The document discusses the importance of building effective systems in digital marketing rather than just creating content or tools. It highlights common issues faced in digital marketing, such as outdated practices, lack of flexibility, and insufficient user focus, while advocating for a systems-based approach to improve overall effectiveness. The author provides lessons and strategies for evaluating and improving digital marketing systems, encouraging collaboration and a user-centric mindset.

1. Build Systems,
Not Stuff
Presented by @Abby_the_ia
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3. I Make the
unclear, clear
for people who
use and make
things.
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5. Most recently I Have helped
• Change the audience for Sharpie from a office supply
consumer to teenagers looking for a self expression tool
• Grow a 150,000 member Facebook fan base for JELL-O
over the weekend.
• Pilot a revolutionary diet for people with Type 2 diabetes
• Analyze and strategically prioritize digital marketing efforts
and improvements for Herman Miller in support of their
movement into the B to C market
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6. I hear a lot of the same
things over and over...
Our current digital marketing is:
A) Embarrassingly out of date
B) Not flexible enough to support needs
C) Not able to be affected quickly because of
politics and the bureaucracy
D) All of the Above (Eeeeekk)
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7. The behavior of the system cannot be
known just by knowing the elements
- Donella Meadows
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8. Meet the Blind men
of digital marketing
“I post on social media
and send emails”
“I control
the money”
“I manage the
Websites”
“I design the
marketing”
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9. Observation:
Its always the same issues
affecting the same parts
of the same systems
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10. We need
to build
systems,
not just
stuff.
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11. When Stuff is king...
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12. Spray-n-Pray is common wisdom
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13. Corporate Underpants start to show
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14. Shiny, dusty objects accumulate
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15. Trends win out over needs
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16. “Skunkworks” projects used to
achieve tactical goals
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17. Everyone feels rushed and
underserved
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18. We ask for more stuff
We need a
Facebook page
vs. We need a
Digital
Recruitment
engine
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19. Sound familiar?
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20. There has to be a
better way
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21. But we arent in manufacturing!
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22. isnt Creativity meant to be messy?
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23. One important (and easy) question:
How should we spend our
finite creative energy?
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24. By analyzing the
system, maybe we
can improve the
User experience of
working in digital
marketing
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25. Systems-based thinking
the process of understanding how
things influence one another.
viewing "problems" as parts of an
overall system, rather than reacting
to specific part.
focusing on cyclical rather than
linear cause and effect.
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26. When System is king...
• Effectiveness becomes measurable
• Solutions have longevity and reuse
• Entities are able to remain in sync while
operating independently
• Adequate time and budget is allocated
• People feel like things just work
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27. Reinventing the Wheel
Repeatable Magic
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28. Systems Thinking 101
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29. A system is a set of stocks and
flows that is interconnected in
a way that it produces a
predictable pattern.
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30. STocks:
Assets within your
organization that are
able to be measured
for example:
• Knowledge of industry trends
• Marketing Budget
• Creative Talent
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31. Flows:
Process that affects and
connects stocks
for example:
• How insights become strategy
• How designers are briefed on
architectural decisions
• How code is accepted in development
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32. Cold hard Facts
about systems
1. Levels of stock are
only able to be affected
by manipulating flows
2. Stocks take time to
change, because flows
take time to flow
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33. another
fact:
Digital
Marketing
is a system
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35. Digital Marketing: A common system
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36. Digital Marketing: A common system
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37. If you are doing it
right, you start here
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38. Digital Marketing: A common system
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39. But, a lot of people
start here...
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40. Digital Marketing: A common system
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41. And even here... eek!
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42. Digital Marketing: A common system
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43. A lot of people stop here.
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44. Digital Marketing: A common system
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45. and This part is almost
always ignored or weak
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46. there are shared
lessons that all
organizations can
learn from
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47. Five common system failures
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49. What’s
supposed
to
happen
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50. What
can
also
happen
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51. Symptoms
• brittle feeling interactions
• Not knowing all the
incarnations of the experience
• Not being able to defend cost
of improvement
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52. Diagnosis: Low Awareness of
how something works today
leads to bad strategy
You need to work on research.
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53. Idea to Combat:
Measure quality of existing systems:
1. Heuristically
2. Analytically
3. With real users
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55. Lets try to find
a way to apply
online
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59. Symptoms
• All the content is there and
nothing can be found
• No research has been done
into what users want
• Low conversion and roi
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60. Diagnosis: Lack of clear goals
and key performance indicators
leads to confounding experience
You need to work on goal setting
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61. Idea To Combat:
Define S.M.A.R.T Goals
and a plan to measure
against them
q Specific
q Measurable
q Achievable
q Relevant
q Time bound
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64. Symptoms
• Content feels forced into boxes
it doesnt fit into
• things are jimmied together
• Creative production always
costs more than expected and
often assets are reused
inappropriately
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65. Diagnosis: silo-ed decisions on
content degrade quality of
experience offered
You need to work on architecting
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66. Idea to COmbat:
Let the users make the call
when content organization
challenges arise. Card sorting,
contextual inquiry and
collaborative design can all be
used for this.
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70. Symptoms
• Devices and tools are devised to
assist people in understanding
the marketing material
• Navigation is bloated, landing
pages lack focus
• Functionality is heavy and
unneeded
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71. Diagnosis: Too many things, no
priority. SUch a mess.
You have to work on
documentation
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72. idea to Combat:
Create a roadmap of
features defined not
just against resources
available but against
user and business
goals
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74. h,p://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw05/papers/refereed/alexander/paper.html 74
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75. Diagnosis: NEver completing the
feedback loop.
You need to work on measurement
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76. Idea to Combat:
Host a conversation with
designers, marketers
and researchers to talk
about improving the flow
of strategic guidance
and insight
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77. How to get started in
your organization
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78. to Become a system
advocate in your
organization
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79. Lesson 1: You need pictures, because
systems happen all at once.
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80. Pictures are
thought
starters
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81. Pictures allow
you to see the
connections
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82. pictures allow
quick
illustration of
problems and
solutions
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83. Pictures are great for
understanding the
systems, roles and
rules
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84. Pictures can
illustrate a higher
level view
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85. Lesson 2: Evaluate the System as is
• Get the right people in the room to discuss the
results of the current digital marketing
environment
• Document it in simple pictures, perhaps stocks
and flows
• Highlight hardships you feel today or know about
externally
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86. Lesson 3: Take Stock of what you need
• Identify the goals you have for your digital
marketing
• Identify the obligations you have to meet for
stakeholders
• Identify the things colleagues have complained
about or asked for
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87. Lesson 4: Prioritize issues to work on
• Identify the issue type. Is it a lack of resource, bad
process, old technology?
• Determine how much (and who) it hurts?
• Assign a internal and external priority
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88. Lesson 5: Try New flows
• Get the space, team and instance needed to
experiment.
• Make sure people know they are guinea pigs
• Treat it as a research assignment (try A/B testing,
and asking followup questions in a focus group
etc...)
• Document what you are trying, why and how you
feel it will change things
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89. Lesson 6: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
• Reduce the complexity across initiatives
• Reuse technological investment across
campaigns, building an arsenal of owned
solutions over time
• Recycle your “stuff”: Always think about the
lifecycle of the “stuff” your systems are
producing.
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90. Lesson 7: Have the right attitude
• Be honest and transparent
• Be collaborative
• Be forward looking
• Be willing to fail and try again
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91. So...
Next time someone
asks for stuff
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92. Think...
How can we take this up a level?
Are we thinking about the life cycle?
Can we measure our impact here?
Who else is impacted by this and how
can they help solve this?
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93. How can we...
Build a system, not
just more stuff
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94. Thanks!
@abby_the_ia
Abbytheia.com
abbycovert@gmail.com
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