Kadecia: Hello, welcome to Yelp’s webinar on innovation. Really excited to have folks join us today. We have great guests speaking about innovation in their companies, and we’re really excited to talk to everyone. So we’ll give you a few minutes to let people join in here. Just some quick housekeeping. You’ll be able to submit questions, so when you hear one of our great panelists, Jeff, Derek or Tala, say something that inspires you or something you want to know more about, please feel free to throw that in the chat. We will try to say some time at the end of this webinar to make sure to answer some of those questions and really look forward to talking with these guys and hearing what everyone has to say.
So I’ll give just another maybe 30 seconds for people to join and then we will launch right into it. While you are waiting, there’s a question I have for our panelists that I would love to hear. Any thoughts from the audience as well? What’s an innovative brand that you love? We live in such a time where things are constantly changing, companies are constantly in innovating, tons of great brands out there. So I’d love to hear from you guys if you wanted to throw in a chat, an innovative brand that you love, something you can’t live, live without, something that’s always iterating and changing.
Great. Oh, Target. Yes. I think one of the things I thought about Target recently, I guess, it’s in the last few years, is changing the format of the store from those large Target stores to the smaller footprint in-house, changing the store design, carrying groceries. I definitely agree there. Great. Well, let’s go ahead and get started. So I’m Kadecia Ber. I am the multi-location solutions director at Yelp. I’m a 15-year Yelp veteran, and have been around to see all the different things that this company has done over the years. Very excited to have Derek, Jeff and Tara join us today. So I’m going to let them each introduce themselves, tell us what they do, and have them share with us in an innovative brand that they each love. So Derek, let’s start off with you.
Derek: Absolutely. Hello everyone. I’m Derek Carder. I’m the Chief operating Officer at Frontpoint. I oversee our customer loyalty team, fulfillment, supply chain, marketing, onboarding, and our tech teams. Just a little bit about Frontpoint, we make it easy to secure what matters most. We provide a premium, do-it-yourself, home security solution with professional monitoring. For me, I would say the brand that I admire for innovation is Sonos. They were a pretty big disruptor when it comes to the speaker systems that they launched. They’re constantly innovating in their app, and they’re always taking customer feedback. I’ve submitted some myself for future enhancements that they have implemented within the app, and they just make it so easy to set up and so approachable from a user experience perspective. So really admire the Sonos brand.
Kadecia: I love that Derek. Really just changing the landscape of speakers, right?
Derek: Exactly.
Kadecia: Jeff, you want to go next?
Jeff: Yeah, sure. Hi. Hi, everybody. My name is Jeff Lin. I lead our paid media growth marketing team here at Sweetgreen, been here about two years now. Our team pretty much handles everything across all our paid channels from social, programmatic, direct partnerships, everything from a growth performance perspective. For everyone who doesn’t know Sweetgreen, we’re a salad company that started from three undergraduate Georgetown roommates in a time where the only option for them to have meals or either unhealthy fast food bar food, et cetera, they wanted something on near campus that they could have all of their friends come to and be something that made them feel good. So to this day, now we’re close to 200 stores now.
Hopefully, you guys are all very fans of us. And brand that I feel like we are. We’re constantly looking at here that are constantly innovative, especially across the food and best spaces, obviously Chipotle, Starbucks, but also Dominoes. For most people who don’t know, even though they’re a pizza company, they’re very much a tech company. And they rely on the data and are constantly innovating there. So really, yeah, all three companies.
Kadecia: I love Dominoes. I think they’re Michigan companies too, and so I had a lot of Domino’s Pizza growing up. Tala.
Tala: Yeah, thanks Kadecia. Honestly, Dominoes and Sonos are incredible brands. That’s stuff to follow. But I’m Tala Zuraiqat. I’m the senior product manager at Yelp on attribution/ measurement. So I work on our first party suite of measurement products including Yelp store visits in our pixel, and also work on some of our integrations with key third party partners. Some include Foursquare as an example for store visit measurement. In terms of a brand that I really like for innovation, I would say Shopify has been pretty good at getting small businesses set up with e-commerce. So it’s really nice for me to be able to shop online because I like online shopping from local businesses through websites that… So through shopping experiences they’ve set up through Shopify. So I’d say that’s one that I really admire. It’s also Canadian company, and I’m Canadian, so I have to shout it out.
Kadecia: Yes, love that. So innovation is just a big word in the space and it’s becoming really increasingly important to really driving corporate growth. I would love to hear from each of you just your view and your company’s view on innovation. So for example, is it imperative? Is it a must have? How far do you like to take new ideals? So Derek, you can start us off just with sharing with us how Frontpoint views innovation.
Derek: Absolutely, thanks Kadecia. I think Frontpoint views innovation as, it’s definitely a balance, but we were launched with innovation in mind. We were one of the first DIY home security systems to disrupt the market in a space that was primarily focused on sending professional installers to the home. So the way we did this, we utilized emerging technologies. We built a really easy to use system that doesn’t require a bunch of tools or putting holes in your walls. And then we put a high degree of focus on customer experience and self-service. I think that it’s something that we continue to focus on as a company, looking at changes in the consumer’s way of thinking what they’re expecting within their home to truly be a home hero, like we like to say it.
So as consumer sentiment is changing, and as they’re expecting more for being able to have control over their home, we are innovating with that. But it is a balance because we want to make sure that the elements that they see as table stakes to keeping their home secure, ensuring that our basic sensors, motion sensors and things like that that keep their home safe. We’re continuing to focus on developing and making sure that those are reliable and stable. So I would say it’s a balanced approach. Where we’re looking at ways to innovate but not deviating too heavily from what our core focus is, which is keeping their home and their family safe.
Kadecia: Great. Love hearing about what’s going on at Frontpoint beyond the security, which is so important. Jeff, what about at Sweetgreen? How do you guys view innovation?
Jeff: Yeah, I think innovation’s always a pretty big heavy topic for us at Sweetgreen. I think we’re pretty close to imperative. I think to say that selling salads is very innovative is probably a little bit of a far stretch. But I think that a way that we think about technology and how it supports that, how the experience with the customers within stores, how we are within our community and our farmers knows relationships have been pretty innovative from inception and how we’re bringing that forward here in 2023. So I think the food and beverage industry, generally speaking, is pretty slow moving when you’re talking about innovation. And that’s where we’ve always zagged when everyone’s zigged with really thinking about things like, we were one of the first companies to do true cashless purchases. And this is way before COVID. We also have no guest checkout, so you have to sign up with us, signup with account with us very, very early on. And that was pretty tough in the beginning stages, but right now, we have over 50% penetration of our users, which is pretty much the leader within our space.
We always from the beginning score from local farmers wherever we can, and we always thought about sustainability in a world where, I know everyone does it now, but that was really built into our ethos. So all of these mixed together with just being a traditional brick and mortar, food and beverage company, restaurant business. Tying that all into technology and data and making sure that all of these go hand in hand. A lot of things that… What we also look to do is just making sure that we’re always testing and trying new things and trying new technologies, not being afraid to fail. So from that standpoint, we really try to embrace innovation as much as possible where it makes sense.
Kadecia: Great. I’m really curious, Jeff. Knowing that at Sweetgreen you did cashless very early, you did the no guest checkout, and those really require not only the company innovating but your customers to accept that innovation. What was it like getting that adoption to the point to where you are today to, over 50% of your customers transact with you that way?
Jeff: Yeah, I would say it’s definitely a learning curve. Cashless for some time was challenging depending on which market you’re in. No guest checkout, I think, was the biggest hurdle for us. Typically, I think if you’re not a regular customer, you want to usually not impede your purchasers from making that first purchase or just in general. As you put more gates on final checkout, you have lower conversion rates. But we really made that investment there, understanding that eventually this was going to pay off. And I would say, it was a very, very slow ramp at the beginning. You had to get a certain track over a certain traction, but once we understand that user, we’re able to then have so many more in relative insights onto who that user is. Our loyalty program can be much more thorough and from that standpoint, it got us to where we are here. So I think with innovation, the payoff is never direct and immediate. It always takes a little bit of time for us to really show the fruits of our labor.
Kadecia: That’s great to hear. Adoption takes patience.
Jeff: That’s right.
Kadecia: Which I know when companies are meeting margins can sometimes be tough. Tala, when you think about innovation at Yelp and the attribution space, how is it viewed, and how does the team make decisions there?
Tala: Yeah, I would say, I think anyone working in technology can probably attest that innovation is quite important, and it moves very quickly. So I would say, Yelp as a whole is keenly aware of innovation, specifically within the attribution and measurement space. I would say, it’s close to imperative at this point just given what’s happening in the market with privacy changes coming from Apple and Google, et cetera. So I think the way we’re approaching is, it is imperative. We’re trying to define what areas we should make our investments in. And in terms of figuring out what those key areas are, I like the points that were brought up around experimentation. One other thing I want to call out is building out some form of minimum viable product that’s a lower investment to create and testing it out that way, rather than going full-fledged and building out a full new experience or product that may fail. So I think that’s how we view it, at least on my team.
Kadecia: Great. With so much happening in the marketplace, if we were to pick up a newspaper today or go online, you’re going to hear about ChatGPT, and the Metaverse, and Web 3, and lots of trendy things that a company can pursue. So how do you decide which innovations to pursue? Do you follow the trends? Where do you make the investment and what maybe makes you decide not to invest in something? So Derek, I know Frontpoint has done lots of things. I’m really expanding into home automation. I’m sure there’s tons of places you could go, how do you decide to really focus and what to pursue in the space?
Derek: But I really like what Tala said about the developing in a minimal viable product. I think our approach, like I mentioned with balance, we like to look at what customers are asking for and what’s changing in the customer sentiment, especially for the home security and the home automation industry. But also what their unspoken need is based on knowing our customers, and what they’re doing with the system. So as an example, if they’re setting up a particular rule within our app, and they tend to also set up an associated alert or contact our team later to set up that alert, we look at this as something that we may be able to make a standard behavior in the future.
So that’ll save them time and energy, improve the experience. So we’d like to look at the emerging technology and things that are coming out like, ChatGPT and how it will help make our customers’ lives easier. But developing the MVP before we test into that and put full dev resources into it. So I think it’s important to keep an eye on the space, understand what your customers are doing, and what they’re asking for. And then test into it without putting too many resources until you have a better concept that you see them adopting and really making their lives easier, especially within the home automation space.
Kadecia: I love the idea of knowing what your customers are asking for, and it’s easy to maybe put some surveys out there and really understand what that looks like. But knowing what they’re not asking for, and innovating off that feels really different. Is that something that Frontpoint approach very intentionally? Do you have a team or a system set up to make sure you’re understanding what customers are not asking for, and how would you recommend maybe other brands do that?
Derek: That’s a great question, Kadecia. I think it really depends on how your customers interact with you, whether it’s the app, whether it’s through your website or whether they’re contacting your support team. We do have our product team that’s heavily focused on this, and the reason for it is we’re different than many other players in the security industry. We can’t just send a professional installer out where a customer has to wait one to two weeks for someone to come out. This is in the customer’s hands. So making those tools that improve how they’re performing a particular action is a paramount meticulous focus for us. So we’re looking at that user data. We’re looking at where they fail within the app, and then we’re using that data to improve the experience, but fueled by customer feedback and the surveys and our voice of the customer campaign, like you mentioned.
So it’s a balanced approach. I would say, there’s it’snot a one size fits all or a silver bullet that will solve it across the board. In order to say ahead of the curve and solve that unspoken need, you do have to have focus resources in reviewing the data and again, meticulously going through what we can do to improve the app versus waiting for your customers to ask for it.
Kadecia: Thank you. Jeff, as we think about this and what company decide to pursue or not pursue, and I’m wondering where a lot of people are asking for salads. I feel like we’ve seen an emergence of the salads market. I will spend money on a salad every day. I’m definitely guilty of it, but it wasn’t a behavior that was always in the marketplace. So just really curious how Sweetgreen has approached what you’d decide to innovate. I know there’s some really cool things aside from how you source what you’ve done with your marketing, I would love to get a better sense of how the company thinks about that.
Jeff: It’s true. It’s true. The one thing that I’ve always been trying to talk to a lot of our partners is the idea of, how do you make salads sexy. I’s really depending on where you are in the US. You could probably get the varying degrees of answers for that question. So I’m trying to really understand how to do that in a way from whether it’s what we present on our menu from a regionality standpoint, but also how do we continue to push forth just this healthier way of living and healthy decisions when you have thousands of McDonald’s and fast foods and all these other options out there that you can spend on. I think those are things that we’re constantly trying to figure out in a way to make it still be true to, it tastes good, but also be healthy and also fit within our true ethos within sustainability and what not, what have you.
I think from the tech perspective, and just to go back on Web 3 and ChatGPT and all that other stuff, I think a good healthy amount of curiosity is needed within your larger or your leadership. You can’t just continue to stay complacent with the same things that you’re constantly doing. You have to… There’s point, you do have to devote a certain amount of resources, and all of that is required to really understand a emerging technology. But if you’re not willing to at least go down that path and understand that everything that you’re doing may not necessarily be perfect for your company or even at this point, things like NFTs or Web 3 or predictive AIs could be beneficial, but it’s maybe not the time for your company right now. But potentially down the line, are you able to move quickly in a way that is going to be a value add for either your company or your customers or anywhere along that line?
So all of that just makes is… All of that curiosity and all of that that know-how is how you’re going to be able to move quickly and stay ahead of the curve. So we try to have a healthy interception of what we always call art and science. And from that standpoint, making sure that those decisions are being made within that light. And still, like I said previously, not being afraid to fail. Really trying everything, making sure that these are things that we can roll out to scale, as opposed to just being in the Metaverse or having an NFT for the sake of just checking that box. We want to make sure it adds value.
Derek: Yeah. Just to chime in for one second. I really like what Jeff said on just a healthy curiosity with it because if you force the subject, if you launch something like an integration with ChatGPT too early, you can actually drive negative customer sentiment, if you’re not focusing on some core components that are in the product roadmap that customers have been asking for. You may get feedback where it’s, “Well, that’s great, but what about this and this that we’ve been asking for for years?” So I think it’s good to come in with that healthy curiosity and be aware of it. But I really what he said on when it makes the most sense for your customer base and your business.
Kadecia: It sounds like you speak from experience there, Derek. Has there ever been something that, either Frontpoint or somewhere, else you innovated on, and it was just not what the customers wanted at the time?
Derek: I could probably share many examples from past experience, but I think it comes top of mind to me just because I recently was at a… It’s ISC West. It’s a security conference that I was attending last week. The first thing that was the hook for every company coming in was ChatGPT, ChatGPT and what we’re doing with ChatGPT. But when you really got to the core of how they’re utilizing it, it’s at a very basic level. So I think it’s more of a hook and an niche play for some organizations. For past experience with Frontpoint, I would say, we did have a product launch of our wired doorbell camera that was a part of our standard product offering, one of our standard security packages. And that was to match many other organizations in the space.
If you walk around your neighborhood now, I think it’s pretty common to see doorbell cameras almost on every other household. But we launched this package with a wire doorbell. And again, for customers who are either not as comfortable wiring the doorbell or not having a pre-wire to their home. It became a challenge. So some were not able to perform the install, and they were returning that product. So this feedback did really help in our development of the new wireless battery powered doorbell camera that we have today. That’s very do-it yourself friendly, very easy to set up, but it took that customer feedback and that customer sentiment. And initially, some failings with that launch that was part of keeping up with the innovation in the space that helped in the development of the new product, that’s a big hit and much more successful.
Kadecia: Yeah, it’s great to know. I think when you see these trends come up, there’s a rush for early adoption. It’s like, how can we do it? What can we do? Like you mentioned, feedback really matters, making sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Tala, so much is changing in the advertising space, and I know you’re looking at attribution, and what we’re going to do for the future. I feel like every other day, there’s an article about a cookieless future and how we start to prepare for those things. And every brand does some form of marketing and advertising. When you think about what to pursue, especially in a space that’s changing so rapidly, how do you start to make those decisions?
Tala: I think there’s a lot of noise in the market around all of this for sure. Not dissimilar to all of the buzz around ChatGPT. I think when there’s uncertainty or a new product that’s launched in a trend, a lot of people get excited and try to build something around it. I think it’s a balance between seeing the trend and understanding what it is, and how it could fit into your company. Trying to isolate that noise as much as you can and making a very informed decision, and not balancing. Moving quickly, but not too quickly to make sure that you’re investing in the right area. And the second piece I’d say, which Derek mentioned, is rooting everything in the customer. So really understanding what they’re asking for, and what they’re not asking for.
One of my favorite ways of understanding what they’re not asking for directly is getting a sense of what their problems are through just talking to them. It’s tough to do this at scale, but it’s as simple as hopping on a call or meeting someone in person and getting a better sense of their problems that they’re dealing with. And then that helps inform an ask they might not articulate in a easy way potentially. So I think it’s a balance across all of those
Kadecia: Great. Sweetgreen’s marketing is innovative and award-winning. So congratulations to the Sweetgreen team. Jeff, I’d love for you to tell us just about the journey the brand took that won you Fast Company’s 2022 Innovation by Design Award. How did you know needed to innovate on the brand, and where did you start?
Jeff: Yeah, this was something that we are obviously very humbled to have won, and especially against a lot of well deserving competitors within the space. I think for us, we really understood that at the time prior to the brand refresh, we hadn’t done one in over 10 years. So it was definitely due. We were also seeing the overall landscape for food change and the appetite for us to just fall, to be… Again, stay ahead of the trend and just to make sure that we are so true to ourselves. So the main answer to the question was, how do you find creative ways to make eating vegetables interesting and also it be natural and feel like we’re not trying too hard? Because I think at the time, if you remember, most of the food brands pushing that was the zoom in on the huge burger that falls, and it’s food porn with the melted cheese. And it’s all these really decadent shots and feelings, which objectively works. All the time works on me.
But what we really wanted to do was take inspiration from old cookbooks and the organic look and feeling of you being in someone’s kitchen and using the old type fonts that were really grabbing but also takes pause and that minimalist color scheme. So we wanted to make sure that even though you were looking through from a screen, you get this craveable feeling of like, “Oh, wow. That looks really good. I want to try that. I want to have it.” So that you feel like you are hungry through a screen, but not necessarily in the same way that a fast food company would do it. So it took a lot of times. We went through a ton of old cookbooks. We partnered with Collins, which is our creative agency at the time, and they did a fantastic job of putting together the full refresh.
And then ultimately, at the end, we partnered with Naomi Osaka who helped us kick off our branch and our relaunch. So she naturally is a Sweetgreen fan. She eats us quite often. And even ahead of a lot of her tournaments, will have Sweetgreen weeks leading up to it for many of our meals. So a natural fit for someone that really stood for what we believed in, was a natural fan for us, really loved the product. We love her as well, especially everything that she stands for on the mental health aspect too. So I think it was just a great partnership both ways. As I’ve mentioned, we were really humbled. So really, really happy to be recognized that way.
Kadecia: That’s great. I love the really forward-thinking of tapping into nostalgia. We see it so much in fashion, and to think about taking those old cookbooks and doing that redesign was really brilliant. Fantastic. Derek, I know that Frontpoint was really the first to offer DIY home security, and it’s really continued to add these home automation features. So Frontpoint, when we look at everyone on this panel, you guys have really pushed product innovation. Can you tell us how you decide what products to build and where you push innovation versus where you want to keep the status quo? What kind of data do you tap into, and what inspires the product builds?
Derek: Yeah, absolutely. I think that one of the components that Tala actually talked about is engaging our customers. We’ve found ways to do this at scale, but it is important to just have some of those direct conversations with your customers as well. So we do that through our support team’s interaction. So we capture that feedback. We have different means that go to our product team that help influence the roadmap, but we also have a really robust voice of the customer program with product surveys, engagements at different points of the product lifecycle and also transactional feedback that comes through that we enact. Outside of the voice of the customer program and what our customers are saying, we look at the changes to the industry in terms of the customer sentiment. So I mentioned the unspoken need of the customer, but there is also a change in the security industry, and what people expect, and what they’re comfortable with.
If you look back five, 10 years, indoor cameras were something that many would look at and say, “I don’t want a camera inside of my home.” But now, because of innovation and because of the changes to be able to put privacy features on those cameras and timing in which it can record or events that would trigger that recording, that sentiment has changed. And now, it’s almost a common part of the ask when a customer wants to better secure their home or understand what’s happening within their home. And then the same comes with home automation, and I think it’s something that’s really interesting when it comes to innovation because it’s almost come from people starting with one item that makes their life easier, and then expanding upon that. Wouldn’t it be cool if at seven o’clock at night my lights in my bedroom turned on, and then all of a sudden music started playing?
So things like that where you can set a scene and make your life easier have almost developed some of those enhancements that we put within the product offering and within the app. And that comes from data view, seeing what the customer’s doing within the app, how they’re using the system and solicited by customer feedback. So I think it’s a balanced approach, but we are constantly looking at the changes to the customer sentiment, and what people are expecting and what they’re comfortable with. That does help steer our roadmap. For Frontpoint specifically, it’s also fueled by what is going to be do-it yourself friendly? What are customers expecting, and what do they feel comfortable setting up themselves? I think one of the big things that we’ve done is… Other companies focus on self-service and self set up as a cost-cutting measure, but we’ve really developed it as a means to improve how the customers interact with the system.
Some of this was a turn because of the pandemic where nobody at the time wanted a technician coming out to their home. So this was a great time for Frontpoint to shine, this is the system you set up yourself, and you’re going through the app. So we really put a big degree of focus on making it easier for our customers to do this. These tools turned into useful education resources for our customers, helping them explore new features and functionality, and almost adding on to the product offering versus just standard troubleshooting.
Kadecia: That’s great to hear. I’d imagine in your space, when you’re talking about people being more comfortable with cameras in the home, there’s so many things happening in a space all at once. Like, putting a speaker there that’s listening to you, having a smart fridge. Are there any things you see in the industry today that are on the edge of what’s next for home automation?
Derek: I think as the home is becoming smarter and as more of the… I think that this point people have seen appliances, a smart fridge, smart washer, dryer. There are different components that, as we talked about innovation, it’s pushing the envelope of do people really want some of these items versus what is going to make your life easier, and what is actually going to add to that home secure and home automation suite? I think that it’s adding into the life cycle of those that are working from their home, especially with many working in the hybrid work environment or working remotely. What can be added on to improve and cut down on time spent on tasks that people don’t want to have to focus on?
So I think those enhancements are driving more of the home automation space. I also think that this is a market that is just starting to get into from more of the residential use, but the addition of the vehicle to the view of the home through telematics and tracking the driver behavior for teens and those that are using the vehicle, it’s still something that’s just getting started. But I think it’s going to become more widespread and an extension of the home and people becoming more cognizant of what’s happening with the vehicle.
Kadecia: I can’t wait. I’ll have some drivers soon, not looking forward to that, but I would definitely be tracking them. That’s for sure. Tala, I know attribution could be a really tough area, especially nowadays as companies are tightening up our marketing budgets, people are running more and more precise measurement. What are some things that you’re innovating on today to address how you see this market getting even tougher?
Tala: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I think one of the things we’re doing is shifting our… or increasing the investment we’re making in building out first party attribution products. At Yelp, we have a ton of data on our users. We have a really good experience for our users. So being able to actually use that information to help marketers determine how their ad spend is actually driving business outcomes for them is something that’s really important to us. It’s the ethos of the products that we’re building on my team. I think with the increase on first-party products, we’re investing in improving our first party store visit product called Yelp Store Visits. We’re also increasing or exploring opportunities to allow advertisers to understand the return on ad spend that our ads are driving for them. So as Jeff mentioned, a lot of their transactions are done with some form of identification tie. They’re ordering online in advance and stuff like that.
We’re finding that a lot of marketers want to be able to use that data to inform how they’re spending their marketing budget. So we’re trying to build tooling around that in a privacy safe way to allow them to understand the value that Yelp is driving there. Beyond that, working really closely with our partners. We have a lot of great partners. And obviously, the entire space is evolving, so we’re making sure that the people we’re partnered with are headed in the direction where we see value in making sure that we’re working really closely on ideating how the products evolve over time.
Kadecia: Great. So we’ve talked a lot about successful innovations, but part of innovation is iteration, and part of iteration is failure. So I would love to hear from all of you, is there something you tried in the past that didn’t go as planned, and how do you hedge against innovation, failure and really figuring out how much risk to take, where you’re going to take the risks, but you’re not going to do it excessively when this is the real world dollars that are at stake? So Jeff, I would love to get your thoughts on this.
Jeff: Oh, God, yes. As much as I try to hide and forget some of these failures, I think there are a lot of things that I have come to… I think we’ve touched really quickly on Web 3, we’ve everything that was really hot and flashy, we’ve tested and we’ve built out NFT. We looked at things like coins and things like that, and none of that actually hit the larger market. We spent time developing that didn’t actually go into fruition. If you guys didn’t know, if you guys were in DC in the East Coast, in 2010 through 2013, Sweetgreen used to have a food and music festival like, a Coachella level. Much smaller, but if you look at talent and if you do Google, you’ll see the talent that we did for those three years. To think that a food company would run a music festival is pretty interesting.
As it became more commoditized, we pulled away from it. And then things also like, a menu. We used to have falafel and a frozen yogurt before the days of Pinkberry and Yogurtland. Unfortunately, those items are no longer on our menu because it just weathers, was quality or just regionality didn’t work out for us. So I think for the most part, we’ve tried so many interesting things to get us to where we are today, but all of these comes with a ton of learnings. Without having those strikeouts, so to speak, I don’t think that we would be in the place that we are.
Kadecia: Oh, I’m bummed the frozen yogurt didn’t work out because that’s definitely one of my favorite things to have wherever I eat. Derek, I imagine with building new products and taking them to market that that risk is even higher. How does Frontpoint think about hedging against the failures when you’re innovating?
Derek: I think that, like Jeff mentioned, it’s important to learn from those failures and fail fast, respond to the customer feedback, and then adapt. We’ve had quite a few innovations, some more successful than others. I would say, it may be surprising to most, but most security providers don’t allow you to buy online, which seems crazy in this day and age. But you’ll notice that many just have a 1-800 number that’s listed to call and speak to one of their security advisors. So Frontpoint was one of the first to disrupt with an e-com experience, as well as an additional shop to purchase new products. In launching that, I won’t say it’s in any way, shape or form of failure, but the sentiment is there where customers want to speak to someone, or that assurance that they’re setting up the system properly, that they’re getting the right components.
So it is very much a product where you want that guidance from someone who’s done this before, especially if you’ve never had a security system before. So we initially expected the e-com experience to be a drastic shift in everyone purchasing from the shopping cart, and that wasn’t the case. So we adapted and iterated on this. So we have a good healthy balance now, and even a follow-up process where one of our security consultants will walk the customer through, ensure that they’re set up for success later as well when they receive their package. But it’s one that you expect one particular behavior, and it’s very different because of this type of product. So I wouldn’t call it a failure, but I will say that it’s one that we learned. It is one approach that does work better than the other.
Kadecia: Very interesting. People still want to talk on the phone. That’s still around. If anyone has any questions, now would be a great time to let us know. I would love each of our panelists to share their advice to anyone who might be a marketer, an operator or a product manager, who feels like they’re not innovating enough today. How do they take their first steps and what should they avoid? And Tala, do you want to kick us off?
Tala: Yeah, I can kick us off. I think a lot of themes came out of today’s discussion. I would say, rooting everything in your customer and really understanding what they want and listening to them is key to make sure you’re innovating in the right direction and not just following a new trend in the market. So I would say that is key. One thing as well is, just don’t be afraid of failure. You’re going to fail, and it’s going to happen. And you have to, to Derek’s point, fail fast and learn from it. The final thing on that is, if you build a product, you’re excited about it. You launch it, go to market. It flops and does not work at all, you have to admit that that’s a sunk cost and move on. So I would say those are some learnings that I’ve had in my career around innovating and learning from them.
Kadecia: Thanks Tala. Jeff, anything to add?
Jeff: No, I want to echo what both Derek and Tala said. It’s fail fast, move quickly. But I think having conviction on the things that you do. And it doesn’t always work out, but also having the humility to understand that you probably didn’t make the best decision. Hindsight’s always 2020.
Kadecia: Got it. Derek, anything for you on advice to people who are going to innovate and experience failure, and the best way to do it?
Derek: Tala and Jeff covered it. I would say the only addition is data, data, data. Just ensure that you’re monitoring the data, so that you can fail fast and then respond. And then also just have the grit to, even though it may be components of what you’re innovating, have failed, go back to what problem you were trying to solve and learn from it and potentially take elements of the project. I think that, more often, people may see that initial failure as, hey, let’s just put the kibosh on the entire project. And that’s time sunk, that’s money sunk. And then there’s, again, that initial intent that’s likely sunk with it. So adaptation from that failure is a very important component for product managers and companies that are looking to innovate.
Kadecia: Thanks Derek. I want to keep you on for this last question because you were just talking about monitoring the data. And Jeff asked, how do you measure innovation? What are your metrics to know if you hit your goals for the year?
Derek: It is a really good question, and I think it ties to your overarching KPIs that you have for the organization, and what you’re trying to achieve. Every company’s going to be a little bit different with this, but the initiatives that you put out there associated with innovation should be somewhat tied to those overarching goals. That is a primary measurement that’s also going to lead to your bottom line indicator on what you’re getting, whether it be from a profit perspective, from a voice of the customer perspective, if you’re looking to improve your net promoter score.
So tying it to some measurable component that feeds up to the company’s goals is very important.
Kadecia: Thank you.
Jeff: Yeah. I want to cherry-pick on what Derek said too. I think that’s 100% true. I feel like innovation, primarily speaking, is usually big thinking. Right? Big thinking is generally hard to measure because you don’t have a historical context of what is a benchmark? Even like, what is success? What is failure? So having as much of a data driven approach is really imperative in what we do here at Sweetgreen. When we are looking at that, absolutely is trying to figure out exactly what Derek mentioned. Tie to some sort of core KPI within the company, understanding setting conservative goals, so that you can hopefully under promise, over deliver, is generally something that we try to do as much as possible. Ultimately, if it is something that’s truly net new to the business, having the ability to take a step back and pivot as necessary, but also then understand, hey, how does this actually drive the business forward in maybe one area of the one aspect or another. So it can’t just be linear. You have to be able to look at things from very multifaceted views.
Kadecia: Great. Thank you so much Tala, Jeff and Derek. Lots of great lessons. I think most importantly, listening to the customer, not being afraid to fail, and doing it fast, and using the data. Right? Monitoring what you’re doing, understanding your KPI, setting realistic expectations, and just getting out there and doing it. So I appreciate you all. I believe we’re loading up some quotes here. If you want to get out your cameras to join Sweetgreen or shop at Frontpoint, get your home automation on point. I think Derek has inspired me to have some music playing in the bedroom when I go to bed at night. So thank everyone for joining us today, and these are great companies to continue to keep up with. And we will see you next time.
Derek: Thanks everyone.
Jeff: Thank you all.
