Growth-fix: Setting up a development plan while working from home

CRM Team Lead, Elsa Massoudi Aguilar, tells her four-point development plan for becoming a stronger marketer and manager this year.

In February 2020, I made the leap to Taxfix as CRM Team Lead. CRM — or Customer Relationship Management — is the branch of marketing that strives to provide an excellent end-to-end experience for our users throughout their entire journey with us. We had only one CRM manager at the time, so it was my incoming responsibility to build the team from the ground up. On top of this, I was also going to be researching and migrating our new CRM tool. Add in the fact that it was peak season for our German market, and you have all the ingredients for an exciting — albeit daunting — challenge.

Like most of us, what I had not factored into this equation was trying to accomplish all this from my living room. After just four short weeks in the company, we moved to a remote-first setup.

Setting up a game plan for development

The silver lining of this past year has been investing in my development. Sure, being stuck at home is incredibly frustrating, but this experience has also forced me to reevaluate how I spend my free time. Instead of the typical after-work dinner with friends, I now had a hot date with a good book or a useful article.

What set me down this path was one of my very first meetings with my manager; Head of Marketing, Michael Korkia. He told me that I would have a personal development plan and that I needed to decide what areas I want to work on to grow as a professional. Though pleased, I was also completely caught off guard. Personal development plans were part of start-up mythology — something you heard about but never really saw. I certainly never had a structured approach to growth in any of my past roles, so this was new territory.

Fortunately, I had lots of support setting this up. I gathered feedback from different stakeholders on what they thought would help me become better in my role. I also looked at my own insecurities and where I wanted to feel more confident. Then with the help of my manager, I identified four primary areas of focus for this year: analytics, leadership, communication, and experimentation.

Putting in the work

So I had my development plan, but now I needed to find a way to put it into action. Working with our People Development and Learning Partner, I was able to set up clear objectives and expectations for each of my focus areas. Together, we found four external courses that best fit with my goals. Combine this with on-the-job mentorship and additional company-wide seminars, and I was soon consumed by learning opportunities.

My skills in analytics, communication, experimentation, and leadership have certainly benefited from my newfound growth obsession. Of these four focus areas, here’s a look back at the resources that helped me most on my journey thus far:

Analytics

I knew that refining my analytical skills would make me a stronger marketer, but I didn’t know where to start or what course would help me the most. It seemed unnecessary to focus on programming skills like Python or SQL, especially when we have a large team of data professionals working within the company. What I truly wanted to build was a more analytical mindset. While I was searching for the perfect course, my manager, Michael, suggested a practical approach to supplement my learning. In bi-weekly meetings, we began working through my data together, discussing what the numbers told us and what we could learn from each analysis. Although I eventually booked a useful business analytics course, these personal training sessions with Michael have been invaluable. After all, learning by doing with a seasoned pro at your side is hard to beat.

Communication

Improving my communication and public speaking skills have been a long-term passion project of mine. Despite speaking at conferences a few times before, I never felt confident in my abilities. My fear of public speaking irritated me, so this was the perfect opportunity to do something about it.

In addition to taking an individual communication skills course, I also had the opportunity to participate in several company-wide seminars on the subject. Putting these learnings into practice, however, was perhaps the most useful in overcoming my public speaking anxiety. From giving a presentation to the entire company during our weekly all-hands meeting to sharing regular updates with our 50+ marketing organisation, there have been plenty of chances to flex my communication skills. I was even lucky enough to be invited to speak at a few virtual conferences, including App Growth Summit, Mobile Growth Europe, and App Promotion Summit. I still may not be the public speaker of my dreams, but I’ve gained far more confidence thanks to all the things I’ve taken on this year.

Experimentation

Experiments have become increasingly important at Taxfix — driven mainly by our champion of experimentation and new CGO, Alex Beresford. When I first joined the team, CRM experiments were few and far between. And what little tests we did run were not documented appropriately. Knowing that myself and my team could be stronger in this area, I didn’t waste any time seeking out Alex’s help. Through his guidance and with the support of our data and engineering teams, we were able to set up a testing framework that enables us to run five or more experiments per week. We also added two weekly experimentation sessions to our calendars, one for planning and one for evaluating. Our approach to testing is now leaps and bounds away from where we started, and I’m incredibly proud of the progress my team has made.

Leadership

Leadership and team development was perhaps the most important goal for me this year. In my past roles, I had managed one or two people at a time, but I had never led an entire team before. Especially since I was building a team with junior and senior positions, I knew that I needed to be continuously learning how to be an effective leader across different levels. External leadership classes provided by the company were a great way to gain exposure to a variety of leadership theories. Our CGO Alex also got involved in my development by offering one-on-one coaching sessions and interesting leadership books — I recommend checking out Extreme Ownership, Superbosses, The Effective Executive, or The Coaching Habit.

Learning about different leadership styles has helped me better understand the mechanisms of being a team lead. Moreover, having the opportunity to test out leadership tactics has shown me that there is no one-size-fits-all way to lead. Although I dreamed of being a democratic leader that empowered their team to take full ownership of every decision, I discovered this wasn’t practical for every situation. With my more junior team members, for example, I found that they thrived when I gave them clear guidelines. In contrast, my more senior people developed most when they had lots of freedom. I realised it wasn’t about having one leadership style over another — it was about adapting to match the team’s needs.

[you may also be interested in Elsa’s recent article with Phiture on Personalization in CRM]

My reclaimed lesson from 2020

When I think back to where I started this year, I see myself somehow as a different professional. I began 2020 with a lot of fear. Between changing jobs, building a team from scratch, and the new way of working; I feared I might have bitten off more than I could chew. But seeing how far myself and my team have come has taught me that nothing is impossible. With the right approach and support, even a daunting challenge is an opportunity to learn.

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