In this interview with Supermarket News, I explore how AI helped Hungryroot achieve dramatically faster growth comparing to the rest of the industry. Explicit feedback mechanisms, personalization, food waste reduction, lower carbon footprint - these and other topics are front and center on this podcast. [more..]

We've come to accept that mountains of data are necessary for AI to work - and that data is a secure moat for incumbents. I beg to differ: feedback-focused approaches to personalization can create a profoundly better consumer experience. [more..]

Many consumer businesses I talk to are in a difficult spot: margins are severely compressed by inflation; and yet they're concerned about making a bad situation worse by raising prices. Let's examine how to decide. [more..]

You become dramatically more valuable to your employer when you have the confidence to focus on driving results, not on people-pleasing. A powerful source of that confidence is, counter-intuitively, not needing the job. [more..]

In my first interview as the Chief Digital Officer at Hungryroot, I explore product, growth, and measurement strategies that high-growth companies can put to use. [more..]

If you’re in an environment where there’s lots of talking and very little doing, you might think that there's little hope, and all you can do is leave. I beg to differ. [more..]

In this god-awful situation, there’s something much worse than quitting without a job lined up. [more..]

Preventing a cacophony of misaligned decisions across the organization is the conductors’ job. Your job. [more..]

A big bet produced barely visible return. We rationalize: our forecasts just were not good enough. Let's keep plugging away: customers want these other two features, let's hustle to ship those. We have the highest-throughput team in the industry, we will win through sheer willpower and grit!.. [more..]

There are two types of companies, single-purchase and “customer lifetime value” (LTV) businesses. Crudely, mattress sellers and gyms. It’s crucial that your marketing investment strategy matches the kind of business you’re in; if you run your LTV businesses as if you’re selling mattresses, you’re in trouble. [more..]

The founder of the Virgin empire famously discovered the difference between “net” and “gross” profit in his 50’s, in the board room. In this blog post, I’ll examine similar fundamentals that marketers need to know. [more..]

Over-emphasizing action bias makes winning seem like a matter of throughput. Hustle, keep plugging away on the to-do list, it goes, and you’re golden. But.. [more..]

You're the most senior person in this meeting. Everyone looks at you every 5 seconds, judging your reactions and trying to make you think they’re smart. If you find yourself in that setting, you’ve got to avoid the deadly sins. [more..]

Multi-person meetings suck the life out of culture. Here is a 3-step alternative. Turn recurring meetings into recurring write-ups, PowerPoint decks into Word documents, and verbal feedback into comments in Google Docs. [more..]

My story of desperately trying to become a customer of a next-generation Internet provider... and what marketers and product managers can learn from this sadly typical experience. [more..]

The route taken by two employees on the growth team was anything but buying ads, their tool set was anything but marketing and their results were beyond anything I ever expected. [more..]

Marketers obsess about every detail of their campaign, spending hours defining the audience targeting rules and picking out the perfect image to accompany our meticulously crafted copy. But how can we be confident that these steps are making a difference in our business’ top line? [more..]

Each screamer has a single goal, out-scream the others, which only secures them a spot in the graveyard of other transactional, no-value-created messages. [more..]

Can the idea of ownership be overdone, can we become infatuated with the concept too much? Let's explore what this looks like, so as to not fall into it. [more..]

There are two kinds of leaders. One propels the team forward, aggressively tackling every problem. Another creates emotional safety, an environment of trust and respect. You need to know how to be both. [more..]

Four things holding us back: Smokescreen, Fire and Motion, Fixed Mindset, and Organizational Misalignment [more..]

With the mission to connect with customers and prospects on an emotional level, marketers often believe the finance group is their "natural enemy." How many times have you thought, “these glorified accountants are trying to measure every little aspect of creative activity, driving short-termism and dooming the company to the sea of mediocrity!” [more..]