The birth of our landing page project came not from great business planning but rather a momentum building event we created for our team.  The 24 hour challenge, given first to the development team, was to code a new feature of their choosing with no restriction except that it be ‘marketable.’  Otherwise, being developers, they would have coded something which causes animated dinosaurs to run across your screen when you submit forms.

The next step was to turn the new feature over to the marketing team to produce and develop all facets of the marketing for the new feature.  All of this was to take place without any input or knowledge from the Chris’.

Chris Byers & Chris Lucas

What did we learn from all of this?

1.  Momentum Builds Rapidly – The team only had a short while to ideate and create their new feature.  Jamming the dev team into a room and letting their collective energy run was a great way to get a new idea off the table.  Then the marketing team was able to quickly pickup on the concept and market it in a very short time.  It can be as little as a spark to shift momentum into high gear and we still see positive results today from an exercise three months ago.

2.  Creativity Increases Within Constraints – When we have endless amounts of cash and low time pressures, our motivation to get things done is much lower.  When we are forced into constraints it increases creativity exponentially.  We have to come up with better ways to deliver the product.  We have to figure out the bare bones required for production.  We have to get straight to the point in marketing the product.

3.  People Will Rise Beyond Expectations – This concept isn’t new but I think I need to re-learn it often.  Sometimes I want to get involved and do things my way or add my two cents though it is likely detrimental.  If you hire the right people, they will impress you when you let them do what you have asked of them.  In fact in this example, I only expected a small feature to be developed but the final product was wildly beyond my expectations.

For us, our team took us from one awesome form building tool to a suite focused on data collection and marketing.

What unique ways have your team blown away your expectations?

 

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Chris is the CEO of Formstack and runs the day to day operations of the company. He has been a fan/user of Formstack for many years but has only recently joined the team. His most recent experiences include co-founding and running a international non-profit while based in London, England & Krakow, Poland. While living in Europe he and his wife, Dana, once packed up the kids and went on a 40 day journey to 10 countries which included South Africa. Chris also served as a Vice President of Investor Relations and Financing for a regional healthcare company. Dana is active in social networking and leads various faith based projects.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 5th, 2011 at 9:17 am and is filed under Formstack News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.