Derrick Hicks

Background

About Derrick Hicks

I'm on a mission to help companies transition from “startup” to “scale-up” and grow as quickly as possible. There are several reasons why I love working at high growth, SaaS scale-ups in particular. The biggest reason, though, is it allows me to continue improving a few specific skills- Data-driven decision making - Leading teams and coaching - System and process design - Brand building - Product marketing Data-driven decision making Data is the not-so-secret weapon of many SaaS scale-ups. If leveraged properly, your data can create a virtuous cycle of insights generated from data, which leads to product or marketing improvements, and those improvements brings in more users, who generate more data, and the cycle repeats. I’m passionate about making this virtuous cycle happen! Leading teams & coaching I love leading high-performing teams and I’ve been lucky to have had the opportunity to do so a couple of times in my career so far. When a leader is surrounded by a group of talented people and gets out of their way, exciting things happen. I see the primary responsibilities of a leader being setting a vision and strategy, coaching people to help them grow, and holding the team accountable for the results that need to be achieved. System and process design As a company becomes a scale-up, they quickly need to implement systems and processes that maximize efficiency and scale. This is when real value starts to be produced by a company. For the most part, a successful company is essentially just a collection of systems and processes run by talented people. Creating those systems is exciting! Brand Building Marketing leaders have the unique opportunity to leave a legacy through building a brand. It’s difficult to define what a brand is but you know it when you see it. It’s a feeling you spark in someone’s mind when they see or experience anything your company does. It’s the mission, the heart and soul, the reason why your company exists. I’ve had the opportunity to work at a couple unique, mission-driven brands and it’s helped me learn how powerful a great brand is… and how difficult it is to build one. Product Marketing If brand building is focused on a company’s purpose, product marketing is focused on how they achieve that purpose. Brand and product marketing go hand in hand but product marketing is where the rubber meets the road. It’s how you translate your company’s mission into a clear value proposition that sparks action from your customers. It’s strategic, dynamic, and a blast to work on.