Model #1. Strategy → Structure → Skills.

Uber Operations.

My first leadership position was as VP of Marketing at JUMP Bikes. JUMP had been around for 8 years before I joined but was still a small bike share startup with a 1000 sqft office in DUMBO. A dozen of us, a mini-fridge, and a clearance-aisle-worthy coffee pot. I was the first and only marketer.

We were small but mighty and had good momentum. I was only a few months into the role when we received an acquisition offer for an unfathomable revenue multiple from Uber. It was a case of the right place, the right product, and the right time. I don't know if we were all the right people though - at least not for Uber.

Overnight our scrappy team became embedded within Uber and began scaling our vision. I became the Global Head of Marketing for this new division and was tasked with rapidly building a team. I struggled.

M&As are messy endeavors and most companies don't have operating manuals to effortlessly integrate the new with the existing. Uber was no exception as JUMP was one of its first large US-based acquisitions.

It's well known that Uber's culture is one where individuals are given broad authority to achieve lofty growth goals. After JUMP was acquired, a few members of Uber's OG Operation team were put into place to inject their experience scaling Uber Rides into our electric bicycle business. Marketing leadership at Uber didn't have as strong of a track record as those in the Operations team and so I slotted under these OGs to lead marketing. Right place, right time, right?

Although the Uber culture of authority was highly impressive, from where I sat the most impressive part of Uber's culture was the processes by which those in charge would gather information and make decisions.

My favorite of all mental models. Strategy → Structure → Skills.

As a new division within the company, JUMP's marketing efforts were often scrutinized which meant that I, as the leader of that function, was often scrutinized. JUMP was scaling fast globally but I was having a difficult time aligning my team and my business unit's needs with the main Uber marketing team. Quite simply, our separate marketing teams had no shared OKRs or KPIs to connect over

Rachel Holt was our division lead and asked me to create and present a plan for JUMP marketing resourcing. I prepared for that presentation a lot, maybe too much, because when the time came I fumbled to paint a clear picture of how our new team and the existing Uber marketing team would coordinate to deliver success. Lucky for me, on that day, Rachel was generous and shared a mental model that was so simple yet effective to frame our approach. I've used it twice now to build subsequent teams at early-stage startups with good effect.

Step 1. Define your Strategy. For example, Uber already had a massive installed user base so the growth of JUMP was not based on traditional user acquisition but on positioning & messaging. We had to cross-sell.

Step 2. Let Strategy inform Structure. If we didn't need lots of traditional user acquisition then we wouldn't need to invest heavily in performance and growth marketers. Instead, we could heavy-up on Email Marketing & Content Creation while gaining permission from Uber Marketing to allow us to insert messaging in various campaigns and automated email sequences.

Step 3. Within our Structure we must have the right People. Make sure these people have the talent and the commensurate amount of experience, expectations, and authority needed. Don't hire people who haven't done it before. Don't hire people who don't want to do it again.

I was in love... with a mental model. A few years later, the marketer in me couldn't help but swap People for Skill and achieve alliterative success. So, do you have the right Strategy, the right Structure, and the right Skills within your team? Be ruthless.

P.S.I alluded to the fact that even great processes can lead to bad outcomes. The truth is that JUMP probably had the wrong Strategy which was to emulate Uber's early days of blitz growth. This meant that we were filled with people skilled at scaling. Times changed. Uber had freshly IPO'd and was under the magnifying glass of efficiency. JUMP scaled fast and was far from adding an efficiency story to the business. Dedicated bike marketing was one of the first to be cut and JUMP was dissolved in its entirety shortly after.