Hello and welcome to our MadTech Mental Model series. According to James Clear, a mental model can be defined as:
“...an explanation of how something works. The phrase “mental model” is an overarching term for any sort of concept, framework, or worldview that you carry around in your mind.”
Shane Parrish from Farnam Street states that mental models:
“...help us simplify complexity, filter information, and reason. They shape how we think and the opportunities we see.”
In line with Skeleton Key’s purpose of unlocking understanding, we will apply the concept of mental models to MadTech (and related industry spaces) here with the following goals:
- Demystify industry topics by breaking them down to first principles and core concepts
- Contextualise topics within the greater advertising and marketing ecosystem
- Explain the basic technical mechanics at play within the different parts of the ecosystem
- Cover the underlying economic, technological and legislative forces that shape industry
- Provide clarity into the different sides of the ecosystem, types of players, the role they play, and the incentives at work
Note that this series isn’t intended as a technical deep-dive or to develop hands-on-keyboard practitioners. Rather, my intent is to help readers/viewers build a chassis on top of which knowledge can be added, conversations can be had, and applications identified. As such, the target audience is as follows:
- Marketing/advertising practitioners looking to uplevel and better contextualise their understanding of marketing and advertising technology concepts and manifestations
- Folks in MadTech looking to supplement domain-specific knowledge and/or reinforce their knowledge of the bigger picture and the role they play within it
- Friends and family of those in MadTech. We all know how ridiculously difficult it is to explain what we do for a living. I’m hoping this series will help.
- Everyone else. Given the outsize influence of data and tech on the world today, it’s not a bad idea for everyone to have a basic grasp of the systems that help fund the majority of said digital platforms and services.
Entries will build on each other, but can also be read/viewed individually. Whether you choose to start at the beginning or at a specific entry of interest, I hope you find the time spent to be informative and useful.