Makers #3: Tradd Salvo & Taylor Smith

Taylor Smith: I would a hundred percent agree with that, and I think that runs right up and down the entire project. From the moment we start kicking something off with a client, we're just trying to figure out what’s the business problem that we are addressing for them. When we’re testing hypotheses and working through the messier aspects of the problem, that collaboration becomes really powerful because we start to find these super compelling unlocks: if we did something like this, we could drive that for the business; or it can have this impact on the brand or it can do this for the organization. And we work through those unlocks together, straight to the very end stages of the project. When we build that trust, we can create this powerful collaboration that extends into implementation and even how to measure the impact. That’s how we allow each other to be really impactful at the end of the day.

Tradd Salvo: They always say that strategy is really messy until it's not, until you have that “a-ha” moment. But most people don't realize that's exactly how analytics works, too. We have a methodology, yes, but we don't know the answers. No one knows the answer! So it's really messy until it's not, and I think that understanding both these things is why it's so important that we're both in each other's worlds. It's hard to communicate what you need when you don't know what you need because you're not there yet. I realize that’s abstract, but that's just kind of how the process goes.

Taylor Smith: I think what's been really interesting in us working together is that when we do take that collaborative approach we also work really fast, because Tradd is looking at things from a data analytics standpoint, and I'm running off and digging into earnings calls or talking to customers or research that's been done by the client and other pieces, and we're both starting to see signals that potentially indicate a path forward for us. And it’s in those moments where we start having the conversations, pointing to things we’ve each found and we think show something interesting about the problem. That’s when we bring forces together and start circling around insights, looking at them from different angles really fast. That’s where the unlock happens.

Tradd Salvo: And kill ideas that are going nowhere really quickly, as well! If we initially thought of something, and it would take me four days to do the analysis on it but we realize it doesn’t make any sense based on all the other research, we just kill it immediately and start with something more fruitful. That’s kind of fun.

Taylor Smith: When we find that thing, though, we start building a narrative around quickly. We’ve been in situations where we get a ton of data and research from clients, and when Tradd and I jump in, we start to see these things that they might have missed. And if we find that early, that interesting hypothesis, we can circle around it and then we can start building all the elements against it that allow us to show them what the path forward looks like.

I think a lot of it is that trust element, where there's no ego or anything like that there. We know our craft. We know how it's like to work together. We trust one another to push on things, to challenge things. But it's ultimately from a place of trying to get to great work. As a result of that, when Tradd finds this great piece of information, or I find this great insight on a piece of the business, we challenge each other on some of those things, and that reveals more questions that we start to address, and that leads into more interesting ways of solving the challenge for our clients. I think that becomes a natural rhythm for us— but it’s because we trust one another.