High-Functioning Depression: The Invisible Mental Health Crisis Your Clinic Might Be Missing
- Stephan Bajaio
- Apr 7
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 11
By Stephan Bajaio CEO | Co-Founder | Non Conformist Marketer | Developer-Friendly Instigator
“We launched a killer campaign… but the platform couldn’t support it.”
Heard this before? I’ve lived both sides. And in my recent talk with marketing and dev students at the University of Chichester, I revisited a truth I wish someone drilled into me years ago:
Great marketing fails without solid tech. Great tech fails without real users. But what really fails is the business that lets those teams work in silos.
The Siloed Reality: Real-World Failures We Don't Talk About
Let's get into the messy stuff. I promised students I wouldn’t sugarcoat, and neither will I here.
Real World Example 1: The Broken Signup Flow
A marketing team spends weeks on a high-budget paid media campaign. It drives a 40% CTR on LinkedIn. Stellar, right?
Except…
🚫 The signup form was four screens deep. 🚫 The mobile experience was broken on Android. 🚫 No dev was consulted in planning.
Marketing yells “low conversions.” Dev shrugs and says “not my ticket.”
Cool story. Cool wasted budget.
Real World Example 2: The Feature Nobody Knew Existed
A developer team ships a powerful new reporting tool. Clean, scalable, useful.
Except…
🚫 No onboarding flow was designed. 🚫 No one briefed marketing. 🚫 Support docs? Yeah, buried three clicks deep.
Six months later, it’s deprecated due to “lack of adoption.” Was it the product’s fault? Nope. Just another beautiful ghost in the codebase.
Why Silos Happen (Even Among Good People)
No one wakes up thinking, “Let me undermine the team next door.”
But silos still form. Why?
Different languages. Devs speak velocity, edge cases, clean code. Marketers speak personas, funnel stages, and emotion.
Different incentives. Devs are rewarded for shipping stable features. Marketers for generating leads and MQLs.
Lack of shared context. Most orgs don’t build systems for shared understanding.
That’s the issue.
But here's the opportunity.
The Blueprint: How to Actually Collaborate (Without Killing Each Other)
Here are five very real, very doable ways to break silos today:
1.Bring Marketers Into Sprint Planning
Don’t just tell them what shipped—invite them before it does.
Example: Marketing joins sprint demos and planning. Result: They shape features with product, not after it launches
Start small: let your product marketer sit in on one backlog grooming session. Watch what happens.
2. Build Shared Dashboards
If you don’t measure success the same way, you’ll define failure differently too.
Example: Both teams track “feature adoption” via product analytics and campaign metrics. Insight: We’re driving traffic but losing them post-click = product needs UX fix, not just more ads
Tool it up: Mixpanel , Google Analytics 4 or even Looker / #PowerBI .
Doesn’t matter. Just look at the same data.
3. Co-Own Experiments
Create a test where marketing and devs need each other.
Example: A/B test a landing page tied to a new feature – Devs build dynamic page elements – Marketers run ad traffic + copy tests Celebrate wins together. Fix losses together.
Rinse. Iterate. Build trust.
4. Adopt a Shared Glossary
Stop speaking Greek to each other.
Tip: Build a shared doc with key terms defined in plain English – “MQL” isn’t obvious to everyone – “Load balancing” isn’t either
Add this to onboarding for both sides. Normalize translation.
5. Run Joint Retros
Agile retros aren’t just for devs.
Marketers can learn a ton from asking:
“What slowed us down?” “What worked surprisingly well?” “What assumptions did we get wrong?”
Do it together. In one room. With a whiteboard and zero finger-pointing.
My Challenge to You
Whether you’re a student, a PM, a CMO, or a backend engineer—break one wall this week.
Invite someone to your standup.
Share a doc before it’s done.
Ask a “why” if you're a dev.
Ask a “how” if you're a marketer.
You don’t need to become each other. But you do need to understand each other.
It’s not just better for your roadmap. It’s better for your users. And your sanity.
Let’s build something. Together.
— Stephan
P.S.
If you want the slide deck from this talk, shoot me a DM. Happy to share.
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