We haven’t done a full annual review of 2023 and the complete data isn’t in yet, so we haven’t done a thorough assessment of the answer to your question yet. The answers to your question probably differ quite a bit programme to programme. But here are a few thoughts that seemed relevant to me:
On web:
Over the past couple of years, the biggest predictor of change in web engagement time appears to be changes in our marketing spending. In 2022 we substantially increased our marketing spend. In 2023 our marketing spend was not dramatically larger than in 2022. This is reflected in the web engagement time metrics. (We are actively investigating the cost-effectiveness of marginal marketing spending, and are not fundraising for marketing as part of this public fundraising round as it is already being covered by Open Philanthropy.)
We have also put more effort into driving off-site engagement time in 2023, e.g. via our AI video, improvements to our newsletter, etc. This is not included in the engagement time metrics in the chart, but we estimate that in 2023 we grew off-site engagement time notably more than we did on-site engagement time.
On podcast:
The drivers of engagement with the podcast are more mysterious to me, and I have trouble making accurate predictions of future engagement time with the podcast. Viewed on a quarterly basis, growth in the podcast appears to be healthy.
On advising:
In 2023 we focused more on growing and systematising headhunting, active outreach and systems, and relatively less on increasing call numbers.
We didn’t make as many calls as we had hoped to, due in part to a manager on the team leaving.
We also put relatively more focus on improving call quality, for example by putting in place feedback systems. This was a focus because we grew the team in 2021 and 2022 and wanted more systems to keep everyone in sync and ensure continued quality.
On job board:
We’ve actually reduced our FTE input into the job board in 2023, but we are still seeing solid quarter-on-quarter growth.
Additional points:
Some of our staff growth came from hires to our internal systems team, which should strengthen our capacity over time but won’t result in direct improvements on these metrics.
We do expect some diminishing returns to staff growth over time. I’ll address this in another comment on this thread.
Hey George —thanks for the question!
We haven’t done a full annual review of 2023 and the complete data isn’t in yet, so we haven’t done a thorough assessment of the answer to your question yet. The answers to your question probably differ quite a bit programme to programme. But here are a few thoughts that seemed relevant to me:
On web:
Over the past couple of years, the biggest predictor of change in web engagement time appears to be changes in our marketing spending. In 2022 we substantially increased our marketing spend. In 2023 our marketing spend was not dramatically larger than in 2022. This is reflected in the web engagement time metrics. (We are actively investigating the cost-effectiveness of marginal marketing spending, and are not fundraising for marketing as part of this public fundraising round as it is already being covered by Open Philanthropy.)
We have also put more effort into driving off-site engagement time in 2023, e.g. via our AI video, improvements to our newsletter, etc. This is not included in the engagement time metrics in the chart, but we estimate that in 2023 we grew off-site engagement time notably more than we did on-site engagement time.
On podcast:
The drivers of engagement with the podcast are more mysterious to me, and I have trouble making accurate predictions of future engagement time with the podcast. Viewed on a quarterly basis, growth in the podcast appears to be healthy.
On advising:
In 2023 we focused more on growing and systematising headhunting, active outreach and systems, and relatively less on increasing call numbers.
We didn’t make as many calls as we had hoped to, due in part to a manager on the team leaving.
We also put relatively more focus on improving call quality, for example by putting in place feedback systems. This was a focus because we grew the team in 2021 and 2022 and wanted more systems to keep everyone in sync and ensure continued quality.
On job board:
We’ve actually reduced our FTE input into the job board in 2023, but we are still seeing solid quarter-on-quarter growth.
Additional points:
Some of our staff growth came from hires to our internal systems team, which should strengthen our capacity over time but won’t result in direct improvements on these metrics.
We do expect some diminishing returns to staff growth over time. I’ll address this in another comment on this thread.