Customer Spotlight: Inside HootSuite with Daina Lightfoot
We work with some seriously badass customers who work for some seriously awesome organizations. Sure we know who we work with – but this is a chance for you to get to know other like-minded individuals and companies. So join us as we take a look into our customer’s creative & strategic methodology and philosophy, as well as discuss their favorite tools, blogs and books.
It only makes sense we started with the Owls over at Vancouver-based, HootSuite, not only because they are in our hood, not only because they are power-users and have been since 2011 – but because they are doing awesome things in the social space and getting an insider's view is bound to be interesting and inspiring. So meet Daina Lightfoot, Designer at HootSuite.
So Daina, what do you do at HootSuite?
I’m one-quarter of HootSuite’s marketing design team. We work on anything from documents to infographics to the company website. I tend to focus more on web design and swag, but we all share the workload when needed.
How does the creative process work at HootSuite?
It all depends on the size of the project and the time we have available to complete it. But since we like to live life in the fast lane at HootSuite, quick concepts often become full-fledged pieces in a matter of hours or days. In general my coworkers and I are really open to feedback and collaborating within our team. We sit in a pod together and are always asking questions and giving each other feedback. Everything is this reviewed by our art director before being sent out.
When it comes to testing pages and ads, we work closely with our Pro Growth team led by Craig Ryomoto. (The Pro Growth team manages customer acquisition, conversion optimization, analytics, and revenue for HootSuite’s Pro Business division.) Once they’ve analyzed the data, they meet with our Art Director who lets us know how campaigns are doing so we can use that knowledge towards better results in our next campaign.
Daina with a mural she painted in a boardroom at HootSuite HQ
What is your work setup like? What equipment do you use? What are the most essential elements to your workspace?
I’m one of the rare HootSuite folks to have a desktop computer. My setup is an iMac (sitting on design books) with an external Samsung monitor that sits on an empty wine box. A clean desk is a must for me, so if I don’t need it constantly it’s out of sight.
Daina at her desk working next to Shawn and Jason.
Items found on Daina’s desk
In what environment are you most productive?
The busier the work environment the better. As long as I can drown out the noise (if needed) with my headphones I’m a happy camper. I couldn’t imagine ever sitting in a cubicle or having to dress up to go to the office.
Right now I’m addicted to the new Macklemore album. Also, a bunch of people at the office are on Rdio, so I like to follow them and see what everyone else is listening to.
Sketching in the HootSuite lunch room with Link.
What are some of your favorite tools & apps that help you and why they are important?
Adium: At HootSuite, we use Gtalk to communicate a lot. So I like Adium because it’s puts my chats into a box in the corner of my screen. Without it, I’d have to go and check Gmail every 5 minutes to see if anyone is pinging me. Plus I can connect it to MSN so my mom can message me there instead of texting me. Yeah, my mom is pretty tech-savvy.
Hootlet: This is a Chrome and Firefox extension that automatically takes content you want to share from a webpage and pops it into a message, ready to go. It’s great for sharing design articles that I find online, plus I can autoschedule them for later since I usually end up surfing the web late at night.
Where do you look for inspiration?
I tend to find inspiration everywhere. To be more specific though, I like to check these blog/sites on a regular basis:
HootSuite also has a tool called HootSuite Conversations that the whole company uses. It’s an internal social network, where we can talk and share ideas and updates all day long...at work. The design team has our own separate group in Conversations, that we use to share design our team-specific resources with each other there. This post on How Habits Can Impact User Behavior is a good example of something that was recently shared.
What about a favorite book?
I don’t know if it necessarily inspired me design-wise, but I am a huge Harry Potter fan. Lucky for me I’m not alone in that three-quarters of the marketing design team is super stoked on the series. #teambonding
How do you & your team use Unbounce and where do you come along in the creative process?
We use Unbounce regularly to test conversions on new pages/campaigns that are being implemented as well as older pages where we feel the conversion rate could be better. Whether it’s the color of a CTA or where content is placed, it’s proving to be an easy tool for me to build in so our Pro team can do the tracking and make minor edits on their own.
Usually a department will create a plan to test content on one of the pages they own, which will then get passed on to me to design and implement. From there I will get our Pro team involved to do the tracking, and the data received will be forwarded onto the initial team and myself.
The latest test we ran was to just compare the wording on pricing on learn.hootsuite.com. This is the second variant we were testing:
How does Unbounce help you in the design process?
I love that I am able to build out pages, share them with other teams so that they can edit them in an appropriate way. I’m able to provide them with a bunch of on brand assets, so if they want to do simple testing on their own, they are able to without damaging the brand. Plus I can always go back and check on the edits they have been making and quickly update if needed.
About Daina
Daina is a Designer at HootSuite. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow her on Twitter.
About HootSuite
HootSuite is a social media management system for businesses and organizations to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social channels
-Stefanie Grieser
Marketing Co-ordinator
