressed by the Buffer team’s product and engineering culture: how quick they shipped improvements and how close everyone was to the users (not uncommon to see engineers responding to comments on Twitter!).I found that “can-do” attitude inspiring and contagious, and it’s amazing when things click that way. Of course, back when I joined, we were a team of 24 people; we all wore many hats and had no managers.As we grew, we started embracing the creation of team structures and processes to support us better and manage that growth. But of course, scaling collaboration while maintaining speed is an art in and of itself, and friction points started to appear: projects would run into bottlenecks more often, and teams would block each other. Since it would take longer to release features, we’d try to get them “right” by spending more time crafting the specifications of what we tried to build, but of course, the larger the projects, the longer it took to deliver them.We were stuck in a self-amplifying loop: if it took months to build something, it made it extremely difficult to fast-follow and iterate on it because we would also have other priorities to attend! This just kept reinforcing the need to do more and better and kept creating more pressure to “get it right.”Last year, we realized we wanted to change certain habits and dynamics at Buffer to return to those early days of shipping frequently: the more regularly we ship, the easier to manage those changes are (because they are smaller). It feels safer even if that thing we’re shipping fails – creating greater psychological safety for our team. It was clear: we wanted to become builders again and embrace our entrepreneurial spirit and culture of defaulting to action.The metrics that help us define builder modeHow will we know we’re in builder mode? That we are moving faster, shipping more often, and tightening our feedback loops with our customers? Some metrics are helpful to guide us in this journey: cycle time, pull request throughput, and defect rate. Here’s some context on what those metrics mean, and how we measure them:Cycle timeSince we want to decrease our time-to-market, we want to measure how fast and how often we deliver value to our users. Cycle time is, for us, the time between we start working on a feature or improvement (the first change we do in the codebase for that) to when a Pull Request with the changes is merged and released to production. Pull request throughputPull requests are the artifacts we generate as developers to begin the process of merging new code changes with the current code that’s running in production.We can think of each pull request as a unit of work that provides value (e.g. a new feature, a bug fix, or any other codebase improvement). That’s why a total count of pull requests merged (and deployed to production) can be a proxy for value delivered.Defect rateOf course, moving faster doesn’t improve anything if it means we’re shipping more defects and bugs to our customers!Defect rate acts as a control metric for us, where we measure how many of the code changes we perform are addressing bugs that were introduced in past changes.Dynamics we have implemented to drive this engineering mindset changeJust as habits are vital for shaping our identity as individuals, they are fundamental for evolving our mindset and culture as a company.Knowing what we wanted to achieve and how to measure it, we started thinking about new dynamics that, as we adopt them, help us build our identity as builders. Also, we kept our eyes open for existing habits that were getting in the way and preventing us from getting to this next level.Customer engineering daysA crucial component for any builder is to be in touch with their customers: interacting directly with our customers is key to gaining insights into the questions they ask, the needs they have, and the pain points that are feeling in our systems.With customer engineering days, we have each engineering team allocating one engineer each cycle pairing with an advocate for a day answering tickets in the inbox and fixing quick wins together. This is a great opportunity for engineers to ask our customer advocates questions about our customers, features, and products, and for advocates to share their experiences and provide some great customer insights!Removing blocking Pull Requests as much as possibleAs we embrace a culture of moving faster, one of the first things that caught my attention was the review process to integrate changes into production: some teams would have an enforced rule that required another developer to review their code before pushing a change live. Industry benchmarks and research have shown surprising results: approval processes for code changes are not correlated with software delivery performance.We want to remove gatekeeping for changes, promote ownership and empower people to remain in a flow state, so teams have started shifting away from defaulting to open Pull Requests and wait for approval, and use a hybrid method named “Ship/Show/Ask”:Ship means just that! No need to ask for a review, just make the change and deploy it to production.Show is great for getting asynchronous feedback, or sharing some new patterns and learnings with the team, but not waiting to get the approval before shipping to production.Ask is the traditional approach in which you require a code review before merging and shipping to production.Being clear that there are alternatives and different approaches for different situations means that teams can figure out which balance to strike, and see if they’re in “ask mode” too much when they could nudge more towards “ship” or “show”.Working smallerOf course, if we were to just focus on the previous practices, it would feel like we’re just asking the teams to do more and faster work. These goals and practices are for us to challenge and improve how we work, and not how much we work!A key component to ensure that, and a major contributor to becoming a higher performing team, is working smaller: if we decompose our work into features that allow for rapid development instead of bigger, more complex projects that get released infrequently.For that, the engineering teams embrace the usage of feature flips (also named feature toggles) as a way to deploy new features that are still under development to production without negatively impacting the user experience. This gets rid of big releases that contain many changes, and instead, we can release new features to our users when we’ve already experienced them in production.Working in smaller batches generates greater psychological safety for our engineers, since the risk of deploying breaking changes that impact everyone is greatly reduced.Engineering managers’ role shift to become builders, tooWhile the role of the engineering manager on the different teams has been focused primarily on people management, engineer career growth, and coordinating ways of working, their key responsibility is to ensure that our teams deliver value by building our product and teams in a way that aligns with both our product and technical goals.So to truly lead with that builders’ mindset, our engineering managers need to become builders too! We’ve redefined the role of the engineering manager and we now aim for them to spend at least 25% of their time being hands-on in the team. That “hands-on” can take many shapes, such as:Diving into data analysis for a new feature launch.Working on non-critical tasks.QA’ing new features.Engaging with customers.This gives them an even better context and insights into the technical decisions and tradeoffs that their teams face and creates a shared sense of ownership across the team in that we all contribute in our own way to release more often.The results: Have we adopted the builder mindset?We started on this journey of mindset change 9 months ago and it’s been an incredible path of alignment between teams: the number of features and improvements we’ve shipped in the last few months is a reflection of all these changes. We keep asking ourselves “how can we ship the next thing sooner, and with greater quality?”. We feel there is a change in motivation and energy.Now, if we go back at the metrics I shared earlier in this post, we can see that:Cycle time has gone down dramatically: from 94.8 hours in average in 2021 to 55 hours in 2022 so far.PR throughput has increased: 4155 Pull Requests deployed in 2021 compared to 3687 deployed in 2022 so far (1816 more Pull Requests than H2 2021!).The defect rate has gone down: from 18% of the time working on fixing defects in 2021 to 16% in 2022 so far.This means that the engineering team is indeed releasing faster and more often and that quality is not at odds with delivery speed.There are some great technical projects underway that will speed the whole engineering team way more in the second half of the year, so we’re just getting started! Are there any habits your team has been doing that have helped them increase their shipping pace, and get closer to your customers? As we continue on this path to becoming builders, I’m excited to keep sharing our learnings and progress along the way.Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter at @msanromanv to share your experiences!

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