Weeknotes 57
What happened this week…
- Set up products and marketing for World Heart Day.
- Started selling tickets for The Beating Hearts Ball.
- Started selling London to Brighton Off-road clothing.
- Started advertising Christmas cards.
- Did Defibrillator training.
- Prepared for an RMSP meeting with our warehouse partner.
- Approved the new transactional email templates going live.
- Consolidated drop-ship questions for RMSP interfaces.
Read this week…
- 10 Great Ecommerce Ideas for September 2017
- How IKEA are innovating in customer research
- 7 ways to improve customer experience on mobile
- 6 Reasons Customers Abandon their Carts
- Eight critical components of a digital workplace revealed
- Limit, Visualize, and Improve
Doing next week…
- Writing a briefing for using Freshdesk to handle customer services enquiries.
- Designing marketing emails for Christmas cards.
- Key User Familiarisation with Dynamics AX.
- Meeting with our warehouse partner to discuss to systems intergration.
- Automating sales reporting.
- Discussing the next steps for selling Defibrillators on the Online Shop.
- Meeting the new Email Marketing Manager.
- Analysing call volumes and the value of orders placed on the phone.
Interesting stat of the week…
- So far this year we’ve sold nearly 29,000 pin badges. That’s more than fifty-five jumbo jets worth of people with a British Heart Foundation pin badge.
In the not too distant future….
- Taking donations directly on the Online Shop
Don’t mystify projects with metaphors
I think communication about projects should be as clear, simple, and as easy to understand as possible.
But I hear Project Management is referred to as ‘Air Traffic Control’, with Project Leads called the ‘Pilots’ of their projects and them trying to ‘land’ their ‘in-flight’ projects.
Metaphors can be used effectively in communication to draw parallels with everyday experience and create familiarity but this relies on the metaphor that is used being something everyone is already familiar with. Referring to projects as planes, the person leading the project as a pilot, and the project control process as air traffic control doesn’t achieve this, it just adds a layer of confusing language. Using metaphors to mystify the process of project delivery adds no value to the projects.
If you tell me that the project is ‘in progress’ I have a clear idea of what that means. If you tell me that the project is ‘in-flight’ I have to filter the metaphor through my understanding of what it could mean to reach the conclusion that actually the project is ‘in progress’ but I’m still not sure that I have the correct conclusion.
Keep it simple and so obvious that no one has to think about what is meant by the language being used in order to understand what is being said.
Weeknotes #56
What happened this week…
- RMSP Ecommerce processes workshop to define to-be processes.
- Launched the new Defibrillator Signs and Posters, and created a new category on the Online Shop called ‘Health’.
- Reviewed all the currently in-scope and new-required interfaces for Ecommerce within RMSP.
- Continued to add to our Christmas Card Marketing Plan and agreed budget.
- Began collecting Attributes to extend product information in AX.
- Approved development work on the new Weekly Finance Reports to automate sales reporting.
- Set up categories in Magento to feed products into our new Facebook Shop.
Read this week…
- Revenue Per Visit: The #1 metric to grow your e-Commerce revenue
- The Definitive Guide to a Supercharged Magento Store
- Homepages Rarely Convert Because These 6 Elements Are Often Ignored
- From me to we: The benefits of collaboration
- Three emerging payment technologies retailers need to know about
- Why Pivots are Pivotal to Your Success
- New subcategories increase sales and signups
- Business Model Portfolio Part 1: Manage The Existing Business
Doing next week…
- Reviewing all the information we need to collect from third-parties to support interfaces for RMSP.
- Confirming all the interfaces that are required to support data transfer between Ecommerce systems.
- Updating the Ecommerce Marketing Plan.
- Beginning to advertise Christmas cards.
- Setting up for World Heart Day at the end of September.
Interesting stat of the week…
- Comparing August this year to August last year, Sessions are up 33%, Users are up 35%, Pageviews are up 26%, Checkout success is up 16%, Account sign-ups are up 42%, transactions are up 17%, Average Order Value is up 26% and Revenue is up 48%. It’s been a pretty successful month.
In the not too distant future….
- Analysing campaign sign-up and purchase data to understand how marketing and product affect the customer journey.