I talked to a fellow Mizzou grad, Delia, for her newsletter, about newsletters. She asked me a really good question:
You were the first newsletter editor at BuzzFeed, and you are the first and only newsletter staffer at The New Yorker now. Can you talk about the challenges of working as a team of usually one?
The challenge really isn’t trying to get others excited about newsletters — I get pitched new newsletters more often than I pitch my own! The teams I’ve worked with get why newsletters work and why they can be so powerful. But with a small team, the real challenge is trying to figure out which products make sense for our newsletter strategy, and which we have the time and resources to say yes to.
I wanted to expand on that one for a second.
I like saying yes to new ideas. I’ve launched all sorts of things over the years: Newsletters, websites, weird projects. But on a small team, you have to say no to some things. Before you say yes — even to the ideas you’re excited about — you have to ask yourself:
Do you have the team to take this on? — Big, ambitious projects take time. Are there people on your team who have the time to take on a new project?
Do you have the resources to take this on? — That exciting idea you have might require dev help or data resources. Are those teams bought in? Do they have the right tools to help?
Do you have the money to take this on? — That project might require marketing resources, or new tools to help you execute things. Is there a budget for that?
Do you know how to we’re going to measure success once you take this on? — If you’re going to try something ambitious, you need to know how you’re going to measure it. What are the metrics that matter for this? How will you know if the thing you’re working on is actually working? Remember: If you’re trying something that can’t be measured, then how will you know if it worked?
There are going to be some ideas that don’t meet that criteria. Right now, there are big ideas I’d love to try, but I don’t have the team or the budget for it, or I’m not sure how we’ll measure it. But that’s OK — there are always other ideas to try instead. We’ll get started on those.
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That neon YES sign, which is by Julian Lozano for Unsplash, is truly proof that there is stock footage for everything.