First Movers: Kacie McKee
KACIE MCKEE is currently the US eCommerce Lead at Wavemaker. She has 12+ years in the eCommerce space, nine of those on the client-side for a large CPG with brands like Sharpie, Coleman, Contigo, Graco, Crockpot and Yankee Candle.
She has experience with DTC, brand marketing, trade strategy, performance marketing and global strategy. She helped her last company build their eCommerce group and was employee 0 when the division was created. Kacie helped grow the division to over 400 employees in under 3 years and in that time held a variety of roles.
In 2019, she moved to Wavemaker to help the agency build out their capabilities in the eCommerce space.
Why did you choose to pursue eCommerce in your career? I would say it was more that eCommerce found me. It feels like that all the choices I made led me to the right place at the right time. The more time I spent in this space the more it fascinated me, and I began to take on, ask and build different roles. It became clear that this was the future and I wanted to be a part of the conversation of the future.
What is your biggest strength, and how have you used it for your success in eCommerce? The ability to strategically connect what seems unrelated into a bigger picture to drive faster or more refined results.
When building an eComm group inside a large company, being able to see how all the parts of the traditional business can overlay and blend with the newer parts is invaluable to the progress made across different channels and capabilities.
What is the weirdest skill or talent to come in handy in your eCommerce experience?Weirdest…hmm. I don’t know if this is weird, but a rather dry sense of humor. Anyone working in this space knows how tough it can be and the struggle sometimes to get everyone humming in the same direction. Having a sense of humor has gotten me through many a tough meeting, failures and setbacks.
How have you most successfully influenced change within your organization (or with your clients)? It’s a mix of the determination to never pitch or build a plan that you don’t deliver and relationship building.
- Always deliver the plan
- Relationships, relationships, relationships. Moving the needle is about understanding your audience, stakeholders and the network of people you can lean on to help move the change forward.
What was your most “valuable” career failure, and why? Oof, I had the opportunity in my old CPG company to build out a new capability and it was a bit of stretch and I did a decent job in year 1, but struggled to convince those in power in year 2 of the value we could bring.
I was moved into a lateral position and that capability sort of fell apart. It felt awful to watch those that I had hired shift into other roles and for me to never finish the work we started. That was a hard lesson on always being able to articulate you or your team’s value.
In the last five years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life? I had started to ignore my my mental and physical health with the demands of my career. I made a commitment in the last two years to both as well as an attitude that not “everyone is going to understand”. All three of things has completely changed things for me. Laughing a lot more and having more fun in my career.
What are you learning right now? That there is no one definition in this space of what transparency means and that defining this could lead to a lot of breakthroughs in both technology, ways of working and capabilities.
That retailers that are building media practices are struggling to blend the two worlds both internally and externally
Companies lack strong content strategies and that much of the future of ecommerce will be highly dependent on content.
What are the 1-3 songs that would make up your career soundtrack today?
Ooh good question, I generally like to answer these types of questions of the top of my head because I feel like it’s the most honest, so here goes.
- Don’t Stop Believing by Journey
- I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash
- We Will Rock You by Queen
What are the 1-3 books you’ve gifted the most or that have greatly influenced your life, and why?
- The Fox Hunt by Mohammed Al Samawi: This is about overcoming bias in the extreme and it’s a true story about survival, forgiveness and ultimately how relationships win out. Relationships are incredibly important and fostering those remains a top priority in my life.
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson: This is a pithy narrative about how to look at life a bit differently and how to find freedom in truly understanding what is important to you. It redefines how you look at success in a very refreshing way. It’s a great read.
- Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austin: This just brings out the romantic in me. I love the general story and have since I first read it as kid.
If you could have a gigantic billboard for the world to see with anything on it, what would it say, and why? I will give you two and let you decide:
“Courage, dear heart” - C.S. Lewis
“It began as a mistake” -Charles Bukowski
What are the worst recommendations or advice you have heard related to eCommerce? I am not sure it’s the worst advice, it’s more the concern of people still lacking the fundamental knowledge of how the different eCommerce channels work.
What advice would you give to a future leader of change about to enter business, or specifically the eCommerce field? Was about to requote, the quote “Courage, dear heart”. But really, I would say it’s about listening as much as it is about relationship building, perseverance and finding those people in your organization that help you deliver. In Ecommerce right now it can feel like a bunch of small wins, which is exhausting. Those small wins, however, do end up building momentum over time.
What specific, industry-related change do you believe will happen that few others seem to see? I wouldn’t claim to know things that others may not see or know, but there will be consolidation. Lot’s of it. Whether it’s media companies blending with consulting agencies or bid-managers, or CPGs absorbing some of the digitally native brands, digitally native consolidation like we see with Shopify’s new site, or big businesses breaking into pieces and selling them off. There will be major swings and I am not sure most businesses are thinking about where they want to end up if that happens and what it means in shaping the investments they should be making today.
What is the last thing you bought online, and why? Root touch-up spray, because I have the biggest black strip down the middle of my hair now. It’s an interesting look.
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First Movers is a change leader interview series featuring select industry pioneers who are driving the evolution of commerce, the consumer and everything in between. If you would like to recommend a change leader for consideration, please reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Another interesting read in this series. I like the idea of reminding ourselves to have fun doing our job and focus on nurturing the relationships we have with our colleagues/ team members etc.