Luana Valentini
The participants engaged in lively discussion and strategic planning for two days, in large group hangouts lasting three hours and subsequent breakout sessions.
The Contributors Were
- Julian Böhm, TYPO3 GmbH
- Mathias Bolt Lesniak, Pixelant
- Luisa Faßbender, Marketing Factory Consulting GmbH
- John Heaven, Open Strategy Partners GmbH
- Carlos Antonio Llanos Zarco, icti
- Ronald Meeuwissen, MaxServ
- Jeffrey A. McGuire, Open Strategy Partners GmbH
- Heather McNamee, Open Strategy Partners GmbH
- Silvia Romero Martin, icti
- Marco Tiel, TYPO3 GmbH
- Kai Unterberg, KM2 >> GmbH
- Luana Valentini, DFAU GmbH
But first of all, the organizational heads Heather, Luisa, and Marco started off by presenting the status quo of the marketing tasks already started in Q1. New faces also received a warm welcome to the group before new goals for Q2’s sprint were set.
Setting New Goals for the Community
Among these goals was the order of the already submitted topics that registered participants wanted to see on the agenda. There were no restrictions on ideas and thoughts, and even spontaneous suggestions were quickly sorted into the priority list. Thanks to this overview created by Heather, as well as her timekeeping skills, it was possible to formulate tangible goals from which the community will soon benefit. But more about that later.
Regrouping According to Individual Skills and Knowledge
As one of two newbies in the group, I noticed after only a few minutes that each participant was able to contribute an equal opinion on the overall result, since the experiences from his or her own everyday agency work almost always provides a helpful insight. This was soon also reflected during the breakout sessions, in which small interest groups of two to four participants were asked to clarify the tasks identified in the priority list.
Major Topics Discovered
Following the small interest group discussions, the briefs prepared there were shortly presented to the whole team, and four major areas of concern were identified. These four overarching themes were worked on more intensively on Day 2:
- Analytics: Who, why, and how do visitors navigate the official websites of the TYPO3 sphere and what can we do with the knowledge gained?
- Onboarding: What does the ideal customer journey look like, and how do we optimize it for first-time users?
- Sales: What selling points do salespeople need to make TYPO3 shine in its deserved light—especially in competition with other CMSs?
- Market share: What is the role of TYPO3 in comparison to other CMSs worldwide?
Another important consideration has been that multi-language support and visibility in target countries will have to play a greater role in the future in order to increase the reach of TYPO3.
Day 2: Designing the Road Ahead
In this spirit, the overall goals of the Marketing Initiative were further sharpened at the beginning of Day 2. Most importantly, the precise phrasing of individual sub-tasks with the main responsible persons and deadlines in mind had to be noted. This will ensure that intermediate goals won’t be overlooked in further meetings and that strategic work can continue.
Individual Expertise for the Community
Accordingly, the day was arranged in a very goal-oriented way. Opinions were further exchanged, discrepancies uncovered, ambiguities removed and ultimately agreement was reached. Thanks to the individual expertise that each participant can contribute, and through personal contacts that can be fruitful in the future, everyone left the sprint with tasks tailored to him or her personally.
New Marketing Appointments Fixed
Even before the sprint was over, the upcoming events were fixed:
- Tuesday, June 30, 2020: Open Sprint/Online Workshop: Onboarding pathway for newcomers
- Tuesday–Wednesday, 1–2 September 2020: TYPO3 Online Marketing Sprint Q3/2020
Join the Open Sprint/Online Workshop
At the Open Sprint all interested community members are welcome to participate in the above mentioned ideal onboarding process for first-time TYPO3 users! After all, it was precisely on this topic that the Sprint's group discussions had shown that many facets must be included in order to help the entire community gain new customers—and thus more TYPO3 enthusiasts. Starting with the on-site acquisition up to the interface and content design of the TYPO3 website.
Open Arms for More Marketing Professionals
I would like to add that my personal perception gained at numerous TYPO3 events has been confirmed online: A feeling of belonging to a community that pursues the noble goal of advancing the TYPO3 Open Source technology. And of course I’d like to encourage new faces to bring their expertise to the already scheduled sprint for Q3.
There is still a lot of work ahead of us to increase awareness and market share of TYPO3. While not forgetting one of our key assets: We are the good guys.
Proofreading: Tony Lush