Episode Update: E8 & E9 Progress

It’s been since the Summit since we’ve had a chance to update you on the high-level Episode projects we’re working on over here, so we wanted to share what’s been going on during Episode 8 and Episode 9.

First, just to review -- “Episode” is the term we use around here to describe our planning and development cycle. Because they vary in length depending on the time of year, anywhere from 2-4 months, we had to come up with a new term other than “quarter”. So “Episode” it is.

Episode 8 & Episode 9: Focus on Fundamentals

For Episode 8, which began in early November, and Episode 9, which began in early January, we’ve been taking a back-to-basics approach. The combination of two short Episodes separated by the winter holidays and coming off a 12-month period in which we redid the entire front-end and back-end for the Network inspired us to take a step back.

While most Episodes feature at least a couple big Product, Delivery, and NBD initiatives, we’ve been spending these past few months focusing on the fundamentals of our platform and the services we provide to the Network.

This isn’t to say we’ve been slowing down. Quite the opposite. Take a look below at all the projects we’ve been knocking out lately.

Product

The Product team’s projects during E8 & E9 have revolved entirely around taking stock of the fundamentals of the platform, determining what’s not working the way it should, and implementing a plan for getting those pieces to where we want them to be.

Places you should have already noticed an improvement include Radmin search (see here), front-end search (see here), RSVPs (see here, here, and here), Giveaways (see here), advertising (see here), email alerts (see here), and Artist databases (see here).

Oh, and the mobile app has been under development as you all saw in an email from Scott this week. If you have feedback, add it to this doc ASAP!

Delivery

The Delivery team has also been focused on the basics lately, starting with turning all your Summit recommendations into actionable plans for 2015.

To improve metro support, we hired on Johnny Zachman from doNYC to help streamline how support inquiries are answered and addressed. He’s also taken the lead on product testing and about a thousand other things to help make the Delivery team stronger.

In the past few weeks we wrapped up 2015 goals calls to help you set a plan of attack for this year. We’ve also been working on streamlining Network program roll-out to make it as easy as possible to agree on a plan and execute it. On the content side, we’re looking to help metros level-up with the new weekly content calls, a Network-wide content calendar, and the Battle of the Front Pages contest for CMs.

Finally, we recently started working with a growth consultant -- one of the first employees at Thrillist -- to help us stake out the best strategies for major audience growth in 2015.

NBD

NBD has also been focusing on improving the fundamentals to gear up for a badass 2015.

We’ve been adding to our list of case studies to demonstrate our most successful Network programs. We’ve been working on the messaging and branding for the DoStuff Network, including a new promo video that some of you played a starring role in at the Summit. We’ve also been building out serious sales manuals for Network and local sales to help consolidate the group knowledge we’ve accumulated over the years.

Finally, as you already know, we’re working on a kickass DoStuff Network party for SXSW in mid-March. If you know of any partners or Tastemakers that will be in Austin for the festival, make sure to let them know it’ll be the place to be on Thursday afternoon (March 19th).

That’s it for now! We’ll check back in with an update at the beginning of Episode 10 in March.