Martech 终极指南 | Austin Hay(Reforge、Ramp、Runway)
Martech 终极指南 | Austin Hay(Reforge、Ramp、Runway)
文字记录
确定性匹配的黄金时代终结
Austin Hay: 从2010年到2020年,我们经历了确定性匹配的黄金时代——投放广告并精准了解是谁安装了应用,这一切都轻而易举。也许你不知道他们的名字,但你确实能知道他们的 IDFA,并且可以将其与个人身份信息(PII)关联起来。现在做不到了。这意味着,广告网络正变得更加复杂、精密和有趣,而与此同时,营销人员却越来越难以真正理解自己的钱花在了哪里。因此,我非常关注营销人员如何在概率性数据下做出决策,因为我目前大部分工作实际上就是在回答这样一个问题:既然我们不再拥有关于特定受众或用户来源的确定性数据,那我能否找到其他信息来为一个样本建模,覆盖30%的人群,然后据此外推到百分之百。
什么是 Martech
Lenny: 欢迎来到 Lenny 的播客,在这里我会采访世界级的产品负责人和增长专家,从他们打造和增长当今最成功产品的亲身经历中学习。今天的嘉宾是 Austin Hay。在 Martech,即营销技术领域,Austin 是世界上最聪明的人之一。他曾为 Notion、Airbnb、Walmart、Postmates、Robinhood,甚至 Pete’s Coffee 和 Mars 提供过 Martech 战略和战术方面的咨询。他目前担任 Ramp 的营销技术负责人。此前,他曾是 Runway 的业务运营副总裁,mParticle 的增长副总裁,也是独角兽公司 Branch Metrics 的第四号员工。他还在 Reforge 教授 Martech 这一专题。在这次对话中,Austin 解释了到底什么是 Martech,它如何融入你的增长组织,什么时候需要招聘 Martech 人员以及应该看重什么,还有他最喜欢的面试问题。此外,还有他最推荐的工具、框架、团队结构,以及他最看好的新兴平台。本期节目适合所有负责增长、并希望优化方法论以及了解营销技术如何融入其中的人。Austin,非常感谢你来到这里,欢迎来到播客。
Austin Hay: Lenny,非常感谢你的邀请。
Lenny: 今天我们要变得非常极客,深入探讨 Martech 这个非常酷的领域。你对聊 Martech 有多兴奋?
Austin Hay: 我非常兴奋。因为你可能是产品和增长领域里第一个讨论 Martech 的人。
Lenny: 哇,好吧。这让我更兴奋了。是的,Martech 是我一直没有完全理解的东西,所以我很期待深入挖掘。那我们先从基础开始。到底什么是 Martech,从事 Martech 的人具体做什么?
Austin Hay: 这个问题问得好。因为营销技术是一个非常模糊、跨职能的学科,处于产品、增长、工程和营销的交汇处。它将来自众多学科的流程和系统整合在一起。我认为,理解营销技术真正的方式是把它看作一个产品经理,其特定角色和关注点是系统——无论是第三方平台还是第一方平台。因为营销技术可以指一系列第三方工具的集合,很多人是这么认为的,但随着公司规模的扩大和增长,它实际上还可以包含一系列你在内部自建的第一方解决方案,可以与第三方工具并存使用。所以我倾向于把营销技术看作两部分:一部分是人与流程,另一部分是系统与平台。这大概和很多产品人对自身领域的理解非常相似,这就是我对 Martech 的定义。
你同时还问了从事 Martech 的人具体角色是什么,我们稍后可能会详细聊,但这很大程度上取决于你所在公司的规模和阶段。在 Airbnb,我可以说 Dmitri——你可能和他共事过——就是当时的 Martech 负责人。他管理着 Airbnb 大量的第一方和第三方工具。那时候 Airbnb 的规模大概是800人左右,所以拥有一个配备产品和工程资源的职能团队是合理的。而小创业公司就不一样了,比如我在 Runway 和 Siqi 一起工作的时候,我们刚聊过这个,那里根本不存在 Martech 这个概念。就是我和 Tanner 还有 Siqi 自己搭建工具、使用工具,因为你必须用这些工具才能完成工作。所以说,在 Martech 的光谱上,你真的需要看公司的规模和阶段,随着公司的成长,你会看到它变得越来越精细、越来越明确。
Lenny: 那么,如果有听众从事增长工作,或者是增长产品经理,可能会想,这不就是我做的事情吗?那么,一个做增长或带领增长团队的人,和一个专门的 Martech 人,区别在哪里?
Austin Hay: 在某些层面上,也许没有区别。我可以说很多30人以下的初创公司里,你有一个增长团队,你的增长获客人员在用 CDP 把数据发送到广告网络来投放广告,因为那就是他们工作的一部分,也许他们就是 Martech 人。实际上你会发现,很多现在自认为是 Martech 专业人士的人,最初都是从增长或用户获取角色起步的,因为他们必须使用工具才能完成工作。但我想说的是,随着公司的成长和扩张,Martech 会从一种社区式、村庄式驱动的模式,转变为一种集中管控的模式。如果你是一家30到40人的初创公司,每个人都可能参与管理你的 CDP,或者使用 Amplitude,或者在它们之上搭建第一方解决方案。
这是一套第一方和第三方工具的混合体,工程、产品和营销团队共同协作。但这种模式无法扩展。当公司规模跨过100到200人之后,必须有人负责了解数据如何在工具之间流转、如何运作、数据模式(schema)是什么。这还没考虑采购和法律方面的事。如果你不妥善管理合同,你将面临无限的责任风险。所以通常在公司达到100到150人左右的时候,就会到达一个临界点——你不能再对系统和工具采用村庄式的管理方式了,就像在 IT 组织中一样,如果对 SSO(单点登录)也采用村庄式的管理,企业将面临很大风险。这就是你通常会开始听到这样的问题:好了,我们需要一个系统和工具负责人,我们需要有人来管理这些系统和管理那个平台。
这有多种组织方式。我见过它完全归属产品方向,由产品运营组织来负责,一个产品运营人员实际上会管理大量第三方和第一方工具。我见过它归属 IT 组织,比如 Walmart 在很大规模时就采用了这种模式。他们有一个 MarProd(营销产品,Marketing Products)职能,是营销职能内部的产品,或者是为营销服务而设计的产品。当然也可以有更传统的路径,比如营销技术可以作为一个独立的单列单元,或者商业技术作为独立单元。这还部分取决于企业是 B2C 还是 B2B。通常在 B2B 企业中,你会看到 Martech 归属于收入运营(Rev Ops)或某种系统角色,因为你不仅要服务进入你获客漏斗的用户,还要服务之后的那些企业客户。
这也是你通常会看到 Salesforce 这类工具以及更高级 CRM 登场的场景。而在 B2C 企业中,你的用户漏斗实际上非常简单——获取用户,把他们引入产品,然后由产品接管。没有额外的 CRM,所以通常 CDP 就是你的数据真实来源(source of truth),这也正是为什么在 B2C 中你往往会看到营销技术与增长结合得更紧密。举几个例子,比如在 Postmates,我给他们做了很长时间的咨询顾问。营销技术就是增长的一部分。在那之前我们甚至有一位增长总监,就是 Runway 的 CEO Siqi Chen——我刚才了解到你应该是他的第一任经理——他是第一任增长 VP,而营销技术就是增长的一部分,产品团队作为系统来管理它。
另一个不同的例子是 Ramp,我们的规模足够大,而且是一家 B2B 公司,但我们有一个 B2C 的漏斗顶部,用来获取用户并让他们填写申请来获取信用卡。我们有一个独立的收入运营团队,分为商业技术和营销技术两部分。所以,Martech 的组织形式有很多种。我觉得这正是营销技术有趣和好玩的地方——它不是一个单一的万能模式可以套用到所有公司,我见过无数种变体,它们都在试图解决同一个问题。
Lenny: 那么,为了让听众更具体、更简单地理解 Martech 人的工作,本质上就是使用技术和工具来推动增长,对吗?这是不是理解这个特定角色的一种简单方式?
Austin Hay: 完全正确,就是这样的。我有一句常说的话:工具就是用来解决问题的。而营销技术人员和商业技术人员所专注的问题集合,就是工具本身。
Martech 人的具体职责切片
Lenny: 那么,如果现在有听众的公司还没有 Martech 人,他们在想,我们是不是存在这个缺口?假设他们目前已经有一个增长团队,或者一个带领增长的增长 PM 和围绕他的增长团队,那么 Martech 人会接手哪一块工作?
Austin Hay: 顺便说一下,这个问题太常见了。我每年都会和很多遇到这个问题的公司交流:我们有增长团队,增长得也挺快。我们招了一个人,通常是工程师出身,帮我们搭起了所有这些工具。也可能是女性,这里不限于性别,但这个人已经在这里两年了,对我们所有的系统非常熟悉,但现在他们开始不堪重负了。时间不够用,系统太复杂。这是我经常从初创公司那里听到的一种典型故事——他们招到了一位优秀的增长人才,管理和维护了工具和系统,但到了某个节点,一个人的力量甚至几个人的力量都无法再支撑。而那一块工作切片包括:配置新工具,在现有工具之上搭建新工具。因为很多时候你会拿一个第三方工具,比如 Segment 或 Amplitude,然后在你的自有技术栈中在其后端搭建工具,来实现更高级的功能。
所有人都以为营销技术就是那些第三方工具,但实际上它还包括在你的第三方工具之上进行设计、架构和搭建。这才是你真正获得高速推进能力的方式——不只是考虑”自建还是购买”,而是”自建加购买”。你购买工具完成90%的工作,然后用剩下10%在上面搭建酷炫的东西。而这个架构决策通常就落在 Martech 人身上。其中一个特别不性感的部分,我倒是很喜欢,因为它的杠杆效应非常高——那就是合同部分。当你作为一家企业刚起步时,你可以随意和第三方签任何合同,因为你只是想先跑起来。你有更大的问题要解决——产品市场契合度、活下去、资金跑道(runway)。但随着你扩张并开始赚钱,你开始关心的不仅仅是赚了多少钱,还有因为签约 SaaS 工具而损失了多少钱。
所以你开始更加审慎地审视:我们在签什么类型的合同,条款是什么?我们有没有责任风险暴露?如果我们继续扩张,成本会是多少?我们在500 MTU 时拿到一个很棒的费率当然好,但当我们有100万 MPU 时会怎样?我之前在 mParticle 工作过很长一段时间,它是一个 CDP 供应商,我是他们的增长 VP。他们的 SaaS 供应商策略的一部分就是:如何设计这些成本结构,使得随着客户公司扩张我们也能赚更多钱?这只是商业模式的一部分。所以如果你具备那种思维方式——不只是着眼于当下,而是展望未来两到三十年为业务把关——那么作为一个系统人员或营销技术人员,你就能创造巨大的价值。
什么时候该招营销技术人员
Lenny: 也许一个信号是——你该开始在增长团队中考虑引入营销技术人才了——我听到的是,你开始积累各种不同的工具,而且可能有一种感觉:在连接数据、搭建后端基础设施方面,你本可以高效得多,无论是对增长思路的构建、驱动增长还是衡量增长来说都是如此。
Austin Hay: 没错,效率和痛苦。我觉得痛苦驱动力更强。就是那种——嘿,我们做不了某件事,因为没人懂这个东西;我们做不了某件事,因为我们不知道搭建这些工具或更换这些工具的最佳方式;我们甚至无法推进一个业务方案,因为我们担心更换工具可能会带来影响。而且通常这跟邮件营销工具和数据工具有关,比如 CDP 以及 Braze 之类的厂商,因为很多时候你的邮件正是驱动回头客持续回访和使用产品的关键。所以,如果你不了解某样东西最初是怎么搭建的,有时候你根本无法做出你想要的改动。
营销技术人员在组织中该放在哪里
Lenny: 你谈到过这个人应该在组织中的什么位置。有各种不同的可能性。我提到过收入团队、运营团队、增长团队、营销团队。关于谁应该主导招聘这个角色,以及大概应该汇报给谁,你有什么总体建议吗?
Austin Hay: 这么说吧,我不想无耻地给我秋季的 Reforge 课程打广告,但我还是要无耻地给我的 Reforge 秋季课程打个广告。我们做了一个很棒的矩阵,展示了这个人应该放在哪里、做什么、向谁汇报,这些都在秋季课程里,如果你想深入了解的话。课程中会有一个专门的章节。不过要点是这样的——我首先喜欢把它拆分成两个维度。第一个维度是 B2C 公司还是 B2B 公司。第二个维度是,这个人是否需要汇报给某个特定职能部门,这一点对你有多重要?所以首先是 B2C 和 B2B,然后是集中式和分散式。
先说 B2C,其实更简单的说法是集中式还是分散式。所以我们有 B2C、B2B、集中式、分散式这几个组合。在 B2C 组织中,我觉得其实相当简单。大多数情况下,你的工具、你的营销工具都是为增长团队服务的。增长团队有一个明确的任务目标(job to be done),就是推动用户增长,工具只是为了解决这个问题。所以营销技术的职责就是服务增长团队。当然它也为产品、分析和数据服务,但它的核心利益相关者和客户是营销或增长职能。所以我觉得,如果你在 CMO 或营销负责人下面设计组织架构,把营销技术放在增长负责人旁边,或者根据这个人的资历让他向增长负责人汇报,是非常合理的。这个模式运作得很好。这里的关键是,你要确保这个营销技术人员是一个非常强的技术架构师,或者某种类型的技术运营者,因为他们将代表你与产品和工程组织打交道。
当然,有些人会在这个基础上做一点小小的变体。他们说,嘿,我有一个从产品经理方向出来的增长 PM。你可以设一个平台 PM 来在营销技术中扮演同样的角色,负责所有内部平台系统。然后就会引出一个问题:这属于产品运营还是不属于?这个问题我就不展开了。但对 B2C 来说,这就是集中式模式。至于 B2C 的分散式模式,你的做法就是说,嘿,我们在每个组织里都放一个这样的系统人员。产品团队有产品运营人员,增长团队有增长运营人员,工程团队有工程运营人员,然后根据他们管理的工具来划分界限。我通常觉得这种做法效果不太好,因为随着你增加更多运营人员,它只会制造更多系统。
所以除非你是一家需要那种规模的大型公司,否则我觉得大多数初创公司应该避免分散式模式。然后说到 B2B,我觉得 B2B 真的很混乱,因为你不仅有纯 B2B——只向企业销售的情况,还有 B2B2C 的概念,即你实际上有时候在漏斗顶部和底部分别向用户和企业销售,但有时候也同时向两者销售,比如 Notion。Notion 向用户销售,所以他们在顶部有一个小型增长获客漏斗,但他们同时也向企业销售。我发现这里确实也分为两种方式——分散式或集中式。实际上在 Ramp,我们在两种模式之间来回切换过。我们一开始是集中式,放在收入运营(Rev Ops)组里,后来分散化,把营销技术放到 CMO 组织里,现在又把它重新收回到收入运营组织里。很大程度上取决于:我们的客户是谁?
我们在解决谁的问题?资源分配在哪里?因为如果你采用分散式模式,就有可能面临资源被分散到各个团队的风险。问题在于,那个职能团队能不能真正推进工作,还是资源过于分散、优先级不够对齐,导致难以推进。我想说的是,尤其在 B2B 方面,对于正在收听的各位,没有一个标准答案。我甚至认为营销技术可以放在产品团队里,也可以放在工程团队里。这在很大程度上取决于这个职能的领导者是谁。如果偏向运营——即管理流程和系统——那也许你想要分散化,把它留在各自对应的职能部门。如果你有一个非常技术型的领导者,之前是架构师或 PM,那可能就暗示这个人应该在哪里带领团队。所以这非常因情况而异,我知道这是一个糟糕的答案,但事实就是如此。
营销技术人员是 IC 还是管理者
Lenny: 完全说得通。如果有人要招一个像你这样的人,Austin,你是自己做具体工作吗?你会作为 IC(独立贡献者)做很长时间吗,还是最终会组建一个团队,比如工程师来搭建其中一些基础设施?通常是怎么发展的?
Austin Hay: 我觉得所有营销技术人员在某种程度上都是 IC。我个人觉得这是一个很好的岗位,因为我可以同时做 IC 和管理者。你必须作为 IC 的原因是——你是所有第一方和第三方系统的最高级别技术专家。所以你必须非常了解第三方工具的运作方式,而你不亲自动手就不可能了解。所以我确实发现,一些最优秀的营销技术人员至少在过去五年中的某个阶段,做过工具和系统的运营操作专家。而且团队通常很小,超级跨职能。
所以我想说,比”这个人管过多少人”更重要的是——他们向上、横向和向下管理的能力如何,因为他们要去跟收入运营负责人沟通才能在 Salesforce 里改东西,他们要去跟产品 VP 沟通才能做一个影响其他系统的大平台变更。他们还要不断依赖数据负责人提供数据资源。所以我觉得这个人的秘密武器更多在于——他们作为跨职能团队成员有多出色。我几乎把他们看作真正的四分卫(quarterback),每个人都说自己的人才是四分卫。但营销技术真的是这样,因为它横跨这么多部门,天然就要扮演那个调度战术、拉动不同部门的角色。
Lenny: 因为听起来你并没有一个团队来帮你做这些事情,你需要说服别人来帮忙。
Austin Hay: 完全正确。这本质上是一场说服和推销的游戏。你必须让人们相信这些问题很重要。而且尤其是在公司规模变大之后,营销技术的很多决策和问题并不是关于如何快速实现一次巨大变革,而是缓慢的变革可能带来巨大的影响。我举一个例子。我接触的很多大公司都有两个 CDP 或者两个归因工具,这里面有成本问题——我们怎么去掉那个次要工具来降低成本?也许是一百万美元。但同时还有复杂性和决策的问题——我们怎么让人们更快地推进工作,而不是每次都要纠结”这种简单的事情我到底该用哪个工具?”
然后到了 Walmart 那种真正大规模的层面,你的问题甚至不在于”我们怎么整合技术栈、让工具对人有帮助”,而是”我们怎么防止重新回到那种混乱状态?我们怎么设置防护机制,确保人们确实能用到他们需要的工具、能解决自己的问题,同时又不给组织引入重复的技术?“因为一个非常知名的模式——抱歉让 SaaS 厂商们躺枪了——就是 SaaS 厂商常用的渗透扩张策略:先以小规模入驻,然后逐步扩展业务。但这对于想要控制成本、简化运营方式的企业来说,恰恰是一个棘手的问题。
营销技术人员的日常
Lenny: 我想聊聊你推荐和最常用的工具,不过我在想,也许我们可以先换个问题——作为一个营销技术人员,你的一天是什么样的?你每天都在做什么?如果从增长 PM 或管理者听这个播客的角度来看,这个人能为我做什么?如果我找到一个营销技术人员,能获得多大的杠杆效应?
Austin Hay: 营销技术的工作中有一半,我会称之为偏行政管理性质的、高杠杆的工作。包括管理 PI 请求和 PI 技术,管理合同、工具权限和准入这类行政事务。这都是在大型公司层面才会做的事,小公司大概率不会做这些。但这些事情很重要——举个例子,你给某个人开了 HubSpot 的编辑权限,然后他向一百万人发了一封测试邮件,结果你的公司就在 Twitter 上丢脸了。就是这样——
Lenny: 这种事在你身上发生过吗?
Austin Hay: 我自己没遇到过。但我收到过一些公司发来的这种邮件,内容是”这是一封测试邮件”,而且还是实习生发出来的。
Lenny: 对,我也收到过。
Austin Hay: 你就会觉得,这纯粹是权限管理出了问题。所以我觉得这个角色很重要的一部分就是设计自动化系统来处理这类事情。因为理想情况下,你不想整天坐在电脑前一个一个地点击审批权限请求。系统应该根据角色、工龄和部门自动做出判断,决定给你开放哪些权限。所以自动化这些流程是我工作的重要组成部分。而我工作中偏手动的那部分——其实我觉得非常有趣——就是为未来设计系统和合约。核心是:我们如何设计一套系统、构建一个愿景,并说服大家相信我们一到两年内——这通常是我关注的周期——的系统技术应该是什么样的?然后怎么从现在的状态过渡到那个状态?这其中会涉及财务和合同层面的问题,这就是合同管理发挥作用的地方。我们现在的合同条款是什么?我们在付什么价格?我们未来的增长会是多少?
我们能不能建一个财务模型来展示,无论是从运营效率还是实际的固定和可变成本来看,达到那个目标状态要花多少钱?然后我怎么构建一个有说服力的论证,让人们同意我们应该投入工程时间和资源?通常结论会非常明确——如果成本低于某个阈值,你怎么证明值得为此投入工程资源?你得等问题积累到足够大才行。但回到你刚才说的——怎么给正在听的增长管理者一些实用的建议。我觉得在公司早期阶段,人们常常忘记的一件事是:公司会比你活得更久——希望如此。你不会是最后一个增长管理者,除非公司倒闭了。所以我倾向于采取一种与大多数人不同的方式——我认为你应该始终为未来考虑。
这不意味着你应该做出过度偏向未来导向的设计决策,以至于错过了产品市场匹配(product-market fit)或者做出了糟糕的产品决策。但当你选择工具、部署和实施工具时,你应该思考:如果什么都不改,一年后会怎样?这会不会变成灾难性的局面?然后采取措施去降低这个风险。比如一些具体的例子:如果花两千美元就能启用 SSO,两天就能设置好,而这能防止有人下载你所有用户数据的安全问题,那看起来就是一笔很划算的投资。
而且你猜怎么着?随着时间推移,如果你不做这件事,最终你还是得雇一个 IT 人员来给所有工具逐一配置 SSO。所以这类事情更多是关于做一个好的管理者——在管理第一方和第三方工具时,带着对未来的思考来行事。这始终是一个权衡,对吧?因为你在公司早期阶段搭建产品时花的时间,本可以花在其他事情上。所以如果你把时间浪费在管理第三方工具或配置工具上,也许就会错过一个关键的产品功能。所以我觉得这是一个很难把握的平衡。
营销技术与营销运营的区别
Lenny: 回到增长体系内不同角色的话题,假设有人负责付费增长,就是一个纯做付费增长的人,你会不会也安排一个营销技术人员跟他搭档工作?你和一个只负责付费增长的人之间会有多紧密的联系?
Austin Hay: 这里也许有一个关键的区分点。我们开头没有聊到这个,就是营销技术和营销运营之间的区别。在我心目中——这只是我自己的思维框架——营销技术里面有个”技术”,所以通常是由工程师或具有工程背景的人来承担这个职能。营销运营通常不一定是技术性的,可能是系统分析师或业务分析师,也可能是一个非常聪明的人,但他们未必有工程背景。所以我觉得这是一个很关键的区别。通常在 B2B 场景中你会看到这种情况——会有一个营销运营职能,负责搭建营销活动、发送邮件、调试问题、做分析工作、写 SQL 查询,这些都是半技术性的工作,但不是以工程为基础的。所以在我看来,当我们谈论营销技术时,我真的把它当作一个以工程为基础的角色。就我自己而言,我不是软件工程师出身,但我是土木工程师,后来学会了编程,通过一系列的编程训练走到了今天。
营销技术人员如何支持用户获取
所以,这就是我进入工程领域的方式。你会发现,尤其是很多营销技术人员,他们要么本身就是软件工程师,要么已经积累了足够的经验,可以”兼职”当软件工程师用。回到用户获取人员的问题——他们会如何依赖营销技术人员?我觉得那些最厉害的用户获取人员本身就是工程师,他们不需要营销技术人员,因为他们自己就能搭建工具。他们知道付费广告怎么跑,一个人全搞定了。你通常会在小初创公司见到这种超人——工程师被联合创始人一句”去搞清楚 Facebook 广告怎么玩”推过去,一个超人就此诞生。但更多时候情况并非如此。或者那些人做过一次之后就再也不想做了。所以通常你会发现这个角色会拆分开来,这是自然而然发生的事情。
随着规模扩大,你会进行分工。你会看到一个人负责竞价、获取用户、压低广告成本;另一个人负责搞定整个系统——怎么让这些东西真正跑起来。我们在 Ramp 也是类似的结构。我们有一个非常优秀的用户获取团队。我知道 Sri Batchu 之前来过这个节目,他在 Ramp 招了一个叫 Cody Morgan 的人,由他带领一支用户获取团队。可以这样理解:我的工作是支持他们满足所有广告投放需求。当 CEO 下达指令说我们需要优化 CAC 或调整任何指标时,我的职责就是与他们协作,帮助达成目标。实际上,我刚加入 Ramp 时,我们做的最酷、最有意思的项目之一就是做优化——
端到端的数据打通与广告优化
我们试图把漏斗顶部数据一路贯通到漏斗底部,与商机数据关联起来,然后把这些数据回传给广告网络。这样一来,你的广告优化不再基于用户点击了网站上的某个按钮,而是基于商机是否真的产生了、这个商机的理想价值是多少。你把这条数据作为一个合成事件(synthetic event)发送回 Facebook 和其他广告平台。根据你深入漏斗的程度和业务的复杂度,这可以是非常酷、非常前沿的东西。
Lenny: 所以你一般不会自己去 Facebook 或 AdWords 上跑广告,作为营销技术人员,你更多是在支持那些负责跑广告的人。
Austin Hay: 对。
Lenny: 明白了。
Austin Hay: 帮助他们使用工具和技术来达成目标。
营销技术的目标制定
Lenny: 好。那别人会给你设定目标吗?你自己是否承担增长目标?一般来说,营销技术人员应该有自己的增长目标,还是仅仅作为支持角色服务他人?
Austin Hay: 这个问题问得好。也许我们可以在节目末尾问问其他嘉宾,因为我很想知道更好的目标设定方式是什么。我对这个有两种思路。一种是,我的目标直接与我所服务的人挂钩。比如用户获取团队——我们确实有——Ramp 有增长目标和 CAC 目标。所以我的目标与他们绑定,我要确保这些目标得以实现。但除此之外,我内心还有一个关于成本和效率的目标,我认为它很有价值。至于业务方是否认为它有价值,那倒不一定重要。我有销售背景,我喜欢运营精简高效的团队,所以我总是在想:我接手时工具成本是多少?现在又是多少?我是否为公司未来的成功奠定了基础——随着我们的增长,每个用户、每个席位摊到的成本是否在下降?我们因此变得高效了多少?理想状态是:业务在增长、赚更多钱、招更多人、获取更多用户,而人均工具总成本反而在下降。这才是最理想的状态。有很多种方式可以构建这种财务模型,但我认为这是大多数营销技术领导者应该追求的——确保持续控制成本,因为大多数公司做不到这一点。
还有一些目标可能不是成本效率方面的,而更偏向能力建设,是离散型的。比如,嘿,我们要打造一套世界一流的第一方系统,实现这三个目标。或者你想在产品平台的某个环节引入人工智能,集成第三方工具。这些更像是具体的产品目标。就像企业可能会发布对外的产品目标——上线某个功能一样,有时也会有内部产品目标:清理收入运营系统、改进邮件营销系统。特别是邮件营销这个,我经常看到中小企业乃至中型企业遇到这个问题——他们在公司创立初期选了一个工具,随着公司成长,那个工具已经不够用了,需要迁移到 Braze 或 Marketo。于是就会有一个为期六个月的大项目:我们必须迁移。这就是目标。我们要安全地从一个小工具切换到一个更大、更复杂的工具,成本更高、复杂度也更高,但必须在不亏钱的前提下完成。这通常是营销技术人员的工作,属于某种变革转型类的项目。
工具栈推荐:B2C 的过去与现在
Lenny: 完美地衔接到我想聊的下一个话题——工具和你推荐的好工具。那我们是不是先聊聊,对于开始思考营销技术和增长的人来说,一个好的起步工具栈是什么样的,然后最终一般会演进成什么样?
Austin Hay: 关于工具栈,我们还是要区分 B2B 和 B2C。B2C 方面,我觉得工具栈在 2017 年到 2020 年间基本已经定型了。之后数据架构迎来了一次复兴,所以我的做法是先回顾 B2C 的过去和现在,然后再看 B2B 的过去和现在。
Lenny: 好。
Austin Hay: B2C,如果你回到 2016、2017 年,那时候有 Segment 和 CDP 的崛起。面向消费者的企业需要采集用户信息,关联一堆数据,然后追踪他们的行为,发送给效果广告网络、邮件营销工具和产品分析工具。所以你会看到一套非常标准化的工具栈——中间是一个 CDP,周围连接一堆工具。CDP 的承诺是:你只需集成一个 SDK,工程师不会讨厌你,数据自动分发到其他工具,你还能创建受众群体。挺好。持续了很长一段时间。但我觉得大约在 2020 年前后,真正发生变化的是数据仓库的持有成本大幅降低了。到了 2021 年,你开始进入这样一个阶段:把所有数据存储在数据仓库里、在仓库中建模,这件事变得非常合理且非常简单,而且不需要庞大的数据团队。我觉得 Airbnb 可能比其他任何公司都更早做好了这件事,但他们有一个巨大优势——钱多、资源多。现在到了 2020 年,拥有一支数据团队、搭建自己的数据仓库、在 Snowflake 这样的平台上集中管理数据,已经具有成本效益了。于是问题变成了:好,我们得把数据导入仓库,但数据如何在各系统之间流转?这个问题变得完全不同了。
反向 ETL 的崛起与 B2C 工具栈选择
Austin Hay: 这正是反向 ETL 兴起的真正原因。现在你实际上可以构建自己的 CDP 了,很多企业已经这么做了。几个月前我在为一家知名金融交易平台做咨询,他们有 CDP,仓库里也有所有这些内部数据,但他们一直无法激活这些数据,因为架构相当老旧,一切都是基于批处理的、按日结算。他们需要的是一个反向 ETL。他们不需要把数据拿出来直接推送到外部世界——他们需要的是反向 ETL 这个组件,或者说 CDP 中的数据转换组件。所以我觉得,今天当我们谈论 B2C 企业时,你可以走传统路线,购买 CDP,连接所有第三方工具。
我认为如果你没有太多工程资源,这是一个很好的选择,因为你不需要在数据仓库及相关的所有建模工作上花费大量时间和精力,只需要花时间实现一个 SDK。我觉得如果你的业务追求的是简单,CDP 加中心化工具栈是个很好的选择。但如果你是一个拥有先进工程文化的团队,走在技术前沿,打算在 DBT 中做大量建模,并且已经有了 Snowflake,那你应该转向使用反向 ETL 的模式。这意味着你有办法把数据导入仓库,而如何激活数据则完全独立于 CDP。这实际上意味着你可以有很多不同版本的工具栈。
你可以用 Amplitude 作为你的 CDP,采集所有数据,流式传输到 Snowflake。他们现在实际上有一个与 Snowflake 的集成,可以直接从 Snowflake 中提取数据,然后你可以用反向 ETL 把数据传输到任何你需要的地方。不过这里有一个非常好的章节——再次抱歉自我吹捧——今年秋季的 Reforge 模块中有一个很好的章节,讨论的是当你有多种数据迁移方式时会发生什么。你买了 Amplitude 做 CDP,把数据迁移到仓库。Amplitude 有一堆集成,但同时你也有反向 ETL,可以把数据从仓库中迁移出来。
你怎么选择?我觉得很多企业会陷入困境,因为它们没有一套方法论或体系来决定何时以及如何将数据从一个地方迁移到另一个地方,只是随意地去做,对吧?系统管理的关键在于,你要设计一套流程——某种瀑布模型或心智模型——来决定什么时候适合直接从 Amplitude(即数据流的采集点)迁移数据,什么时候适合从仓库中迁移(在那里你可以对数据进行建模和优化)。我认为关键是要有一套理念和方法。并没有唯一的标准答案,但以上都是 B2C 的情况。那么 B2B 的话……好,你说。
Lenny: 在我们继续之前,你提到了反向 ETL,有哪些产品是反向 ETL 的例子,方便大家去查阅?
Austin Hay: 好的。我个人认为反向 ETL 是一种能力,即把数据从仓库迁移到某个工具的能力。所以从技术上讲,你会在 CDP 中找到反向 ETL 功能,也会看到独立产品。Segment 刚刚推出了反向 ETL 功能,mParticle 也刚刚推出了反向 ETL 功能。RudderStack 作为一个 CDP,一直都有反向 ETL 功能,可以把仓库数据迁移到不同的云基础设施。然后还有一些独立的单独产品——Census,曾获得 a16z 投资,以及 Hightouch,这是两个独立的反向 ETL 产品。如我所说,我是 Hightouch 的投资人,很喜欢他们的工作,我们在 Ramp 也在使用他们。归根结底,你应该选择能帮你解决问题的工具,而不是因为其他原因。所以如果你想继续聊这个话题,我们可以回头再谈。
Lenny: 太好了,非常好,完美。继续。
B2B 与 B2B2C 的复杂性
Austin Hay: 好。我们聊了 B2C。B2B 的话,我可能不像那些经历过 2008 年互联网泡沫的人那样有那么多历史经验。我 2014 年才真正开始我的 B2B 职业生涯,所以我会分享一下我的经历,也希望听众可能会说,天哪这家伙根本不知道自己在说什么——这完全没问题。2014 年的时候,我记得在 Branch 工作,我为我们的 COO Mike Molinet 工作,他现在在一家很酷的公司叫 Thena。当时我为 Mike 工作,正如我们之前聊到的,增长工具栈往往就是这样出现的——因为你面临一个挑战。我记得和 Mike 坐在一个小房间里,我们在帕洛阿尔托,就在帕洛阿尔托的山丘旁边那个小房间里。
房间里热得要命,我们都在出汗,在白板上规划如何设计我们系统的第一版——如何捕获潜在客户、如何把他们导入 Salesforce、如何用当时还叫 Outreach 的小工具给他们发邮件——那时 Outreach 还是一家创业公司。我可以之后把这些发给你,如果你想给观众看的话。那真的是非常 MVP 的状态,但它仍然建模了很多人今天还在使用的架构:有某种数据采集入口,有 Salesforce,有某种外发工具,有数据补全工具,然后还有一堆拼凑起来的东西挂在 Salesforce 上。在很大程度上,今天 B2B 仍然是这样——你有 Salesforce,然后整个世界和宇宙都围绕着 Salesforce 转。你只是有了更先进的工具,有了 Gong 之类的。
不过我觉得真正的变化、也是我一直觉得非常有趣且值得关注的,是在过去两三年里,B2B2C 模式全面崛起。它把漏斗顶部用户获取系统的所有复杂性,直接塞进了你的 CRM 旁边。如何在那片空间中构建一个优雅的系统,我认为是今天作为一名营销技术人员最复杂、最精巧的挑战之一。其中一部分原因就在于数据语言——所有这些 B2C 工具都只围绕两个对象来设计:用户和事件。如果你不是技术人员,面向对象就是你理解世界的方式。在用户获取系统中,世界只有两个概念:一个用户——一个匿名或已知的人,进入你的网站;以及他们在你的网站或应用上做的事情。你利用所有这些数据来获取用户或对用户建模。
在 B2B 企业中,你拥有所有这些复杂性,但归根结底,如果那个人只是在签合同,你可能并不真正需要这些——公司签了合同之后你也不太关心之后发生什么。你可能会追踪应用内的用户和事件,但那不是为了获客,而是为了用户留存。B2B2C 就很令人着迷了,因为你在顶部拥有所有复杂性,但然后你要如何、何时将一个用户关联到一个公司或某种实体对象?你需要什么工具来做这件事?这些工具在系统中处于什么位置?这些工具之间是否存在相互冲突的优先级?我给你举一个最好的例子——这在 Notion 时发生过,我在为他们做咨询时遇到过,在 Chris 为他们做咨询时也遇到过,在 Ramp 也发生过——就是同时使用 HubSpot 和 Salesforce。
HubSpot 与 Salesforce 的数据映射难题
Austin Hay: 两者都是 CRM,都有追踪用户和公司的能力,但都不是 CDP。而你实际上如何把数据从 HubSpot 映射到 Salesforce,基本上决定了你要承受多大的痛苦,而且真的没有什么好的解决方案。你只能自己去想办法——你想如何在漏斗顶部获取用户?如何把他们合并到 Salesforce 的漏斗底部?同样,这里有很多选项或者说不同版本的架构。你可以只用 Amplitude 收集所有的用户和事件数据,然后直接合并到 Salesforce。你也可以把所有数据收集到 Amplitude 或 Segment 中,然后发送到 HubSpot,再由 HubSpot 发送到 Salesforce。但当然,随着你做出这些决策,你的系统会变得越来越复杂,复杂到一个人无法管理。所以,你始终需要在复杂度和资源之间做权衡。
Lenny: 在 B2B 和 B2C 领域有一个很大的问题,就是如何做归因。这可以说是一场永无止境的斗争。我很好奇你有没有什么专业建议、最佳实践或工具,可以帮助企业改善归因的方式。
Austin Hay: 其实我听过你关于多点归因的那期节目。我一时忘了当时的嘉宾是谁了,但我特别喜欢,因为专门讲了 MMM 和 MTA。
Lenny: 对,那其实是一篇 Newsletter 文章,不是播客。
Austin Hay: 好,回到我们之前关于分工的讨论。我并不总是那个你应该找来创建 MMM 模型的人。我不是数据科学家。我知道如何做 MMM 模型,也了解它们是什么。
Lenny: 你能简单解释一下 MMM 吗?
归因模型的基础
Austin Hay: 营销组合建模(Marketing Mix Modeling)。MTA 代表的是多点归因(Multi-touch Attribution),这是两种衡量世界和营销效果的方式,用来理解你应该如何将资源分配到广告投放上。但 MTA 和 MMM 的底层都依赖于你如何收集数据。它们都基于你在网站或应用上收集的用户对象和事件对象,这些数据最终被数据科学家用于 MTA 和 MMM。这就是数据与营销技术之间的联系——我们搭建、部署和管理的工具和系统,往往是最终用于这些非常复杂的增长、实验和归因分析的基础。
关于 MTA,我能给出的最具体的建议——因为这个问题我经常被问到:我们需要 MTA 吗?我应该用首次触达还是末次触达?还是两者都用?实际上,我可以发给你一份指南,但基本上有六七件事你可以做,基本上可以让你在未来不需要依赖其中任何一种也能做好准备。因为大多数企业要么从首次触达开始,要么从末次触达开始,然后最终都想转向多点归因模型。对于不了解的人来说,首次触达就是收集用户最初从哪里来的数据。末次触达就是收集用户最后一次从哪里来的数据。
举个例子,如果我通过 Google 广告来到了 Lenny 的 Newsletter,而且只有这一个渠道——那这就是我的首次触达,也是末次触达。如果我最初是通过 Google 广告来到 Lenny 的播客,但后来又通过 Facebook 广告或者直接访问进来,那后者就是我的末次触达。
所以问题就在于:是最初的 Google 渠道应该获得功劳,还是后来那个 Facebook 或直接访问应该获得功劳?在首次触达归因模型中,100% 的功劳归于第一个渠道;在末次触达归因模型中,100% 的功劳归于最后一个触点。而混合归因模型或多点归因模型,你要想办法如何分配这些功劳。通常企业的演进路径是:先从首次触达或末次触达开始,然后变成简单的 50/50 对半分。然后有人因为没拿到足够的功劳而不满,说我们必须上 MTA。对于 MTA,既有第一方解决方案,也有第三方解决方案。
从第一天起为 MTA 做好准备
回到重点,核心在于如果你想想自己到底在收集什么——这对网站类业务来说——你收集的是来源页(referrer),就是 URL 中那个人从哪里来的信息,以及与该用户关联的所有 UTM 参数。你还需要广告网络可能给你的那些参数,让它们能够统计一次转化。每个广告网络都会在 URL 中塞一些小东西,告诉你用户是从它们那里来的。Facebook 有 FVP、FPID,有时还会做编码。Google 有一个叫 Google Click ID 的东西,就是一长串字符,除非你知道怎么解码,否则毫无意义。但所有广告主——而且在很长一段时间里,广告的运作方式就是把参数放进 URL,把用户引导到你的网站,收集这些参数,然后传回给广告网络,这样它们就能获得功劳。
所以在我看来,每个人从第一天起就应该做的最佳实践,就是为 MTA 设计好系统,然后在成长过程中使用任何对你合理的归因方式。我通常给人们的建议是:想象一下当用户来到你的网站时,你收集 URL,收集来源 URL,收集所有你可能需要的额外营销参数——TikTok ID、Microsoft ID 等等,你应该列一个清单。如果你没有这个清单,我可以给你。然后你应该收集所有 UTM。在 URL 中,你会有 UTM campaign、UTM medium。大多数营销人员用它来标注广告活动的类型。但需要注意的是,UTM 只对用户来到你网站的那个特定时刻有效。回到之前 Lenny 播客的例子,如果我来到 Lenny 的播客,而且是从 Google 广告来的,那我的 UTM 就只针对那个 Google 广告。
本地存储归因参数
**Austin Hay:**所以,你会获得一个 Google Click ID 和一组 UTM。接下来你要做的,就是把这些参数本地存储在设备上——不管是浏览器还是其他什么。你要把它们存为 UTM 首次推广活动(first campaign)和 UTM 最近推广活动(last campaign)。具体做法是,每次用户来访时,你用当前的新值替换掉上一次的值。比如上一次来源是 Facebook,后来用户从一封直邮广告过来,你就把 UTM 最近渠道(last medium)替换成新的值。如果你在使用第三方工具,当用户在网站上时你就在收集这些用户信息——你既会将其作为用户属性收集,也会作为事件来收集。在你的数据仓库团队的后端,他们会看到一个用户画像,上面同时包含首次归因信息和最近归因信息。
至于中间的所有环节,你发出的每次页面浏览事件都会同时携带首次和最近归因信息,其中最近归因可能会因为中间经历了多个步骤而有所不同。数据仓库团队可以做的,就是把某个用户在所有事件中看到的最近 UTM 进行合并(coalesce),从而同时获取首次的、中间所有的、以及最近的那一个。所以这个系统其实并不复杂。大多数人只是早期没有做这项工作,等到后来想要做 MTA 分析时,才发现没有数据可用。所以我给那些犹豫不决的人的建议是:从一开始就把基础设施搭建好。
把系统设置成这样:你有用户,有用户属性,你在用户身上收集首次和最近 UTM,你的事件也携带所有这些信息。还有一些更复杂的做法——你可以把它们设置在第一方 cookies 里,也可以设置在工具供应商的第三方 cookies 里。但归根结底,最重要的是从第一天就开始收集这些信息。这样当你真正想要升级归因模型时,就不用再等很长时间来积累数据了。
数据仓库与数据分类体系
**Lenny:**太棒了,你分享的这些细节我非常喜欢。我不知道人们还能在哪里找到这类建议。听起来核心要点之一是,你需要一个数据仓库,把所有数据都扔进去;之二是,你需要一套可靠的数据分类体系(taxonomy),以便后续能用它做各种不同的事情。这个理解大致正确吗?
**Austin Hay:**对,我觉得没错。不过关于数据分类体系,有趣的是它在很大程度上受制于你的第三方工具。这也正是我认为很多公司在这方面做得不到位的原因——他们没有去思考:我的工具到底允许我往里面放入什么?
**Lenny:**确认一下我是否理解了你的意思——你是说第三方工具通常会限制你能做的事情,从而给你后续带来困难。而你的建议是这块追踪工作自己做,大致是这个意思吗?
**Austin Hay:**对,是这样。可以这样理解:如果你自建数据仓库,你的数据模式(schema)是无限的——你想怎么设计都行,可以设计产品数据模式、用户数据模式和事件数据模式。但大多数面向 B2C 的第三方工具不允许你控制数据模式。据我所知,只有一个 CDP 能做到这一点,那就是 Snowplow。其余的工具都只有一个用户对象和一个事件对象——你要么把数据作为用户属性塞进用户对象里,要么把数据塞进事件里作为事件发出去,能做的就这么多了。所以我想说的是,大多数人根本没有去思考他们使用的第三方工具的对象结构,也没有据此去设计自己的网站流量或应用流量的数据收集方案。我们还没谈到应用端——那是完全不同的另一套问题,因为 iOS 14 之后的归因要困难得多。
即便在网站的世界里,人们通常也只是收集了 UTM 就觉得万事大吉了,但实际上远比这复杂。你需要考虑首次和最近归因,考虑中间的各个步骤,把这些信息设计到用户画像和事件中。这就回到我们之前讨论的核心观点——营销技术专家的职责就是经常提前一到两年思考我们将来需要解决什么问题,并以优雅的方式设计系统,不一定要花费巨资,但至少要达到最小可行产品的标准,能够真正支撑未来的需求。我工作的一大部分,我认为也是营销技术专家这个角色的核心,就是以最小侵入性的工程和资源代价,去守护那个未来状态的可能性。
新兴工具与平台
**Lenny:**你谈了不少前瞻性思考以及各种工具和平台。我想知道,有没有什么新的、正在崛起的工具、平台,甚至增长渠道,是你在持续关注、感到兴奋,或者觉得越来越有用的?
**Austin Hay:**如果不谈谈 Threads 就太不应该了。Threads 非常值得关注。问题在于他们能多快搭建起广告 API,它会是什么样子,还是说他们直接把它并入现有的 Meta 和 Facebook 架构?我相信很多效果营销人员会认同这一点——Facebook 在数据报告上存在利益冲突。他们希望你多花钱,所以自然会倾向于报告最好的结果。正因如此,Branch 和 AppsFlyer 这样的第三方归因平台才应运而生,某种程度上就是为了制衡这种利益冲突。所以我会非常关注归因机制将如何运作,尤其是当用户从 Instagram 跳转到 Threads、从 Facebook 跳转到 Threads 时——会沿用同样的架构吗?会是同一个广告平台吗?还是他们会尝试一些新的做法?
这是我正在密切关注的。Reddit 现在也是一个非常有意思的转化渠道。他们正在开放转化 API,我看到越来越多企业在 Reddit 上投入,因为现在可以投放嵌入式的广告,看起来几乎就像普通帖子一样,用户可以在下面评论。我认为这反映了广告业务正在走向成熟。在这一切背后发生的是,应用的广告归因已经变得困难得多,而且很大程度上只能依赖聚合数据。从 2010 年到 2020 年,我们经历了确定性匹配的黄金十年——投放广告后精确了解谁安装了应用非常容易。你也许不知道对方的名字,但你能获取他们的广告主标识符(IDFA),并将其关联到他们的个人身份信息(PII)。现在做不到了,挑战非常大。
即便能做到,你获得的结果也很有限,因为几乎没有人会选择授权给你他们的 IDFA。这意味着广告网络正变得更加复杂、精密和有趣,而恰恰在同一时期,营销人员却更难真正理解自己的钱花在了哪里。所以我现在非常关注营销人员如何基于概率性数据做决策,因为我目前的大部分工作其实就是在回答这个问题:既然我们无法获得关于某个受众或某个用户来源的确定性数据,那我如何找到其他信息来为一个子集建立模型,然后用它来推算整体。概率性匹配和概率性归因,我认为是更多营销技术专家和营销人员都应该熟悉的一项技能——这也是我们当今做决策的方式。
归因困难的具体原因
Lenny: 哇,我之前没听过这个概念。人们开始这样思考增长结果和影响力了——或者说,至少你建议人们应该这样思考——不再关注”这条广告带来了多少转化”,而是关注”这条广告产生这种影响的可能性有多大”。
Austin Hay: 并不是所有渠道都是如此,但对于有移动端应用的产品来说确实会受影响,因为他们无法再一对一地精确识别某个用户来自哪次推广活动。他们能知道有一群人来自某次推广活动,但无法将这些用户与其他属性结合起来进行衡量。网站的情况不完全一样,但也有不少因素让它变得越来越困难。首先是浏览器现在会剥离我们之前提到的那些 URL 参数。于是,越来越多实际来自付费广告的用户被算作了自然流量,因为当他们被重定向到你的网站时,浏览器已经截断了所有 URL 参数。第二个因素是 Cookie 拦截器。我们之前聊过各种第三方工具。
第三方工具收集信息的常见方式是在你的浏览器中植入一个 Cookie 来追踪你。如果你听说过 Segment——过去几年最知名的 CDP 之一——它的做法是在网站上植入一个第三方 Cookie,里面包含一个匿名用户 ID,以及你在浏览网站过程中的所有属性。然后一旦你登录,它就会将这个 ID 转换为一个已知的、非匿名的用户 ID。
通常这个 ID 会绑定到某种实体 ID 或用户记录上。在那一刻之后,如果你再次访问并且它识别到你的 Cookie,它就基本知道你是谁了。现在,如果你屏蔽了 Cookie,那意味着你在整个用户旅程中基本都处于匿名状态,直到你登录。更不用说很多人还有线索转化漏斗,你需要那些信息来真正理解用户在转化之前的行为。所以,如果第三方 Cookie 在用户还没机会转化之前就被屏蔽了,你就完全不知道这个人是从哪里来的。你只是看到他们注册了,所以只能算作自然流量。
应对归因挑战的方法
Lenny: 你谈到很多人正在努力适应这个 ATT 之后的新世界,归因测量变得困难得多。你有没有学到什么有效的方法来在一定程度上恢复对当前情况的测量?有什么建议可以分享的,或者你见过什么有效的做法?
Austin Hay: 有的,我觉得很多人现在都在转向营销组合建模(MMM),但并没有真正理解 MMM 在什么情况下有用、什么情况下没用。不知道你知不知道一家叫 Recast 的公司,我好像记得你是投资人,我没记错吧?
Lenny: 没错。而且你之前提到的那篇文章正是他们写的。
Austin Hay: 对,是 Michael 写的,还有另一个人,我记不清名字了——
Lenny: 是另一位 Mike Taylor。
Austin Hay: 我不是 MMM 的专家,所以没办法像他们那样深入地讨论。但我和 Michael 交流过,当我思考 MMM 时,我更多会问:这对我们现在的业务来说真的现实吗?我们有没有足够的数据来跑一个 MMM 模型?这个模型会如何改变或指引我们的效果广告营销策略?如果从这些角度来看,大多数企业其实还没有准备好用 MMM。他们真正需要的是多点归因(MTA)和更好的概率性建模。我知道这个观点不算什么惊人之语,但至少在 Ramp 以及我观察到的其他正在运营的企业中,实际情况更像是——我们回到了那种只能大致了解每条推广活动带来了多少广告收入的状态。
我们无法再将这些数据与具体的用户旅程精确关联起来。而且我们知道这批用户中有一定比例可能已经流失或者本来就是自然流量。在这种情况下,我们该如何做出投放决策?当然,你也可以采取一些聪明的方法。比如,对广告牌做基于地理位置的测试,在其他干扰因素不变的前提下,尝试将广告牌作为一个独立变量来评估。你可以做到很巧妙。不过,协调这类推广活动其实非常困难,尤其如果你的企业规模很大,在全美范围内投放线上广告,同时又想在几个特定城市做独立的广告牌测试——要协调关闭某些定向条件、确保没有干扰因素,这些都极具挑战。所以我觉得目前没有一个银弹式的解决方案。
招聘营销技术人才的标准
Lenny: 太好了。还有几个问题,然后我想问一个更宏观的问题。假设你想招下一个 Austin Hay,首先,你在候选人身上看重什么?哪些迹象说明这个人值得聊聊?然后你会问哪些面试题来评估他们的实力?
Austin Hay: 我最先关注的就是求知欲。我知道这可能听起来有点老生常谈,但我认为你可以很快判断出一个人是否对这个世界真正感兴趣、是否热爱学习。做第三方工具这一行,你必须不断学习。你永远不可能成为所有工具的专家,因为工具实在太多了——我忘了是哪家媒体,好像是营销技术领域某家出版物的主编之类的——我订阅了一份出版物,所有东西都被归类为营销技术(Martech),那个图谱巨大无比,能铺满一整面墙。当然我不认为那里面所有的东西都算 Martech,但即使只有一小部分是,技术工具的数量也远远超过了一个人能精通的范围。所以,如果你想在这个领域立足,你必须对学习充满热情,同时也要有快速学习的能力。
所以我通常把求知欲作为第一个信号。第二点,我觉得对有求知欲的人来说很有帮助的是——他们具备一定的工程能力,虽然可能不是最强的工程师,但他们知道如何解决问题。他们懂 JavaScript,懂 Python,能读懂 API 文档并发起一个 API 请求。他们有足够的基础知识来理解如何解决一个工程师才会面对的问题,即便他们自己不是工程师。当然,有时候你会运气好,碰到一个再也不想做工程师、决定转型到不那么技术化岗位的工程师,这种情况下他们非常强大,但我这辈子还没见过太多这样的人。而且也有一些商业上的现实考量——做后端工程师的收入可能比做营销技术的人要高。
所以,你大概率会选择那条收入更高的路径。这有点像一个效用函数。因此,我首先看重求知欲,其次看重基本的工程动手能力。顺便说一句,我想对很多人说的是——你不需要去拿一个软件工程学位。你可以自学,我就是自学的。你可以参加线上的编程训练营。我觉得通过学习 Web 编程或某种后端编程,你就能获得足够的知识。所以我认为,对任何人来说,真正掌握所需的技能集,投入不会超过六个月。当然,一旦掌握了基础技能,你可以在之后的多年实践中不断积累和提升。但如果你是这个领域的新人——比如你目前在营销运营岗位,想往技术方向靠拢;或者你是一个做付费推广的用户获取经理,但心想”我真的很想做端到端的事情”——你完全可以去学一些软件技能,学完之后你可能就会变得相当厉害。
这两点是我最先关注的。当然还有很多其他方面,但这两点是最优先的。关于面试问题,我喜欢问的一个问题是——我喜欢问候选人他们是怎么准备这次面试的。这不是我的原创,我没法居功。是我妻子告诉我、给我这个想法的,我一听就很喜欢。好像是 a16z 的一位合伙人用过的。但我非常热爱这个问题,因为当你问”嘿,你是怎么准备的?“时,你真正在问的是:这个人是如何思考的?他们是如何规划的?他们有多认真对待这件事?他们读了什么、做了什么?如果你还得不断追问才能让他们说出自己做了哪些准备,那说明他们不是一个系统性思考者。
但如果他们说,“嘿,其实我读了这些东西,我做了这些。我早上起来,先去跑了步。“回答越有趣、越复杂,候选人就越有趣、越复杂。所以我特别喜欢这个问题,因为它能让你在面试一开始就对一个人有一个非常全面的了解。另一个我喜欢问的问题是:假设你明天来我们这里,面对我们的营销技术系统,到周五你必须交出一份报告,列出所有我们应该改的地方。你会怎么做?我喜欢这个问题,因为它几乎可以立刻筛出那些有偏见的人和没有偏见的人。有工具偏见的人会立刻说”我们应该上这个工具,因为我之前用过”——而我喜欢招的是那些不绑定特定工具、对工具持中立态度的人。他们把工具看作解决问题的手段,而不是把自己之前用过的方案直接搬过来。
这并不是在抱怨,当然也不是要批评 PM——但我的观察是,很多 PM 就是直接选自己以前用过的工具,因为这样简单,是一条捷径。我理解这种做法,但问题并不总是一样的,所以工具也不应该总是一样的。所以我更倾向于选那些会花时间思考问题集和解空间的人,他们会反过来问你”你们要解决什么问题”。我认为这才是更真正的 PM 思维方式——从问题出发往回推导,而不是拿到问题后把自己已有的东西直接倒出来。
危险信号与误判标志
Lenny: 有没有什么信号会让你觉得这个人可能不太适合一起工作?
Austin Hay: 我从两个角度来看这个问题。一个是我作为招聘者招 IC 的时候,另一个是我作为候选人被招的时候。当我去一家公司面试时,我的一个危险信号是——我会要求看公司的财务数据。如果一家公司不愿意向总监级别或更高层级的人披露财务数据,那我不想跟他们合作,因为这意味着他们有所隐瞒。或者他们的文化是不信任组织中最资深的一批领导者。在我看来,这两者都不是好兆头。所以这是我去面试时一定会问的问题之一。至于招聘别人的时候——关于危险信号,我觉得更有意思的是”假红旗”而不是红旗。所谓的假红旗就是简历上的空白期,每个人都会盯着这个看,但实际上通常都很好解释。
一个很好的例子是,我曾经招聘过一个人,他的简历上有两年的空白期。我们最终没有录用这个人,但他走完了所有面试环节,没被录用不是因为他的原因,而是因为那个岗位被取消了。这个人花两年时间拿了一个哲学学位——也许是诗歌学位——同时还自学了编程。所以这两年过得非常充实,而且我能看到他有很多方式可以将过去的经历和这段间隔时间结合起来,成为一个非常全面的候选人。
所以我觉得,我与其说是在寻找红旗,不如说是在花时间排除简历上那些会导致错误判断的”假指标”。还有一个例子就是学校——人们就看你的本科或研究生院校,然后就做出这样或那样的判断。我觉得这也可能是一个非常糟糕的捷径,因为有很多非常优秀的创始人,他们的毕业院校你可能根本没听说过。我知道这可能不是回答这个问题的最好方式,但我在识别红旗方面确实没有特别好的方法,不过我确实会花很多精力去排除那些假红旗。
有用的思维框架
Lenny: 这个回答方式很好。我想换个一个完全不同的话题——这个问题我之前没有问过别人,但我很好奇这里是否有什么值得挖掘的东西,如果有的话,我以后会经常问这个问题。我好奇的是,你在工作甚至生活中有没有发现哪些思维框架特别有用?有什么想说的吗?
Austin Hay: 有一件事我想做——如果我真做出来的话,也许可以给你投一篇 Newsletter——就是做一份一页纸的文档,列出最有用的人生框架,只写框架名称。当然你得知道这些框架是什么意思,但我感觉自己总是遇到非常好的框架,然后转头就忘了。所以我想要一份一页纸的 Lenny 人生框架清单。
Lenny: 好,我们现在就开始。
Austin Hay: 太好了。
Lenny: 第一条。
Austin Hay: 好。
Lenny: 我喜欢这个。
Austin Hay: 好的,这个我已经说过了,你已经答应把它放在清单最前面,所以我非常期待。就是——工具是用来解决问题的。我跟我招的每一个人都会说这句话。在 Ramp 以及我所有的咨询项目中,我都会反复强调。而且不仅仅是这句话本身,更重要的是它背后的精神。工具真的只是用来解决问题的。你不必通过购买工具来解决问题,你也不必购买某个特定的工具来解决问题。我认为这句话浓缩了营销技术的核心理念——帮助人们理解自己的问题,然后利用第一方和第三方的工具与技术真正采取行动去解决它们。而大多数人只关注工具本身,只关注购买和集成。
PPS 框架:问题、人员、系统
Austin Hay: 所以我认为,如果你始终提醒自己工具只是用来解决问题的,那么你就会真正进入这样一个境界——作为系统层面的人,你可以成为你的营销人员或产品人员的拥护者。我觉得有时候人们会有一种倾向,认为那些管理和搭建工具的人只是对管理和搭建工具本身感兴趣,但实际上归根结底,我们是想帮助人们真正把事情做成。然后就是我经常谈到的 PPS 框架,即问题(Problem)、人员(People)和系统(System)。所以,每当在 Ramp 或咨询项目中遇到挑战时,我喜欢先问:问题是什么?涉及哪些人员?影响的是哪个系统?通常人们会直接跳到系统上,他们会说,嘿,有这个问题,我需要用工具来解决。嘿,我想做这做那,你能不能直接给我系统的管理员权限?
但如果你先退一步理解问题,比如,嘿,这个人想解决什么?他具体面临的问题是什么?一个很好的例子是:我是一位销售经理,我希望每次招人的时候,不用再经历那个非常痛苦的新员工入职流程。好,这就是问题。涉及的人员有哪些——销售经理是否需要获得 CRO 的批准?销售人员是否需要培训?是否存在某些我们没意识到的干扰因素,导致我们不应该直接把这个流程自动化?一旦你理解了人员和你要解决的问题,那么设计系统来解决它就变得非常非常容易。所以这是我给技术人员的头号框架——不要直接跳到系统,倒过来想,从人员和问题出发,然后再走向系统方案。
“构建并购买”而非”构建 vs 购买”
然后另一个我已经提到过的原则是 B and B,而不是 BVB。也就是构建并购买(build and buy),而非构建还是购买(build versus buy)。人们每次一谈到实施工具或采购解决方案,就立刻变成:嘿,我想自己构建这个东西,或者我想买那个很贵的东西。“构建还是购买”是一个非常狭窄的决策树。如果只有构建或购买二选一,那你就已经做出了只能二选一的决策,这意味着你已经在组织内部跟某人对立了。“构建并购买”意味着双方都能赢,你可以创造一个不仅独特、而且能为公司节省时间和资源、让所有人都满意的方案。这是一种更倾向于达成共识的方式。每当我在会议、电话或讨论中听到有人说”我们有一个工具,它很贵,我们想自己构建”时,我就会尝试用”构建并购买”框架来引导大家思考:问题中的哪些部分可以购买?哪些部分可以构建?我们应该在哪里投入资源和人力才能获得最优结果?
一个很好的例子是,我曾经为一家公司做咨询,他们在考虑构建自己的 AB 测试工具。实际上我们在 Ramp 最近也遇到了同样的问题。他们说:“我们觉得自己应该构建。这是我们的核心技术,我们有工程资源来做。“他们在评估是全部自己构建,还是购买第三方工具——我记得是 split.io 之类的。整个咨询项目基本上就是设计一个财务模型,向他们展示:如果他们以最低成本购买第三方工具,然后把原本打算用于构建的所有资源花在围绕它进行定制开发上,他们可以赚更多钱、省更多钱、推进得更快。而且有很多——我讨厌”协同效应”这个词,它就是让人不太舒服。
Lenny: 我倒不介意。我觉得它能准确传达你想表达的意思,而且我感觉人们现在已经不那么常说了,所以也许反而可以用了。
Austin Hay: 对,因为他们害怕。换一种更好的说法是”互利共赢”——如果你在购买了一个工具之后再围绕它做定制开发,因为此时供应商已经对你有了承诺,他们希望你成功,所以在第三方平台之上构建往往比完全自己构建能获得更快的成果。一个很好的例子是,你购买了某个 AB 测试工具并在其之上进行构建,你是他们的大客户,而你也投入了大量自己的工程资源让这个解决方案成为你自己的。如果他们知道这一点并且在乎你,那么在你需要他们做出改变的时候——比如某个 SDK 的变更或新功能之类——他们会愿意真正让你满意。
如何搭建技术栈
我在 Reforge 课程中经常讲的一个框架是关于搭建技术栈的。每个人都会问,嘿,我该怎么搭建我的技术栈?我该怎么做?我该用什么工具?就连你刚才也在问,黄金技术栈是什么?告诉我应该选哪五个工具?
Lenny: 直接告诉我就行了。
Austin Hay: 嗯嗯,最后再告诉你,我得留个悬念。不然你就把这个播客提前关了。
Lenny: 没错。对,留到最后。在进入我们非常精彩的快问快答环节之前,你还有什么想分享的吗?
Austin Hay: 我还想塞进去的最后一个内容,这可能算是一个框架,也可能只是一种非常好的决策哲学,就是”灰度思考”的概念。你听说过吗?
Lenny: 没有。说来听听。
灰度思考
Austin Hay: 好。Steven B. Sample 是南加州大学的教授,他写了一本书叫《The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership》,非常好的书。灰度思考是书中的原则之一。书中其实有很多很好的原则,但这是我认为在我职业生涯中对我影响最大的一个。灰度思考的概念是——在生活和工作中,我们经常被迫非常快速地做出决策。我们不得不对一个问题或方案做非黑即白的判断,然后做出决定。他的一个策略就是灰度思考,即尽可能久地不做决定,直到你不得不决定为止。这真的很难,因为它涉及一个叫做”耐心”的小东西,而我大多数时候并不具备太多耐心,我知道大多数人也没有。但它在系统思维和产品领域特别相关,因为我们经常认为自己必须做出决策——因为老板在催,因为有一个 OPR(未结问题报告),因为我们感受到了痛苦,因为有人在向我抱怨。
但实际上,你根本不需要做决定。你可以先让它搁置一段时间。这也适用于我认为你如何在这个世界上行走、如何看待他人。很多时候我们在公司或商业场合遇到某个人,就会迅速对他们做出判断。你甚至问我如何快速评估求职者——我们都在寻找捷径来做关于人的判断决策。但关于灰度思考最好的一条建议是,它给了你一种余地,让你在不得不做出决定之前不对人下结论。当然,对于面试的决策,你最终还是得做决定。
Austin Hay: 你必须做出是或否的决定。但你经常会遇到一些人,见过一两次面。我觉得每个人大脑深处都有一种倾向——“我喜欢这个人吗?我想和他一起工作吗?“而真正的问题往往不是这个,而是——你现在真的需要做出判断吗?给自己留出决策的空间,你实际上为未来做出更好的决定打开了可能性。所以我认为这对系统思维来说是一个非常好的经验教训,而且显然这也是一个可以应用到生活其他方面的道理。
闪电问答环节
Lenny: Austin,太棒了。接下来,我们进入非常令人兴奋的闪电问答环节。我为你准备了六个问题。准备好了吗?
Austin Hay: 我准备好了,Lenny。
Lenny: 你最常向别人推荐的两三本书是什么?
Austin Hay: 第一本书我已经提过了,但再说一次——《The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership》,非常棒的书。第二本非常好的是 Warren Bennis 写的《The Art and Adventure of Leadership》。这些更多是哲学层面的领导力书籍,不是关于如何运营企业的技术手册。所以你得对这类内容感兴趣才行。
Lenny: 最近最喜欢的电影或电视剧。
Austin Hay: 我最近第一次看《Suits》(《金装律师》),以前从来没看过,我觉得挺不错的,因为每一集的故事线都是:出了一个问题,然后他们解决了问题,最后问题在结尾得到了解决。所以对于任何焦虑水平较高、只想在每集结束时看到故事线得到解决的人来说,非常满足。但如果这不是你的菜、你更喜欢刺激的话,我还在看《Silo》(《末日地堡》)和《The Witcher》(《猎魔人》)。想要轻松搞笑的,有《Our Flag Means Death》(《我们的旗帜意味着死亡》),特别搞笑。你看过这部剧吗?
Lenny: 没看过,《Our Flag Means Death》没看过。
Austin Hay: 你得去看看。讲的是黑胡子和一位同性恋海盗船长的故事。强烈推荐。然后如果想要特别无厘头的喜剧,《What We Do in the Shadows》(《吸血鬼生活》)也特别搞笑。
Lenny: 什么?《What We Do in the Shadows》?
Austin Hay: 对。
Lenny: 好的。哇,好多推荐。谢谢。你最喜欢问候选人的面试问题是什么?
Austin Hay: 我之前谈过关于”你做了什么准备”的问题,但另一个我觉得很好的问题是——告诉我过去一年你生活中克服的最困难或最具挑战性的事情。不一定是工作相关的,可以是个人生活方面的。我觉得这是一个非常好的方式来重置气氛,让人们更深入地挖掘自己是谁,展现更多的脆弱面。而且我发现通常这也有助于让他们放松下来,因为如果他们已经分享了生活中最艰难、最困难的部分,那么其他所有问题就显得相当容易了。所以这是我最喜欢的问题之一。
Lenny: 你最近发现的、非常喜欢的一款产品是什么?
Austin Hay: 这听起来可能有点傻。叫 cal.com,我先说说缘由。我一直是 Calendly 的重度用户,但 Calendly 挺贵的。如果 Calendly 在听的话,想给我优惠的话,欢迎。但它确实很贵。而且我还发现它在同步多个日历方面并不总是很顺畅——包括公司用的、咨询项目用的、个人用的,我老是记不住我的 Calendly 链接。怎么说呢,界面感觉还停留在 2016 年。所以我一直在找一个更接近 Notion 风格的、有 Command K 界面、集成功能好用的工具。而 cal.com 没让我失望,非常棒。所以如果有人在找新的日程工具替代 Calendly,强烈推荐。
Lenny: 哇,我从来没听过这个。域名真好,cal.com。
Austin Hay: 是吧,绝了。
Lenny: 你经常对自己重复或在工作中与他人分享的人生格言是什么?
Austin Hay: 我经常思考感恩的力量,最近我一直在想人们在日常生活中可能面临的挑战。我最近听了 Adam Fishman 的另一档播客,他邀请了 Brian Balfour。Adam 基本上就是在采访一群爸爸,挺酷的。但在人生中年纪稍大一些、当了父亲之后的一个好处是,你可能已经经历过一些艰难困苦。这档播客非常棒,它探索了我真正钦佩的人的故事,了解他们经历的磨难。在这个过程中,我获得了非常深刻的体验——了解人们在生活中经历过的挑战,那些早年失去父母的人,那些失去孩子的人。我自己呢,我和妻子去年失去了她的父亲。我们因为新冠失去了两位祖辈,还失去了我们的狗。所以我认为,这和感恩之间的联系在于——如果你能理解人们正在经历什么,开始把他们更多地当作一个有血有肉的人来看待,去理解工作表象之下,他们是谁?他们在乎什么?是什么在推动他们的人生向前走?这会让你对所拥有的一切以及那些真正美好的时刻更加感恩。这不仅适用于生活,在商业中也是一样。当你知道人们经历过怎样的磨难之后,胜利会变得更加令人愉快。这也是我喜欢和人们谈论的话题,尤其是那些职业生涯早期、可能只经历过成功的人——我会向他们描述失败是什么样子的,这样他们就能在脑海中有所画面,等他们真正经历的时候也有了一些心理准备。这是我的一大特点。
Lenny: 多棒的回答。我以后一定会继续问这个问题。对于还在听的各位,接下来是承诺的黄金技术栈。
黄金技术栈
Austin Hay: 好,黄金技术栈。如果我是一家 B2C 企业,我会购买 Amplitude 作为 CDP,购买 Customer.io,未来可能升级到 Braze。我会把所有数据放进 Snowflake,购买 Hightouch 做反向 ETL,把所有数据推送到广告网络。归因方面,移动应用的话可能用 AppsFlyer,不然就用 Branch,但大概率首选 AppsFlyer。这样一来,你有了 AppsFlyer,Amplitude 作为 CDP 和产品分析,Customer.io 做邮件,Snowflake 做数据仓库,Hightouch 把数据流式推送到各种工具。如果我今天为一家 B2C 企业实施的话,这就是当前的黄金技术栈。
如果是 B2B,大致相同,也是 Amplitude。如果你需要归因工具,B2B 的话——实际上如果是纯 Web 业务,大概会用 Branch,因为 Branch 在 Web 方面更好。所以你有了 Branch、Amplitude,把所有数据连接到 Salesforce。希望某个时候有人能造出一个更好的 Salesforce。这个就留到我们下次播客再聊吧,Lenny,今天来不及了。然后反向 ETL 用 Hightouch。所以非常类似,唯一的区别是邮件工具怎么选。很多人用 HubSpot。我会尽量一直用 Customer.io,能撑多久撑多久,然后再迁移到 Braze。所以最大的区别就是 B2B 场景下 Braze 和 Customer.io 之间的选择。
Lenny: 最后一个问题。我听说你是无人机飞手,我很好奇,你在最酷的地方飞过无人机,或者和无人机之间发生过最酷的事情是什么?
无人机的趣事
Austin Hay: 这其实又回到了我们之前聊到的好奇心那个话题。也许我招聘时就是喜欢找些有趣的人,因为我特别喜欢看到人们在和工作无关的领域做有趣的事情。故事是这样的——疫情期间,我不想只靠一堆在线教育平台来提升自己。坐在电脑屏幕前学统计学什么的,感觉会有点消磨灵魂。所以我就想找一些有趣的、小众的、完全在我知识领域之外的事情来学。最后我选了三件事:学飞无人机、考了 CFP(认证理财规划师,Certified Financial Planner)资格,还成了一个公证员。就是因为它们看起来都很实用,跟我工作完全无关,还能学到一些全新又有趣的东西。
这三件事里,无人机那段其实挺搞笑的。我开始在 DC 这边飞。我住在弗吉尼亚,但离华盛顿特区大概就一英里,而 DC 周围有一个限制空域。所以我拿到 FA 无人机飞行执照、成为认证无人机飞手之后,就一头扎进了研究如何在 DC 飞无人机的兔子洞。我见过周围有人飞,但显然这涉及国家安全问题——我可能会把具体经历说得面目全非。但当我真的去操作的时候,流程非常复杂、陈旧,同时也挺搞笑的,因为一切都在线上进行。你得去填一张表,拿到一位地方代表的信,证明你品行良好。我们就找了一位我认识的市议员。然后你要把所有材料都填好。
那些文书工作的网站看起来像 1994 年做的。DC 有一个办公室,里面有个人负责审批你。然后你还得去找一个警察,基本上就是让他来看着你飞无人机。我就把所有流程都走完了,到了需要人看着我飞的那一步,我给当地警察局打电话,说,你好,我已经跟那个办公室沟通好了,我只需要一名警官在这个时间出来一下。他们直接在电话里笑我。
他们说,我们不会派一个警察去看你飞无人机。我觉得这事儿真的特别搞笑,因为确实,说得通——凭什么用纳税人的钱来看我飞无人机?但那就是规定。所以最后我也没能在 DC 飞成。不过如果有人听到这里,知道怎么飞无人机,想一起飞的话,我完全愿意。我有两架无人机,一架 Mavic Air 2,一架 Skydio Enterprise。顺便说一句,如果有人在找无人机的话,Skydio 也是一家非常酷的公司。
Lenny: 好吧,所以你的意思是,如果有人有很棒的无人机,又住在弗吉尼亚,他们应该联系你一起飞?
Austin Hay: 对,没错。但别在 DC 飞。
Lenny: 好的。Austin,我觉得我们兑现了承诺,把这次对话搞得极其硬核、极其深入细节,而且我觉得我们解决了很多人的问题。我非常感激你,也觉得我们教会了很多人营销技术方面的知识,这正是我的目标。所以再次感谢你来。最后两个问题。如果大家想问你更多问题,在网上哪里可以找到你?除了来找你一起飞无人机之外,听众们还能怎么帮到你?
Austin Hay: 首先,在网上可以找到我的地方——LinkedIn。还有 Threads,我其实有 Threads 账号。我没有 Twitter,大胆说一句,我觉得 Twitter 会毁掉人的职业生涯。我已经看到好几个人的职业生涯被 Twitter 毁掉了。有些人就是管不住嘴。所以我不在 Twitter 上,但我在 Threads 上,正在摸索怎么用。如果你想关注我在 Threads 上的动态,可以来。我在 LinkedIn 上,邮箱也挂在 LinkedIn 上,我一直愿意和大家交流。
Lenny: 太棒了。听众有什么方式能帮到你吗?
Austin Hay: 有的。我在 Reforge 上有一门营销技术课程将在秋季上线。如果你是营销技术的从业者,或者对营销技术感兴趣,非常欢迎你来上课,也特别希望能得到你的反馈。我很乐意在这个播客上装作我对营销技术很懂的样子,但我其实还在学习。所以我觉得能从社区得到反馈会很棒——哪些内容有趣、有用,哪些还缺了什么,我们可以改进。另外一件事是,如果你在找营销技术方面的帮助,欢迎随时联系我。
Lenny: 太棒了。Austin,再次非常感谢你能来。
Austin Hay: 谢谢你邀请我,Lenny。这是我的荣幸。
Lenny: 荣幸是我的。大家再见。非常感谢收听。如果你觉得这期节目有价值,可以在 Apple Podcasts、Spotify 或你喜欢的播客应用上订阅。也请考虑给我们评分或写评论,这真的能帮助更多听众找到这个播客。你可以在 lennyspodcast.com 找到往期所有节目或了解更多关于这个节目的信息。下期再见。
术语表
| 原文 | 中文 |
|---|---|
| a16z | a16z(Andreessen Horowitz 风险投资公司的简称) |
| AB testing | AB 测试 |
| ad network | 广告网络(Ad Network) |
| Adam Fishman | Adam Fishman(播客主持人) |
| Amplitude | Amplitude(一家数据分析平台) |
| AppsFlyer | AppsFlyer(一家移动归因与营销数据分析平台) |
| ATT | 应用追踪透明度(App Tracking Transparency) |
| attribution tools | 归因工具(Attribution Tools) |
| B2B2C | B2B2C(企业-企业-消费者模式) |
| Branch | Branch(一家移动归因与深度链接平台) |
| Braze | Braze(一家营销自动化平台) |
| Brian Balfour | Brian Balfour(企业家、Reforge 联合创始人) |
| build and buy | 构建并购买 |
| build versus buy | 构建还是购买 |
| CAC | 客户获取成本(Customer Acquisition Cost) |
| cal.com | cal.com(一家开源日程安排平台) |
| Calendly | Calendly(一家日程安排工具平台) |
| CDP | CDP(客户数据平台,Customer Data Platform) |
| CFP | 认证理财规划师(Certified Financial Planner) |
| CMO | 首席营销官(Chief Marketing Officer) |
| conversions API | 转化 API(Conversions API) |
| CRM | CRM(客户关系管理系统,Customer Relationship Management) |
| Customer.io | Customer.io(一家营销自动化和邮件平台) |
| deterministic matching | 确定性匹配 |
| enrichment tool | 数据补全工具(Enrichment Tool) |
| first party system | 第一方系统(First Party System) |
| first touch attribution | 首次触达归因 |
| Google Click ID | Google Click ID(Google 点击标识符) |
| growth ops | 增长运营(Growth Operations) |
| Hightouch | Hightouch(一家反向 ETL 平台) |
| HubSpot | HubSpot(一家 CRM 和营销平台) |
| IC | 独立贡献者(Individual Contributor) |
| IDFA | 广告主标识符(Identifier for Advertisers) |
| IT | IT(信息技术部门) |
| land and expand | 渗透扩张策略(Land and Expand) |
| last touch attribution | 末次触达归因 |
| mar ops | 营销运营(Marketing Operations 的缩写) |
| marketing operations | 营销运营(Marketing Operations) |
| MarProd | 营销产品(Marketing Products) |
| Martech | 营销技术(Marketing Technology 的简称) |
| Michael | Michael(指 Recast 联合创始人 Michael Kaminsky) |
| Mike Taylor | Mike Taylor(另一位作者) |
| mixed attribution model | 混合归因模型 |
| MMM | 营销组合建模(Marketing Mix Modeling) |
| mParticle | mParticle(一家 CDP 供应商) |
| MTA | 多点归因(Multi-touch Attribution) |
| MTU | 月度追踪用户(Monthly Tracked Users) |
| multi-touch attribution | 多点归因 |
| MVP | 最小可行产品(Minimum Viable Product) |
| notary | 公证员 |
| outbounding tool | 外发工具(Outbounding Tool) |
| performance marketer | 效果营销人员(Performance Marketer) |
| PII | 个人身份信息(Personally Identifiable Information) |
| platform PM | 平台 PM(Platform Product Manager) |
| probabilistic attribution | 概率性归因(Probabilistic Attribution) |
| probabilistic data | 概率性数据 |
| probabilistic matching | 概率性匹配(Probabilistic Matching) |
| product market fit | 产品市场匹配(Product-Market Fit) |
| product ops | 产品运营(Product Operations) |
| quarterback | 四分卫(Quarterback) |
| Ramp | Ramp(一家企业支出管理公司) |
| Recast | Recast(一家营销组合建模公司) |
| referrer | 来源页(Referrer) |
| Reforge | Reforge(一家职业教育平台) |
| Rev Ops | 收入运营(Revenue Operations) |
| reverse ETL | 反向 ETL(Reverse Extract, Transform, Load) |
| Salesforce | Salesforce(一家 CRM 平台) |
| schema | 数据模式(Schema) |
| SDK | SDK(软件开发工具包,Software Development Kit) |
| Segment | Segment(一家 CDP/数据平台) |
| Snowflake | Snowflake(一家云数据仓库平台) |
| Snowplow | Snowplow(一家开源数据收集平台) |
| source of truth | 数据真实来源(Source of Truth) |
| split.io | split.io(一家功能旗标和 AB 测试平台) |
| SSO | 单点登录(Single Sign-On) |
| stack | 技术栈 |
| Steven B. Sample | Steven B. Sample(南加州大学教授、《The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership》作者) |
| synthetic event | 合成事件(Synthetic Event) |
| taxonomy | 数据分类体系(Taxonomy) |
| thinking gray | 灰度思考 |
| Threads | Threads(Meta 旗下的社交平台) |
| UTM | UTM(追踪参数,Urchin Tracking Module) |
| warehousing | 数据仓库化(Data Warehousing) |
| Warren Bennis | Warren Bennis(领导力学者) |
此文档由 AI 分片翻译(translate_long_document)
The ultimate guide to Martech | Austin Hay (Reforge, Ramp, Runway)
End of Deterministic Matching’s Golden Age
Austin Hay: From 2010 to 2020, we had the golden years of deterministic matching where it was very easy to run an ad and understand with precision who installed the app. Maybe you didn’t know their name, but you actually would know their IDFA and you could tie that to their PII. You can’t do that anymore. So, what that means is these ad networks are becoming more complex, sophisticated, and interesting, right at the same time that it’s harder for marketers to really understand how they’re spending money. And so I am paying a lot of attention to how marketers make decisions with probabilistic data because most of the work that I’m doing now is actually saying, well, given that we don’t have determinist data about a per certain audience or where somebody came from, how can I find other information that will create a model for 30% of the population and we can use that to extrapolate to a hundred.
What Is Martech?
Lenny: Welcome to Lenny’s Podcast, where I interview you world-class product leaders and growth experts to learn from their hardwood experiences building and growing today’s most successful products. Today my guest is Austin Hay. Austin is one of the smartest people in the world on the field of MarTech, aka Marketing Technology. He’s advised companies like Notion, Airbnb, Walmart, Postmates, Robinhood, even Pete’s Coffee and Mars on their MarTech strategy and tactics. He’s currently head of marketing technology at Ramp. Before that, he was VP of business operations at Runway. Before that, he was VP of growth at mParticle and the fourth employee at the Unicorn Branch Metrics. He’s also a teacher at Reforge on this very topic of MarTech. In our conversation, Austin explains what exactly is MarTech, how it fits into your growth organization when you need to hire a MarTech person and what to look for plus his favorite interview questions.
Companies like Scale AI and PAVE are using OneSchema to make it fast and easy to launch delightful spreadsheet import experiences from embeddable CSV import to importing CSVs from an SFTP folder on a recurring basis. Spreadsheet import is such an awful experience in so many products. Customers get frustrated by useless messages like error on line 53 and never end up getting started with your product. OneSchema intelligently corrects messy data so that your customers don’t have to spend hours in Excel just to get started with your product.
Austin Hay: Lenny. Thank you so much for having me.
The Martech Role Breakdown
Lenny: We are going to get super nerdy today and we’re going to dive deep into the very cool field of MarTech. How excited are you about us chatting about MarTech?
Austin Hay: I’m so excited. Because it seems like you might be one of the first people in product and growth to talk about MarTech.
When to Hire a Marketing Technologist
Lenny: Wow, okay. That makes me even more excited. Yeah, it’s something that I haven’t fully understood and so I’m excited to dig real deep. So, let’s start with just the basics. What exactly is MarTech and then what does someone who is in MarTech do?
Austin Hay: Such a good question. Because marketing technology is like this very amorphous, cross-functional discipline that lives at the crossroads of product and growth and engineering and marketing. It brings together processes and systems from a wide range of disciplines. And I think really the way to think about marketing technology is it’s a product manager whose specific role and focus is the system or the third party or first party platform because marketing technology can mean a collection of third party tools, which is a lot of people think, but as a company scales and grows actually it could include a collection of first party homegrown solutions that you build yourself with or in addition to third party. So, I like to think about marketing technology more as one piece is people and process and the other is the system and the platform. And that probably sounds pretty familiar to what a lot of product people think about their world as, and that’s how I define MarTech.
And then you asked this other question around what exactly the role of somebody in MarTech, and maybe we’ll talk about this a little later, but it’s such a function of the size and the stage of the company that you’re at. At Airbnb, I would say Dmitri who you might’ve worked with was the MarTech guide. He managed a lot of our Airbnb’s, the first and third party tools. Airbnb at that size was, I don’t know, maybe 800 people or so. And so it makes sense to have a function with product and engineering resources. A small startup for example, when I was working with Siqi, we were just talking about this at Runway, there was no such thing as MarTech. There was me and Tanner and Siqi standing up tools and using them because you just have to use the tools to get the job done. And so I would say on the spectrum of what is MarTech, you really have to look at the size and the stages of the company and as you grow you start to see it become more refined or pronounced.
Where Marketing Technologists Should Sit
Lenny: So, if someone listening to this that has done growth or has a growth PM may be like, oh, but this is sort of what I do. What is the difference between someone that just runs growth or has a growth team versus someone that’s specifically a MarTech person?
Austin Hay: At some levels there’s maybe no difference. There’s a lot of startups I would say are 30 people or less where you have a growth team and your growth acquisition person is using a CDP to send data to their ad network to run their ads because that’s part of their job and maybe they are the MarTech person. And actually you find a lot of people who consider themselves MarTech professionals now having started in growth or user acquisition roles because they had to just use tools in order to get their jobs done. But what I would say is as a company grows and scales, it moves from being a community or village driven aspect of your products to being something that’s centrally owned. If you’re a startup, again, like 30 to 40 people, everybody might chip in to manage your CDP or use Amplitude or build a first party solution on top of those.
It’s a mixture of first and third party tools and engineering and product and marketing all work together on it. That doesn’t scale though. As you cross a hundred to 200 people, somebody has to be responsible for knowing how data flows through tools, how it’s worked, what’s the schema. And that’s not even considering procurement and legal stuff. You have infinite liability if you don’t manage your contracts well. And so usually around I would call it a hundred to 150 people is the critical mass where you can’t just have a village approach to systems and tools much like in the IT org, if it was a village approach to SSO businesses would be in a lot of danger. That’s where you typically start to see the question of, all right, we need a systems and tools person. We need somebody to manage these systems and manage that platform.
And there’s a variety of ways it can go. I’ve seen it go just into pure product that’s with a product operations org and a product ops person actually will manage a lot of third and first party tools. I’ve seen it go into the IT org, Walmart for example, at a really big scale. They had a MarProd function which was marketing products. It was product within the marketing function or product that was designed to serve marketing. And then of course you can have more traditional routes like you can have marketing technology as a single standalone unit or business technology as a standalone unit. Some of this depends too on whether the business is B2C versus B2B. Classically in a B2B business you see it in rev ops or some types of systems role because you have to serve not only users coming into your funnel, but then the businesses that you’re serving afterwards.
That’s also where you typically see tools like Salesforce coming into play and more advanced CRMs. In a B2C business, your user funnel is actually really simple acquiring users and you’re getting them into your product and then product is taking them over. There’s no additional CRM, so usually your CDP is the source of truth and that’s where you might actually see marketing technology fit in with growth a lot more. Just some examples like at Postmates, I worked for them for a long time as a consultant. Marketing technology was just part of growth. We had a director of growth even before that, Siqi Chen who’s the CEO of runway, and I guess you were his first manager as I just learned, he was the first VP of growth and marketing technology was just part of growth and product owned that as a system.
As a different example though, at Ramp we’re big enough and we’re a B2B company, but we have a B2C top of funnel where we try to acquire users and get them to fill out our application to get a credit card. We have a distinct revenue operations team that’s broken into business technology and marketing technology. So, there’s lots of flavors of how it can exist. I think that’s kind of the interesting and fun part of Marketing Tech is that it’s not just one single version of the world that you apply to many companies, there’s like a million variations that I’ve seen and they all kind of look to solve the same problem.
Martech Roles: IC vs. Manager
Lenny: So, to make it even more specific and really simple for people to think about what someone in MarTech does, essentially it’s using technology and tools to drive growth. Is that a simple way of thinking about this one specific roles?
Austin Hay: Totally. That’s exactly right. And I have this adage I always say, which is tools are just meant to solve problems. And the problem set for marketing technologists and business technologists is you focus on the tools.
A Day in the Life: Martech
Lenny: And so when someone currently say listening doesn’t have a MarTech person and they’re thinking about, hey, is this a gap we have? What is that slice of work that a MarTech person would take if they currently have say a growth team or a growth PM that’s leading growth and a growth team around them?
Austin Hay: This comes up all the time, by the way, I talk to businesses every year that have this problem of we have a growth team, we’re growing pretty fast. We have a guy that we hired, usually an engineer who stood up all these tools for us. Or it could be gal too just to be clear, but this person has been here for two years and knows all of our systems really well, but now they’re becoming overwhelmed. They don’t have enough time. The systems are too complex. This is the flavor of story that I hear so often around startups who have hired a great growth person and managed tools and systems, but at some point they reach that point in time where it’s no longer manageable by one person or even a set of people. And that slice of works looks like setting up new tools, building new tools on top of them because a lot of times you’ll take a third party tool, call it like a segment or an amplitude, and you’ll build tooling in your own stack behind it to power something much more advanced.
And everybody thinks that marketing technology is just the third party tools, but actually it’s designing, architecting and building that stuff on top of your third party tools. That’s how you actually have a lot of velocity is thinking about not just build versus buy. It’s build and buy now. So, you buy the tool to get 90% of the way there and then you build the cool thing on top with the other 10%. And so that architecting decision usually falls on this person. The one really unsexy part of it, which I tend to love because it’s really high leverage is the contract part. When you start out as a business, you sign any contract you want with a third party because you’re just trying to get going. You have much bigger problems, product market fit, staying alive, runway. But at some point as you scale and you’re starting to make money, now you start to care more about not just how much money you’re making but how much money you’re losing usually from contrasting SaaS tools.
And so that’s where you start to have more scrutiny around what types of deals are we signing, what are the terms? Do we have liability exposure? What’s it going to cost us if we actually scale? And it’s great that we have this cool rate at 500 MTUs, what happens when we have a million MPUs? So, I worked at mParticle, which was a CDP provider for a long time and I was their VP of growth and part of their SaaS vendor strategy is like, how can we design these cost structures in a way so that at the company scales we make more money? That’s just part of the business. And so if you have that mindset of, well, I’m looking out for the business not just now, but two 30 years in the future, that’s where you can also have a lot of value from a systems or marketing technologist.
Martech vs. Marketing Operations
Lenny: Maybe a sign that you should start thinking about a MarTech person on a growth team is what I’m hearing is you’re starting to accumulate all these different tools and maybe there’s a sense that you could be a lot more efficient in connecting data and the backend infrastructure for how you think about growth and how you drive growth and measure growth.
Austin Hay: Yeah, efficiency and pain. I would say pain drives people more. It’s like, hey, we can’t do something because nobody knows this thing. We can’t do something because we don’t know the best way to set up these tools or to change these tools or we can’t even move forward where a business plan because we’re worried that changing our tools might have an impact. And usually this is related to email marketing tools and data tools, so like CDPs and folks like Braze interval and just because a lot of times your email is the thing driving recurring customers to come back to your product and use it. So, you can’t actually sometimes make the changes you want without understanding how something was set up in the first place.
End-to-End Data Integration and Ad Optimization
Lenny: You talked about where this person would live in the organization. There’s all these different places. I talked about revenue team, maybe the ops team, maybe growth team, marketing team. What’s your general advice for who should lead the hiring of this role and also just roughly who should they report to?
Austin Hay: So, I have not to shamelessly plug my Reforge course in the fall, but I’m going to be shamelessly plug my Reforge course in the fall. We have this awesome matrix that we built that shows where this person should live, what they do, who they should report into, and it’s all part of the fall course if you want like the deep dive into it. There’s going to be a section on it, but just the gist of it is I first like to break it down into two dimensions. First is a B2C company or B2B company. And then the second dimension is how important is it to you that this person report into a specific function or not? So, first with B2C and really maybe a simpler version of that is centralized versus decentralized. So, we have B2C, B2B, centralized, decentralized. In a B2C organization I think actually thinks it’s quite simple.
Most of the time your tools, your marketing tools are intended to help the growth team. The growth team has a job to be done, which is to spur user growth and tools are just meant to solve the problem. So, marketing technology’s job is to serve the growth team. Now it obviously serves product and analytics and data, but its key stakeholder and customer is the marketing or growth function. And so I think it makes a lot of sense that if you’re designing an org under a CMO or a marketing person, you put marketing technology alongside your head of growth or maybe reporting into your head of growth depending on the seniority of the person. And that works quite well. The key thing there is you just want to make sure that this marketing technology person is a really strong technical architect or some type of technical operator because they’re going to be your representation to the product in engineering orgs.
Now, some people take a little bit of a slight twist on that. They say, hey, I have a product manager who manages growth that comes from the PM side. You could have a platform PM that serves the same thing in MarTech and they’re responsible for all internal platform systems. And then you get into questions of does that belong in product ops or not? And I’m not going to go there. But for B2C, that’s the centralized function. For B2C decentralized, what you do instead is you just say like, hey, we’re going to have one of these systems, people in every org. Product is going to have a product ops person and growth is going to have a growth ops person, engineering will have engineering ops, and then we kind of divide the lines based on what tools they’re managing. I generally don’t see that working very well just because as you add more operational people, it just creates more systems.
And so unless you’re a massive company where you need that type of scale, I think most startups should avoid that decentralized model. And then for B2B, I think B2B is really messy because not only do you have pure B2B where you’re only selling to enterprises, but you have this concept of B2B2C, which is where you’re actually selling to users and to businesses sometimes at the top of the funnel and the bottom, but also sometimes at the same time like notion. Notion sells to users so, they have a little growth acquisition funnel at the top, but then they also sell to businesses. And I find there’s really, again, there’s two ways decentralized or centralized actually at Ramp we’ve gone back and forth between the two models. We started centralized with the Rev ops group, we decentralized it and put marketing technology into the CMO org and now we’re rolling it back into the revenue operations org Largely has to do with who is our customer?
Whose problems are we solving and where are resources allocated? Because if you have a decentralized model, then you run the risk of having to have lots of resources decentralized across the team. And the question is, can that function actually get work done or resources spread too thin and the priorities on align that it makes it challenging to get work done. And yeah, I would just say especially on B2B, for people out there listening, there is no right answer. And I even think that marketing technology could live in product, it could also live in engineering. Some of this has to do with who is the leader of this function. If it blends more towards ops, meaning managing processes and systems, then yeah, maybe you want to decentralize it and keep it in its representative function. If you have a really technical leader who was an architect or a PM that might indicate where that person should actually be leading their team. So, it’s very case specific, which I know is a terrible answer, but it’s the way it is.
Setting Goals for Your Martech
Lenny: Makes total sense. If someone were to hire someone like in Austin, are you doing the work yourself? Are you an IC for quite a while or do you end up building a team, say engineers that are building some of this infrastructure, how does that usually play out?
Austin Hay: I think all marketing technologists at some level are ICs. I think it’s a great job personally, because I get to be an IC and a manager. You have to be an IC in that, you are the most senior technical expert on all first party and third party systems. So, you have to know really well how third party tools work and you don’t know that without doing the work yourself. So, I do find that some of the best marketing technologists have at least at some point in the last five years, been an operator and expert managing tools and systems. And then usually the teams are small and super cross-functional.
So, what I would say is more important to look for than how many people has this person managed is how well can they manage upward, laterally and downward because they’re going to have to go talk to the head of rev ops if they want to change something in Salesforce, they’re going to have to talk to the VP of product if they want to make a big platform change that touches something else. They’re going to be relying constantly on data resources from their head of data. So, I think that this person, the secret sauce is more of how good of a cross-functional team player are they. I almost view them like a true quarterback every [inaudible 00:19:41] says people are quarterbacks. But really marketing technology because it lives between so many departments, it plays that role of having to call plays and pull on different departments.
B2C Tool Stacks: Past and Present
Lenny: And because it sounds like you don’t have a team to do some of these things and you need to convince people to help you out.
Rise of Reverse ETL in B2C Stacks
Austin Hay: Totally. Yeah. It’s a game of persuasion and salesmanship. You have to convince people why the problems are big and especially as you get bigger, a lot of the decisions or problems of marketing technology are not about rapidly making a huge transformation. It’s slow transformation that can have big implications. I’ll just give you one example. Like lots of big companies I talked to have two CDPs or two attribution tools and it’s like there’s the cost problem. How do we get rid of this secondary tool to reduce the cost? Maybe it’s a million dollars, but there’s also the complexity and decision-making problem. How do we make people move and work faster by not having the complexity of asking, which tool do I use in such a simple decision?
And then you get to a really big scale at Walmart where your problem isn’t even. How do we consolidate the stack and make it so tools that are helpful for people, but how do we prevent from getting back to that state? How do we put safeguards in place to make sure people actually have access to the tools that they want and can solve their problems? But we’re not introducing duplicative tech into our organization because a really well-known, sorry to put SaaS vendors on the spot here, but well-known SaaS vendor plays the land and expand motion. You get in small and then you grow your business. Well, that’s a distinct problem for businesses that are trying to control costs and simplify the way the world works.
Lenny: I want to talk about tools that you recommend and use most often, but I’m thinking maybe we start with a different question, which is around just what does your day look like as a MarTech person? What are you doing day to day and from the lens of your growth PM listening or a leader listening and what could this person do for me and how much leverage can I get if I were to find a MarTech person?
The Complexity of B2B and B2B2C
Austin Hay: There’s half of marketing technology, which I would call somewhat administrative and high leverage. It’s managing PI requests and PI technology, managing administrative stuff like contracts and admittance to tools and permissions. This is all at a big company scale. You probably don’t do this when you’re a small company, but that stuff matters because give you an example, you give edit access to somebody who wants HubSpot and they send a fake email test to a million people and now you’re on Twitter being embarrassed as a company. It’s like-
Lenny: Does that happen to you?
HubSpot to Salesforce Data Mapping Challenges
Austin Hay: It hasn’t happen to me. But I’ve gotten the emails from certain companies where it’s like, this is a test and it came from an intern.
Lenny: Yeah, same.
The Basics of Attribution Models
Austin Hay: You’re like, that’s just permissioning gone wrong. So, I think a big part of the role is designing systems that are automated to handle that stuff because ideally you don’t want to be sitting around in your computer all day clicking one conductor request to approve permissions. You should look at the role, look at the experience of tenure and department and make a decision about which accesses you get. So, automating that is a big part of my job. The manual part of my job, which I feel like is actually really fun, is again the designing systems and contracts for the future. So, it’s about how do we design a system and create a vision and persuade people about what our system technology can look like over the course of one to two years, the time span that I usually look at. And then how do you change state from then to now? Some of that has to bring in financials and contracts. That’s where this plays a role. What are our contract terms today? What’s the price we’re paying? What is our growth going to be?
Can we build a financial model to show how much it’s going to cost us both in terms of operational efficiency and actual real fixed and variable costs to end up in that state? And then how do I create a graceful argument to persuade people that we should spend engineering time and resources? And usually it nets out pretty clear. It’s like if it’s less than a certain amount, how do you justify spending any engineering time on it? You have to wait for the problem to become big enough. But then back to your other point around how do I give growth managers out there something useful. I would say the big thing that people forget in an early stage of a company’s lifetime is that the company will outlast you, hopefully. You will not be the last growth manager unless the company fails. So, I tend to take a little bit of a different approach than most, which is like I think you should always be thinking about the future.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you should make design choices that over index towards the future so much that you miss product market fit or you make poor product decisions. But when you set up tools and you pick tools and you implement them, you should be thinking, what’s going to happen a year from now if I don’t change anything? And is this going to be a catastrophic situation or not? And then try to take actions to mitigate that risk. Some examples are like if it’s $2,000 to get SSO and two days to set it up and that prevents you from having a security problem where somebody downloads all your users, it seems like a great investment.
And guess what? Over time, if you don’t do that, you’re going to eventually have to hire an IT person to go and set up SSF for all your tools. So, some of this is more of just being a good steward about managing first and third party tools with an eye towards the future. It’s always a trade-off, right? Because the more time you spend when you’re building product early in a company’s lifetime, that time could be spent on other things. So, if you waste it managing third party tools or setting up correctly, then maybe you miss out on a key product feature. So, I think it is a tough balance to strike.
Lenny: Coming back to the different kind of roles within the growth umbrella, if someone has someone leading paid growth let’s say, and they’re just like a paid growth person, do you also find a MarTech person to work alongside this person? How connected would you be to someone that’s just responsible for paid growth?
Preparing for MTA from Day One
Austin Hay: Maybe a key differentiator too. We didn’t talk about this in the beginning, but there’s marketing technology and marketing operations. So, in my mind, this is just my own kind of mental framework is marketing technology has tech in it. So, it’s usually an engineer or somebody with an engineering background doing that function. Marketing operations is usually not always technical. Maybe a systems analyst or business analyst could be somebody really, really smart, but they may not have an engineering background. So, I think that’s a key distinction too. And you typically see that in B2B where you’ll have mar ops function, which is setting up campaigns, sending email blasts, debugging, doing analytics work, SQL queries, all semi-technical work but not engineering based. So, in my mind when we talk about marketing technology, I’m really thinking it as an engineering based role and even by background, I’m not a software engineer, but I was a civil engineer and I learned how to program and I went through a bunch of coding to get there.
So, that’s my way into the engineering world. And you typically find that a lot with marketing technologists in particular is they either are software engineers or they’ve gotten enough experience to moonlight as software engineers. And so we get to this problem set of a user acquisition person. How would they rely on a marketing technologist? Well, I think the most superhuman user acquisition people out there are engineers and they don’t need a marketing technologist because they set up the tool themself. They know how the paid campaign runs and they just do it all. And you’ll typically find these super humans at small startups where the engineer is just told by the co-founder, hey, go figure out how Facebook ads work. And superhuman is born. More often though that doesn’t happen. Or those people once they do it once, they never want to do it again. So, you’ll typically find the role split and that’s the natural thing that happens.
As you scale, you divide responsibility and you’ll see you’ll have the person who’s responsible for bidding and acquiring users and paying down those campaign costs. Then you have the person who’s in charge of how does it all work? How do we get this thing to actually run? And that’s very similar to what we have at Ramp. We have an amazing user acquisition team. I know Sri Batchu was on here a while back. He hired a guy named Cody Morgan at Ramp who has a user acquisition team. And the way to think of it is, my job is to help support them in running all their campaign needs and when they have a directive from the CEO that says we need to improve CAC or change any of our metrics, it’s my job to partner with them to help them do that. And actually one of the coolest and most fun projects that we worked on early when I joined Ramped is we were optimizing.
We’re trying to get top of funnel data all the way down to the bottom of the funnel and tie it with opportunity data so we could send that back to the ad network so that rather than optimizing your campaign off of when a user clicks a button on the website, you’re actually optimizing it off of did the opportunity occur and what was the kind of ideal value for that opportunity? And you’re sending that data as a synthetic event back to Facebook and all those guys. So, it can be really cool and super advanced stuff depending how deep on the funnel you get and how complex your business is.
Lenny: So, you’re generally not running campaigns of your own unsafe Facebook or AdWords. You’re mostly as a MarTech person supporting people who are doing that.
Local Storage for Attribution Parameters
Austin Hay: Yeah.
Data Warehouses and Data Taxonomies
Lenny: Awesome.
Austin Hay: Helping them use tools and technologies to do it.
Emerging Tools and Platforms
Lenny: Great. Do people give you goals? Are you responsible for growth goals of your own? And in general, are MarTech people, should they have goals and growth goals on their plate or are they just there to support people who do?
Austin Hay: Oh, that’s a great question and I would like, maybe this is at the end of the podcast, we ask people about this because I would love to know what is a better version of goaling? So, there’s two ways that I’ve thought of it. One is my goals are directly tied to the people I’m serving. So, if user acquisition has, I mean we do, we have a growth goal and we have a CAC goal at Ramp. So, my goals are tied to them, so I’m going to help make sure that that is achieved, but then there’s also a cost and efficiency goal that I internally think is valuable. Whether or not the business thinks it is valuable, it doesn’t really matter. I come from a sales background and I like to run lean and efficient teams, and so I’m always thinking to myself, how much were the tools when I came in, how much are they now?
Have I set us up for success so that as we grow, our cost per user or cost per seat comes down and how much more efficient are we because of that? The ideal world is that you actually are growing as a business making more money, hiring more people, acquiring more users, and your total cost of tooling per person goes down. That’s like the dream. And there’s lots of ways you can build that financial model, but I mean that’s what I think most marketing technology leaders should strive for is to make sure that they’re controlling costs over time because most businesses don’t. There can be some goals that are discreet in nature that are not cost-efficient, but more like net capability related. So, it’s like, hey, we want to design a first party system that’s world-class that achieves these three goals, right? Maybe you want to incorporate artificial intelligence into some part of our product platform and incorporate third party tools.
And those are more like discrete product goals. In the same way that a business might launch an external product goal to launch a feature, they sometimes also might have internal product goals, clean up our revenue operations systems, make our email marketing system better. In particular, email marketing is one I see come often a lot with small businesses and even medium-sized businesses where they’ll have picked a tool at the start of the company’s lifecycle and as the company has grown, they’ve outgrown that tool. They need to move to a Braze or Marketo. And so there’ll be a big six-month initiative to say, we just got to switch. That’s the goal. We have to safely get off this small tool to a much bigger, more complex tool that’s going to cost us more. It’s a lot more complex, but we need to do it without losing money. That’s usually the job of a MarTech person in some type of change transformation effort.
Why Attribution Is So Difficult
Lenny: Perfect segue to where I wanted to go, which is tooling and your recommendations and favorite tools. And so maybe we start with just what do you find as a good starting tool stack for people starting to think about MarTech and basically growth, and then what does it end up being generally?
Austin Hay: In terms of stack, again, we think about B2B and B2C. B2C I would say the stack was largely solved from 2017 to 2020. We’ve had like a renaissance of the data architecture, so what I’m going to do is I’m dig through B2C then and now and then we can go B2B then and now.
How to Tackle Attribution Challenges
Lenny: Great.
Austin Hay: Okay. So, B2C, if you back up to 2016, 2017, you have segment and the rise of the CDP. Consumer based businesses have to collect a user and tie a bunch of data to them and then track their actions to send it out to performance ad networks and email marketing tools and product analytics tools. And so you would see this very commoditized stack. It would be like CDP in the middle bunch of tools connected. The promise of the CDP was you integrate one SDK, your engineers don’t hate you send all the data to the other tools you can create audiences.
Great. Lasted for a long time. The thing about it though that I think really changed around 2020 is that the cost of ownership of warehousing became much cheaper. And so 2021, you start getting to the place where it actually makes a lot of sense and is really easy to store all your data in a warehouse model all your data in the warehouse, and to do it without needing a vast data team. I would say Airbnb was probably doing all this well before anybody else was, but they had the main advantage of a lot of money and a lot of resources. So, now come 2020, it’s cost-efficient to have a data team with your own warehouse and to manage data centrally in something like Snowflake. So, now this question is like, okay, well we got to get data into the warehouse, but how do we move data around is totally different.
And that’s what really led to the rise of reverse ETLs. So, now you can actually build your own CDP and lots of businesses already have, I’m consulting with a well known financial trading platform a couple of months back, and they have a CDP, they have all this internal data in their warehouse, but they have not been able to activate it because it’s pretty old architecture. Everything’s batch based end of the day. What they need is a reverse ETL. They don’t need to take that data and just get it out into the world. So, they need the reverse ETL component or the transformation component of a CDP. And so I’d say now today when we think about B2C businesses, you can either go to the traditional route, buy CDP, hook up all your tools, third party.
I think that’s a great move if you do not have a lot of engineering resources because you’re not spending a ton of time and energy on a warehouse and all the modeling that comes with it, you’re just spending time to implement one SDK. I think if simplicity is the name of the game for your business, CDP, Centralized Stack, great move. If you are an advanced engineering culture and you are cutting edge and you’re going to do a bunch of modeling in DBT and you already have Snowflake, you should move towards a model of using a reverse ETL. What it means is that there’s a way to get your data into the warehouse and then how you activate it is completely independent from the CDP. And so what that means is actually you can have lots of different variations of the stack.
You could use Amplitude as your CDP, collect all your data, stream it into Snowflake. They actually now have an integration with Snowflake that lets you feed data directly out of Snowflake, and then you could use a reverse ETL to just pipe that data wherever you want. There’s a really good section though, again, sorry to self aggrandize, but there’s a really good section in the Reforge module this fall that talks about what happens when you have multiple ways to move data. You buy amplitude for your CDP and you’re moving data to your warehouse. Amplitude is a bunch of integrations, but you also have reverse ETL and you can move data out of your warehouse.
Where do you choose? And I would say a lot of businesses get in trouble when they don’t have a methodology or a system for how and when to move data from one place to the other, so they just do it haphazardly, right? And the key in systems management is you want to design a process for doing it some type of waterfall or mental model for when it makes sense to move data directly from Amplitude, which is the ingestion point of your data stream or from the warehouse where you can model it and make it better. I think the key is just having a philosophy and approach. There’s not really one answer, but that’s all B2C. So, B2B I would say … Yeah, go ahead.
Criteria for Hiring Martech Talent
Lenny: Before we move on to that one, you mentioned reverse ETLs. What are some examples of products that are reverse ETLs so that people can look them up?
Austin Hay: Yeah, I personally think the reverse ETL is a capability. It’s the ability to move data from a warehouse to a tool. So, technically speaking, you’ll find reverse ETLs in CDPs and as standalone products. Segment has a reverse ETL function they just launched, and Particle has a reverse ETL function they just launched. Rudder Stack, which is a CDP has always had a reverse ETL function where you can take warehouse data and move it to different cloud infrastructure. Then there are distinct standalone products. Census, which was back Bay 16Z and Hightouch are the two standalone reverse ETLs. And like I said, I’m an investor in Hightouch, love their work, we use them at Ramp. At the end of the day, you should pick tools because they help solve problems, not because of anything else. So, we can come back to that if you want.
Red Flags and Warning Signs
Lenny: Wonderful. Great, great. Yeah, that was perfect. Keep going.
Austin Hay: Okay. Yeah, so we talked about B2B, or sorry, B2C. B2B, I probably don’t have as much history as say people who survived the dot-com crash in 2008. I started really my career in B2B in 2014, so I’ll share a little bit of my experience and I’m just hopefully just saying this because listeners may chime in and be like, oh man, this guy doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about, which is totally fair game. So, 2014 though, I remember working at Branch, I was working for our COO Mike Molinet, who’s now at this really cool company called Thena, but at the time I was working for Mike, and as we talked about before, oftentimes growth stacks just appear because you’re given a challenge. And I remember sitting in this tiny room with Mike. We were over in Palo Alto, right off the fills in Palo Alto in this tiny room.
It was boiling in the room like so hot we were sweating and we were mapping out on a whiteboard how we would design our first version of our system, like how we capture leads, how we get them into Salesforce, how we would email them with a little tool called Outreach at the time, that was still a startup. And I’ll send it to you after this if you want to show them to viewers, but it’s so MVP, but it still models what a lot of people have today. There’s some ingestion point for your data. There’s Salesforce, there’s some type of outbounding tool, there’s an enrichment tool, and then a lot of other Jerry rig stuff hooked up to Salesforce. And for the most part, that’s how B2B still exists today as you have Salesforce and then the whole world and the universe revolves around Salesforce. You just have more advanced tools, you have Gom and stuff like that.
I think the big change though, and what is really fascinating and has been fun to watch is in the last two, three years, you now have this whole rise of B2B2C, which takes all the complexity of the top of funnel user acquisition system and stuffs it right alongside your CRM and how you build an elegant system there in that space, I think is one of the most complicated and intricate pieces of being a MarTech person today. And some of it just has to do with the data language. Like all these B2C tools were designed with two objects, a user and an event. And so if you’re not a technologist, it’s like object orientation is how you kind of think about the world. There’s only two concepts for the world in a user acquisition based system. A user who’s a person either anonymous or known coming into your website and the things that they do on your website or application, and you use all that data to acquire them or model them.
In a B2B business you have all that complexity, but at the end of the day, you might not really need it if all the person is doing is it’s just the company is signing the contract and then you don’t really care what happens afterwards. You might track users and events inside your application, but it’s not for the acquisition, it’s for the retention of the user. B2B2C is fascinating because you have all the complexity at the top, but then how and when do you tie a user to a company or some type of entity object, and what tools do you need to do that and where do they live in the system? And do those tools actually have competing priorities? Let me give you the greatest example of this that happened at Notion when I was consulting to them at Chris when I was consulting to them and at Ramp is having both HubSpot and Salesforce.
Both are CRMs, both have the ability to track users and companies, neither are CDPs. And how you actually map the data from HubSpot to Salesforce kind of determines how much hell you’re in, and there’s really no good solution. It’s just like you have to figure out for yourself, how do you want to acquire use at the top of the funnel? How do you merge them into the bottom of the funnel of the Salesforce? And again, there are lots of options or versions of the world. You could use Amplitude only and collect all your user and event data and then merge that into Salesforce directly. You could collect all your data in Amplitude or Segment and then post that to HubSpot, which then posts that to Salesforce. But of course, as you make these decisions, your systems becomes more complicated and more than one person can manage. So, there’s this trade-off between complexity and resources that you always have to juggle.
Useful Mental Frameworks
Lenny:
It’s only going to become harder to afford these challenges. The Brave Search API gives you access to its novel web scale data with competitive features, intuitive structuring and affordable costs. AI devs will particularly benefit from data containing thorough coverage of recent events. Lenny’s Podcast listeners can get started testing the API for free at brave.com/lenny. That’s brave.com/lenny. There’s this big question within B2B and B2C around how to do attribution. Well, it’s a never ending struggle. I’m curious if you have any pro-tips or best practices or tools that you use to improve the way attribution happens at a company.
The PPS Framework: Problem, People, System
Austin Hay: Actually, I listened to your pod on multi-touch attribution. I’m forgetting who you were with at this point, but it was like I was loving it because it talked about MMM and MTA specifically.
”Build and Buy” Over “Build vs. Buy”
Lenny: Yeah, that was a newsletter post actually, not even a podcast.
Austin Hay: Yes. So, back to our conversation around division of responsibility. I’m not always the person you should talk to create an MMM model. I’m not a data scientist. I know how to make MMM models and I know what they are.
How to Build a Tech Stack
Lenny: Can you explain MMM briefly?
Thinking in Shades of Gray
Austin Hay: Mixed Media Modeling. And MTA stands for Multi-touch Attribution and it’s these two ways of measuring the world and marketing to understand how you should allocate resources to campaign spend. MTA and MMM though are both underpinned by how you collect data. They’re both informed by the user object and the event objects that you collect on your website or your application that then lead to the data that data scientists use for MTA and MMM. That’s the connection between data and MarTech is often the tools and systems that we build and stand up and manage are what are used for these very complicated growth, experimentation and attribution results at the end of it. And one of the most discreet things you can do for MTA, because I get this question all the time around, hey, do we need MTA?
What should I do first touch or last touch? Should I do both? And there’s actually really, I can send you this guide, but there’s six or seven things you can do to basically futureproof yourself from needing either one. Because most businesses either start with first touch or last touch and then eventually want to move to a multi-touch attribution model. And for those who don’t know what that is, first touch is where you kind of collect the data about where somebody first came from. Last touch is where you collect the data about where the person last came from. So, an example, would this be like if I went to Lenny’s Newsletter from a Google ad and that’s all he has? That would be my first touch and my last touch. If I first came from a Google ad to Lenny’s Podcast, but then later I came from a Facebook ad or I don’t know direct, then that would be my last touch.
And so it’s this question of does the Google original first Google Channel get credit or does the second one the Facebook or direct get credit? And the first touch attribution model, a hundred percent goes to the first channel and the last touch attribution model, a hundred percent credit goes to the last touch. And a mixed attribution model or multi-touch attribution model, you’re trying to figure out how to split the difference. And usually the evolution for businesses is they start with first touch or last touch, then they go to splitting it literally 50/50. And then somebody gets angry because they’re not getting enough credit and they say, we’ve got to go to MTA. And there are both first party solutions for that and third party solutions for MTA. But back to the main thing, the main point is if you think about what you’re collecting, this is for website businesses, you’re collecting the referrer, like in the URL where the person’s coming from, and you need any UTMs associated with that person.
And you also need any parameters from the advertising networks that might give them the ability to counter a conversion. Every ad network out there has little things they stuff into your URL that tell you that you came from them. Facebook has FVP, FPID, they sometimes encode it. Google has this thing called Google Click ID, which is just a really long string of characters that don’t matter unless you know how to decode it. But all advertisers, and for the longest time advertising worked by putting parameters in URLs, pushing somebody through to your website, collecting those parameters and then passing it back to the ad network so they could get credit for it. And so in my mind, the best practice that everybody should stand up from day one is to basically design the system for MTA and then use whatever makes sense as you grow.
And so the way that I typically recommend to people is like imagine when a user comes to your website, you collect the URL, collect the referring URL, collect all the additional marketing parameters that you might want, [inaudible 00:45:57], TikTok ID, Microsoft ID, you should just make a list of them. And if you don’t have that list, I can give them to you. And then you should collect all UTMs. So, in the URL, you’re going to have UTM campaign, UTM medium. Most marketers use this to note what the campaign type was. Now the thing is that UTM is only going to be specific to the moment in time that the person came to your website. So, back to example about Lenny’s podcast. If I come to LE’s podcast and I came from a Google ad, then my UTM is only for that Google ad.
So, I have a Google Click ID and I have a UTM. So, what you’re got to do is you’ve got to store those parameters locally on the device. Either was a browser or whatever. You got to store it as UTM first campaign, UTM last campaign. And what you do is every single time that a person comes, you replace the last campaign or the last value with the one that’s there. So, say the last one was Facebook and then I come later from a direct mailer ad you replace the UTM last medium with the new one. Now what’s happening if you’re using third party tools is that you’re collecting this user information when the person’s on the website, you’re going to collect it both as a user attribute and as an event that way. What’s going to happen on the backend for your data warehouse team is they’re going to see a user profile that has both the first attribution information and the last attribution information.
And then for all the stuff in the middle, you’re firing off a page view event with first and last, where the last might deviate if there were multiple steps in the middle. So, what they can do is they can just coalesce over all the last UTMs they’ve seen on all your events by user to get both their first one, all the ones in the middle and the last. And so this isn’t actually that complicated to set up. Most people just don’t do the work early on. And then when they want to go back later and have MTA results, they don’t have the data to do it. So, one of the things I tell people who are debating this is let’s just get the infrastructure right from the beginning.
Let’s set up so that you have users, you have user attributes, you’re collecting first and last UTM on users. You’re firing events with all those. There’s some other more complex things you can do too. You can set them in first party cookies and you can also set them in your third party cookies for your tooling vendors. At the end of the day though, what matters is you just are collecting this information from the beginning. That way when you actually want to progress your attribution model, you don’t have to wait a really long time to start gathering that data.
Lightning Q&A Round
Lenny: Amazing. I love the details that you’re sharing. I don’t know where else people can find this sort of advice. It sounds like a core part of this is one, just having a data warehouse where you just throw all this data into, and two, having a taxonomy that you can rely on and do multiple things with down the road. Is that roughly right?
The Golden Tech Stack
Austin Hay: Yeah, I think that’s right. The taxonomy though, I think what’s interesting is it’s very much guided by your third party tools. And again, that’s the reason why I think companies often miss the mark here is because they’re not thinking about what can my tool actually allow me to put into it in the first place.
Lenny: Just to make sure I understand what you’re saying there, you’re saying generally maybe third party tools limit what you can do, which set you up for hardship later. And maybe what you’re saying is do that yourself, that tracking piece, is that roughly what you’re saying?
A Fun Drone Story
Austin Hay: Yeah, I think that’s right. The way to think of it is if you build your own data warehouse, your schema is unlimited. You can do whatever you want. You can design product schema, you can design user schema and event schema, but most third party B2C tools don’t allow you to control the schema. There’s only one CDP I know that does that, that’s Snowplow. The rest are there’s a user object and an event object. So, you can either stuff data as a user property onto the user object or you can stuff data into the event and fire it off as an event, but that’s what you’re working with. So, what I’m saying is most people just don’t think about the object orientation of the third party tools they think about and they don’t design their website traffic or their app traffic. We didn’t talk about app, which is a whole different slew because doing attribution with Iowas 14 is much more difficult.
But even in the website version of the world, people will often just collect UTMs and think that their job is done and it’s like actually it’s more complex. You have to think about first and last, think about the steps in the middle, design it so that you’re putting it on the user profile and in the event. And so this goes back to the main thing that we were talking about earlier, whereas the job of a marketing technologist is to think often one to two years down the road about what we’re going to need to solve for and design systems in an elegant way, not to break the bank, but to at least be the minimum viable product to actually get there. And a lot of my job, and I think the job of marketing technologists is trying to preserve that future state in the most minimally invasive engineering and resource way possible.
Lenny: You’ve talked a bit about thinking ahead and a bunch of tools and platforms, and I’m wondering are there any new and emerging tools, platforms or even growth channels that you’re keeping an eye on or excited about or finding more and more useful?
Austin Hay: I’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about Threads, right? Threads is super interesting. The question will be how quickly can they stand up an API for advertising and what does that look like or do they just blind it in with the existing meta and Facebook architecture? One of the caveats that I’m sure a lot of performance marketers out there will agree with is Facebook has a conflict of interest in reporting, right? They want you to spend money, so obviously they want to report the best results. And that’s the reason why attribution parties like Branch and AppsFlyer exist is to somewhat curtail that conflict of interest. And so I’ll be really interested just to see how attribution works, especially when you’re moving from Instagram to Threads, from Facebook to Threads. Will it be the same architecture, will be the same advertising platform? Will they try to do something new?
So, I’m keeping my eyes on that. Reddit is also a very interesting place to convert now. They’re opening up their conversions API, and I’m seeing a lot more investment in Reddit just because you can have embedded ads now that almost look like they can be posts that you can comment on. I think it just speaks to the maturity of the advertising business. What’s happening in the background of all this is ad attribution from apps has become a lot more difficult and mostly aggregate. From 2010 to 2020, we had the golden years of deterministic matching where it was very easy to run an ad and understand with precision who installed the app. Maybe you didn’t know their name, but you actually would know their IDFA and you could tie that to their PI. You can’t do that anymore. It’s very challenging.
Even when you can do it, the results that you would get are pretty low because nobody’s going to be opting into giving you their IDFA. So, what that means is these ad networks are becoming more complex, sophisticated, and interesting right at the same time that it’s harder for marketers to really understand how they’re spending money. And so I’m paying a lot of attention to how marketers make decisions with probabilistic data because most of the work that I’m doing now is actually saying, well, given that we don’t have determinist data about a certain audience or where somebody came from, how can I find other information that will create a model for 30% of the population and we can use that to extrapolate to a hundred. So, probabilistic matching and probabilistic attribution I feel like is a skillset that more marketing technologists and marketers should just get familiar with the way that we make decisions today.
Lenny: Wow, I hadn’t heard of this concept before. And that’s how people are starting, or at least you’re suggesting that’s how people should start thinking about growth results and impact is less, here’s how much this ad drove, the likelihood that this ad did this had this sort of impact.
Austin Hay: And it’s not the case with all channels, but it’s specific for apps that have mobile apps, they’re going to be impacted by it because they just aren’t going to be able to discreetly identify one-to-one the person that came from a campaign. They’ll know that a group of people came from a campaign, but they won’t be able to make measurement with those people alongside other attributes. For website, it’s not the same, but there are lots of things that are making it more challenging. One is browsers now are stripping out those URLs we talked about. So, you’re just seeing a bigger and bigger percentage of people being counted as organic that actually came from a paid advertisement because when they got redirected to your website, the browser truncated all those URL parameters. The second thing is cookie blockers. We talk about all these third parties before.
The way that third parties often collect information is they drop a cookie in your browser that tracks you, if you’ve heard of Segment, which is one of the most well-known CDPs of the last few years, is they implant a little third party cookie on the site that contains an anonymous user ID and all of your attributes as you’re navigating the site. And then once you log in, they convert that to a known or non-anonymous user ID.
Usually that’s tied to some type of entity ID or a user record. And at that moment in time, if you come back and they see your cookie, they kind of know who you are. Now, if you’re blocking cookies, that means you’re basically remaining anonymous throughout the entire user journey until you log in. Not to mention a lot of people have lead funnels where you need that information to actually understand what the user is doing before they convert. So, if you’re blocking third party cookies before they even get a chance to convert, you have no information about where the person came from. You just saw that they signed up, and so it might as well be organic.
Lenny: So, you talked about how many people are trying to get used to this new world of ATT and much harder to measure attribution and all that. Is there anything you’ve learned that has worked well to help you recover from that a little bit in terms of measuring what’s happening? Is there any tips you can share or anything you’ve seen work?
Austin Hay: Yeah, I mean I think a lot of people are just gravitating towards MMM now without really understanding when MMM is useful or not. I don’t know if there’s a company called Recast. I think you’re an investor. Am I crazy?
Lenny: I am. And that’s who wrote that article that you mentioned actually.
Austin Hay: That’s right. It’s Michael and it was somebody else, I can’t remember the name besides-
Lenny: It was another Mike Taylor.
Austin Hay: I’m not an expert on MMM, so I’m not going to be able to comment to quite the degree that they have. But when I spoke with Michael, and when I think about MMM, a lot of my conversation is this actually really realistic for our business right now? Do we have the data to run an MMM model and how is it going to change or chart the course of our performance ad marketing business in light of having this information? And when I think about it through those lens, most of the time businesses are not ready for MMM. They actually just be an MTA and they need better probabilistic modeling. And I know that’s not a super spicy take, but I’d just say at least at Ramp and what I’m seeing at other businesses right now that are operating, it’s much more of like we’re going back to the days where we understand in broad strokes how much each of our campaigns is driving in advertising revenue.
We’re not able to tie that discreetly with the user journey. And we know that some percentage of this user base might have been lost or organic. So, in light of those, how do we make spend? And then also you can be pretty smart. You can do, for example, geo-based testing on billboards. Try to isolate that as a factor if you withhold all other confounding factors so you can be smart. Coordinating these types of campaigns though is really challenging, especially if you’re a really big business, let’s say runs online advertising throughout the US and you’re trying to do targeted billboard tests in an isolated number of cities across the states coordinating to turn off demographics, make sure there’s not isolating factors. It can be really challenging. So, there’s not a silver bullet right now I don’t think.
Lenny: Awesome. Just a few more questions and then a broader question I want to ask. So, say you want to start hiring the next Austin, first of all, what do you look for in the person? What are signs that they’re probably going to be worth chatting with? And then what are some interview questions you’d like to ask to get a sense of how strong they are?
Austin Hay: So, the first thing that I always gravitate towards is just intellectual curiosity. And I know that’s very, maybe a little bit overrated, but I think you can tell pretty quickly if somebody’s just interested in the world and learning things. And the thing about third party tools is you are constantly learning. You’ll never be an expert in everything because there’s way too many tools to be an expert on, I forgot what publication, I think it’s MarTech editor in chief or something. There’s a publication that I subscribed to and everything is classified as MarTech and the diagram is huge, like cover a wall. Now I don’t believe everything like that is MarTech, but even if a fraction is, there are way too many tools in technology to ever be an expert. So, you have to be both very interested in learning and very willing to quickly learn if you want to be in the space.
And so I generally look for intellectual curiosity as the first sign. The second thing that I think helps people a lot who have intellectual curiosity is they’re scrappy in engineering. They might not be the best engineer possible, but they know how to get around. They know JavaScript, they know Python, they can read API documentation and make an API request. They have enough base knowledge to basically understand how to solve a problem that an engineer might do even if they themselves are not an engineer. Now obviously you can get lucky sometimes and you’ll find the engineer who never wants to be an engineer again and decides to move into something less technical. And in those cases they’re super powerful, but I haven’t met a lot of those people in my life. And also there’s just some business dynamics to it. You could probably make more as a backend engineer than as a MarTech guy.
So, you probably just pursue the pathway that makes more money. It’s like a little bit of a utility function. So, I look for intellectual curiosity. I look for basic engineering scrappiness. And as a side note, I would say lots of people out there, the advice that I give them is you don’t have to go get a software engineering degree. You can teach yourself, I am self-taught. You can take a coding academy online. I think you get enough knowledge through being able to do web programming or some type of backend programming. So, I would say it’s not more than a six-month investment for anybody to really get the skillset that’s needed. Obviously once you get the skillset, you can build upon it with years of experience afterwards. But if you’re new to the space and you’re in marketing ops and you want to get more technical, or if you’re a user acquisition manager who did paid performance, but you’re like, I really want do things end to end.
You can just go pick up some software skills and you probably are going to be pretty dangerous from that. And so those are the two things I gravitate towards. There’s obviously many more, but those are the first two. The questions that I like to ask is what does I like to ask people how they prepared for the interview. This is not, I can’t take credit for this. My wife told me about, gave me this idea and I loved it. I think it was a16z partner. But I love the question because when you ask, hey, how did you prepare? You’re really asking how does the person think? How did they plan? How did they take things seriously or not? What did they read? What did they do? And if you have to prompt them to tell you all the things they did, then they’re just not a systems thinker.
But if they’re like, hey, actually I read these things, I did this. I woke up, I went for a run. The more interesting complex the answer, the more interesting complex the candidate. And so I love the question because it just gives you a really good understanding of the person on a whole, like right out the gate. And then the other question I like to ask is I like to ask, so you’re coming in tomorrow to our marketing tech system and by Friday you have to write up a report on all the things we should change. What do you do? And I like to ask that question because it pretty much signals out people who are biased versus not. People who have tooling biases will immediately just like, we should implement this tool because I used it before and I really like to hire people who are not tool specific, who are more tool agnostic and they think about tools as being things to solve problems as opposed to tools being things that you just solve because you’ve already solved it one way.
This isn’t a gripe and it’s certainly not intended to slice at PMs, but one of my observations of a lot of PMs is they just pick the tools they’ve already used before because it’s easy and it’s a shortcut for them, which I understand, but problems are not always the same. So, tools shouldn’t always be the same. So, I like to pick people who think about the problem set and the solution space more and they ask questions about what problems you’re trying to solve, which I think is much more of an actual PM mindset of trying to work backward from the problem as opposed to just taking the problem and regurgitating stuff that you already know.
Lenny: Are there any flags you look for that tell you maybe this person isn’t someone you want to be working with?
Austin Hay: I answer that question on two spectrums. One is if I’m hiring as somebody who’s hiring an IC versus I’m getting hired. So, one of the red flags whenever I’m approaching a company to work for them is I’ll ask for their company financials and a company that’s not willing to divulge their financials to a director level or above person, I don’t want to do business with because that means they’re hiding something. Or they have a culture where they don’t trust the most senior leaders of the organization. Either is a bad choice in my perspective. So, that’s one of the questions I always ask when I’m going up for a job, when I’m hiring somebody. Red flags, I feel like one of the false flags not a red flag is more like when there’s a gap in somebody’s job resume, everybody gravitates towards that and it’s often really explainable.
A good example is I was hiring somebody once who had a two-year gap in their resume. We didn’t end up hiring the person, but they went through all the stages and we didn’t hire them, not because of them, but because the job got removed and this person took two years to get a philosophy degree or maybe it was a poetry degree and then also taught himself to program. So, it was a really enriching two years and there were lots of ways that I could see them bringing their past experience and the way that they took time off together to be a really well-rounded candidate.
So, I would say I look less for red flags and more for false identifiers on the resume application that may shortcut me towards the decision. Another one is just school people just look at your school where you went to undergrad or grad and they kind of make a decision one way or the other. And I feel like that’s also can be a really bad shortcut because there’s some amazing founders, for example, who went to school as you maybe had never heard of. Yeah, I know that’s not a good way to answer the question, but I don’t have a good way of looking for red flags, but I do tend to spend a lot of time on netting out of false flags.
Lenny: That was a great way to answer the question. I want to move on to something totally different, and this isn’t something I’ve been asking people, but I’m curious if there’s something here then maybe if there is, I’ll start asking this more regularly. I’m curious if there’s just any frameworks that you’ve found especially useful in your work or even life. Does anything come to mind?
Austin Hay: One thing that I want to build, so if I ever build this, maybe it’ll be a newsletter for you, is just a one-page doc of the most useful life frameworks and they’re just the words, and so you obviously have to know them, but I feel like I come across really good frameworks all the time and then I forget them. So, I just want a one pager of Lenny’s Life frameworks.
Lenny: Okay, we’re starting this right now.
Austin Hay: Okay, great.
Lenny: We’ll have number one.
Austin Hay: All right.
Lenny: I like this.
Austin Hay: Okay, so I’ve already said this and you’ve promised to put this at the top of the list, so I’m really excited. It’s just tools are meant to solve problems and I tell that to every person I hire. I repeat it consistently at Ramp and all of my consulting gigs. And it’s not just the words, it’s the spirit of it. Tools are really just meant to solve problems. You don’t have to buy a tool to solve the problem. You also don’t have to buy a specific tool to solve the problem. And I think it embodies so much of what marketing technology is trying to do. It’s trying to help people understand their problems and then actually take action on them using tools and technology that are most first party and third party. And most people just focus on the tool part and focus on the buying and integration part.
And so I think if you consistently remind yourself that tools are just meant to solve problems, then you really get into a space where you as a systems’ person can be an advocate for your marketer or your product people. I think sometimes there is a little bit of a tendency for people to think that people who manage and set up tools are just interested in managing and setting up tools, but really at the end of the day, we’re trying to help people actually do stuff. Then there’s this PPS framework that I talk about a lot, which is problem, people and system. So, whenever there’s a challenge that comes up like at Ramp or in a consulting gig, I like to first say what’s the problem? Who are the people involved and what system does it impact? Usually because people just jump straight to the system. They’re like, hey, there’s this problem, I just need to solve it with the tool. Hey, I’m trying to do X, Y, and Z. Can you just give me admin permission straight to the system?
So, if you back up though first you understand the problem like, hey, what is this person trying to solve? What is their discreet issue? A great example is I’m a sales manager and I want to make it so that every time I hire somebody, I don’t have to go through this really tough process of onboarding my staff. All right, so that’s the problem. Who are the people that involves, does the sales manager need permission from the CRO? Do the sellers need to be trained? Is there some other confounding factor that we’re not aware of why we don’t want to just automate this thing? Once you have an understanding of the people and the problems that you’re trying to solve, then it’s really, really easy to design the system to solve that. And so that’s my number one framework for technologists in particular is like don’t just jump to the system, think backwards, start with the people and the problem and then move to the system solution.
And then another one that I’ve already mentioned too is it’s B and B as opposed to BVB. So, build and buy as opposed to build versus buy. People all the time just think the second that you’re talking about implementing a tool or procuring a solution, it’s, Hey, I want to build this thing or I want to buy this really expensive thing. Build versus buy is a very narrowly constricting decision tree. If it’s only build versus buy, then you’ve already made the decision that you can only do one or the other, which means you’re already fighting somebody at your organization. Build and buy means that both of you can win and you can actually create a solution that is not only unique but saves the company time and resources and makes everybody happy. It’s more of a consensus driven approach. Whenever I hear in a meeting or a call or some discussion about how we have a tool and it’s really expensive and we want to build in herself, I try to just use the build and buy framework to tee people up and say, what about the problem?
Can we buy? What about the problem can we build? And where does it make sense to invest our resources and our people accordingly to get the optimal outcome? A great example is a company that I was consulting for was thinking about building their own AB testing tool. And actually we had the same problem at Ramp recently, and they’re like, well, we just think we should build ourself. This is core to our technology. We have the engineering resources to do it. And they were evaluating it to build the entire system themselves or buy a third party, I think it was split.io or something like that. And the entire engagement was basically designing a financial model to show them that they could make a lot more money, save money, move faster if they just bought the third party tool at the lowest possible cost and spent all of their resources that they were going to spend building it, building around it and making it their own. And there’s lots of, I hate the word synergy, it’s just so yucky.
Lenny: I don’t mind it. I think it communicates what you want to communicate, and I feel like people don’t say it as often anymore, so maybe it’s okay.
Austin Hay: Yeah, because they’re afraid. There are mutual benefits is a better way of saying it, if you build a tool custom to yourself when you’ve bought a tool because the vendor at that point is committed to you and they want you to be successful, so you often can get accelerated outcomes if you build on top of a third party than if you just build it yourself. A great example is say you buy one of these AB testing tools and you build around it and you’re a large customer of them, but you’ve invested a lot of your own engineering resources to make this solution your own.
If they know that and they care about you, they’re going to be willing to actually make you happy in the moments where you need a change from them, say some SDK change or a new feature or something like that. A framework that I talk a lot about in my Reforge course is about building a stack. Everybody asks, hey, how do I build my stack? What should I do? What tool should I use? Even you earlier were like, what’s the golden stack? Tell me what five tools should I get?
Lenny: Just tell me.
Austin Hay: Yeah, yeah. I’ll tell you at the very end, I got to hold out. Otherwise, you’ll ditch this podcast.
Lenny: That’s right. Yeah. Wait until the end. Is there anything else you want to share before we get to our very exciting lightning round?
Austin Hay: The only thing I had wanted to fit in, which I feel like is maybe a framework or maybe just a really good decision-making philosophy is this concept of thinking gray. Have you heard of it before?
Lenny: No. Go on.
Austin Hay: Okay. So, Steven B. Sample is a professor at USC. He wrote a book called The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, really great book. It’s one of his principles. There’s actually a lot of great principles in the book, but this is the one that I think has stuck with me the most in my career. And the concept of thinking gray is so often in life and in our jobs, we are forced to make decisions very quickly. We have to think black or white about a problem set or a solution, and then decide. One of his tactics is this concept of thinking gray, which is actually to not decide for as long as you possibly can before you have to decide. It’s really challenging because it involves this little thing called patience, which I do not have a lot of, most of the time, and I know most people don’t as well. But it’s particularly really relevant in systems thinking and product because so often we believe that we have to make a decision because our boss is telling us because there’s an OPR, because we feel the pain because somebody’s complaining to me.
But actually in reality, you don’t have to make a decision at all. You can just let it sit for a while. And this also applies to, I think, how you move through the world and view people. A lot of times we will meet somebody in a company setting or in a business setting, and we are quick to make decisions about them. We even asked me questions about how I hire people very quickly. We’re looking for shortcuts to make decisions about evaluating people. One of the best pieces of advice though about thinking gray is it gives you the grace to not decide about people until you have to decide. So, obviously for an interview decision, you have to decide.
You have to decide yes or no. But so often you’ll come across people and you’ll meet them once or twice. And I feel like there’s this tendency in the back of everybody’s brain to be like, do I like this person? Do I want to work with them? And the question often is not that it’s do you have to even make a decision right now? And by leaving yourself to have space to decide, you actually open up the possibility that in the future you’ll make a better decision. So, I think that’s a really good lesson for systems, and it’s obviously a lesson that you can apply to the rest of your life too.
Lenny: Austin, that was awesome. And with that, we’ve reached our very exciting lightning round. I’ve got six questions for you. Are you ready?
Austin Hay: I’m so ready, Lenny.
Lenny: What are two or three books that you’ve recommended most to other people?
Austin Hay: So, first book I already mentioned, but say it again. It’s The Contrarians Guide to Leadership awesome book. Second book that would be really good is the Art and Adventure of Leadership by a guy name Warren Bennis. And these are more philosophically leadership books. They’re less about technical specs on how to run a business. So, you have to be into that.
Lenny: Favorite recent movie or TV show.
Austin Hay: I’m currently watching for the first time Suits, which I’d never seen before, which I think is pretty good because the story arc of every Suits episode is that there’s a problem. Then they solve the problem and then the problem is solved at the end. So, it’s very gratifying for anybody out there who’s a high anxiety person who just wants to have this story arc resolved at the end of the episode. But if that’s not your jam and you like excitement, also watching Silo, Witcher. For comic relief, there’s Our Flag Means Death, which is hilarious. Have you seen that show?
Lenny: No, not Our Flag Means Death.
Austin Hay: Now you need to go watch it. It’s about black beard and gay pirate captain. So, strongly recommend that. And then for just really dumb comedy, What We Do in the Shadows is hilarious.
Lenny: What was that? What We Do in the Shadows?
Austin Hay: Yeah.
Lenny: Okay. Wow, a lot of recommendations. Thank you for that. What is a favorite interview question you like to ask candidates?
Austin Hay: So, I talked about what you did to prepare, but the other one that I think is really good because it forces people to get vulnerable is tell me about the most difficult or challenging thing you’ve overcome in the last year in your life. It doesn’t have to be work related, it could be personal. And I think it’s a great way to just reset the atmosphere, make people dig a little bit deeper into who they are and be more vulnerable. And I find usually it also helps calm them down because if they shared them one of the most challenging, difficult, and hard parts of their life, then all the other questions just are pretty easy. So, that’s one of my favorites.
Lenny: What is a favorite product that you’ve recently discovered that you really like?
Austin Hay: This sounds super dumb. It’s called cal.com, and I’ll tell you the story first. I’ve been a big Calendly user for a long time, but Calendly is pretty expensive. If Calendly is listening, you want to give me promo, cool. But it’s very expensive. And then I also just found that it is not always graceful at syncing multiple calendars from both businesses and consulting gigs and personal, and I had trouble remembering my Calendly link. I don’t know. The interface is like circa 2016. So, really looking for something a little bit more notion like with a Command K interface and just integrations that work. And cal.com has not failed me. It has been awesome. So, if people are looking for new Calendly tools, strongly recommend.
Lenny: Wow, I never heard of this. What a great domain, cal.com.
Austin Hay: I know, right. Killer.
Lenny: What is a favorite life motto that you often repeat to yourself or share with other people, either in work or in life?
Austin Hay: I just think a lot about the power of appreciation, and one thing that I’ve just been thinking a lot about recently is the challenge that people might be facing in their daily lives. I actually was recently listening to another podcast by Adam Fishman, and he had Brian Balfour on. And Adam’s basically just interviewing a bunch of dads, which is cool. But the nice thing about being a little bit older in your life being a dad is that you maybe have seen hardship before. And this podcast is great at just exploring the stories of people who I really admire and go through their hardship. And in that it’s been a very profound experience, understanding the type of challenges that people have gone through in their lives, people who have lost mothers and fathers early in life, people who have lost children. I myself, my wife and I lost her dad last year.
We lost two grandparents to COVID, we lost our dog. So, I think that the way that it ties to appreciation is if you can understand what people are going through and you start to view them a little bit more as a human and understand what’s beneath the surface of work, who are they? What do they care about? What are the things that are driving their life forward? It just makes you so much more appreciative for what you have and the good moments when they’re actually there. And this doesn’t just apply to life. It’s also like business too. It makes winning a lot more fun when you know the hell that people have gone through. That’s just something I like to talk a lot about with people, especially folks who are younger in their careers who maybe have only seen wins describing what the losses look like so they can picture in their mind and then have some experience when they go through it. It’s a big part of my shtick.
Lenny: What an excellent answer. I am definitely going to keep asking this question. For people who are still listening here is the promised Golden Stack.
Austin Hay: Okay, so Golden Stack. If I was a B2C business, I’d buy Amplitude for my CDP, I’d buy customer IO and maybe I’d upgrade to Braze in the future. I put everything in Snowflake, I’d buy high touch to reverse ETL, all that data out to my ad networks. For attribution, probably AppsFlyer from a mobile app, if not Branch, but it’d probably be AppsFlyer first. So, that gets you, you got AppsFlyer, Amplitude as your CDP and product analytics, Customer IO for email. Snowflake for your data warehouse, Hightouch for streaming all the data tools. That’s like golden stack today if I were implementing it for a B2C business. For B2B, roughly the same, Amplitude. If you need an attribution tool, if it’s B2B, actually, if it’s a web only business, probably we use Branch because Branch is better for web.
So, you have Branch, Amplitude, connect all the data to Salesforce. Hopefully at some point in time somebody builds a better Salesforce. That’ll be for our next podcast though, Lenny, can’t cover that today. And then reverse ETL is Hightouch. So, very similar except the only difference is what do you do for an email tool? A lot of people use HubSpot. I would try to go away with Customer IO as long as I could and then I’d move to Braze afterwards. So, a big difference is just Braze versus Customer IO for B2B.
Lenny: Final question for you. I heard that you’re a drone pilot and I’m curious, what is the coolest place you’ve flown your drone or the coolest thing that’s happened with your drone?
Austin Hay: So, this actually gets back to our intellectual curiosity thing. Maybe I just search for weird people when I hire because I just love when people do interesting things that are unrelated to work. And the story is during COVID, I didn’t really want to just better myself online through a bunch of educational platforms. I just felt like it would be a little bit soul crushing to sit in front of my computer screen and learn how to do statistics or whatever. So, I was trying to look for things that were interesting, niche, outside of my domain knew nothing about. And the three that I came up with were, I learned to fly a drone. I became a CFP, certified financial planner and I became a notary. And it’s just because they seemed really useful things that had nothing to do with my work and would learn about something completely interesting and different.
So, those are the three that I chose. The drone stuff, it actually was funny. I started flying here in DC. I live in Virginia, but maybe a mile outside of Washington DC and around DC there’s a restricted air zone. And so after I did my FA drone pilot license and I became a certified drone pilot, I really went down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out how to fly a drone in DC, because I’ve seen them around, but obviously it’s a national security and I’m probably dramatically mutilating the exact experience. But as I went to do this, it was very complicated, archaic, but also funny because it was all online. You have to go file out a form, you get a letter from a local representative who says you’re in good standing. So, we found a councilman that I just knew. And then you have to fill out all the stuff.
This paperwork, the site looks like it’s from 1994. There’s an office literally in DC where a person approves you. Then you have to let go and get a police officer to effectively babysit you while you fly this drone. And so I did all that and I got to the point where I was going to get babysat and I called our local police department and I was like, yeah. So, I talked to the office, I just need an officer to come out and meet at this time. And they just laughed me off the phone.
They’re like, we’re not going to send a police officer to watch you fly a drone. And I just thought the thing was really funny because yeah, it makes sense. Why would they waste taxpayer dollars to have me fly a drone? But it was a requirement. So, I ended up not being able to fly this drone in DC. But if anybody’s listening and they know how to fly a drone and they want to fly, I would be totally down. I have two drones. I have a Mavic Air 2 and a Skydio Enterprise, which Skydio is a really cool company as well if people are looking for drones.
Lenny: Okay, so you’re saying if people have an awesome drone and they live in Virginia, they should come contact you and fly some drones together?
Austin Hay: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But just not in DC.
Lenny: All right. Well, Austin, I think we delivered on the promise of making this extremely nerdy and in the weeds, and I think we’ve solved a lot of people’s problems. I feel a lot of gratitude for you, and I feel like we taught a lot of people about MarTech, which was my goal. So, thank you again for being here. Two final questions. Where can folks find you online if they want to ask you more questions? And how can listeners be useful to you other than coming to fly drones with you?
Austin Hay: So, first find me online LinkedIn. Threads, I actually have Threads. I don’t have Twitter, like hot take, I think Twitter ruins people’s careers. I’ve already seen multiple careers ruined by Twitter. Some people just don’t know how to shut their mouth. So, I’m not on Twitter, but I am on Threads and I’m trying to figure it out. So, if you want to document Threads, you can. I’m on LinkedIn and then I have my email address on LinkedIn too, and I’m always willing to talk to people.
Lenny: Amazing. And is there any way listeners can be useful to you?
Austin Hay: Yes. I have a marketing technology course coming out with Reforge in the fall. If you’re a practitioner of MarTech or you’re interested in MarTech, would totally love for you to take the course, would love to your feedback in particular. I love to stand on this podcast and act like I know a lot about MarTech, but I’m still learning. And so I think it would be awesome to just get feedback from the community about what was interesting and helpful, what wasn’t there, and we can improve upon. And then the other thing is, if you’re ever looking for MarTech help and you want to reach out, that’s great.
Lenny: Amazing. Austin, thank you again so much for being here.
Austin Hay: Thank you for having me, Lenny. It was a pleasure.
Lenny: The pleasure was all mine. Bye everyone. Thank you so much for listening. If you found this valuable, you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Also, please consider giving us a rating or leaving a review as that really helps other listeners find the podcast. You can find all past episodes or learn more about the show at lennyspodcast.com. See you in the next episode.
Glossary
| English | 中文 |
|---|---|
| a16z | a16z(Andreessen Horowitz 风险投资公司的简称) |
| AB testing | AB 测试 |
| ad network | 广告网络(Ad Network) |
| Adam Fishman | Adam Fishman(播客主持人) |
| Amplitude | Amplitude(一家数据分析平台) |
| AppsFlyer | AppsFlyer(一家移动归因与营销数据分析平台) |
| ATT | 应用追踪透明度(App Tracking Transparency) |
| attribution tools | 归因工具(Attribution Tools) |
| B2B2C | B2B2C(企业-企业-消费者模式) |
| Branch | Branch(一家移动归因与深度链接平台) |
| Braze | Braze(一家营销自动化平台) |
| Brian Balfour | Brian Balfour(企业家、Reforge 联合创始人) |
| build and buy | 构建并购买 |
| build versus buy | 构建还是购买 |
| CAC | 客户获取成本(Customer Acquisition Cost) |
| cal.com | cal.com(一家开源日程安排平台) |
| Calendly | Calendly(一家日程安排工具平台) |
| CDP | CDP(客户数据平台,Customer Data Platform) |
| CFP | 认证理财规划师(Certified Financial Planner) |
| CMO | 首席营销官(Chief Marketing Officer) |
| conversions API | 转化 API(Conversions API) |
| CRM | CRM(客户关系管理系统,Customer Relationship Management) |
| Customer.io | Customer.io(一家营销自动化和邮件平台) |
| deterministic matching | 确定性匹配 |
| enrichment tool | 数据补全工具(Enrichment Tool) |
| first party system | 第一方系统(First Party System) |
| first touch attribution | 首次触达归因 |
| Google Click ID | Google Click ID(Google 点击标识符) |
| growth ops | 增长运营(Growth Operations) |
| Hightouch | Hightouch(一家反向 ETL 平台) |
| HubSpot | HubSpot(一家 CRM 和营销平台) |
| IC | 独立贡献者(Individual Contributor) |
| IDFA | 广告主标识符(Identifier for Advertisers) |
| IT | IT(信息技术部门) |
| land and expand | 渗透扩张策略(Land and Expand) |
| last touch attribution | 末次触达归因 |
| mar ops | 营销运营(Marketing Operations 的缩写) |
| marketing operations | 营销运营(Marketing Operations) |
| MarProd | 营销产品(Marketing Products) |
| Martech | 营销技术(Marketing Technology 的简称) |
| Michael | Michael(指 Recast 联合创始人 Michael Kaminsky) |
| Mike Taylor | Mike Taylor(另一位作者) |
| mixed attribution model | 混合归因模型 |
| MMM | 营销组合建模(Marketing Mix Modeling) |
| mParticle | mParticle(一家 CDP 供应商) |
| MTA | 多点归因(Multi-touch Attribution) |
| MTU | 月度追踪用户(Monthly Tracked Users) |
| multi-touch attribution | 多点归因 |
| MVP | 最小可行产品(Minimum Viable Product) |
| notary | 公证员 |
| outbounding tool | 外发工具(Outbounding Tool) |
| performance marketer | 效果营销人员(Performance Marketer) |
| PII | 个人身份信息(Personally Identifiable Information) |
| platform PM | 平台 PM(Platform Product Manager) |
| probabilistic attribution | 概率性归因(Probabilistic Attribution) |
| probabilistic data | 概率性数据 |
| probabilistic matching | 概率性匹配(Probabilistic Matching) |
| product market fit | 产品市场匹配(Product-Market Fit) |
| product ops | 产品运营(Product Operations) |
| quarterback | 四分卫(Quarterback) |
| Ramp | Ramp(一家企业支出管理公司) |
| Recast | Recast(一家营销组合建模公司) |
| referrer | 来源页(Referrer) |
| Reforge | Reforge(一家职业教育平台) |
| Rev Ops | 收入运营(Revenue Operations) |
| reverse ETL | 反向 ETL(Reverse Extract, Transform, Load) |
| Salesforce | Salesforce(一家 CRM 平台) |
| schema | 数据模式(Schema) |
| SDK | SDK(软件开发工具包,Software Development Kit) |
| Segment | Segment(一家 CDP/数据平台) |
| Snowflake | Snowflake(一家云数据仓库平台) |
| Snowplow | Snowplow(一家开源数据收集平台) |
| source of truth | 数据真实来源(Source of Truth) |
| split.io | split.io(一家功能旗标和 AB 测试平台) |
| SSO | 单点登录(Single Sign-On) |
| stack | 技术栈 |
| Steven B. Sample | Steven B. Sample(南加州大学教授、《The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership》作者) |
| synthetic event | 合成事件(Synthetic Event) |
| taxonomy | 数据分类体系(Taxonomy) |
| thinking gray | 灰度思考 |
| Threads | Threads(Meta 旗下的社交平台) |
| UTM | UTM(追踪参数,Urchin Tracking Module) |
| warehousing | 数据仓库化(Data Warehousing) |
| Warren Bennis | Warren Bennis(领导力学者) |
Reformatted by reformat_english.py