335. Alignment + Influence, Part One 🙏
Memos, frameworks, and templates for driving decisions at the leadership level
Hi there 👋
In my day-to-day at Oyster, I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can best help folks in People Ops be successful in their jobs. And wouldn’t you know it, they need many of the same things that we marketers need! They need ideas on how to scale their influence within their organization, how to create buy-in, and how to communicate the true impact of their team.
For the next couple weeks, I’ll be sharing how I’ve worked through some of these challenges for me and my marketing team. Special thanks to a couple of newsletter readers who have written in to ask about this very topic recently. We’re all in this together :)
Wishing you a great week ahead,
Kevan
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Thank you for being part of this newsletter. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world and my time at Oyster, Buffer, and more.
Say hi anytime at hello@kevanlee.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Memos, frameworks, and templates to get alignment with your executive peers
If you had told 18-year-old me what it was like to be a marketing leader, he would have been shocked to learn how much of the day-to-day job is about building internal relationships with your cross-functional peers and not creating Super Bowl commercials.
We marketers have to market ourselves.
We have to market our teams.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll share a handful of resources and ways that I’ve done this (and some ways that didn’t work). First off, I think one of the best places to start when it comes to building alignment and gaining influence is in how you share ideas with your peers.
A clearly-explained memo can go a long way toward building trust and respect among your peers … and hopefully it goes a long way toward actually getting decisions made and work shipped.
At Oyster, we do this through an asynchronous memo that everyone can read ahead of time, comment with feedback, then meet live to discuss and decide.
This memo includes:
Problem definition
What is the problem?
Why is it important now?
What’s the smallest, lowest-cost version of the decision that we need to make?
Who are the key decision makers?
Who is the DRI?
Options
Is this decision reversible?
Description of the options
Risks
Recommendation
If you’re interested in trying this out for your next cross-functional decision, feel free to grab the downloadable template here.
(Click File > Make a Copy to get a version all to yourself.)
We use this for big decisions. (We have a lighter-weight system for the smaller stuff.) One of the most important elements of the memo isn’t even a question. It’s the data. When it comes to framing the problem and the “why now,” having data at your disposal is perhaps the best way to create cross-functional alignment. Data is the common language among teams — for instance, even if I’m not fluent in engineering metrics, I know a data-informed proposal when I see it.
Another favorite framework of mine is the Minto Pyramid.
The number one rule of the Minto pyramid is to start with the conclusion.
After the conclusion, then you can bring in supporting arguments and supporting data. I’ve found the Minto Pyramid to be especially helpful when I’m trying to figure out where to even begin with trying to explain an idea to my CEO or my C-level teammates.
And then I’ll leave you with one more: the Reforge executive summary, which is based on a really neat framework called the AIM Canvas. It goes like this …
Audience
Who is this tailored to?
What do they care most about? How is this connected to their own goals/responsibilities?
What are they motivated by that moves them into action?
Intent
Job to be done: What one action do I want to inspire? What motivation do I want to tap into? And who needs to complete that action?
Out of scope: What’s strictly out of scope to convey at all? What’s important to have answers to, but not critical to present?
Message
Content: What headline is most important to share?
Content: What data or rationale is most supportive of my ask (to do, solve, or clarify)?
Delivery: What can I do to make this more direct, concise, coherent, and credible?
What I love about this framework is that you need to do so much work about the Who and the Why before you even get into the What. The message is the last thing you work on.
Over to you
What frameworks or templates do you use at work? What tips do you have on gaining influence among your leadership peers? It’d be great to hear from you. Hit reply to this email to get in touch anytime.
Misc.
Check out this cool, new-to-me newsletter all about PLG. (I found it on this great list from Kyle Poyar.)
About this newsletter …
Hi, I’m Kevan, a marketing exec based in Boise, Idaho, who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I currently lead the marketing team at Oyster (we’re hiring!). I previously built brands at Buffer, Vox, and Polly. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. Not yet subscribed? No worries. You can check out the archive, or sign up below:
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