Engineers and marketers both think I'm one of them.
I manage web engineering and web marketing together, instead of treating them as two siloed teams. That keeps the website from getting stuck in the middle, stops the bickering, and creates one center of excellence focused on getting your site performing and generating pipeline.
I also have a degree in psychology (sorry, Dad), which comes in handy when the job is figuring out why people do or don't click.
The team
- Clare FrommeFounder, Fractional Head of Web
Does the actual work. Reports to Rook, unofficially.
I've spent 20 years running websites for B2B SaaS companies, most recently as Sr. Director of Web Experience and Engineering at Zendesk. Before that came BILL, Talend, and a string of big names going back to Apple. I've run web engineering and web marketing at the same time, and I tie all of it back to pipeline. I'm based in California and spend a lot of time in New Jersey.- Responsibilities: bringing order to websites that need a hand
- Management style: people first. I'm known for turning around underperforming teams and getting morale back up.
- Current project: building Rook Web Consulting, and settling the dog-on-the-website debate once and for all
- Fuel: Diet Coke, almost entirely
- RookChief Customer Officer
125 pounds of Saint Bernard and American Bulldog, rescued and promoted straight to the C-suite. Rook runs client relations from our New Jersey office and joins meetings by Zoom when I'm in California. If you've ever been leaned on by that much dog, you know he's hard to ignore.
- Responsibilities: greeting clients and leaning on people at key moments
- Top priority: his orange ball. Everything else is negotiable.
- Networking: collects pets from everyone he meets, no exceptions
- Known issues: snores at the most inappropriate moments in meetings
- Current project: proving that a dog on the website lifts conversion. I've believed this for years. This page is the test.
Why Rook
The company is named after our Chief Customer Officer. I needed a name and I love my dog, so here we are.
I could make up a clever metaphor about chess pieces and castles, but I'd rather just give you the real reason. That same straightforward approach is how I bring clarity to chaos and get your website generating pipeline faster.
How I work
The first thing I do is talk with stakeholders across the organization to understand where the pain points are and what's slowing them down.
Before I recommend any big changes, I make sure I understand the history. Every website has a backstory, and the people who built it usually had good reasons for the decisions they made. I respect that work and build on it.
A couple of months in, teams usually have real clarity and governance, and projects that had been stuck for a while are finally shipping.
I've done this at startups, public companies, and PE-owned companies, including an IPO and a couple of acquisitions along the way, with teams in the US, Canada, Brazil, Ireland, India, the Philippines, and Australia.
Where I've done it
- ZendeskSr. Director, Web Experience & Engineering
- BILLDirector, Web Experience
- SalesloftSr. Director, Digital Marketing
- TalendInterim VP, Global Digital
- BoxSenior Web Production Manager
- EarlierAppDynamics, VMware, Apple, Walgreens, and Blue Cross Blue Shield