Martech enablement series: Part 3 — Assembling your team members

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Welcome to part 3 of “A Nine Part Practical Guide to Martech Enablement.” This guide is focused on outlining a process for building a data- and technology-driven marketing organization within your company.

In Part 1 of this guide, I outlined the case for a process to take full advantage of marketing technology. This process is called “martech enablement.” In Part 2, I introduced the basics of “The Race Team Analogy” as a way to demonstrate the key elements of martech enablement.

In the next two parts, we’ll be digging into the members of the race team. In this part, Part 3, we will be identifying the specific team members and their individual roles and responsibilities and how they correspond to a well-rounded martech-enabled organization. In Part 4, “Building the Team,” we will look at ways to evaluate the state of your current organization and some simple steps to begin the process of martech enabling your team members and partners to create a winning team.

Intro to the race team/martech team parallel

When creating a successful race team, the most important step is forming your core team. Not all of the team members, like your pit-crew, need to be in place on day one.

But assembling the core team at the earliest stage is critical to success. Specialist roles can round out the team later when their skills are necessary for success.

Big idea

The need to assemble this core team is simple. It establishes both strategic and tactical responsibility and oversight for all critical areas required to create a winning team.

Business operations, creative execution (the art), and technology (the science) of the race team work cooperatively to achieve a common goal of winning the race. A competent, skilled, cross-functional core team is key to the overall team’s success.

As I outlined in Part 2, there are three primary groups with differing areas of responsibility within the race team. They are the Executive Team, Drive Team and Crew. Within these three groups, there are both core and specialist roles.

Let’s first establish the core members in each of these groups for both the race team and the martech team. After that, we’ll draw the parallel to your marketing organization.

Core race team

The executive team is focused on the “business” of racing while the drive team is zeroed in on the “art” of racing and the crew on the “science” of racing. Sound familiar?

Executive team (the business of racing)

Owner – The team’s owner and president.
Team manager – Administrator, organizer and overseer of the operation of the team.
Partners – Though not a direct part of the overall race organization, partners and sponsors play a key role in strategic development and execution.

Drive team (the art of racing)

Driver – A self-explanatory role on race day, but the driver is a key player in developing and delivering on the race team’s mission.
Navigator – Not necessarily part of every type of race team, but in longer, trek-like races a navigator provides strategic support prior to racing and sits in the passenger seat during the race providing the driver with directions and race insights.

Crew (the science of racing)

Crew chief – Responsible for participating in the creation and execution of the team’s technical strategy, including the car and all supporting technology as well as owning the delivery of analyzed data to the drive team.
Car chief – Responsible for the tactical creation and maintenance of the actual car and supporting technologies.

These core team members represent the critical personnel required to participate in the next step of building the race team: strategic development.

Now, let’s explore how your marketing organization parallels the core race team players above.

Core martech team

As with the race team, getting the core team established at the outset is critical to success. The parallels between your martech team and the race team are somewhat remarkable to me.

[Read the full article on MarTech Today.]

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Peter Ladka

Peter Ladka founded GeekHive in 1997 as a small startup, and today they’re a leading technology partner, focusing on strategic martech initiatives for some of the biggest brands and agencies in the world. As President, Peter focuses on strategic business management and developing strong partner and client relationships for the GeekHive brand. Peter remains deeply committed to the values on which GeekHive was founded; offer high-quality service to their clients and provide opportunities for meaningful growth for their employees.