Alex Lirtsman – Ready Set Rocket

Alex Lirtsman of Ready Set Rocket shares why the ‘Crawl, Walk, Run’ methodology is critical for nonprofits and cultural institutions. Here’s how Alex and Ready Set Rocket view what nonprofits are facing during uncertain times:

Nonprofit organizations are constantly searching for an edge to stay above the competition with limited resources. This is now more critical than ever as COVID-19 is forcing many institutions to reimagine how they engage and serve the public with slashed budgets. Many are also forced to rethink their programming, offering, and engagement strategies to be more relevant in these complex times, and digital first in a time when we’re all engaging remotely. This is putting tremendous pressure on organizations to innovate with limited resources.

Some organizations undoubtedly look for a silver bullet or a shiny new toy to solve their gap in income. That focus can often turn into buyer’s remorse, where these investments not only fail to materialize results, but they also often create additional maintenance and upkeep costs and a requirement to keep investing further.

Alex Lirtsman – Ready Set Rocket

Just like you shouldn’t go to a doctor on a whim and demand they take out your appendix based on a hunch of what ails you, you shouldn’t immediately rush into an investment without diagnosing the problem.

Nonprofits have often felt this problem acutely, even before Covid. They have always felt pressure to pursue new approaches that might not improve their most critical KPIs, such as increasing donor conversion rates and donor lifetime value. It’s easy to be distracted by what similar nonprofits are doing and think they need to do that to innovate, even if it doesn’t contribute to their organizational objectives.

To counter wasteful investments and better ensure more favorable outcomes, we are strong proponents of the “Crawl, Walk, Run” methodology.

The concept can mean different things to different organizations. At Ready Set Rocket, it means identifying barriers in achieving foundational organizational objectives (crawling) before thinking about and developing solutions for further scale (walking and running).

The benefits of a “Crawl, Walk, Run” approach are manifest. By aligning a marketing & technology foundation to measurable organizational goals, organizations and their partners can more effectively and efficiently plot a roadmap aligned to achieving those goals.

This is especially important in marketing, where many organizations have not invested in measurement and analytics, even though campaigns are trackable to an incredible degree and precision and, therefore, can be made accountable to return on investment.

Often, a crawl finds that a company lacks the relevant infrastructure (e.g., analytics, understanding of pre-purchase behavior, brand awareness foundation) to ensure success.

In conversations with clients, especially nonprofits, pursuing a tactic, such as launching a new app or trying a new social platform when their conversion rates and repeat donation rates are low, can mask challenges. In those scenarios, it’s unlikely that an app (or lack thereof) will bridge a revenue gap. The issue is likely something much more foundational. Sometimes an app is the solution. Sometimes the real value often lies elsewhere. By ignoring or avoiding identifying structural problems, we risk kicking the can down the road while adding unnecessary costs.

Many clients have told us that their previous digital and data transformation projects had failed because they focused their attention on strengthening one particular area versus exploring and diagnosing underlying issues.

How does “Crawl, Walk Run” help change an organization’s mindset? It’s easy to focus on areas with existing capability or capacity. But how do we know if that focus drives results?  Sometimes taking a small step back to introspect is critical, and always setting clear measurable KPIs is necessary before diving in. Here’s an example of how it works, and how to apply it to your organization.

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