Jessica Johnson’s Post

On Monday, we have time set aside for Stitch strategic planning. We have homework before the meeting and need to respond to a few prompts. The first prompt: If a friend asked, “what are you most excited about with Stitch”, what would you say?” I could have written a whole page here but kept it simple: - I’m excited about the people we are drawing to Stitch. - I’m excited about building a team that consistently wins and gives Stitchers as many new opportunities as possible to grow. - I’m excited about the brands we work with and who we will soon work with. - I’m excited about building a strong, resilient business based on solid fundamentals. - I’m excited about being the top Braze partner in the world. - I’m excited about the solutions are team is creating daily (seriously, this one email solution I saw last week was 🔥) There is a lot to be excited about. Know anyone who would be a good fit on the Stitch team? #Braze #StitchAndBraze #AntiAgency

I love what I do at Stitch. I genuinely do. Some of my favorite parts about Stitch include our ability to generate new jobs and do so in a way that creates a truly diverse team. We are a consultancy. Our growth is directly associated with the number of Stitchers on the team. While we might not be as profitable (although our gross margin is world-class for a services business) as a product company, we are a generator of jobs for our communities. The profit doesn’t go into the business for us to hold onto. It goes into creating more jobs. New careers. Career growth. And as we create our team, we can sculpt it to be diverse. Diverse backgrounds. Diverse opinions. Diversity is not only right, but it is also a competitive advantage. Our progress on this front is very positive. It has been about six weeks since our last Stitch update to publicly share our progress on diversity and inclusion with our hiring efforts. The numbers below include our current Stitchers and people who have accepted offers but have not officially started. BIPOC moved from 25% of our team to 34%. Outstanding. And 50/50 on gender. Progress continues. I would love to see more of my peers publicly share updates on their progress. 

It has been a trip to see the Stitch growth over the last year with new team members, customers, and our deepening relationship with Braze. Watching Stitch evolve from start-up to scale-up over the past year has been rewarding and interesting. At one point, we met daily as a team for a stand-up. That grew from weekly to every other week. Now, we have a monthly meet-up to keep all Stitchers connected and informed. And hopefully, excited about what’s in front of us. We have incorporated a section in our monthly meet-up to include Stitch Memories. Where we share our favorite memories over the past month, many of these stories get included in onboarding future Stitchers. Of course, this month had to include Taylor Smith’s desk collapsing on a customer call and me counting the times Jake Davis said “Shaq-a-Roni" on a call as he sat next to me. I still need to order a yummy Shaq-a-Roni pizza. And… My executive business partner, Mary Ryan, even called me a turd on the call in front of the whole company this week. 💩 She keeps me humble. 😹 Want to join the Stitch team? We are hiring, and Elisa Sanders keeps busy helping us bring on incredible people.  #Braze #InterdisciplinaryMarketer

In looking to always improve as a team and individually we have been working to answer several questions with everyone from the team, one of the questions being: What’s been the most surprising thing about Stitch? I've gotten an array of answers as you'd expect, but several responses that I've received have been something to the effect of: "I feel more confident and knowledgeable with Braze than I ever did with (Insert older marketing platform here)." What a great testament to both Braze as a product as well as the Stitch team and how we rally around new team members, how we organize everything internally, and how we approach every day together. #braze #StitchAndBraze #AntiAgency #stitch

Stitch

Stitch

My Friday note from this past week to the Stitch team. I continue to learn on this journey as well. And love the team around me pushing me to be better. To Common Threads. An abbreviated version to fit on LinkedIn is below. ---------------------------------------- MDB Friday Note - February 23rd, 2024 Hi, Stitchers - During our all hands yesterday, we rolled out our Common Threads: Form lasting bonds - Don’t settle - Seek Solutions - Take the lead And now more of the backstory. For years and years, I’ve been asked about core values. Do you have them? What are they? How do you live them? I cringed when I heard those questions. But not because of the questions. Because of my baggage. I recall my first job after graduation, where the core values were banners hanging over my head. And this carried forward to a few other companies as well. All of these generic core values. They felt so corporate and shallow. I never connected with them. I always pushed back when we would talk about developing core values. Those banners were persistently in the back of my mind. However, I answered those interview questions by saying I don’t think precisely about core values but more about the characteristics that make up an organization and the people. Those who have asked me the core value question in recent months know I answer by sharing my thoughts on the types of people that define success at Stitch. You will hear me saying things like curiosity, pushing yourself to grow by making yourself uncomfortable, being willing to make others on the team shine, and being good humans. At the same time, over the past six months, Elisa and others have made me rethink formally creating something. And through many discussions, I’ve realized the value of having a set of characteristics that define us. I believe these will become critical as we grow larger and larger. We need to maintain who we are at our roots to keep this team closer together. We now have our Common Threads that were organically defined through multiple rounds of conversation and debate. I love these. They feel like us. They feel like Stitch. They have more meaning to them. These Common Threads will also become more visible and sticky through time. We will interview with these in mind. Market ourselves through these. Measure and define our successes by these. Recognize each other through these. And celebrate each other through these Common Threads. I was wrong about the idea of core values. I just hadn’t met the right group of people and company to make me understand the importance of our Common Threads. So, thank you all for making me see a new perspective. Michael

At Stitch, we're always growing, and that's not just about the business. It's about the incredible team we're building. I'm passionate about fostering a diverse and open environment because I truly believe it's what makes us stronger. Different backgrounds, different experiences, different voices – they all make Stitch smarter, more adaptable, and better at what we do. We challenge each other, learn from each other, and build something remarkable together. I'm proud of our progress, but this journey never ends. It's about continuous improvement, openness, and always striving to create a team where everyone feels valued and empowered. I often wish more leaders would share their own journeys in building diverse teams. Transparency helps us all learn and grow. So, to the fantastic Stitch team: let's keep pushing forward, let's keep celebrating our differences, and let's keep building a company we can all be proud of. Looking forward to adding another slide the next go around that gives even more insight into our progress. #Braze #StitchAndBraze #AntiAgency

Stitch

At Stitch, we're committed to building a team as diverse as the communities we serve. We're not there yet, but I’m pleased with the gradual progress we're making every few months. Our candidate pipeline is more diverse than ever, ensuring a wider range of voices are represented in our decision-making. Transparency is key to progress. I believe in sharing our diversity data – not just to show off our wins, but also to hold ourselves accountable and inspire others to do the same. We encourage our peers to join us in this journey towards a more inclusive industry. We've also begun analyzing diversity by department, revealing unique insights into each team's composition. While these snapshots are helpful, it's important to remember that our delivery/consulting team makes up 75% of Stitch, so our overall diversity efforts are heavily influenced by this segment. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We're in it for the long haul, dedicated to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspective.