Revolutionising the Tech Sphere: An Exclusive Chat with Simon McDonald, Optimizely - Championing Innovation, Inclusivity and Progressive Thinking

Simon McDonald, VP and GM, APJ at Optimizely, paves the way for a new era of innovation with the launch of their MarTech Maverick initiative. This groundbreaking venture aims to modernise the tech industry and promotes diversity and inclusivity. 

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your current role?

I relocated here 20 years ago from Scotland. The escape from the horizontal rain in exchange for beautiful beaches made it an easy decision. I have spent the last 20 years building and running software businesses across APJ, focusing on areas such as BI and analytics, multichannel marketing, digital and performance marketing. 

I’ve been with Optimizely for just under six years which has gone past in a flash. I am immensely proud of what we have built as a team in this region. We have over 200 customers and over 50 partners. I am most proud of our culture – people are what gives any business a competitive edge. Our CEO talks about operating in a diamond formation where everyone has a role to play, adding value to every project or conversation. 

What is one thing you wish you learned earlier in your career?

Throughout my career, I have struggled with being a “perfectionist”, whilst this sounds like you do everything to the highest level, it’s more about thinking you could always have done more, done better. I wish I learned earlier in my career doing your best is all people can ask for. I also recently learned a new way to look at Imposter Syndrome from an article by Steve Bartlett. Rather than not being good enough, this is a more humble way of checking yourself by asking “are you really doing this in the best way, what could we have done differently?” Our core values at Optimizely are to be curious and humble, which really hit home for me. One of the best things that I have done recently is work with a mentor outside of Optimizely which has been game changing in terms of guidance and advice for my career. 

Can you share some of your ideas and advice on leadership?

I subscribe to the concept that if you think you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. My take on that, is that we need to trust the people we hire as we hire teams to bring value and change that will help drive your business forward and scale.

Leadership for me is something that I take very seriously. One of the biggest areas I look at in life, is how other people value you as a person. Being a leader means demonstrating leadership qualities, day in day and day out, leading with integrity, and always checking yourself to ensure you are leading by example.

At the same time, everything needs to be fun. We spend most of our time with our colleagues at work, so you need to come to work with your whole self. I try to bring an optimistic attitude to work so every conversation can be led with a growth mindset.

Can you give us a teaser for what to expect next from Optimizely?

We are extremely excited about a recent acquisition, a data warehouse native analytics platform called NetSpring which is seen as the Holy Grail of product analytics. This will allow us to integrate advanced analytics directly into our digital experience platform, enabling customers to tie experimentation and other digital activities to business metrics and outcomes stored in their data warehouse. This is going to be the next frontier for Optimizely and our customers.

Are there any customers already using NetSpring?

We’re so excited to have Australia's most exciting brands, and one of the most recognised brands globally, Canva as a customer. This company is known for building all their capability internally so the fact they have decided to invest in NetSpring speaks volumes to the value NetSpring will bring to their organisation.

How has the current DXP landscape influenced marketers day-to-day work?
What your prediction for DXP evolution?

So, when we talk about DXP (Digital Experience Platforms), the category itself is constantly evolving – looking at the key trends, certainly TCO (total cost of ownership) is a core focus. Then if you look at the landscape of who is involved in those decisions, we're seeing a lot more activity from CFO’s who want marketers to be a lot more conscious of the money they're spending and the ROI they're driving from their investments. What we're going to see, is a significant shift from the larger, more expensive platforms to platforms that offer scalability and adoption for a far more reasonable investment. That's where Optimizely fits in very well, because we are a suite of products that are best of breed and extensible. This means we can work with clients depending on where they are in their own digital journey.

We seem to always have a screen in front of us, but can you elaborate on the business case for DXPs and why they are essential for companies today?
So a website is a portal to your business. It is the predominant way that people will interact with your business. The investment in the right DXP couldn't be more important for an organisation. If you think about the interface you have with your customer, that is either through your website or through an app, whatever it might be, your DXP will drive the engagement that you have with your end customer.

You've championed the Martech Mavericks initiative from day one, can you tell us about the Martech Mavericks movement and its primary goals?

I was fortunate enough in the first three roles in my career, that every one of my leaders were female. Recently, in my own experience, trying to build diversity within Optimizely was challenging right from the start. Beginning with recruitment, I was overwhelmed by the obvious gender bias that everyone sees in technology. It is also the same when you attend events, the numbers just don’t stack up like they should. 

Our heritage at Optimizely is experimentation. We have seen hockey stick growth over the last five years, which has meant this is now a core part of any digital strategy. What we see with experimentation is that about 75% of the trail blazers in this fast-growing category are all female. So that gives us an opportunity to use a platform to try and address the gender bias. 

Championing their success also helps to get the message out in market. MarTech Mavericks is an initiative that is less about, the gender conversation – it’s mostly about highlighting successes in the industry.

Our vision is that Martech Marvericks will create excitement and awareness of what bringing diversity at all levels in business means, and that it’s the only way to build winning cultures. Our local team lead by Betsie Campos, Shubhi Goel and Margaret Welna have collaborated closely with our MarTech Mavericks to conceptualise interesting thought leading topics to ensure the panel discussions are truly relevant to the audience.

I'm excited to see where it goes from here. So far, the positive response that we've had from customers, partners and everyone who has attended our events is really encouraging. Hopefully Martech Mavericks will just get bigger and bigger each year. 

You can find out more about Optimizely’s MarTech Mavericks Hall of Fame here.