Bizzabo

/ About

My time at Bizzabo, a B2B SaaS event management platform, was short and sweet—I was part of the second of 2 rounds of global layoffs in late 2022. At Bizzabo I was able to fulfil a long-standing ambition to experience working in New York—and for that, I'm thankful and glad that I took the job when approached about the opportunity. It also allowed me to work in events, an industry of which I had limited knowledge but was confident that, with my experience, I could make an impact. I also got to work on a B2B SaaS product, something I'd not done since working in consultancies. All valuable experience.

/ focus

// Leadership

// People development

// Capability building

// Brand development

// Content creation

// Research

// Exhibition design

// Video

I was a member of the marketing and experience leadership teams and led a diverse, distributed team across the UK, US, Israel, and Ukraine, delivering impactful solutions across various channels.

Our focus included service design, product design, environmental design, brand development and campaign work.

Bizzabo design's purpose

We’re here to impact our business and our customers' businesses positively.

We’re here to build a brand that people love and deliver compelling, elegant, creative solutions to whatever challenges come our way.

We’re here to inform, partner, educate and inspire our colleagues across Bizzabo about the transformational impact of design.

Making every interaction, every pixel and every word matter.

Moving new into a leadership position I felt it important to establish trust with the team as soon as I could and help set their expectations of me.

Below are some thoughts that I shared in my first few days.

What you can expect from me

// We’ll have a weekly 121

I’ll try my best never to cancel this meeting, but you can  reschedule it. It’s your time.

// There’ll be an agenda in the meeting invite, so we cover the important stuff

But you’re always free to use the time for whatever’s on your mind.

// I won’t schedule meetings without an agenda

That's it.

// You’ll get timely feedback from me

There’ll be no feedback in your performance review that you’re hearing for the first time.

// I trust you to manage your own time

You don’t need to clear with me in advance your time out of the office or away from your desk.

// Your work gets done your way

My focus is on outcomes and impact, not output. If I ever need to suggest a specific approach, I’ll give you an example.

// Please lookout for opportunities to help your colleagues

And remember to ask for help whenever you feel that you need it. Never see asking for help as a sign of weakness.

// I trust you to skip level and talk to my manager or other senior management about anything you feel is relevant

You don’t need to clear it with me, and I’m not going to get weird about it when you do.

// I’ll give credit where it’s due

I’ll be especially careful to shine a light on you when senior management hears of our accomplishments.

Bizzabo's design principles

Having spent much of my career working on consumer-facing brands, I was keen to apply some of those learnings to the B2B space. With this in mind, I created these simple design principles to remind everyone in the business that, ultimately, we're dealing with people, and as such, we need to keep customer centricity at the heart of everything we do.

// Design with impactful user outcomes in mind

Never leave a customer or prospect wandering down a digital cul-de-sac – unsure of what to do next. Test customer journeys with wireframes and prototypes – don’t assume that all the dots have been joined.  

Always be intentional with calls  to action

// Be interesting

Use captivating imagery and video alongside well-crafted copy to bring our products to life  in simple, memorable and shareable ways. Be benefit-led, and avoid jargon and internal references.

// Be timely, be relevant

Let’s make sure that we’re speaking the language of our audience on their terms and addressing the topics at the top of their minds.   

Think about how we can anticipate the questions they’ll be looking for answers to.

// Keep self-serve simple

Keep the language, tone, and design friendly, simple, and straight to the point. Think about how the most successful consumer brands serve their customers and learn from them. The experiences that these brands offer set the   bar and are what our customers expect – they’re consumers, too, after all.