Mini Post: MarTech Mindset

Why Mindset Matters More Than Tooling

I’m staying at a beautiful old hotel. Over breakfast, I got into a conversation with the property manager.

She mentioned a few of the areas where she’s made repairs.

Instead of repairing a newer property—where you just match the same part number online—she’s had to think outside the box to find the best available alternatives.

After 127 years, it still looks pretty great

Her mindset—being flexible and working with what you have—is a great match for what you should have working in MarTech.

Unless you work at a tech startup where:

• The CEO listens to the CMO

• The CMO understands data infrastructure

• The correct tooling is chosen AND documented

• You have 100% compliance on expected policy

• A day ends in something other than ‘y’

You’re going to have to work around some technology anomalies in the real world.

It could be tech debt from an early stage pivot, or a sales team not understanding field definitions.

All real systems have some amount of weirdness.

The Right Mindset

To work in MarTech, its best to have the 'we can’ mindset.

There will never be a tool that solves all of your problems out of the box.

There will never be an implementation that goes exactly as planned.

That doesn’t mean these aren’t worth doing.

Go into projects with the understanding that you’ll have some unexpected roadblocks or some unusual historical data. With more realistic expectations, you’ll be able to better manage team buy-in and timelines.

Keep the right mindset! Good luck!